Creating the Perfect Culture at Your Car Wash

A company's culture involves the values, attitudes and behaviors of a business and its employees. Establishing a healthy culture in the workplace helps define your vision and improve performance. As a car wash owner or business leader, you're responsible for creating a positive environment for your employees and customers. Explore how to build culture in the workplace to retain your best people.

Does Creating a Healthy Culture Matter?

Company culture matters to your current and future team and the customers who use your car wash. Discover some of the reasons why a positive business culture is necessary.

1. Company Culture Defines Your Car Wash's Mission and Values

Company culture allows you to establish and maintain your car wash's identity. Developing a consistent work culture gives your employees a direction to follow to keep them motivated. To identify your company's mission, think about what values you want to promote among your team. For example, you might want to focus on excellent customer service and creating a healthy work-life balance. These values define how your team conducts business, interacts with customers and works together. Creating a positive workplace culture can accordingly overflow into every aspect of your car wash.

2. Company Culture Attracts and Retains Employees

Creating a healthy culture engages high-quality employees and motivates them to stay at your company instead of looking for another job. Your employees are more likely to make a career at your company when they feel like they belong. When you can get your employees to stay for a longer time, you can have a lower turnover rate and fewer interviews to conduct over time. It also creates a sense of community among the team members who have been around for years. People looking for jobs today want to feel a sense of belonging in addition to good benefits and pay. When your employees feel like part of the team, they're more likely to advocate for your company's vision and promote your values in their everyday lives. They're also more likely to stay at your company when they feel like they're a part of something bigger and more significant. A business culture that aligns with your mission and core values will keep employees engaged and invested in your business. It's best to create a consistent culture and improve upon it when necessary to retain your employees.

3. Company Culture Affects Your Car Wash's Reputation

As a business, you have an image you want to convey to your customers and potential employees. Establishing a positive corporate culture can show the people around you what your company values and help you stand out among the competition. Think about your target demographic and what branding would attract them to your car wash. You should also consider how your company appears to applicants. During the interview process, potential employees will be looking for clues into your company's culture so they can make an informed decision about working for you. Bring in the right people by creating a company culture that has an attractive, cohesive brand image. Your company culture should be evident in everything you do. The way your employees interact with you and each other will tell applicants about your work environment.

4. Company Culture Produces Better Results

Your company's culture sets expectations for your employees about how they work together as a team. Improve workflow by breaking down boundaries and guiding your team members as they make decisions. When you have a consistent work culture, your employees will work harder and improve performance. Think about how you can meet your employees' personal and professional needs while maintaining your company's values. Be supportive as you listen to your employees and give them flexible solutions. Allow them to share their concerns and opinions with you so they feel like they belong. Creating a healthy work culture promotes a sense of accomplishment and community among your employees. When you implement a positive work culture, the result is high levels of workforce engagement. Giving your employees a clear goal and mission allows them to work together and focus on what you've asked them to do. Intrinsic motivation is more effective at inspiring employees to be engaged during work than external motivation. You can expect your team to be more productive and perform well when they have a healthy business culture to follow.

How Do You Create Good Work Culture?

As a car wash company owner, it's your responsibility to champion your business culture. Follow these tips for boosting productivity to attract more customers to your car wash.

1. Set Goals

Having clear goals motivates your employees to work toward tangible results, perform well and work as a team. As your team pursues the company's mission, celebrate their successes and continue modifying target goals to push productivity and help them keep learning. Consider your company's core values and allow them to serve as the foundation for your objectives and practices. Communicate goals to your employees regularly to make sure your whole team is on the same page. You should also create space to allow your employees to share their opinions and voice their concerns as necessary.

2. Encourage Diversity and Inclusivity

A positive work culture involves making sure your whole team feels included, regardless of background or belief. Your company should welcome all individuals and celebrate their differences instead of making them feel like outsiders. If you're unsure how to make your car wash work environment more inclusive, you may want to appoint a committee that focuses on promoting diversity. Your HR department can help you include practices in your hiring and recruiting process that make all people feel welcome. Though it may be challenging to create a work culture where everyone is happy and treated equally, you should do what you can to allow your whole team to share their voices.

3. Make Respect a Priority

Your employees, customers and potential recruits should feel heard and valued. Think about the people on your team and the value they provide to your business. No matter what their position is on your team, you need to take them seriously and treat them all with the same level of respect. Follow these tips for prioritizing respect in the workplace:

• Be careful with your words: When you're having a rough day, it's easy to make discouraging comments to your employees. If you want to prioritize respect, make sure you articulate their successes and use positive language when discussing areas of improvement.
• Prioritize soft skills: At your car wash, you probably want to employ workers who get the job done efficiently. Instead of focusing solely on their past experiences, you should also pay attention to their soft skills, such as customer service and self-control. These attributes determine how well they listen to your customers and interact with your team as a whole. Focusing on these skills instead of how they perform also allows you to appreciate every team member for different reasons.
• Be aware of exclusive groups: It's common for groups of people to form based on their position in your company. Keep a lookout for groups that exclude other people and hold meetings about the value of communication among the whole team.
• Establish a zero-tolerance policy for harassment: Much of the harassment that occurs in the workplace goes unreported. By creating a zero-tolerance policy, you allow your employees to speak openly and freely about any verbal, physical or sexual harassment they experienced at your car wash.
• Get transparent: Your employees will respect and feel comfortable around you when you're open and honest with them. Follow the company's code of conduct and admit when you've made a mistake.

4. Promote Humor in the Workplace

Since work can be stressful, try to make difficult situations more lighthearted and allow humor among your team. You can often use humor to look at the situation from a fresh perspective and have a positive outlook. Creating a fun culture is often more effective than promoting negativity. Incorporating humor in your workplace creates space for controlled diversions so your employees can be more productive and engaged at work. If you seek to build a great relationship with your employees, you can be confident they'll feel comfortable and more willing to work with you when you use humor. A fun culture also creates a sense of healthy intimacy between you and your employees.

5. Provide Time to Socialize

Your employees mean more to your business than what they can accomplish. To remind yourself and them about the value of their unique personalities, make time for them to get to know each other through social gatherings. Making time for socializing allows employees to interact with each other outside of the workplace and create meaningful relationships. Consider having a simple get-together every week in the office or establishing a social club outside of work hours. It may be helpful to hire or designate someone to plan and host these social gatherings. Keep your employees' interests and hobbies in mind, and even consider sending out a survey to determine which activities they'd enjoy doing together. Allowing your employees to make friends with one another makes it easier for them to want to stay in the future.

6. Push for Excellence

As you establish goals and objectives for your employees to follow, you'll also want to encourage excellence. Your team needs to do more than check an item off their to-do list. They have to be invested in your company and know how to go above and beyond your expectations. Consider your goals and communicate what it looks like to practice excellence in the workplace. During team training and activities, remind employees about the importance of excellence and how they can improve their performance in everyday activities.

7. Be Present

As a car wash operator or manager, you get to control your company's overall work culture. You need to set an example for everyone else to follow in terms of your actions and attitude. When you establish a code of conduct among your business, you should follow it and give your employees and customers the same respect and attention you expect from them. It's also helpful to be proactive and available if your team has questions or concerns while on the job. When you show up and are involved in the everyday activities of your car wash, your employees will notice and appreciate you more.

8. Praise and Recognize Your Employees

When your employees go above and beyond in tackling their goals or meeting your customers' needs, it's best to reward and recognize them publicly. Praising your employees for their successes encourages them to continue their performance and instills a sense of pride and belonging in the company. Other employees can also practice friendly competition to try to get recognition for their accomplishments. Besides sharing your praise publicly, you can also recognize your employees privately. Tell them that you noticed when they practiced excellence instead of keeping it to yourself. Identifying their strengths is especially important if you have to tell them areas of improvement. Positivity should always come first.

What to Avoid When Establishing Your Car Wash's Culture

With all these tips in mind, it's helpful to know what you shouldn't do when creating a culture for your car wash.

1. Don't Tolerate Poor Management

If you own a car wash, you may have managers who serve under you. These people affect employee performance and engagement, and they directly impact your work culture. Employees who have excellent managers are more passionate and motivated at their jobs. The managers you hire for your car wash can determine whether your team members will stay or look elsewhere for a job. You need to hire people who care about your employees and have a conversation with any managers who make your employees feel uncomfortable or belittle those under their authority.

2. Don't Reschedule One-On-Ones

You may need to meet with your employees face-to-face to listen to their concerns or address an issue. If you've scheduled an appointment to meet with a team member individually, you'll need to honor your commitment, even if something else takes priority. When you make time for your employees, you show them that you value their time and care about what they have to say.

3. Don't Encourage Employees to Work Through Lunch

Your state regulations might not require lunch breaks, but it's helpful to give employees time away from the action to focus on their mental and physical health. Making employees take a lunch break creates a positive work culture by demonstrating that they are valued for who they are, not for what they do. Taking regular time away from the job increases productivity. Even if your employees take a break from your car wash for a half hour or so, they'll come back refreshed and ready to work.

Contact JBS Industries for Your Car Wash Supplies

Part of establishing a positive work culture is making sure your employees have the right car wash supplies on hand. JBS Industries offers high-quality car wash detergent to create the best experience for your employees and customers. Reach out to us online or call 888-745-0720 for more information about our products.

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