Culture First Strategy!
When it comes to building successful businesses, it all comes back to the culture that we foster. Workplace Culture can be hard to put into definitive terms but we know it when we see it. So what exactly is Workplace Culture?
Belias, Dimitrios & Koustelios, Athanasios. (2014). Organizational Culture and Job Satisfaction: A Review. International Review of Management and Marketing. 4. 132–149.
Belias and Koustelios define workplace culture as a series of attitudes and behaviors adopted by employees of a certain organization, which affect its function and total well-being. It’s a mixed bag of leadership, behaviors, values, underlying assumptions, and attitudes that decide the ambiance of the organization. It plays a major role in determining job satisfaction and progression. Culture has a direct influence on how an employee fits in an organization. And its ability to attract and retain employees.
“A good company culture can be a mechanism for attracting the right people and retaining its workers even in a competitive job market.”
- Michelle Prince, SVP, Talent Management, North America for Randstad USA
So, how can we view people from other cultures objectively when we have our own pre-conceived notions tucked in between the lines of our cultural laws and upbringing. Every individual acquires their own personal convictions that make up their culture. Our opinions and judgments of people are always colored by the frame of reference of our subconscious, which is a product of our experiences, the way we’ve been raised, or the way we’ve been taught to deal with different circumstances. Having to push through these hindrances and still maintain team harmony, easier said than done right?
Build a good rapport:
Try to build a good rapport with people just like any other relationship. When communicating with people try to make them feel valued, understand them using those verbal and non-verbal skills, that help make any good relationship work. Try to keep your conversation with the employees authentic, so that they comprehend it in the same way, and care about the direction in which the company is headed. Hence, creating an environment (of belonging) where employees feel like they belong.
Research by Deloitte “Core beliefs and culture” has shown that 94% of executives and 88% of employees believe a distinct corporate culture is important to a business’ success.
High performing work culture: A common denominator
Companies with the highest market caps are the companies that didn’t become too data-oriented. They kept a people-centric approach. When people talk about work culture they are referring to companies like Google or Apple. And you knew it even before I said it. Culture is not about stocked kitchens. Culture is about integrating individual values with company values and having a good knowledge of the client’s values. Is integrity just another word thrown around or has it managed to seep in?
“Culture can feel abstract and secondary when you pit it against a concrete result that’s right in front of you. Culture is a strategic investment in the company doing things the right way when you are not looking.”
― Ben Horowitz, What You Do Is Who You Are: How to Create Your Business Culture
Keeping them informed:
Every company needs to keep open and clear internal communication at the core of all their communications. Employees need to be communicated about the changes being made in the company, how this will impact the business, what’s the upcoming business plan and prepping the employees mentally about what is required of them. It is about really making them understand the importance as well as the relevance of their company’s vision and mission. It connects the employees with the organization, makes them care more about the company and their job.
Building the trust equation
Trust is a crucial variable in team effectiveness and efficiency. It is essential for the team to be productive, cohesive, and successful eventually. When teammates know they can count on each other for knowledge (theoretical or applied), it leads to boosted morale, cultivates exceptional outcomes, and high-performing culture. Many researchers have acknowledged the impact of trust in intergroup relations (Kiffin-Petersen 2004).
Building a genuinely collaborative ecosystem with no judgments and encouraging vulnerability at work fosters psychological safety.
Edmondson, Amy. “Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams.” Administrative Science Quarterly, vol. 44, no. 2, 1999, pp. 350–383. JSTOR, Accessed 7 Jan. 2021.
Edmondson introduces the construct of team psychological safety-a shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking. Translation: Everyone in the team feels safe and at ease when sharing their ideas, thoughts, and opinions without having to think about the judgments.
Vet Candidates Carefully:
Hiring the right people that fit in the organizational values. HR plays an important role in highlighting the importance of organizational values. Painting a wrong image of your organization just to attract the right people will not lead to retention; they will probably leave the organization or will start planning on leaving the organization in the first year itself, leading to a higher employee turnover.
“Who could I possibly hire who will work this hard and bleed the company colors like this?”
― Ben Horowitz, The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers
Hire people who are willing to put in the hard work required for the company to succeed. He/ She is a cultural fit, which means that the beliefs and behaviors are in alignment with the organization’s core values and culture.
In fact, a recent LinkedIn survey found that people 70% of professionals working in the U.S., would not work at a leading company if it meant they had to tolerate a bad workplace culture. So much, that people would rather put up with lower pay (65%) and forego a fancy title (26%) than deal with a bad workplace environment.
Conclusion:
Workplace culture should aim at an ongoing alignment of the company’s mission, vision, and purpose of the organization. Tackling the unconscious bias can help level the playing field. It’s important to understand that hiring people who are culturally fit will lead to having greater job satisfaction, perform better, and are more likely to stay for a longer period with the same organization.
