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How HR Can Drive Organizational Culture

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StrategyDriven Corporate Cultures Article | How HR Can Drive Organizational Culture

Organizational culture is the heartbeat of any company. It’s the balanced mix of values, beliefs, and behaviors that shape how employees interact, make decisions, and ultimately, achieve goals. But how can human resources (HR) play a pivotal role in shaping and nurturing this vital aspect of a company?

Let’s explore how HR can be a key driver of a positive and productive organizational culture.

Understanding Organizational Culture

Organizational culture refers to the shared values, beliefs, and behaviors that guide how employees within a company work together. It influences everything from decision-making to how employees communicate with each other. A positive organizational culture fosters collaboration, job satisfaction, and loyalty, while a negative culture can lead to disengagement and high turnover.

Culture is often described as the “personality” of a company, and HR plays a critical role in shaping that personality. HR is involved in creating policies and initiatives that align with the company’s values and vision, ensuring that employees understand and embrace those principles. For example, if an organization values innovation, HR might create programs that encourage creativity and reward new ideas. By actively participating in the development and promotion of a positive culture, HR helps create an environment where employees feel valued and motivated.

The Role of HR in Building Culture

HR is at the heart of creating and sustaining a positive organizational culture. From recruitment to performance management, HR is responsible for crafting the experiences that contribute to a healthy workplace. One of the ways it accomplishes this is by using various tools for human resources that support various aspects of employee engagement, communication, and development. These tools can include platforms for employee surveys, performance tracking systems, and communication tools that keep teams connected and informed.

By using these tools, HR can gather data on employee satisfaction, identify areas of concern, and implement solutions that help maintain a strong organizational culture. For example, HR can track engagement metrics and adjust strategies based on employee feedback, creating a culture that adapts to the needs of its workforce. These efforts help to create a workplace where employees feel supported and aligned with the company’s values.

Recruiting for Cultural Fit

One of the most effective ways HR can drive organizational culture is through the recruitment process. Hiring individuals who not only have the right skills but also align with the company’s values and culture is critical to building a cohesive team. When recruiting, HR should assess a candidate’s ability to thrive within the existing work environment, rather than focusing solely on technical qualifications.

During interviews, HR can ask questions that reveal a candidate’s work ethic, communication style, and values. For example, questions about how candidates handle collaboration or deal with challenges can provide insight into how well they’ll fit into the company’s culture. Selecting candidates who share the company’s core values helps create a team that is more likely to contribute positively to the overall work environment.

Onboarding and Orientation

How new employees are welcomed and integrated into the organization significantly impacts their overall experience and long-term engagement. HR has the responsibility to create onboarding programs that not only cover the basics of job roles and responsibilities but also introduce new hires to the company’s mission, values, and expectations.

A comprehensive onboarding program that focuses on culture helps new employees feel connected to the organization from the beginning. This can include orientations that introduce them to key team members, explain the company’s approach to collaboration, and provide insight into the company’s goals. By embedding cultural values into the onboarding process, HR helps new hires understand their role in maintaining and contributing to the workplace environment.

Employee Engagement and Retention

When employees feel connected to the company’s values and see how their work contributes to its success, they are more likely to stay committed to the organization. HR plays a significant role in driving engagement by creating opportunities for employees to voice their opinions, share feedback, and contribute to the company’s growth.

Regular employee surveys, feedback sessions, and open communication channels are just some of the ways HR can measure engagement and identify areas for improvement. By actively listening to employees and addressing their concerns, HR helps foster a culture of openness and transparency. This, in turn, reduces turnover and helps retain top talent.

Performance Management

HR plays a central role in performance management, which directly impacts organizational culture. By setting clear expectations and providing regular feedback, HR helps employees understand how their work contributes to the company’s goals. A performance management system that aligns with the company’s values encourages employees to work in ways that support the overall mission.

HR can create performance reviews that recognize not only an employee’s accomplishments but also their contributions to the company’s culture. For example, rewarding teamwork, creativity, or leadership in line with the company’s values reinforces the importance of those behaviors. This approach helps build a culture where employees feel valued for both their work and how they contribute to the workplace environment.

Conflict Resolution

Conflict in the workplace is inevitable, but how it’s managed can greatly influence the overall culture. HR has a vital role in resolving conflicts fairly and efficiently, preventing disputes from negatively affecting the work environment. By providing clear guidelines for conflict resolution and training employees in effective communication, HR helps maintain a respectful and collaborative workplace.

Addressing conflicts as soon as they arise, and handling them in a way that respects all parties involved, fosters a culture of trust and mutual respect. HR’s role in conflict resolution ensures that issues are handled professionally, keeping the workplace positive and focused on collaboration rather than discord.

Diversity and Inclusion

A strong organizational culture values diversity and inclusion. HR is responsible for driving diversity initiatives that create a more inclusive workplace. This can include implementing hiring practices that seek diverse candidates, offering training on unconscious bias, and fostering an environment where all employees feel valued, regardless of their background.

Promoting diversity not only improves the workplace environment but also contributes to better decision-making and problem-solving by incorporating a variety of perspectives. HR’s commitment to creating a diverse and inclusive culture helps ensure that all employees feel like they belong, which boosts morale and retention.

Recognizing and Rewarding Contributions

Recognition is a key part of fostering a positive culture. HR can develop programs that reward employees for their contributions to both the company’s success and its cultural goals. Whether through formal recognition programs or informal acknowledgments, showing appreciation for employees’ efforts helps build a culture of positivity and motivation.

Recognition doesn’t always have to be monetary. Simple acts like verbal praise during meetings or written acknowledgments in company-wide emails can make employees feel appreciated and valued. By promoting a culture of recognition, HR helps boost employee morale and engagement.

In a nutshell, HR professionals are the architects of organizational culture. Their ability to create a positive and inclusive environment can significantly impact employee satisfaction, productivity, and overall business success. By understanding the importance of culture and implementing effective strategies, HR can create a workplace where employees feel valued, motivated, and empowered to contribute their best.

Is Your Company Doing These 5 Things to Promote a Safety-First Culture in Logistics?

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StrategyDriven Corporate Cultures Article | Is Your Company Doing These 5 Things to Promote a Safety-First Culture in Logistics?There is often a conflict in logistics management between ensuring the highest level of safety and meeting strict delivery deadlines. However, security shouldn’t be compromised because of time constraints. Both an environment of safety and prosperity are achievable.

It can be argued that safety considerations are given greater weight in the logistics sector than in other fields. After all, if safety isn’t prioritized, truckers, delivery personnel, and train or bus drivers endanger the public. The good news is that by following the five guidelines below, your company can promote a safer environment for its employees and the public.

Efficient Communication

Maintaining a culture where safety is prioritized and accidents are avoided requires open lines of communication among all employees. Three-way communication is essential, including both vertical and horizontal directions. To put safety devices like a tachograph into every step of a process, you have to be willing to talk about things openly and honestly.

Constant Learning

It’s essential to put in the time and effort to train well before setting out. Ongoing learning is essential for the development of a safety-first mentality. Things change, and so do people’s memories. It’s wonderful how quickly we make errors if we don’t use them or review them often. Consolidating learning and reducing the impacts of the memory curve can be done with brief, easy-to-understand safety courses that just take a few minutes.

Constructive Feedback

When everyone in your company is concerned about safety, you have a “safety-first” culture. Collisions, near-misses, and suggestions for improvement are all reported. When looking for new or straightforward methods to reduce vulnerability, your drivers, warehouse employees, and packers may provide some of the best ideas. To support the idea that events, near-misses, and suggestions for improving safety are talked about at work, the way to report them must be clear.


Hire Managers

Hire a manager to work late hours after tracking commercial truck fatality rates. When the night shift begins at 11 pm and ends at 5 am, these managers check in with all drivers to ensure they are well rested and aware. By giving them the authority to take charge and prioritize safety even when they are tired or in other potentially dangerous situations, you reduce the chance that any of your employees will be involved in an accident, from warehouse employees to HGV drivers. You can also track them by using a fleet management system from a trusted source like Webfleet.

Quality Assessments

Would it be possible to quickly and accurately evaluate the skills of every employee, and support that assessment with information that is both current and conveniently accessible? It is necessary to provide appropriate HSC training for employees to adhere to both federal and local laws and business policies. However, official certification as evidence of conformity is often only necessary once or rarely. If you want to create a more secure culture, you shouldn’t look to the past for clues about the present.

To Sum Up

When you make a commitment to safety an integral part of your business’ culture, it stops being something you have to think about and starts becoming automatic. The success of the whole company, which depends on the success of each worker, can’t be made to last without first creating a safety culture.

5 Ways to Promote Workplace Diversity

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StrategyDriven Diversity and Inclusion Article | 5 Ways to Promote Workplace Diversity

A diverse workplace is inclusive and ensures equal opportunities and rights for all staff members, regardless of their color, age, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, physical ability, religious beliefs, and more. It should be free of harassment and discrimination. A diverse, multicultural workplace permits new processes and ideas. This talent diversity means broader skills range among workers and perspective and experience diversity, which boosts the potential for high productivity.

A company with a diverse work environment is deemed a better employer, and prospective employees want employers who treat their staff members fairly while accepting and being tolerant of different backgrounds. Here are five ways to promote workplace diversity.

Invest in diversity training

Diversity training programs increase participants’ awareness regarding various diversities, appreciate the differences among colleagues, and offer strategies and knowledge to improve employees’ communication and interpersonal skills to create a positive work environment. Diversity training helps organizations prevent civil rights violations, promote better teamwork and develop a more inclusive workplace while increasing the inclusion of various diversity groups.

Investing in diversity training for your staff enables you to attract talent while maximizing company profits, adhere to the organization’s legal and moral standards, and disseminate information concerning organizational policies and diversity-related concerns. You can hire a certified professional diversity coach or let your managers get diversity coaching certification and then train the employees.

Establish diversity mentoring programs

Minorities in a workplace usually experience many challenges, including development and growth. With a diversity mentoring program, you can help overcome these difficulties. A diversity mentorship program provides encouragement, support, and a listening ear to employee concerns while creating a connection with other team members.

When mentees learn new skills via their mentor’s expertise and knowledge, it becomes easier for them to thrive. Diversity mentorship programs give employees a sense of inclusion and belonging, expand a company’s talent pool, promote innovation and teamwork, and increase productivity.


Develop more inclusive workplace practices and policies

As you embrace workplace diversity, consider conducting a comprehensive workplace evaluation and current practices to determine how inclusive your company is. Start by amending the existing policies and practices, including performance and recruitment assessments and promotions, to facilitate diversity. You may also extend an alternative for flexible work hours, allow your workers to take off days for religious holidays your company doesn’t officially observe, and more.

Create cultural awareness opportunities

Companies with more than offices in another country, state, or within the same region should let their employees learn about various cultures by sending them to different locations for long or short assignments. This allows them to know their co-workers better and the environment they work and live in.

Alternatively, you can organize volunteer opportunities for your workers to interact with people from different backgrounds, including visiting the disadvantaged, assisting at an immigration center, and more. This can give them a different perspective on issues while broadening their horizons for interacting and working with people from diverse backgrounds. It’s also a great chance for team bonding.

Hold cultural activities and events

Organizing workplace diversity activities is a fun way to embrace inclusivity. Consider celebrating specific diversity days by recognizing them in your organization by publishing details about them, why they matter, and how you’ll observe them. Your organization may also sponsor diverse events in the community, like fairs, parades, concerts, and more.

Endnote

A diverse work environment benefits from various perspectives, more innovations, high employee engagement, better decision-making, and more. Use these tips to make your workplace more inclusive.

Successful Company Culture at Work: What It Really Takes

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StrategyDriven Corporate Cultures Article |Company Culture|Successful Company Culture at Work: What It Really TakesThe world of work has changed dramatically in the last eighteen months, and as we head into a new year, there will be many companies who are looking to bring their employees back to the office or at least look for ways to improve their working culture.

Building a good company culture is not as easy as ordering a bunch of dim sum and drinking green tea, so companies must ensure that they take steps to understand what type of culture they want to foster, and then make sure that they build a company culture that is suitable for the company.

Build Motivation

While many people think that money will motivate you to work harder, it is not just about cash; it is also about your career, fulfillment, and purpose.

When asking the question ‘What really motivates people?’ you would think that putting money first was the answer given by most people.

However, most business researchers will say that money is not the most important motivator, the top three motivators are usually

  1. Achievement and recognition – A large percentage of people say that they would work harder if they got recognition through a raise or bonus.
  2. Liking your job – making the job worthwhile or enjoyable to be in is almost as important as money.
  3. Recognition – from bosses, colleagues, or teammates for good performance and effort done in the job.

Why Is Company Culture Important?

So what is company culture? A culture is a set of values, norms, and behaviors that are widely shared and accepted by the people within the organization.

The old adage “culture eats strategy for breakfast” is never truer than when you look at some of today’s best-known companies.

They have been able to create dominant company cultures that are so strong that they can eat up many other aspects of an organization where there may be strategies or ideas that could be great on paper but end up being poor practice in execution.

However, when you have a great company culture, it is much easier to attract top talent and get people to stay with your company. Talented employees are attracted by a sense of purpose, feeling valued, and getting the support they need to do their job well.

With a great culture, employees are more likely to be engaged in their work, they will recommend your products or services to others, and they may even do some word-of-mouth marketing for free on social media which can be great for your business.

The Three Main Parts Of Company Culture At Work

A company’s culture can be broken down into three main groups: Customer Culture, Organizational Culture, and Corporate Culture.

Customer Culture

Great customer culture is important for any business that wants to ensure that it has happy customers and can give them excellent service. Customer culture is something that a company should concentrate on from day one.

If a company first concentrates on deeper relationships with its current customers, then it is much easier to attract new ones.

A bad customer experience tells the world not just about your products, service or brand, but also about the type of company you are as a whole if customers are not given the support they need.

A few ways that companies can improve customer culture include:

  1. Customer service training: Get everyone in the organization to take part in the same training so that they know how to have good customer service.
  2. Empowered employees: Ensure employees are empowered and are able to help customers when they need it, even if this means going beyond their job description.
  3. A strong brand image: Make sure that frontline staff are empowered and know how they should deliver excellent customer service within your culture and brand image. This is something that needs to be emphasized at every level within the company and to be regularly reinforced through all media communication channels.
  4. Findability: Make it easy for customers to find your business and use your website. For this, it’s best to find an affordable SEO services to handle your search engine optimization, and keep your website on top for search rankings so customers can find you easily.

Organizational Culture

This is the part of a company culture that is aimed at the employees. Organizational cultures are based on key elements which can be generally separated into behavioral and cognitive factors

For instance, behavioral factors are things like rewards and achievements which help to motivate and give employees a sense of belonging within the organization. They can include:

  1. Rewards – both internal and external rewards are important, along with bonuses, cash prizes, and gifts for achievers, but also training opportunities and promotions can be valued as an achievement.
  2. Recognition – ensuring that everyone is valued and gets recognized for their contribution to the company is vital to having a great organizational culture.
  3. Support – everyone needs a bit of emotional support and encouragement when they are working, so having a good support network within the company is vital to ensuring that employees want to work harder.

Corporate Culture

Corporate culture refers to the company as a whole, not to individual employees. Corporate culture can be about core values, beliefs, and attitudes which are shared by all the employees in an organization. It may be about how managers work with staff or other external parties, or it may also cover things like relationships with clients and suppliers.

A good corporate culture can help you sell your products more easily because it is based on the company’s values, beliefs, and attitudes.

Should You Focus on Positivity or Creativity?

This is an interesting question, and it is something that companies and managers will have to debate long into the future.

There is no doubt about it, increased employee happiness has a positive effect on economic returns. So has creativity been given short shrift? Or should managers focus only on creativity when it comes to motivating employees? Is positivity more important or should we just stick to business as usual?

We have all seen many examples where people have demonstrated creativity at work by coming up with new ideas, new products, or new services. They know how good their products are, they are confident that they can sell them, and they can get the funding they require to start their business. However, in today’s competitive world, it is not enough for your ideas or products to be great, they also have to be profitable or you will not make any money.

Creativity can be a barometer of employee engagement, but it is not the only thing that matters. It’s easy to come up with ideas and pitch them internally, but in order for your good idea to turn into a profitable product, you need to work hard at turning it into a reality that your customers can enjoy and use every day.

This will require a lot of hard work on every level of your business from the CEO down to the junior members of staff.

Leading From The Top Down

For many companies, their brand image and culture are based around the top management. It is often those at the top who are most effective at communicating to staff how company values and policies should be acted on by everyone.

The top managers must be seen to be leading from the front so that employees are inspired to do a good job, as well as being rewarded accordingly. This will make them better at their jobs and more satisfied which will, in turn, lead to a positive corporate culture that attracts talent into your business.

When it comes down to it, the best way for a business leader to motivate people through their values is by communicating them clearly with all members of staff. For this, it must be communicated through a good culture (as mentioned above) as well as through training courses and performance evaluations.

Statistics indicate that recognition and rewards based on performance can have a positive impact on employees which will help to improve their work.

This may seem like a cliché, but your employees need to know that they are valued and have an important part to play in the company.

They will not just perform better, but they will feel good about coming to work every day because they know they are making a difference. You can build your business around them so that you get what you need from your team without much effort.

Interpersonal Aspects of Leadership

Interpersonal leadership refers to the relationship between leaders and their employees.

Relationships between leaders and the people that work for them are very important as they impact how good an employee is at their job, how much they are motivated, and how effective they are at doing their work.

A good leader understands the needs of their people and knows how to involve them in decisions that will help the business to be more productive.

Interpersonal leadership is essential to a company’s success, but it is not something that should be taken lightly. You need to see your employees as partners, as co-workers, as people who are performing a job that you need them to do.

What Your Office Says About Your Company (And Why You Should Care)

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If there is one thing we have learned through the economic twists and turns of the past decade, it is that people make our companies run. Even at the depths of the economic downturn with the high unemployment rate of 9.9 percent, there were 3.8 million jobs in the US that went unfilled for more than six months and that problem only gets worse as unemployment drops. Consequently, attracting and retaining high quality employees is ‘job one’ in 2014. Is it any wonder that CEO’s and their HR departments, are scanning the horizon for any new idea to help fill those positions? Enter stage left, the open office concept.

The open office concept has its detractors and there is actually much to be said for the traditional office with its spaces for privacy, learning, and focused work, but an open office strategy, when thoughtfully deployed can create environments that support employee attraction and retention.

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About the Author

Kristine WoolseyKristine Woolsey is a business strategist, speaker, and author. She is a transition specialist, helping organizations reshape themselves during times of change including mergers, extreme growth, and adaption to today’s changing workplace. She works at the intersection of organizational behavior, brand alignment, and facilities. She guides leaders to understand the power of leveraging natural behavior patterns using research based strategies with measurable results.

Kristine was trained as an architect and then moved into the business arena. Now, she teaches and speaks about the future of work and behavioral strategy to groups and conferences nationally. Kristine consults for medium to large companies, helping business leaders use behavioral strategies to adjust their value proposition, identity/brand, organization structure, and facilities to create the most direct path through any organizational transformation. For more information visit: www.kristinewoolsey.com.