At yohrs we believe culture is your business’ superpower, it’s how you differentiate yourself from your competitors and attract superstars to your business.
Read our blog on why a positive company culture matters and what you can do to maintain a good workplace culture.
There are those who will say that culture is a “nice to have”, an invisible comfort blanket that doesn’t really matter. This is not true. Culture is the secret sauce that keeps employees motivated and clients happy. In fact, I recently read a great quote that said, "People do not just quit companies or leaders … they quit organisational cultures."
But those of us in the know understand that culture can determine whether your business succeeds or fails. Look at Brewdog. It has all the ingredients of a successful business but has been tarnished by suggestions of a ‘toxic’ workplace culture. It really shouldn’t take an exodus of employees and an open letter to tell you that something isn’t quite right.
So how does a poor workplace culture show up?
Declines in employee well-being
Unhappy workplaces are stressful workplaces. So, it is no surprise that employee mental health and wellbeing will decline as a result. A lack of role models and accountability are often the two biggest triggers for mental health decline at work. Weak workplace cultures can lead to psychological distress and burnout – depression, anxiety and stress disorders. A disaster for both individuals and the company.
Reduced productivity & quality of work
A strong company culture will help define “what great looks like”. Culture drives high performance, innovation, autonomy and impactful decision making. When a strong and sustainable culture is built, it generally produces three outcomes. Employees are equipped to respond to any situation, they know which decisions are the right ones and they know that they will be rewarded for demonstrating the company’s values. Strong cultures encourage high performance.
Retention issues
The company culture and its values are the key reasons why a person will join a company and also why they will leave it. Sure salary and benefits are essential to good job design. But without a fitting sense of purpose, values, and behaviours in place the waters become muddied, clarity becomes foggy and the lay of the land is nothing more than a Spaghetti Junction. Purpose, Culture and Values are the components that attract high performing employees and they are the reason why they stay.
Migrating clients
The Customer value proposition is linked to your employees behaviour. How they are treated is directly influenced by organisational culture. Engaged employees are happier, more productive and invest in relationships both internally and externally. Quite frankly, they’re better to deal with. Engaged employees thrive on accountability and responsibility, they will take ownership of their work and become your company’s biggest cheerleaders.
How do I assess company culture?
It’s important for leaders to take a temperature check on their current workplace. This is a whole lot easier than you think and can help you identify any potential problems lurking under the surface. Assessing your company culture is a whole company activity and should be an ongoing process of all leaders not left to your People team to review annually.
Use the data
We’re not talking huge data sets or pages of pivot tables here, start small and scale. Employee turnover and absenteeism are generally good starting points. Exit interviews will mean that you can dig deep to understand more about the current culture and why it’s not supporting your employees and why they don’t want to stay.
Engage with Employee Surveys
Surveys are a great way to dig deep into the factors that impact culture. Factors such as leadership, people and teams, employee voice and inclusion & belonging. Surveys are brilliant for getting creative and honing in on specific themes which influence company culture. Most employees love to share their experiences and give feedback when they can so give them the platform to speak up.
If a big annual survey is not your thing, then regular pulse surveys such as a weekly happiness survey can be used to measure happiness levels instead. They can be a general wide ranging survey or designed to uncover a specific question. Use them as you wish and see what themes work best. There is only one golden rule with an engagement survey: once conducted, remember to take action.
What are you seeing and hearing?
Culture may not be tangible but it shows up in behaviors and conversations, it is visible and you can hear it. How are your team members acting in meetings or team gatherings? Do they ask questions? Do they offer their opinions? How do your leaders react when challenged by a team member or offered a different perspective? Are your employees comfortable with raising a concern or an issue? How do they make decisions or share knowledge? How do they speak with your customers?
Stand back, take a minute and listen in.
What changes can I make to ensure a positive workplace culture?
(re)Define what Great looks like
Going back to the drawing board is no bad thing and there is no better place to start then understanding What Great Looks Like at a leadership, team and individual level across your business. Codifying the behaviours and values which will help to differentiate your business is a strategic no-brainer. Culture defines who you are as a business.
Review your People practices & embed culture and values
Are your desired behaviours evident in your vital touch points such as your hiring, your onboarding, performance enablement or even your exit points? Don’t leave it a Stand Up/Townhall announcement and a large glass of hope to embed culture into the company. Work with your people team to review the key experiences within the employee lifecycle and make sure they are fully embedded.
“Be the change you want to see”
Most of all remember, that to ensure that any changes to your culture and values are fully integrated and brought to life, you as a leader will need to role model them. This reflects back to the business as a whole what great really looks like. Founders and leaders can express the company goals through values and beliefs that will allow the company to adapt to the external environment and understand what is required to grow and change. Many leaders will set out the most detailed strategic plan but without understanding and living the power dynamics that make culture what it is, these plans are easily derailed. Culture and leadership are fundamentally linked and in the famous words of Peter Drucker: “Culture eats strategy for business”.
So, how good is you workplace culture? Feel free to leave a comment.
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