Wayne Ratkovich has worked hard to build a strong culture at The Ratkovich Co.
The task can be simply stated, but the work involved is intensive and constant.
Ratkovich, the founder, president and CEO of The Ratkovich Co., a developer of urban real estate, says your culture will start in your office, with momentum provided by you and your management team. But once you’ve driven the culture throughout the company, the process doesn’t end.
“Through my leadership, I try to bring out the best that each employee has to offer, says Ratkovich, whose company generated more than $30 million in 2008 revenue. “I let them know that they’re an important participant in the fulfillment of our mission.”
Culture building is an ongoing process of communication and maintenance with each employee. It starts with the interview process, continues on an employee’s first day on the job and keeps going for the duration of their employment.
Smart Business spoke with Ratkovich about how you can build and maintain your company’s culture within each employee.
Start with the interview process. The most important issue that I’ve found is the cultural cohesiveness of the organization. I believe that has a great deal to do with the success of any company. So when we interview, discuss and take the time to get to know somebody, we tend to focus our questions on just how important it is that their job goes beyond their paycheck. How interested are they in the work you do, in your mission as a company? If you just want a job, that’s one thing, but you probably need to be looking for more than that from your employees.
You are looking for people who attach relevance to the work you do. We like to think that we’re involved in making a fundamental difference in the way cities work. That is our fundamental business. If that is interesting to somebody, if they like those ideas, if they’re interested in the quality of life in cities, if they’re interested in design in general, we get into those kinds of questions and find out if they’re really into the subject matter.
Set the tone with new hires. The mission statement is the most important thing that we rally around. We want our people to know our mission statement, starting with their first interview. If they’re in an interview for a job and they don’t appear to be interested or impressed by our mission statement, the interview is basically over. The mission statement, and the company culture that flows from it, really keeps you together as a company and is a major factor in success.
It’s not always easy to find out if a job candidate is going to be a good match, but it’s not always terribly difficult either. These days, almost anybody who comes in for an interview has already looked at your Web site. If they look at your Web site, hopefully they’ll be able to gain an understanding of your company and corporate culture, at least get some insight into it. The interview might begin with a complimentary comment about the company from the person being interviewed, which is a nice thing to do, but throughout the interview, we test the sincerity of that. How much do they really want to be associated with a company that does what we do? Hopefully, throughout the interview and lines of questioning, you’re able to make that judgment.