What is Organizational Culture?
According to SHRM, the culture of a business involves the norms and beliefs, how to behave. Leaders establish the culture then communicate it and reinforce it with all employees to shape their behaviors and build similar perceptions.
Strong, positive cultures are part of the most successful companies, contributing to highly engaged employees who go above and beyond to fulfill the vision and mission (such as helping customers or implementing process improvements).
As imagined, companies with weak and/or negative cultures have higher turnover, poorer customer satisfaction, disengaged employees, and lower profits.
Building a Culture
According to Augmen tHR writer Bruce Powell, there are 6 points to remember if the company wants to create a positive culture.
1. Define the culture first with a vision, mission and values that match what you want to do.
2. Management needs to lead by example. There is no sense in having values that the leaders, themselves, do not live by.
3. This one is particularly important in HR – hire people who are a ‘fit’ for the culture. Naysayers and employees who fight the norms does not add support to what the company is building even if the person performs the tasks of the job well.
4. Reward people for demonstrating the company’s values in their day-to-day work. Behaviors such as Putting the Customer First or Always Doing the Right Thing (ethics, integrity) are found on some performance appraisals and higher scores factor into raises. HR also encourages simple acknowledgement privately or in group settings and small perks.
5. Last, but not least, reinforce the culture. Coupled with rewarding it, make sure communication, events, processes, and the like are aligned with values and the mission.
