Established 1996
Corporate Culture
6 Ways to transform your Corporate Culture
Corporate culture is in many ways the lifeblood of business and changes can never be implemented without this being in place. Thus some ways have been earmarked which can help transform the corporate culture for the better. A company must first of all be aware of what exactly it does and forge its identity likewise. Talent management must involve a combination of top-down and bottom-up approaches. Not all solutions or best practices will emerge right away, many will develop over a matter of time through trial-and-error. Such practices must eventually be identified and incorporated for constant use. Engagement with customers and all other stakeholders such as employees, clients or even vendors is of paramount importance within the current circumstances. Closed environments are not conducive for developing new ideas. Similarly, such positive work cultures must be leveraged to generate and then implement business innovations. Most importantly, nothing must be hurried. Work must carry on with patience. Many projects or assignments will not be won at once but through sheer persistence.
What the best Cross- cultural Managers have in Common
With work becoming globalized and more number of firms expanding overseas, there is a great requirement for managers who can work bets in this multi-cultural environment. Such managers can manage diverse teams in disparate markets. For them change is an opportunity rather than a hindrance. But firms are grappling with ways to attract such specialists. Conventional talent recruitment procedures may not work here. CVs may not tell the full story. Instead it is best to hire internally by speaking to individuals who have stayed certain part of their life abroad. These people must be asked about their experiences as this will give the company an idea whether they can cut it out abroad. In order to retain such talent over a period of time, it is essential to keep challenging them with newer assignments in different expat locations. Eventually these kind of cross-cultural managers can act as the bridge between the head office and various subsidiaries.
Source:https://hbr.org/2016/06/what-the-best-cross-cultural-managers-have-in-common
9 Signs that your Organization lacks Diversity of Thought
Diversity is one of the essential tenets of modern day places. It leads to wide array of ideas being bounced of leading to business innovation. Certain signs have been identified which point out to a lack of clear cut diversity of thought within an organization. At such places leaders wish to control rather than motivate. The business overwhelms the individuals rather than the latter influencing the former. There has been a cultural demographic shift but that does not reflect at such firms. Also at such places there is a major disparity between the mission statement and the actual practices at the workplace. Older work practices do not get challenged in these environments. Crucially, departments work in silos and do not collaborate with others for achieving common organizational goals. Source:http://www.forbes.com/sites/glennllopis/2016/08/22/9-signs-that-your-organization-lacks-diversity-of-thought/#570069c76a13
How Cognitive Empathy in Marketing revolutionizes your Brand Relationships
Budding entrepreneurs are often asked to try and emulate business leaders such as Steve Jobs, Larry Page or Richard Branson in order to be successful. This is an ambiguous statement generally as it is difficult to grasp where exactly to start. However, there is one trait the three and many others of that level possess and that is empathy. The capacity to be able to relate others’ thoughts or feelings is termed as empathy. It can be of three types. Affective empathy is where one person is able to connect to the emotional state of the other. Compassionate empathy is what induces action to benefit others. Cognitive empathy is the third type which combines the first two. It involves connecting with the other, but also being able to think strategically for that person. For business leaders, it is most essential to master cognitive empathy. It is important to listen and learn from others’ point of view. Digital marketing provides us ideal platform to listen to customer viewpoints so that we can strategize marketing plans accordingly. Company policies and value systems must be built around customer experiences. Social media must be tapped to establish valuable one-to-one interactions. The customer must not feel alienated from the company and the latter must invoke the personal touch using phone calls, emails and social media. Source:http://www.business.com/sales-and-marketing/how-cognitive-empathy-in-marketing-revolutionizes-your-brand-relationships/
Not your grandfather’s corporate training: 5 trends changing workforce learning
The hidden curriculum of work
Source:http://www.strategy-business.com/blog/The-Hidden-Curriculum-of-Work
How employee-focused innovation drives prosperous retail environments
Source:http://sociable.co/technology/retail-innovation-tech-employees/
How company culture drives digital transformation and business adaptability
IBM’s HR leaders on how a culture of innovation can boost employee engagement
The seven characteristics of successful company cultures
Source:http://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/the-seven-characteristics_b_11339884
4 Things you need to know about Engagement
With employee engagement rising in importance across organizations, some trends have been chronicled which all management professionals ought to know. As per business research conducted by ORC International, it has been found out that engagement has been steadily rising and is now valued at a level of 63%. This percentage though differs from region to region with the Asia-Pacific region scoring a robust 68% and Europe doing much worse. Within the former region, India scores a high of 81% but Japan and Hong Kong are even below average Europe levels. Also this engagement is different for varying groups. Senior employees have a fifth greater engagement to others. Similarly, those involved directly with customers do better on this count than back-end operators. Even millennials tend to do better than Baby Boomers. Engagement is good for the actual business performances, as the survey found out that companies doing badly in this count were twice as like to get employees report as ‘sick’ compared to the star performers.
Source:http://www.humanresourcesonline.net/4-things-need-know-engagement/
4 Ways to Calculate Employment Engagement ROI
Engagement with employees is a crucial business matter these days. Contrary to popular perception, it is not an intangible benefit, as metrics exist to measure the ROI of employee engagement strategies. The first such metric is increasing productivity. Absenteeism must reduce post such management training sessions, as employees must be better hooked to their jobs. Learning and development trends must show acceleration both during such sessions as well as beyond them as effects must last. Post such activities, organizations must be able to track effective business intelligence on reasons for attrition and how to rectify the same. Gamification can be one very effective tool to enhance employee engagement.
How Company Culture drives Digital Transformation and Business Adaptability
The culture of a company is like the litmus test to gauge whether the organization can undergo digital transformation or not. A slow decision making process with a top-down communication flow is not conducive to digital transformation. Gone are the days where all decisions had to flow top-down, instead modern organizations have more democratic work structures. The fear factor must not be dominant in firms looking to enter the digital age. In firms which cannot, members of the C-suite often show a shocking inability to show value. Such companies veer away from the bigger aims of the corporate strategy and instead focus on singular aspects in what is known as tunnel vision. Certain tactics have been suggested to rectify these errors. Infighting over positions at the C-suite need to be eliminated right away. Employees must be provided certain level of freedom at work instead of being controlled by fear. The company must be flexible enough to take value ideas and feedback from the external world. Most importantly, all decision making must be spread right across the organization.
The Seven characteristics of successful Company Cultures
Company culture is very important to eventual business success. Some features of a successful company culture have been tabulated together in a study conducted. First of all, the employees of the company must be driven towards a common purpose. Corporate communication must be effective and consistent across the organization. There must be a process of constant feedback. In the present world, it is important to embrace diversity within the work team. A successful company culture will even lead to effective teamwork among the employees across departments. A sense of loyalty will be reflected with proper employee engagement. Corporate training programmes must lead to growth and development of the employees. This involves position based, financial and professional growth. Source:http://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/the-seven-characteristics_b_11339884
Can you really power an organization with love?
Some of the great thinkers of modern human history have spoken about the centrality of love to our lives. Yet, workplaces seem devoid of this work. Thus a team within the Harvard Business Review set out to explore important tenets of love that augur well at the workplace. First of all the word – love – must not be used, but instead compassion, kindness or respect are better appreciated at such formal environments. Love is the glue that binds other departments such as finance, marketing or corporate strategy. Compassion can also lead to victorious sports teams such as Saracens in Rugby or the Seattle Seahawks in Football. The expressions of love are contagious and move freely from organization to employee and then to external suppliers and the society at large. Love is more readily accepted and openly spoken of in founder-led or family businesses than large impersonal corporations. An exception to the latter is the military. It must be understood that love at the workplace exists side by side with business operations but needs to be better noticed as Whole Foods and Southwest Airlines have successfully done.
Source:https://hbr.org/2016/08/can-you-really-power-an-organization-with-love
Implementing best HR practices makes FedEx a great place to work
Source: http://www.humanresourcesonline.net/77-candidates-prefer-human-interaction-searching-jobs/
Culture series: how 3 companies built their corporate cultures
Source:http://www.talentmgt.com/2016/06/19/culture-series-how-3-companies-built-their-corporate-cultures/
Why corporate structure needs to change in the age of big data
The key to improving your company culture with social media marketing
LinkedIn’s billionaire founder Reid Hoffman shares advice on how to build a stronger network
Source: http://www.businessinsider.in/LinkedIns-billionaire-founder-Reid-Hoffman-shares-advice-on-how-to-build-a-stronger-network/articleshow/52512072.cms
The connection between Employee Trust and Financial Performance
Contrary to popular belief, building trust in an organization is not a soft skill but a core business requirement. Though business research conducted by Trust Across America, it has been understood that two-thirds of companies listed in the Fortune 500 list consider building employee or customer trust of paramount importance to their work. Trust building is a skill which can be mastered using three methods. First of all the company must declare its true intent. That intent is like a company sales pitch. In addition, genuine respect must be shown towards people who have performed credibly. Of course words alone cannot get the work done, the company has to actually deliver.
Source:https://hbr.org/2016/07/the-connection-between-employee-trust-and-financial-performance
Why you can’t ignore Culture in your Recruiting Process
For organizations growing at rapid pace, talent recruitment is amongst the most important tasks ahead for them. A study conducted by the Harvard Business School estimates that a toxic worker ends up leaking the recruiting company of US$ 12,500 in a year. ERE Media claims even higher amounts are lost in replacing these failed recruits. Recruitment today has moved beyond the company short listing candidates. Instead, power of negotiation lies firmly with employees. These losses can thus be mitigated using certain steps. The responsibility of recruitment must not lie solely with the HR team but must be a shared task. Proper investment of time and money must be made to ensure recruitment processes are well in place. The actual recruiters must be provided with adequate resources to evaluate candidate skills and experience. Beyond recruitment, the company must ensure that attrition is stopped. This can be smoothed out by investing on boarding and management training programmes. Finally, the recruiters need to evaluate whether the candidates can fit in to the company culture. The aspirant’s own value system must match the organization’s.
How your Corporate Culture can strengthen your Marketing Efforts
Corporate culture has long been known as a bedrock for any organization to have a good recruitment and talent management trends but now it has been understood that beyond that, it is also invaluable in marketing efforts. As per a study conducted, three-fifths of potential customers want to know about the work culture before signing up for a product as they feel that only good workplaces can deliver equally good product or service value. This is especially true for younger people. Organizations which have cracked a good culture must not just mention it on the website but go beyond by recording videos or podcasts of the same and broadcasting them to people. Starbucks is one company that has successfully done this. This kind of corporate culture will not develop overnight but will need to be nurtured over a period of time. It is the little things that can often seal a deal rather than core values. Clients are often more interested in the daily work routine than any bombastic corporate strategy document can ascertain.
Ten Signs your Company has a Culture Problem
Some signs exist which clearly point out to a company’s culture having problems. The first such sign is when a good period is defined as when no problems took place, all deadlines were met and the top management was satisfied. At such places, policies and procedures exist for everything. Corporate training for managers at such firms focuses on best practices in the industry but not on new innovative techniques. This training is mainly focused on supervision rather than coaching or inspiration. A corporate strategy exists with detailed plans ad forecasts, but individual employees are not passionate about the goals as there is no glue holding all together. Top managers often threaten others on job security. These employees are in fact measured and rated against each other on every parameter. Micromanagement is done over small matters such as punctuality or dress code. Employees quitting is a regular affair and no discussion takes place on the matter. Even the HR department joins in by only discussing hard topics such as policies, rules, benefits and compensation rather than soft matters such as work-life balance.
Samsung to abolish rigid Corporate Culture
In a bid to bolster business innovation, Samsung has dedicated to creating a different corporate structure to function almost like a startup. The traditional hierarchical set – up is to be replaced by a different one which pays greater emphasis on productivity rather than structure. Samsung’s biggest advantage has always been manufacturing efficiency that has resulted in the Korean company being the world’s leader in smartphones, memory chips and televisions. Such efficiency requires hierarchies to be respected. This in addition to Korea’s Confucian culture has meant that Samsung has never ventured out to a more egalitarian corporate set up which it is not implementing. The earlier model of 7 levels is to be cut short to 4. Fewer internal meetings must now take place, and if at all then a maximum time limit of an hour has been capped.
Source: http://m.koreatimes.co.kr/phone/news/view.jsp?req_newsidx=207977
Assessing and Changing Culture
Corporate culture is one of the most overlooked aspects of any business. Once this gets faulty, the entire business is bound to suffer. The organization cannot adjust to customer requirements on such occasions. The culture involves the corporate strategy and its adherence. It also tracks the organization’s relations with employees, vendors, customers, shareholders and other prominent stakeholders. The leadership style is another important sub-component within organization culture. Work culture models may differ from place to place. From the father-founder types to manager-entrepreneur types, changes galore but ultimately work needs to succeed and employees need to feel engaged.
Source:http://www.cstoredecisions.com/2016/06/17/assessing-changing-culture/
How failure leads to disruptive Success
Contrary to popular thought, failures are actually essential to eventual business success. Business innovation is something that succeeds only once license to take risk is accorded. Market research conducted proves that over ninety percent of startups actually fail. And that is a reason it is a wise idea to start a few companies together so that statistically the risk of failure is reduced. The country of Israel punches well above its weight on the innovation scales, but in fact most of its innovators are former failed entrepreneurs. Their failures allowed them to toughen up, learn from their mistakes and get on with their next project instead of grimacing about what went wrong. Source:http://www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/2016/03/21/how-failure-leads-to-disruptive-success/
The Do’s and Don’ts of running an Ideation Program
Ideations programmes have now become essential ingredients of corporate training sessions. Certain points have been identified that must by all means be followed while others must certainly be removed. Ideas must be tracked constantly from participants. However, generating ideas is not enough, some follow up response is needed. The right ideas must then be applauded. Care must be taken to ensure that appreciation of certain ideas does not stem the flow from those whose plans got rejected. Business leaders in the organization must be involved as support but their presence must never get overwhelming so that newer members hesitate while proposing ideas. Patience is a virtue during such sessions as the moment of eureka may not arrive instantly. Just to arrive at that point, excessive brainstorming must be avoided at all costs.
Samsung Electronics initiates makeover in Corporate Culture to become more Inventive and Agile
In spite of being a global giant, Samsung has restructured its organizational structure to reflect a sort of startup environment where agile business innovation is encouraged. The hierarchical set up is to be eased out to afford quicker decision making. The ideation process is also to be speeded up where anyone with a good idea may put forward a proposal on top of the idea box irrespective of designation. Also meetings are to be reduced and reports simplified. Flexibility in work timings are also expected on completion of eighty years of the South Korean conglomerate’s existence.
Source:http://m.pulsenews.co.kr/view.php?sc=30800021&year=2016&no=224054
Ten Corporate Practices that kill Trust
Management consulting publication Forbes has identified ten practices which destroy the trust factor in organizations. Forced or stack ranking programmes are harmful towards employee morale as they pit employees against one another. Bell Curve is possibly even more hurtful as only a fifth of employees are shown in positive light whereas others are disregarded. Fear based attendance policies must be consigned to the bin as a relic of past practices. Management by the numbers is simply number crunching and not a part of management. Progressive discipline is nothing but a method of punishments only sans rewards. The three sixty degree feedback sounds good on paper but in effect does not serve the purposes. Ultimately employees need to be dealt with in a way one would treat vendors.
Source:http://www.forbes.com/sites/lizryan/2016/03/16/ten-corporate-practices-that-kill-trust/#1998d0ce1e24
The five different types of Big Data
A highly respected publication has identified five different classifications of data. The best known one is Big Data which is an amalgamation of vast chunks of predictive analytics, data curation and visualization. The next set known as Fast Data helps marketers gauge people’s moods and delivers coupons from retailers depending on geographic tracking. In Japan for example, it is also being used for reducing accidents near rail tracks. Marketing research conducted by Gartner claims that four-fifths of all data is unstructured and not easily accessible thus known as Dark Data. Lost Data refers to information that is actually not lost but is not easily available due to operational considerations. The decision has to be taken with very limited data available in such cases. New Data meanwhile is something that is not yet within our grasp but research firms are developing towards. For example, in Israel a firm is trying to develop an algorithm to identify source of all water leaks.
Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelkanellos/2016/03/11/the-five-different-types-of-big-data/#513aa4ab1c5d
Creating a Corporate Culture for Design Thinking
In order to enable a culture that promotes design thinking certain steps have been recognized that corporates must undertake. The leadership of the organization must be geared towards ensuring that hurdles in creating business innovations are eliminated. Dedicated infrastructure is needed which will allow designers to play with their art forms in productive ways. Similarly a support system must exist to aid the core team of design thinkers. Importantly the design thinking that the company wants to inculcate must be in-line with the overall corporate strategy. These changes to the culture need to be introduced gradually. Aspects from the existing culture that aren’t in line with the new thinking, need to be scrapped. The design thinking must agree to how the market is projected to move. Source: http://www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/2015/08/24/creating-a-corporate-culture-for-design-thinking/
Who’s the boss of Workplace Culture? HR, Managers, and Employees disagree, says new Workforce Institute Study
As per business research conducted recently by the Workforce Institute, it has emerged that there is no clear winner in the stakes to identify who defines workplace culture. The HR, managers and employees all disagree on certain points. Employees feel that it is they who dictate the workplace culture. This trend is especially strong among millennials. HR and managers though feel otherwise. Worryingly, a significant chunk of respondents feel that culture is arbitrary and not defined by any one segment in particular. Employees cite pay, work-life balance and collaboration levels with colleagues as the most important considerations which matter at workplace. HR though cites employee benefits and leadership shown by management as top attributes required. High level of stress was found out to be generally something which killed workplace culture. Due to technology and job – shifting trends among newer recruits, pressure at work has taken on a different shape. Glassdoor which is an employer review forum has created pressures on the companies to develop a positive workplace culture.
Don’t blow up HR, appreciate and evolve It
It has become fashionable to criticize HR yet some management thinkers fee that instead of criticizing, it is time to evolve the art. Age old philosophies need to be replaced by cutting edge practices. HR is now tracking business analytics to serve organizational requirements better. Also HR has moved beyond the traditional role to incorporate strategic business goals as well. Ultimately, the organizational scorecard will reflect on the effectiveness of the HR as well. HR is also focusing a lot on talent management now with team work and individual competencies mapped. Corporate governance is another role that HR has taken up with diligence of late. Source: http://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/hro/features/1152773/dave-ulrich-dont-blow-up-hr-appreciate-and-evolve-it
How to create a Corporate Culture when your Teams are Remote
It is a major challenge for organizations and especially talent management teams to create a sense of professional work culture when a substantial proportion of employees are working remotely. This concept does not appeal to everyone but for many this flexibility allows them to work on creative assignments. For full time regular employees, the touch, feel and constant interaction of the workplace is important. They attend employee events and network with one another. Virtual employees though must not feel isolated as this concept is gaining credence across the business world.
Managing during Transformation
Talent management is a particularly precarious task during transition phase for organizations. A lot of managers in order to impose transformation, put in extra loopholes into processes. However the idea of change is now to increase complexities but rather to improve processes. Recruitment of new people and retention of valuable employees attains critical importance during such times. Succession planning also becomes important at such times. Not all employees will be able to survive this period of changes. New processes and technologies will limit some positions, eventually even rendering certain spots are irrelevant. Thus only those who will adapt to new streams of thoughts can succeed this transformation.
Source: http://www.talentmgt.com/articles/7441-managing-during-transformation
How Corporate Culture impacts the Employee Experience
Management thinkers are unsure of what exactly comprises good employment practices which will attract employees to want to work rather than just having to turn up to office. It is not about only about providing benefits but also involves employee engagement practices. The work culture must ideally involve a sense of creativity to develop business innovation. In fact whenever business leaders are asked about the reasons for employee satisfaction, more than pay or benefits it is the culture part that gets highlighted as being key.
Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacobmorgan/2015/12/10/how-corporate-culture-impacts-the-employee-experience/
Investments in HR Technology focused on improving User Experience and Business Alignment
The extensive usage of technology is no longer restricted to marketing or finance disciplines anymore. Hr functions are increasingly reliant on Cloud based technologies. Business intelligence deciphered by the Information Services Group (ISG) has found that nearly three-fourths of respondents have either already implemented or are in process of shifting their HR operations to appropriate SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) platforms. Beyond cost saving, these initiatives are enabling HR to become part of the over business strategy. Also as a trend larger firms with more than ten thousand employees have been found to involve business analytics almost twice in comparison to smaller firms. HR service delivery models are also as a result altering.
Source:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/investments-in-hr-technology-focused-on-improving-user-experience-and-business-alignment-isg-survey-finds-300192359.html
Why Culture eats Strategy for lunch at Chick-fil-A
An oft remarked cliché on how corporate strategy is trumped by organizational culture actually works at restaurant chain Chick-fil-A. The founder of this chain was devoutly religious and Christian values play an important role in the outlook. Also, the organization has this very transparent work culture where keeping employees satisfied is one of the primary tasks. Instead of recruiting employees, the philosophy is to let people choose Chick-fil-A as their place of work. New recruits are first of all given a tour of the work culture before any business goals or targets are explained. This leads to high commitment levels among employees.
Connecting the new distributed Workforce
Due to concepts such as space and time sharing businesses can now be active round the clock across the globe. A number of people are working remotely thousands of miles away from the actual arena of action. This is of particular importance to accounting as unlike several other routine operations, outsourcing of this work requires greater understanding of actual technicalities. It is nearly impossible for a person working remotely to gauge the exact procedures unless well versed with the subject matter. And so specific accounting tools and software suites need to be developed in order to aid the modern day CFO. Increasing amount of predictive analytics and Big Data are being used to come to conclusions. While a lot of this is making our work easier, we need to be extra careful with sensitive data.
Building a Design driven Culture
The basic human value of empathy has been sieved out of business operations over generations of such practices. However, beyond speaking to customers as simply business targets, a dash of human touch may instead land organizations with buyers for life. Some basic essentials have been identified of such design driven cultures. At the heart of it, one has to understand the customer and grasp his / her needs. Organization wide empathy is the next task. Design of work processes must be aligned with the overall corporate strategy but it has to be formulated with real time analysis. A braided design model starts with an overall frame, with a prototype to co- create in a team. Actions taken must be verifiable immediately. Some hindrances known as walls occur to such ideals. One of them is the customer journey and experience wall which tracks buyer personas and research insights. There is the technology wall which can be cracked using cutting edge data structures and architecture maps. Team planning may occasionally be a hindrance but with proper timelines and task planning can be addressed easily. Business operations can become a serious threat for which internal processes must be strong to avert.
Rethinking Culture and Strategy
Famous management thinker Peter Drucker had once remarked something to the effect that organizational culture was more important than corporate strategy. His quote gets cited frequently, unfortunately very often by those who do not really comprehend the matter. While fun, flexible or inclusive work cultures are desirable, ultimately no businesses can exist unless there is a certain product or service the company provides that is needed in the market. Employees too gain a sense of perspective as well as pride when they see their organizations performing well. Also it is ultimately business strategies that are formulated first before the company culture is etched out around the product. So while company culture is a crucial cog, it must not be used to undermine the business strategy.
Business consulting giant Accenture has concluded a study on how to remodel managers’ toolkit in order to suit today’s digital needs. Teams must these days be led horizontally rather than on a traditional top-down vertical model. Instead of getting work done using formal authority, modern managers ensure collaboration across the organization. This is also closely related to the concept of agile organizations where employees work according to existing needs and demands rather than a water-tight departmentalization. In present times, it is also imperative that organizations tap into crowd-sourcing methods. Due to digitization, everyone has an opinion and it is important to understand market needs. Social media is a very effective tool to extract crowd-sourced data.
Building integrity into Corporate Culture requires Dedication
Developing an upright corporate culture in any organization requires painstaking effort. Victorian Finance and Industrial Scientific are two such organizations which have succeeded in this quest. Finger pointing when employees make mistakes is a complete no at such places. The corporate strategy is outlined to employees on day 1 itself and integrity is built into it. It is pronounced in bold letters to seek as well as speak the truth. Employees must not hesitate before speaking out what they feel is right. Executing such practices at work places with more than a hundred employees requires genuine dedication.
Take a Feminine approach to Corporate Culture or Die
Even though we are well into 2016, many organizations still have very archaic work patterns. They still focus on sales and meeting deadlines forgetting to instead rectify the corporate culture. It has indeed been suggested from certain quarters that a more progressive, rather feminine culture would suit organizations better in the coming years. A prominent idea to have emerged is to allow more flexible work hours rather than the grueling fixed schedule based around putting in long hours. Corporate training programmes must also focus on aspects of overall well being such as nutrition and fitness in addition to business aspects such as networking and negotiating. Also beyond work, companies must strive to provide employees with support groups based around mutual interests where one can socialize beyond work hours.
Corporate Culture, the secret ‘sauce’ of Success
It is quite easy for organizations to measure metrics such as productivity, income, expenditure or staff turnover. However, it is not possible for organizations to conduct business analysis on something such as corporate culture. That is the hidden, uncontrollable factor that is often understood to be the dividing point between success or failure of a firm. Organizational culture is the product of small habits, actions and choices afflicting the entire firm from top to bottom. Companies are often guilty of falling under the Pygmalion Effect where someone is accorded higher expectations, leading to a belief in that person actually doing well. Long work weeks often sap the creativity and analytical skills away from people who need it most in today’s work environment. Thus it is imperative that firms do something to repair corporate culture.
More CMOs are having to step up to improve Corporate Culture
CMOs across organizations have realized that companies’ perceived image impacts buying behaviours. A top management focused business research conducted by Egon Zehnder proves that 60% of respondents feel that their corporate culture uplifts the brand. On the corollary, a fifth of them felt that it ended up undermining the brand. This is particularly an important topic to consider during mergers and acquisitions. Recently SunGard got acquired by FIS and this raises the question of how to integrate within the work culture, a whopping thirteen thousand employees. Also the marketplace is indeed extremely transparent today and thus it is imperative that the right brand image is communicated to the world.
Five signs you’re in denial about your broken Corporate Culture
Management consulting publication Forbes has identified five signs that clearly exhibit a broken corporate culture and the fact that the organization is not acknowledging the same. The first such sign is that a lot of data is gathered yet hardly any meaningful business analytics is conducted using the same. The HR team often bears the brunt in such organizations as instead of evaluating mistakes to rectify them, a blame game culture pervades. Cultural problems in work exist, but efforts are put to brush the same away rather than finding a solution. For each of the failures, the senior management tends to blame the team members. Also, short term solutions are devised which do not really address the issues head on.
Culture: Borrowing from the Best
Each year some organization breaks new ground on HR policies and perfect implementation. This year it is the turn of Netflix. They have embarked upon an extremely liberal employee leave policy as well as a twelve month parental leave. As part of organizations’ talent management efforts however, the basics must never be ignored. Grocery or petrol discounts, movie tickets and health insurance retain their paramount importance. Employees’ expectations must be made clear, well aligned with the overall corporate strategy. They must be accorded engaging profiles alluding to respective positions. Mobile phones and tablets can come in very handy for such engagement exercises.
Firms grapple with Workplace Culture
Most recruiters today claim that aspirants’ culture is as important as the skills the person possesses. However, as per market research conducted by the Human Capital Media Advisory Group across 134 organizations, less than half of practitioners could guarantee that their firms hired keeping in mind cultural fit. Also the corporate strategy must be communicable to all including new recruits so that they may inculcate the mission and vision statements. In order to enhance team building, firms use variety of techniques such as file sharing, instant messaging or group calendars. Social networking, company blogs and video sharing are fast emerging as tools to build workplace culture.
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