Have you noticed a rise in organisations speaking about company culture in the last 12 months? This is because company culture is fast becoming one of the most important foundations in building successful companies.
If you want to attract top talent, it all begins with culture. Skilled workers are hard to come by and they are very discerning. They very often have their choice of jobs and one of the criteria they will choose on their job search will be excellent company culture.
Business leaders are beginning to see the importance of culture, those that have good work cultures in place see a drastic improvement in employee retention.
It is so important to examine the day-to-day practices within the organisation to begin creating the foundations of great work culture.
It reminds me of an old HR joke I once heard…
“A person dies and gets to the gates of heaven where he/she is met by St Peter.
St Peter greats the person and makes them aware of a “special” they are having to enhance the onboarding experience.
“This week you have the option of trying out Hell and Heaven for a day each and then you get to make the choice, how does that sound?”
When the recently expired person hears this, he was surprised but decided to go down to Hell first. When he got to Hell, he met loads of his friends and he was incredibly happy… fantastic surf beaches and golf courses everywhere (a bit like Lahinch 😊).
After an enjoyable day in Hell, he then went to try Heaven for a day.
Heaven was very pleasant, with lots of fluffy clouds with lots of time for reflection and learning. He also met many friends and had a relaxing wonderful experience.
When he came back to the gates, St Peter asked him for his decision. The recently deceased person thought a moment and answered,
“Based on my experience, I have decided that against my better judgement to choose Hell!”
With that, he was sent straight to hell but when he got there, it had all changed. It was burnt, decimated, and looked more like a place hit by a nuclear bomb, fiends crying and miserable.
When he called out, St Peter asked him what the Problem (HR) was. The recently deceased person explained to St Peter that he/she had been misled and began to rant.
After a while, St Peter stopped the person and said “I don’t know what your problem is? What you saw first was the recruitment process, this is reality!”
My point is, that no matter what way you frame your organisation, fantastic social media, great outward marketing, it all means nothing if you do not have the right work culture in place.
People will join with one impression of your company and then leave very quickly when they soon realise that they have been sold a pipe dream.
The entire employee experience must be followed through consistently, and employee experience must be based on a solid foundation of behaviours & principles.
Work culture is initially dictated by the CEO or management team. This is heavily influenced by the demographic/age group of the organisation.
Considering these factors, you can develop a Principles/Competency/Behavioural/Values framework, then workshop these through your organisation and allow everyone to contribute to ‘what good looks like’.
After you create your framework, you must follow through and live them every day in the organisation, otherwise, your values and principles will hang on the wall like a nice picture.
Here’s a short synopsis of how to use them:
1. Use your Framework for building your interview guides, hire against your Principles/Competency/Behavioural/Values framework (make sure you train your Managers how to interview using your framework)
2. Workshop on how your framework can help your employees communicate better with each other.
3. Use your framework to promote and reward your organisation.
4. Use your framework and what good looks like under each of your Principles to help in developmental, training, and disciplinary events.
5. Review your Principles and add additional Principles as your business matures or when contextual conditions present themselves (Such as Covid 19). Every quarter half-year or annually.
It is your Culture Framework that brings your organisation to life and provides the guide rails on which your people can operate and thrive.
Remember, it must start from the top and get buy-in from management. Once that process is in place, it can organically grow and create a positive place to work into the future.
If you would like to get started on building a culture framework for your organisation, download a FREE copy of our behaviours and principles framework.
Not sure where to start? get in touch, I am always happy to chat.