What does ‘Organisational Culture’ mean?

Organisational culture affects all aspects of your business, from punctuality and tone to contract terms and employee benefits. When workplace culture aligns with your employees, they’re more likely to feel more comfortable, supported, and valued. Companies that prioritize culture can also weather difficult times and changes in the business environment and come out stronger.

Culture is a key advantage when it comes to attracting talent and outperforming the competition. Lots of your workers consider a company’s culture before applying, and almost half of employees would leave their current job for a lower-paying opportunity at an organisation with a better culture. The culture of an organisation is therefore one of the top indicators of employee satisfaction and one of the main reasons that most of employees stay in their job.

Recognizing the contributions of all team members has a far-reaching, positive effect on organisational culture. When everyone on the team recognizes the accomplishments of others, individuals start to see how they’re part of a whole. Even the most jaded employees want to know their work matters, and they notice when they aren’t appreciated. Experts agree that when an organisation makes appreciating employees’ part of its culture, important metrics like employee engagement, retention, and productivity improve.

Making recognition part of your culture means it must be a regular occurrence, not something that is only reserved for major milestones or work anniversaries. Encourage team members to practice frequent social recognition in addition to monetary recognition. Providing social recognition on a consistent basis has a remarkable business impact: companies that invest in social recognition are four times more likely to increase stock prices, twice more likely to improve NPS scores, and twice more likely to improve individual performances.

To foster other cultural traits, recognition should also be clearly tied to company values and specific actions. After all, 92 percent of employees agree when they’re recognized for a specific action, they’re more likely to take that action again in the future. (Achievers Report, 2021)

Finally, leadership needs to take centre stage in your recognition efforts, as they’re the cultural trendsetters for your entire company. Incorporate a recognition talk track into your leadership training and share top tips with managers on how to recognise others and why it matters.
 

Creating a culture that values feedback and encourages employee voice is essential, as failing to do so can lead to lost revenue and demotivated employees.

First, you need to start collecting feedback of your employees to express what they’re feeling in the moment. Then analyze the results to see what’s working and what isn’t in your organisation, and act on those findings while they’re still relevant. Not only does this strengthen your culture, but it also leads to benefits like higher employee fulfillment and greater profitability.

In addition to gathering feedback, make sure you’re paying attention to more subtle expressions of feedback that can reveal cultural deficiencies. Managers should treat all the moments of contact they have with their employees as opportunities to gather and respond to feedback and act as a trusted coach.

3. Make your leaders culture advocates
Your company’s success in building a strong workplace culture rests in the hands of team leaders and managers. For example, if your workplace culture prioritizes certain values and your leadership team doesn’t exemplify them — or even displays behaviours that go against them — it undermines the effort. Team members will recognize the dissonance between stated values and lived behaviours. They may even start to emulate negative behaviours because they believe those behaviours have been rewarded by management.

As a manager you can help build the culture you need by prioritizing it in every aspect of their work lives. They need to openly and transparently discuss the organisation’s culture and values, and they should also be prepared to incorporate feedback from employees into their cultural advocacy efforts. Managers need their employees’ perspective on culture. When employees see you living your culture, they’ll follow suit.

Your company’s values are the foundation of its culture. You can easily start with creating a mission statement but living by company values means weaving them into every aspect of your business. This includes support terms, HR policies, benefits programs, and even out-of-office initiatives like volunteering. Your employees, partners, and customers will recognize it and appreciate that your organisation puts its values into practice every day.

5. Form connections between team members
Building a good workplace culture requires strong connections between team members, but with increasingly remote and terse communication, creating those bonds can be challenging. Encouraging collaboration and engaging in team building activities — even when working remote — are two effective ways to bring your team together and promote communication.
Look for and encourage shared personal interests between team members as well, especially among those from different generations that might otherwise have a difficult time relating to each other. This can create new pathways for understanding and empathy that are vital to improving communication, creativity, and even conflict resolution.

A culture of learning has a significant business impact. Great workplace cultures are formed by employees who are continually learning and companies that invest in staff development. Training initiatives, coaching, and providing employees with new responsibilities are all great ways to show your team that you’re invested in their success.

7. Personalize the employee experience
Nowadays consumers become more modern. This also counts for your employees. Your employees expect personalized experiences, so focus on ways to help each team member identify with your culture. Take what you learn and tailor your actions to personalize the employee experience for your team. Once you start treating your employees with the same care you treat your customers, a culture that motivates everyone at your organisation is sure to follow.