The war for talent is raging on, and in today’s competitive job market, companies can no longer afford to overlook the importance of their employees. Organizations that prioritize building a strong culture with a focus on core values will be the ones that attract, retain, and engage top performers.
This blog post dives deeper into the conversation between Sri Chellappa, host of the People Strategy Leaders Podcast, and Casey Sanders, Director of Total Rewards at Christian Care Ministry. We’ll explore the key takeaways from their discussion and gain valuable insights on how to cultivate a thriving people-centric culture within your organization.
The Power of Purpose: Why Core Values Matter
Sanders emphasizes that culture isn’t accidental – it requires intentionality and a shared belief system across leadership. Core values serve as the foundation for this belief system, acting as the guiding principles that define how employees interact, behave, and contribute to the organization’s success.
Strong core values go beyond just words on a poster. They become the organization’s lifeblood, fostering a sense of purpose and belonging among employees. When employees feel connected to the organization’s mission and understand how their work contributes to a larger goal, they are more likely to be engaged, productive, and invested in the company’s success.
From Vision to Action: Making Core Values a Lived Reality
So, how do you bridge the gap between established core values and everyday employee experience? Sanders outlines a practical framework for bringing these values to life:
Weaving the Core Values Tapestry: Integrate core values into every touchpoint of the employee journey. Start from the recruitment process, where interview questions and candidate selection criteria should reflect the desired behaviors aligned with the core values.
Performance Management with Purpose: Performance reviews shouldn’t just focus on tasks completed. Use them to assess and provide feedback on how employees are embodying the core values in their work.
Celebrating the Champions: Develop a robust recognition and reward program that celebrates employees who consistently demonstrate the organization’s core values. This not only motivates the recognized individuals but also inspires others to emulate those behaviors.
Leaders as Culture Champions: Leadership plays a crucial role in driving cultural change. Leaders must visibly embody the core values and hold themselves accountable for upholding these principles. Their actions and decisions set the tone for the entire organization.
HR as a Strategic Partner: The Role of Technology
Sanders highlights the importance of equipping leaders with the right tools and resources to effectively implement these strategies. He mentions Engagedly, a people engagement platform, as a valuable tool for streamlining processes like performance management and recognition programs. Such user-friendly technology empowers leaders to easily recognize employees who exemplify the organization’s core values, making the celebration more efficient and impactful.
Cultivating a strong people-centric culture is an ongoing journey, not a one-time destination. Organizations must continuously strive to improve and adapt. Here are some additional points to consider:
Embrace Data-Driven Decisions: Leverage data and analytics to measure the impact of your cultural initiatives. Track employee engagement metrics, satisfaction surveys, and performance outcomes to identify areas for improvement.
The Future of Work: As companies navigate the evolving work landscape, be it hybrid, remote, or on-site, maintaining a strong sense of community and open communication is crucial. Leaders need to actively listen to employee concerns and adapt their strategies to foster a thriving culture in this new work environment.
Investing in Your People is an Investment in Your Future
Building a strong, people-centric culture requires commitment, time, and resources. However, the benefits are undeniable. By prioritizing your employees, fostering a purpose-driven environment, and living your core values, you create a win-win situation. Your employees will feel valued and engaged, leading to increased productivity, innovation, and ultimately, the long-term success of your organization.
Ready to build a winning culture that attracts top talent?
Listen to our latest podcast episode featuring Casey Sanders, Director of Total Rewards at Christian Care Ministry, where we explore the importance of core values and practical strategies for creating a thriving people-centric culture.
Years of research conducted by renowned psychologists and organizational leaders reveal that a positive workplace culture is one of the most important driving factors of business success. It leads to higher productivity, better employee engagement, and higher returns. Therefore, it is imperative to create a culture that supports employees’ growth and values them for their efforts.
A positive workplace cultureis essential for the development of the employees’ skills, which increases productivity of a company. The report, “Return on Culture,” demonstrates a direct correlation between cultural factors such as collaborative efforts, employee involvement and retention, and client satisfaction and earnings and profit.
As per the report, organizations with a positive work culture are 1.5 times more likely to have revenue growth of 15% or more, throughout three years, and 2.5 times more likely to have substantial stock growth during the same time period.
However, according to research, just 31% of HR executives feel their companies have the right culture they require to drive future growth, and getting there isn’t simple.This means certain companies fail to reform their cultures over time.
Considering the above stats, we have provided a step-by-step approach to turn your organizational cultureinto a significant asset, by offering an understanding of what work culture is and why it is essential to develop a positive workplace culture that consistently produces results.
What is a Positive Workplace Culture?
A positive work culture in an organization focuses on practical work practices that contribute to increased performance, while a poorly functioning company culture elicits characteristics that may ruin even the most successful businesses.
According to Deloitte research, a unique and healthy corporate culture is vital to a company’s success for 88 percent of employees and 94 percent of executives. Also, the survey identified that certain executives (about 76%) are of the view that having a ” well-defined company strategy” helps a company to achieve success. Hence, well-defined objectives and a healthy working environment are core aspects of a healthy work culture.
Benefits of Positive Workplace Culture
It is important to have a positive work culture, as it influences the outlook of the employees towards their work. The employees’ mindset, in turn, affects their productivity. Besides, a positive work culture also influences how the employees collaborate cohesively to perform a particular task. Thus, a positive work culture is directly related to the productivity of employees.
Let’s check out the advantages of positive of work culture in a business set up.
1. Retaining Skilled Employees
A positive work culture helps you to retain your best and skilled talents. They love to work in a positive work environment where they receive appreciation for their work. Attracting and recruiting good talent is easy, but retaining them is difficult. A healthy and positive work environment ensures that employees stay with you for a longer time.
According to the Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends 2015 report, ‘culture and involvement’ seemed to be the main motive on the corporate agenda, and organizations with the healthiest cultures were far better at attracting and retaining people.
2. Achieving business goals
Positive workplace culture encourages employees to work hard to stay aligned with their company objectives. They are happy and satisfied with their job, and do their best to attain their goals and that of the organization. With a positive work culture, you may notice that employees care for the welfare of the organization. They do their best to achieve the goals set by the company.
It gives every employee the chance to develop professionally and personally. It also fosters transparency and motivates your workforce to express themselves and pursue the ideals that they believe in.
4. Enhances employee satisfaction and productivity
A positive workplace culture will make your employees want to come to work every day. Additionally, it boosts your employees’ focus, which leads to increased efficiency.
5. Increased profitability
According to Dale Carnegie’s white paper on ‘Transforming Attitudes and Actions: How Senior Leaders Create Successful Workplace Cultures’, 92 percent of company executives feel that organizational environment and financial performance are linked closely. Workplace culture has a visible effect on how your employees’ function. This, in turn, has a significant effect on the financial profitability of your company.
5. Enhanced Employee Well-Being
A positive culture promotes well-being by reducing stress and creating a supportive atmosphere where employees’ mental and physical health is prioritized, fostering a work environment where individuals can thrive and reach their full potential.
6 Steps To Building A Positive Workplace Culture
1. Establish organizational culture and values
It’s critical to have a set of defined core values for the organization. Communicate them to your employees so that they are aware of it and inculcate them in their daily lives. It’s also vital to take verifiable assessment actions on a regular basis so that employees feel a sense of accountability for the company’s values.
This enables employees to analyze, assess, and change their work attitudes, based on the defined fundamental values. Thus, an employee’s healthy attitude can contribute to a positive work environment.
2. Conduct pulse surveys
It is of high importance to have a leadership and management style that promotes cooperation, open and honest communication, and a healthy work environment.
For the same, conduct regular culture surveys. Evaluate how employees engage with one another and how they react to criticism. Unconscious and implicit biases often spoil working relationships. Evaluate how employee interact with one another and work on removing prejudices if any. Often biases and prejudices result in cut-throat competition among the employees. Surveys will help you understand your employees better.
Without a doubt, the most crucial part of any workplace culture is leadership. Furthermore, they must constantly promote business principles and serve as role models for the rest of the organization.
Leaders should attempt to develop new methods to engage employees, inspire passion and dedication in the workplace.
Traditionally, a leader’s responsibility did not include speaking to their employees or participating in company-wide discussions. Today’s employee-centric companies, on the other hand, want leaders to express honest, inspirational, and motivating viewpoints to their employees.
4. Inclusive Workplace
A good workplace is one where all employees, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, race, region, religion, etc. receive equal respect. They are given equal opportunity and benefits and are encouraged to take active part in the organization. Having an inclusive workplace helps organization to build a wider talent pool with better performance, and greater creativity and innovation.
The term “employee behavior” refers to how employees react in the workplace to certain settings or scenarios. While numerous factors influence an employee’s conduct in the workplace, people are molded by their own culture as well as the culture of the company.
Your company’s culture is inextricably linked to the individuals who work there. If you want to effect change, you’ll need to assist employees in making specific behavioral adjustments.
In the context of this, you can establish guidelines such as ‘dos and don’ts’ that help employees to know what to do and what not to do. This would bring changes in their work procedures, beliefs, and assumptions, in line with workplace culture.
Team members will be influenced by these beliefs and the conduct of leaders. As a consequence, team members will absorb and spread culture via social interactions.
On the whole, a strong organizational culture occurs when positive unified behavior, value systems, and principles have been created. As an instance, let’s say you’ve defined work-life balance as one of your priorities, but everyone in the company is working 13-hour days right now.
As an HR professional, one of the first behavioral adjustments you’ll need to make is to urge executives to spend only 8 to 9 hours each day so that this practice can spread across all employees’ behavior.
6. Set clear objectives, provide feedback, and appreciate
According to a Deloitte research study, 83 percent of executives and 84 percent of employees are of the view that having productive and committed employees is the key aspect that significantly contributes to a company’s success.
Employees may be inspired and committed if they are treated fairly and given clear objectives and feedback. Having a clear framework allows employees to assess their own performance.
Measurable performance feedback will lead to constructive competition, and an open policy will help to minimize unpleasant sentiments and discontent among team members. When objectives are positively reinforced and accomplishments are acknowledged and celebrated, employees feel appreciated, which contributes to a positive working atmosphere.
Summing Up
A positive workplace culture is more effective over time because it fosters positive feelings and well-being among employees. As a result, people’s relationships with one another strengthen, and their talents and inventiveness grow. Thus, creating a good work environment may make or break your company’s success.
Organizational success — including business performance, client satisfaction, efficiency, and job involvement — dramatically improves with positive work cultures.
The tips that we shared will help you lay the foundation for positive workplace culture. But it is not limited or restricted to them. Every workplace does its bit to create a healthy and positive work environment. Do you have any other points in mind? Let us know in the comments.
Want to know how Engagedly can help you build a positive workplace culture? Talk to our team experts!
Workplace cultures may differ for different industries, but all these workplaces have one common prerequisite for their employees and that is professional behavior. Maintaining appropriate behavior at work is important for every employee. But some people do not realize the importance of it and behave inappropriately.
