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Who’s Really in Charge of Corporate Culture?

Posted on May 11th, 2016 Read time: 2 minutes

Workplace culture affects employee engagement, retention and loyalty. According to a study from The Workforce Institute at Kronos and the research and consultancy firm Workplace Trends.com, HR workers, managers and employees each believe their group is most important in defining corporate culture. However, the groups differ on what they believe to be the most important job aspects. If this is the case, it’s difficult to define corporate culture and know whether employees are actively promoting it.

  • Defining Corporate Culture

Corporate culture is a set of beliefs contributing to your success. You have to define what you want and what your business represents, then get everyone on board so they behave in a corresponding manner. Without a clear understanding of who’s leading your company culture, it’s hard to build and support it. A toxic culture can easily take root, costing you your top workers and bringing down your entire organization.

  • Finding out What Drives Employees

According to the survey, HR and management rated what they believe to be employees’ most important job aspects much differently than what the employees listed as top priorities. HR professionals said “managers and executives leading by example,” “employee benefits” and “shared mission and values” were most important. Managers guessed “managers and executives leading by example,” shared mission and values” and “emphasis on taking care of our customers.” Employees often listed “pay,” “co-workers who respect and support each other” and “work-life balance” as being most important to them. If you want to create stronger alignment with company culture, you need to ask your employees what’s most important to them, how you’re meeting or not meeting their needs and how to do better. You have to understand what motivates your workers and act on those issues to retain your top talent.

  • Strengthening Your Workplace

When asked in the survey, HR professionals and managers generally agreed they strengthen and preserve the workplace through “training and development” and “getting feedback from employees and acting on it.” It’s important you ensure everyone on every level is on the same page when acting according to company culture. Be prepared to respond if you uncover information contrary to what should be happening so the issue is corrected quickly. For example, if someone doesn’t like a boss, find out why and discuss them with the supervisor. Be sure you’re the first responder to your workers’ issues so you can alleviate the problems rather than have negative information spreading about your company and deterring qualified candidates from joining your organization.

You work hard to keep your company prospering, but you can’t do it alone. Provide a positive environment where top talent can work to the best of their ability and help grow your bottom line. In order to focus on your environment, you can outsource the services that are the most time consuming, like payroll. Visit our Services page to see how Innovative Employee Solutions can help you!

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