The Traditions of Tomorrow

Building the future from the past

What traditions are maintained by your company? Do you have an enthusiastic company sports team with a history of incredible wins? Perhaps your traditional company picnic is the rallying point that employees look forward to all year, then talk about throughout the following year.

Do you value your company’s traditions as much as your employees do, or do they feel like an unnecessary expense? Can you see their importance in the longevity and growth of your enterprise? Should they be maintained, changed up or dropped altogether?

One thing is certain: Regardless of what product you sell or service you provide, people are at the core. And people need a lot of things. Unlike a machine that needs only power and periodic maintenance, people need challenges, diversity, variety and rewards to motivate them to the point of being actively engaged in their work and the company that employs them. The intangible and immeasurable nature of company traditions begins to become more of a concrete commodity when viewed through the lens of the human experience.

That’s not to say, however, that there’s no room for change. For example, if a company has always observed a special “grandparents day” celebration for their older employees, maybe it’s time to consider adding another celebration with the millennials in mind. Likewise, if you have a sales contest that is consistently won by the same team year after year, chances are good that something is out of whack and it may be demoralizing to the greater part of your workforce. Even though the event brings in a substantial increase in revenue, it would be smart to consider overhauling your traditional approach to the contest for the sake of overall morale and the long-term benefits to the company.

Whatever your particular traditions may be, they are—or have the potential to be—the personal connection points that pave your company’s road to the future. Company traditions infuse life into an otherwise lifeless corporate world. They play an active role in both attracting new employees, and retaining the ones you have on board.