In any successful business, one of the key foundations to success is enabling and unlocking a positive organisational culture, which is why we look here first when we work with a new business.
Culture can be defined in many ways, most say it is the accumulation of several factors – the people you hire and how you empower them, a forward-thinking vision and leadership team, a set of wide-ranging company values that transcends all activities, and a way of working that lights up a room.
Within modern business change is a constant and it’s often seen as how you face it which puts the greatest emphasis on the strength of your organisation’s culture.
So let’s start by examining some of the core elements to get right. (Stay tuned for the next article that focuses on examples of best practice in action).
Leadership
Leadership style is fundamental to the creation of a successful organisational culture as how an organisation is led sets the tone for the whole business. This then enables the building of trust and credibility across the entire business.
How a leader behaves has a direct influence on employee engagement, staff retention, creativity, and how agile an organisation is to deal with, and respond to, change.
Facets of effective leadership cultures include being open to new ideas, the ability to inspire others, and an open and consultative manner.
Quite often we see Empowering led cultures being far more successful than autocratic ones (where all key decisions are made with little or no consultation).
Values & Purpose
These critically help drive and define an organisation, both inside and out, and hereby set the foundations for the wider behaviours, interactions, and decisions across your workplace that enable a positive workplace culture.
The business purpose of your organisation can be used as an opportunity to engage and inspire all around the attainment of a common purpose – one example could be:
We believe that every person deserves the opportunity to reach their full potential, and we are committed to creating a positive impact in the lives of our employees, customers, and the world around us.
This can then dovetail into its alignment with workplace values that help deliver and support this in action within your business. For example, the Fostering of Adaptability and Innovation as a stated behaviour across staff contracts, job descriptions, and workplace reviews will help embed this.
Deloitte recently said that Purpose-oriented companies have higher productivity and growth rates, along with a more satisfied workforce who stay longer with them. Our research shows that such companies report 30 percent higher levels of innovation and 40 percent higher levels of workforce retention than their competitors.
Empowerment
Empowering your staff to make business decisions can be game-changing to your culture.
By allowing staff to input into business decisions and ways of working you can unlock a whole wealth of benefits from enhanced creativity, better problem solving, increased motivation and performance but most critically a more agile business and a happier customer.
Never done in isolation it is typically aligned with the creation of specific workplace values and an intentional leadership approach. Where empowerment is at an early stage we endorse a phased approach to develop and refine a model that works for you testing new ways of working on select projects or teams – then measuring and evaluating impact.
Communication
Effective Communication is a cornerstone of a positive workplace culture. It plays a crucial role in fostering transparency, trust, collaboration, and overall employee satisfaction.
It refers to all mediums through which you interact as a business (both internally and externally). and the way you do it for staff, customers, and partners. How you communicate to build a positive culture can be effectively influenced by 2 things – specific core values (focused on openness, transparency, and respect) and the creation of a useful how-to guide (or tone of voice document) that helps bring it to life in everyday situations.
Good communication establishes a foundation of trust, encourages collaboration, and promotes a sense of community among employees. Organisations that prioritize clear, open, and inclusive communication are better positioned to build and maintain a positive and thriving workplace culture.
Wellbeing
The wellbeing of all staff is critical in any business and increasingly forward-thinking businesses are investing in a range of holistic initiatives spanning mental wellness, physical health & nutrition, work/life balance, personal finance, and self-development.
The reason this has become so key is that increasing studies show that up to 86% of people would now leave a job or become disengaged where their well-being wasn’t valued or supported.
Benefits felt from a positive approach to well-being can include increased business resilience, reduced sickness, reduced staff turnover, and most critically a positive brand reputation.
Wellbeing investment will fail to realize its full benefits unless it is aligned and integrated to wider business Values and Purpose.
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