What is Culture?
Culture is defined as the beliefs, values, behaviors and attitudes that are exhibited through a group of people. Culture these days is a common topic of discussion among prospective candidates, employees and executives.
Why is Corporate Culture Important?
All levels and roles within an organization have an impact on the corporate culture as each employee is able to contribute to a strong culture by making a positive impact.
Here are a few distinct reasons why having a great corporate culture is important:
- It influences employee performance
- Boosts engagement and helps with retention
- Employees are generally happier
- Attracts new talent
Whether you’re working in HR, finance, business development, administration and everything else in between, I hope I can share some key points that can help you identify some ways you can make an impact in your organization’s culture.
My Role as the Manager of People & Culture
Early in 2019, I embarked on a new opportunity here at Limelight as the Manager of People and Culture. I have grown my career in different roles prior to Limelight that have given me the exposure and experience to understand people in the workplace. I’d like to mention that I do not have the perfect formula for the perfect culture at your company…yet!
As a leading HR member of Limelight my responsibilities include:
- Talent Acquisition
- Performance Management
- Training & Development
- Benefits Management
- Organizational Structure and Design
- On-boarding
- Improving HR Processes & Services
These responsibilities lead to one of the main objectives of my role: Corporate Culture. It is my responsibility to proactively cultivate and maintain positive employee relations, a motivated workforce and continue to build on our innovative and entrepreneurial environment.
.jpg?width=450&name=Body%20Photo%20-%20Culture%20Blog%20(1).jpg)
How to Identify the Health of Your Organization's Culture
A simple way of finding out where your company’s culture is currently at is launching an anonymous survey within your organization. Recently, I have used a rating scale so I am able to understand the weight of answers better versus using a binary True or False survey.
Examples of survey statements for employees can respond to include:
- “I see a direct link between my work and the company’s vision”
- “I trust the management team”
- “The company is open to suggestions and encourages input from employees”
These are statements that will allow for transparency between yourself and the anonymous employee. Through feedback obtained from the survey, you will understand what areas you will need to focus on to improve your culture. Sharing the feedback you received and what your short-term and long-term goals will be is another way to build trust and positive morale with your employees. They want to know that the survey was not a waste of their time and that something is being done about the feedback they provided.
What Impacts Culture?
The answer seems simple…but it is complex. Culture is impacted by everything from management, to practices within the organization, the people working, the physical environment, and even communication. It will be important if you do decide to move forward with a survey to have questions that ask about all facets of your organization’s culture.
To ensure we were going to continue down the right path with our culture, we made a change with our internal team here in 2019 to improve our recruitment process. We did this by creating a standardized vetting process from start to finish for each role. With this change we were able to improve our job descriptions, our conversations and understand what kind of an impact the candidate would have at Limelight, which ultimately impacts our culture.
Collaboration has been a huge aspect in our winning culture and our successes. Being able to work collaboratively has produced some of our best and innovative ideas and helped to quickly create solutions to problems we have ran into. More attention should be given to candidates and employees and how they collaborate. Being able to share your ideas, respect and learn other perspectives and work together to create ideas or solutions will help build your winning culture.
What’s Next?
One of my first priorities for 2020 is to launch a recognition program that is consistent, inclusive and attainable for all employees. I would love to hear any ideas you might have that have worked for you or you have seen done successfully elsewhere. To contact me, reach me on LinkedIn or email me directly!
