The ‘Great Resignation’ is a post-pandemic trend that has perplexed managements and business experts across the globe. According to the World Economic Forum, at least 40% of workers around the globe are unhappy with their jobs and thinking about quitting.
According to a survey of six nations by McKinsey when it comes to Indians, the figure is even more striking at 66%. Poor work-life balance, low career prospects, lack of remote work options – the laundry list of reasons for quitting has many factors.
However, one critical aspect of an organisation may have control over all these factors, much like the fabled ring in the Lord of the Rings fantasy. We are talking about company culture. What is it, and why is it so important to your business? Let’s find all the answers.
What is company culture?
Company culture is rather tricky to pinpoint. It is something that evolves over the years at an organisation and is shared by everyone, from the C-suite down to the lowest rung of workers. The answers to the following questions will help you to give an overall picture of company culture:
- How strictly does the organisation adhere to its stated goals and principles?
- How ethical is the behaviour of individuals, particularly senior management?
- What kind of social behaviour is permitted/tolerated at the workplace?
- What does the management expect from the workers?
- What is the preferred leadership style at the organisation?
- How well does the management acknowledge/reward excellence?
- Is the workplace diverse and inclusive?
In its Leader’s Guide to Corporate Culture article, the Harvard Business Review defines company culture as the ‘tacit social order of an organisation’ that determines how individuals interact and coordinate, and how the organisation responds to change.
From an employer’s perspective, your company culture encapsulates what it actually feels like to work for you – in terms of the overall quality of the work environment, the delivery of fair remuneration, work-life balance, and other shared values and norms.
Together, they promote your overall employer branding and help drive future recruitment efforts in attracting top talent. The ideal company culture is one that promotes the following traits and features in your organisation:
- Strong adherence to values such as honesty, transparency, diversity
- Clear systems of accountability
- Meaningful commitment towards sustainability and inclusion
- Effective communication across the entire organisation
- Acknowledgement of employee contributions
- Adequate growth opportunities/career advancement
- A strong sense of camaraderie, belonging, and teamwork
- Chance for healthy work-life balance for employees
3 Useful strategies to build successful company culture
In this section, we will highlight the 3 main strategies to build a strong and positive workplace culture, along with reasons why it is important:
Lead by example
Culture cannot be imposed on employees via diktats or ambitious plans of action. You need to get people emotionally and intellectually invested in the project. Businesses favour stability, which in turn creates an environment that is highly resistant to change.
To convince others to commit to a new idea, the leadership within the organisation must be ready to play an active role in demonstrating its benefits. This Harvard Business Review article explains how the CEO of Dr Reddy’s implemented an evolution of the company culture by leading from the front.
Focus on employee growth
Stalled career growth prospects were cited by 63 per cent of employees as a reason for quitting their jobs during the Great Resignation in 2021, according to a Pew Research Centre report. Training programs in soft skills like management can help create internal leadership pipelines.
When skilled employees who share the ideal values stay on at the company for a long time, it contributes to the evolution of the workplace culture. And reskilling and upskilling programs in in-demand fields like IT and data science will also help Indian firms address the ongoing tech talent gap.
Pay attention to sustainability
While salary still plays a decisive role in their employment decisions, Millennials and Gen Z are equally concerned about sustainability. According to Deloitte, young employees who are satisfied with their organisation’s environmental and social impact are more likely to stay on for more than 5 years.
This is a significant improvement on the average tenure of Millennials, which is reported to be around 2 years and 9 months. Sustainability is a high priority for Indian employees, with 85 per cent of the consumers considering companies that focus on the environment in a more favourable light.
How do you change a company culture in 5 steps?
Since it is a largely social construct of attitudes, norms, and behaviour patterns, changes in company culture will take time to manifest. The process itself is complex and has the following steps:
- Review the core values and goals of your company – ensure that the values are clearly defined and in sync with the long-term goals.
- Establish your vision for the workplace – a traditional office, or central creative space, a hybrid arrangement with lots of meetings, or something else?
- Evaluate your existing culture – use surveys and other tools to gather information about the quality of the workplace culture from your managers and employees.
- Develop and execute a strategy – lead by example and take steps to encourage positive behaviours and penalize negative workplace behaviours.
- Progress reviews – use feedback loops and surveys to ask your employees about the rate of progress in your attempts to change/revamp company culture.
Much like the ancient city of Rome, company culture cannot be built up or altered in a matter of days. But with persistent focus and the inclusion of your employees in the process, you can achieve demonstrable changes within a relatively short period.
