© 2015 Edelman
CONNECTIONS
July 2015
DOES YOUR CULTURE NEED A CHECK-UP?
Four steps to creating a healthy organizational culture
By Ashley Engler, Vice President, Employee Engagement
An Edelman perspective on making meaningful employee connections that deepen engagement, build trustand accelerate business performance
STEP 2: DETERMINE THE CAUSE.
If you checked
“yes”
to any of the boxes in Step 1,culture could be the culprit, but
it’s
important todiagnose the root cause of such challenges beforemoving forward. How? By connecting directly with your employees. I know
you’re
thinking,
“not
another
survey!”
Indeed, survey fatigue is a very real ailment whenemployees are over-polled and the results under-reported, leading to a lack of trust or confidence thatanyone is listening or taking action.Simple pulse surveys can be a tool in your diagnosticprocess, but also host small focus groups with a cross-section of employees. This creates an environment inwhich employees can articulate challenges as they seethem, which is hard to do via surveys. Also check outwhat employees are saying in exit interviews or
“off
the
record”
on social media or job rating sites. Even simpler,what happens if you Google
“your company’s
name +
culture”?
STEP 3: DECIDE WHAT
“HEALTHY”
LOOKS LIKE
Diagnosis in hand, before diving into your
culture’s “gethealthy”
plan, get your stakeholders aligned on acommon definition of what constitutes a successfulculture at your company.
STEP 1: IDENTIFY THE SYMPTOMS.
Just as a physician starts by asking a patient to describetheir symptoms, consider whether your company isexperiencing any of the following, which may berelated to culture:
Decreased employee engagement scores in surveys or other feedback mechanisms
Low employee morale
Increased turnover and defection of top talent
Difficulty recruiting new talent
Negative employee comments on social media and job-rating sites about their work experience
Decreasing employee referrals for new hires
Poor transparency into how decisions are made
Reduced cooperation and collaboration among colleagues
Limited innovation or pipeline of employee ideas
Decreased customer satisfaction and/or increased complaints
Falling market share that cannot be explained by external forces
Few synergies realized following post-merger integration Creative and quirky. Competitive and hard-working. Determined risk-taker. These could be adjectives you use todescribe yourself on LinkedIN
…
or words that companies use to define who they are, how they operate and how their employees act, feel and behave.
It’s
organizational culture and
it’s
critical to success. In fact, 60 percent of executivesbelieve that culture is more important than strategy and operating model, according to a 2013 Booz & Companysurvey. Yet less than half said their companies manage culture effectively, and 96 percent think their
culture needs to change.Savvy executives and communicators
aren’t
sitting back waiting for culture to change on its own or for disengagedemployees to cycle out. Instead, they proactively create healthy cultures in which employees feel a connection to thecompany, to their colleagues and to the world. The end result is a culture that helps deliver on a
company’s
brandpromise and business strategy. Here are four steps to set up a successful cultural transformation.
© 2015 Edelman. For more information, contact us at employee.engagement@edelman.com.
What values should guide everyday work? Whatbehaviors should employees and leaders demonstrate?Be sure to include employee feedback in this process.While each organization is unique, listed below are traitsthat healthy cultures generally tend to share. Comparethe values and behaviors you aspire to with thoseactually in practice at your company. Areas with thebiggest gaps between your current and desired cultureare where to focus transformation efforts.
ABOUT US
Edelman Employee Engagement helps organizationsaccelerate business performance, delivered by highlyengaged and trusted employees. We do this by makingmeaningful, trust-building connections
—
connectingemployees
with the company
,
with each other and with theoutside world.
Our global network of employeeengagement specialists develop engagement strategy;deploy the tools and processes to deliver it; create themultimedia channels and content that support it; anddesign the insight mechanisms to measure it.For more information, visit us at ee.edelman.com,follow us on Twitter at @EdelmanEE or email us atemployee.en
Contribute maximum effort
Are aligned behind a shared vision, strategy, direction
Leverage open channels for two-way dialogue and feedback with senior leadership
Understand what drives the business and how their specific role and contributions support the strategy
…And a
connection to their colleagues:
Share knowledge efficiently and effectively
Collaborate across business units and among employee groups
Are empowered to improve innovation and ideas
Bridge silos and maximize individual and group contributions
Make continuous improvement a way of life
Deliver service levels that exceed customer expectations and are motivated to win new business
Empowered to connect with and service customers in new ways
Recruit new hires through positive word-of-mouth and help to retain top talent
Improve overall reputation and credibilityIn healthy cultures, employees who feel a connection to their company:
..And a connection to their colleagues:..And a connection to the outside world:
STEP 4: DETERMINE YOUR TREATMENT PROGRAM.
Now that you know who your organization is and where itneeds to go, develop a plan to get from Point A to B.Generally accepted treatment options include:Start from the top. Ensure senior leaders understand, support,and consistently model desired culture and behaviors.Organize a governance committee of leaders to act as asounding board for key decisions and help drive thetransformation, with local networks supporting site-levelactivities. Moreover, when you create these groups, tellemployees about them! This shows that leaders arecommitted to change and that this
isn’t
just another initiative.Make it real: Help people connect with the abstractconcept of culture by creating a moment-in-timecommitment event. Encourage leaders to publicly pledgespecific commitments they will carry out in support of thetransformation. Ask employees to share tangible examplesof how they support the new culture. This can take manyformats
–
from
“selfie”
photos to videos to even poetry (yes,
we’ve
actually seen it.)Tell a story: Harness the power of storytelling to illustrate keybehaviors in a highly personal way. For example, toencourage a culture of smart risk-taking, have leaders openup town halls by describing a time they took a chance intheir personal or professional lives. Ask employees to pick one of the
company’s
values, commit to living it over thenext year and document their experiences.Make it relevant: Finally, make sure your culture is reflectedat every touch point across the employment lifecycle - fromattracting candidates who share your
organization’s
valuesto rewarding the right behaviors through recognitionprograms and embedding these behaviors into HR andperformance management processes.
Recompense a sua curiosidade
Tudo o que você quer ler.
A qualquer hora. Em qualquer lugar. Em qualquer dispositivo.
Sem compromisso. Cancele quando quiser.