Do you have a clearly defined corporate culture within your organization? If you can’t readily describe the values, beliefs, and behaviors encouraged within your four walls, it may be long overdue to revisit them.
Surprisingly, many companies fail to develop a culture to invest in and grow their greatest asset…their people!
Companies with clearly defined cultures are typically better places to work, giving them a powerful edge over competitors because they draw and retain top talent.
A corporate culture is a powerful tool in a company’s long-term success…here are some key ways to help boost yours:
| 1. | Establish principles - A small set of principles that define who you are as an organization makes it easier to make the right business decisions, hire the right staff, and regain control over chaotic work situations. | |
| 2. | Use the principles - Use the principles to guide business discussions, serve customers, and develop engaged employees. Be sure of your actions, and encouragement in others will produce the results reflected in your corporate culture’s principles. Driving positive behavior leads to better business results. | |
| 3. | Lead by example - Owners and managers must live the basic elements of their favored culture: values, beliefs, and behaviors. Values are meaningless without the other two elements. | |
| 4. | Performance appraisals and management systems - Build the principles into all your appraisal and management systems, making it easier to recognize and reward behaviors reflective of your guiding principles and discouraging those that deviate from it. Maximizing each worker’s performance, so it falls in line with your defined culture, is key to maintaining morale -- and establishing your company as one that appreciates employees. | |
| 5. | Screen for shared values - Screen for and hire people who share your values and will naturally adhere to the principles. For long-standing employees, create processes that help them adapt to new ways of thinking and behaving. | |
| 6. | Allow for change - As generational shifts overtake the workplace, replacing seasoned workers with younger ones, modifications to your corporate culture will undoubtedly be necessary. Of special interest to younger employees are job flexibility, utilization of technology, and casual work settings. | |
| 7. | Encourage participation - Encourage workers to take an active role in determining how to reflect your corporate culture's principles. This step might require regular benchmarking to assess progress and search for best practices both inside and outside the organization. |
While outlining a winning corporate culture might be relatively simple, instilling others' set principles may be less so. However, you can make this task easier by gaining insight into the inherent work approaches, objectives, and expectations of your staff.
Tools, such as behavioral assessments are designed to provide you with this, making work easier and more enjoyable for everyone on the team. While many of these products provide some insight into your job candidates and existing staff, The Omnia Profile is the one offering a unique benchmarking feature, where individuals can be compared to one another and indications of one person’s needs over another’s are made. Additionally, trained analysts interpret these Profiles -- not computers – who know how to allow for the specific quirks of an individual or factor in an employer’s unique needs.
