Define and Enhance your Company Culture with our Playbook

Your Culture Matters

Great culture can make an average team championship-level and a poor one can cripple even the most talented organizations. Ask the New York Yankees, LA Dodgers, or ENRON. Company culture at its core affects how employees interact with each other, approach work, and win together. Company culture is the values, beliefs, and behaviors that guide how employees in an organization work together. It's about the way things are done, the traditions and rituals that are upheld, and the overall vibe of the workplace.

Culture impacts relationships between employees. It shapes the work ethic of teams and organizations and even the physical environment in the workplace. The way that the office is designed, the colors and decor that are used, and even the layout of the space all reflect the company's values and beliefs. A company that values creativity and innovation, for example, may have an open office layout with plenty of collaborative spaces. On the other hand, a company that prioritizes focus and productivity may have more private workstations and quiet areas for employees to concentrate.

Culture eats strategy for breakfast - Peter Drucker

This has become a very well-renowned quote by Drucker. But what exactly is meant by it?

Here's how Improving your Culture Benefits your Top and Bottom Line

Improving company culture has numerous benefits, including increased productivity, employee retention, and overall employee engagement in the workplace. Company culture is also reflected in the way that decisions are made and how employees are treated. A company that values transparency and open communication will involve employees in the decision-making process and keep them informed about important developments. The profit and revenue benefits of cultivating a positive company culture are well documented.

> Positive company culture fosters a motivated and engaged workforce. When employees feel valued and supported, they are more likely to go above and beyond in their roles. This increase in productivity can lead to higher output and efficiency, ultimately translating into higher profits for your organization.

> Strong company culture can attract top talent to your organization and keep them there. When employees are happy and satisfied with their workplace environment, they are more likely to stay with the company long-term. This reduces recruiting and training costs associated with high turnover rates, saving your organization money in the long run.

> Happy employees are more likely to provide exceptional customer service, leading to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty. Satisfied customers are more likely to repeat business with your company and refer others, ultimately driving revenue growth.

> Positive company culture promotes teamwork and collaboration among employees. When teams work well together, they can achieve greater results and tackle complex challenges more efficiently. This synergy can lead to innovative solutions and new revenue streams for your organization.

> Improving company culture can enhance communication, decision-making, and overall organizational effectiveness. When employees are aligned with the company’s values and goals, they are better equipped to drive the business forward and achieve financial success.

> Good culture helps retain your top performers and key talent within the organization. This can lead to higher employee engagement, reduced turnover costs, and a more stable workforce, all of which contribute to improved profitability.

Culture is the glue that holds an organization together. It is what unites employees and guides them towards a common purpose. At Kitson HCS, we have created our own Culture Playbook to help your organization thrive in this critical area. We help you ingrain and uplift your culture by focusing in on these 4 key areas:

Talent Management Systems

Talent management is about the people practices that impact your culture and employee experience such as compensation, career progression, recognition, and hiring. Naturally, how you handle your talent influences the culture of your organization. Culture shows up in the following ways inside your HR programs:

* Benefits – it’s one thing to have a benefits package, and another to be offering what your people actually care about. Benefit utilization tells the story. Are your benefits competitive? When was the last time you surveyed your employees to check on the quality and relevancy of your offerings?

* Performance management – your performance review process sets the tone for what and who you promote and manage out of the business. Structured 1:1s are an extension of that process. Are they happening? Do your managers conduct them consistently and with structure?

* Recognition – this goes beyond new hire announcements and anniversary plaques. How do employees recognize each other in a way that’s elevated? Employee spotlights are nice but don't scale.

* Career pathing – is there a progression framework in place or are you simply offering a job? Do people understand the rules for how to advance through your ranks?

* Training - do your training systems support advancement through your career paths? Are they accessible by all? Do they exist for support functions? How is YOUR leadership framework incorporated into these programs?

* Feedback mechanisms – employee surveys typically sit somewhere between not enough and over-saturation. Action plans for this feedback are often lacking and poorly communicated. Is this an HR exercise or do you open up your survey construction to all staff?

* Onboarding – cultural formation happens right out of the gate. Are people thrown to the wolves or are new hires eased into your organization with some intentionality? Good onboarding should be both functional and experiential. Experiential is about cultural assimilation. What do you do for your employees that’s memorable and unique? Gamify how people experience your culture.

* Policies – while it may not feel like culture can exist in a dusty handbook, the rules you put in place and how they’re enforced becomes cultural bedrock.

* Technology - having the appropriate automation and tech is not just about being progressive. Applicant tracking systems help create consistency and fit with your hiring decisions. Learning management tools provide broad training opportunities to the masses and content shapes attitudes, engagement, culture, and competencies.

* Job advertising strategy – where you’re fishing determines what you catch along with the bait. If you are only focusing on a couple of channels don’t expect diverse hiring results.

* Compensation philosophy – are your pay increases transparent or does that mean 3% for everyone? 2%? Are your pay practices influenced by market data? How you pay determines the caliber of your league. Don’t expect major league results from minor league salaries.

These compononents of talent management merely represent areas where your culture can be influenced. Traction happens when your culture is intricatley woven into each.

Cultural Codification

Codification – the act, process, or result of arranging in a systematic form or code.

The secret sauce to any great company culture is figuring out how to best embed it into every aspect of the business so it can flourish. If your culture runs through your founder or a handful of brand ambassadors that’s where it will stay. The first step is articulating your values and demonstrating how they should show up in the business each day. Your values should be omnipresent internally and externally in everything from your website, ATS, intranet, handbook, marketing collateral, social media, performance management tools, to your communications and everything in between. Values should also be a key driver of your hiring training and selection framework. When done properly, your values should be the backbone of your onboarding program and include things like new hire videos led by your senior executives to really them home and personalize them.

Your values become the lens for all decision-making, and that should show up in rewards and recognition as well. Once you understand what you need to build into your people strategy the next step is to look at your organizational design.

Organizational Design

This is a review of how your organization is set up. Is your mission and vision clear and understood by all? What are the goal-setting processes which support why you exist and what you aspire to become? Is your organization flat, bureaucratic, or matrixed? Is the why behind executive decision-making transparent? Is meritocracy and performance rewarded or tenure? Your CEO and executive team crafts your culture with how they establish the rules of the game. Culture develops in the following areas:

1. Ways of working (hours, SOPs, and in-office mandates)

2. Ways of gathering (meetings, team building, and frequency)

3. Ways of communicating (collaboration, silos, and channels)

4. Ways of connecting (as individuals, teams, and company-wide)

5. Ways of celebrating and rituals (personal achievements, milestones, and business objectives linked back to values)

6. Ways of mentoring (beyond direct reporting relationships formal or informal)

Make sure the mission is front and center and constantly reinforced. It’s the anchor for everything you do and why you’re in business. If the mission is your anchor, your vision is the compass. Where are you trying to be in 5 years? 10? When employees don’t understand what they’re working toward engagement drifts. Make sure each individual understands how their role moves the company forward. This creates alignment. Ensure you have connective tissue with all staff that is interactive. This could be through town hall meetings, a communications department, chat forums like Slack, or surveys. Allow this feedback to drive company decision-making. Create psychological safety where ideas can be challenged, leaders are approachable, and feedback is addressed constructively and more importantly, incorporated into company changes.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)

The last pillar if our playbook is diversity, equity, and inclusion. Coming out of the divisive societal unrest during the pandemic DEI hiring was all the rage in HR departments. While that has cooled off, the fundamental concepts are still important to your culture. These programs do not have to come at the expense of the majority. Simply put, a good DEI program examines how to create an environment where all walks of life feel proud to come to work. DEI at its core is about finding a wider range of perspectives, experiences, and ideas, leading to more innovative and effective solutions. These programs also help to address systemic inequalities and biases, creating a fairer and more just workplace for everyone where employee morale and retention are improved as individuals begin to feel more valued for their unique identities and contributions.

When diversity is lacking it often starts with hiring. It’s a human tendency for like to hire like. How you filter incoming talent can either sustain the complexion of your workforce or eventually begin to reshape it. Bias can be mitigated, and objectivity can be promoted through using inclusive language in job advertisements, promoting jobs across a wider range of networks, training your managers, using scorecards, and even forcing more objectivity in the process. Policies, initiatives, and organization goals impact your DEI makeup as well. Open conversations about inclusion and diversity within your team are necessary, as is fostering a culture that values and celebrates differences. Employee resource groups can provide education to help team members understand and role model inclusive behaviors.

Your scoreboard is important. Measure things like inclusion, belonging, voice, fairness in working practices, discrimination, psychological safety, and values alignment through surveys, focus groups and other means. Analyze the data to identify areas for improvement and track progress over time. Collect and track demographic data about your employees to gain insights into the composition of your workforce and how this changes over time. Use this data to inform your DEI initiatives and to understand how well you attract, engage and retain people from different backgrounds. You can't change what you don't know.

Culture really does eat strategy for breakfast. The best plan in the world won't get traction if nobody cares. Winning organizations understand what they stand for and codify it, integrate it with all aspects of their human capital programs, and design their business around that culture in a way that is welcoming and attractive to a wide range of people. Using our playbook, we work with your business to bring your culture to life in a way that achieves your mission and values. Get in touch through my website and subscribe to our newsletter if you'd like to learn more.