Culture is key to organisational success, influencing performance, employee interactions and the ways in which people work. It’s a promise to both your team and your customers, determining what sets you apart from similar companies and giving you a tangible edge over the competition.
According to the Arbringer Institute, almost half (46%) of all leaders and key decision-makers report critical growth improvements – in areas like productivity, retention and engagement – when they improve organisational culture. Moreover, 90% of executives surveyed by the global leadership development firm agree that the importance of culture is rising in the current market.
Cultural missteps
In 2021, PwC conducted a Global Culture Survey, in which 72% of the 3200 leaders and employees engaged with felt confident in their assertion that good company culture allows successful change initiatives to happen. Whilst undoubtedly true, the ways in which organisations go about improving their culture need to be strategically managed in order to gain the long-term benefits of their culture change initiatives.
More often than not, leaders discuss culture in a general sense, using terms like “open”, “green” and “dynamic”. The problem is that, without measurable metrics to back these claims up, these concepts tend to be quite subjective. How is a company to prove, for example, that it is innovative, if you aren’t tracking the parameters required to demonstrate innovative behaviours in tangible, measurable values? Likewise, how is it to drive sustainability-based improvements if it has no specific targets to follow?
Culture is not the same as engagement
A tendency to confuse employee engagement with culture only consolidates the issue, with the abstract, personal and oftentimes biased thoughts, feelings, and motivations of staff being used to shape the future of an organisation. These elements do have an undeniable sway over individual experience, with improvements potentially serving to raise satisfaction, and consequently performance from the bottom up. However, individual thoughts and feelings do little to strategically influence the overall performance of company in order to move towards fulfilling it’s long-term goals and objectives.
Culture is more about what people do – a set of common processes and practices experienced in every day life – than it is about how individuals feel. And in turn, it’s these day-to-day activities that impact their attitudes and sentiments towards their jobs. In other words, culture is not the same as engagement but exists as a precursor to it.
To get from A to B, you need a step-by-step plan to measure culture
Leaders looking to influence and nurture their company culture must therefore begin by evaluating their current position in measurable terms. It’s all about working out where the company stands at present and the kind of culture required to be able to meet future organisational aims.
Each company has a unique idea of what things should look like. Perhaps, for example, an organisation wants to boost staff retention, or is planning an acquisition. Whatever the goal, without a clear picture of how things are now, and an understanding of where the culture should be, plans for cultural improvement become somewhat fuzzy and difficult to commit to long-term.
In order to truly improve, leaders must identify their starting point, keeping the target culture they have defined in mind at all times. This can be achieved through a comprehensive cultural audit, with management teams identifying any opportunities and/or barriers that separate them from their destination. They can then go about creating a step-by-step plan to travel from A to B, whether this means implementing a few minor adjustments or putting the company through major refresh.
Any and all changes must therefore be tracked continuously to evaluate progress. For instance, if your company is looking to create a culture of teamwork and collaboration, it will need mechanisms in place to measure cross-functional efforts. Equally, if it is looking to foster diversity and inclusion, it will need to establish goals for diverse hiring and promotions, before tracking progress in achieving a more inclusive workforce. Therefore tracking something as intrinsic as culture should be an obvious step in achieving the organisations goals.
Bringing teams on board
According to a 2018 study conducted by Gallup, as many as 20% of employees feel completely disconnected from their company culture, which is why tangible actions are required to create this connection. According to Google re:Work teams with a strong sense of shared purpose and values have been shown to benefit from a 17% increase in performance. Therefore it is important to communicate your company culture explicitly and implicitly across every facet of the organisation to ensure that it is felt at every level.
A culture that inspires engagement
When a company’s culture is defined by behaviours such as transparency, collaboration and ambition, it is important to measure these and foster an environment in which employees feel heard and valued. As a result, engagement becomes an outcome of culture rather than a forced initiative they feel disconnected from. Regular feedback mechanisms and transparent communication create a tangible sense of inclusion, for example, leading employees to feel as if their lived experiences of working within an organisation are being heard. Similarly, a focus on professional opportunities tied to clear performance metrics can motivate employees, enhancing their commitment to the organisation.
Culture15 is your complete toolkit for tracking culture change. CEOs and Exec Teams at world-leading organisations use Culture15 analytics to measure culture and ensure success by aligning their culture with what they need to execute their strategy. If you’d like to find out how to define the culture you need, diagnose the culture you have and close the gap, talk to our team.
