Company culture defines an organisation much in the same way that an individual’s values, attitudes and behaviours determine who they are.
As such, clients, investors and other key stakeholders, like potential recruits, inevitably judge a business based on this one invaluable asset, using their assessment to determine whether or not they still wish to interact.
The same goes for existing employees, too, with culture affecting everything from retention to recruitment, given the direct pull it has over satisfaction, engagement and performance. In its 2021 report, Every Company Has Human Capital – Not Every Company Develops It, workplace consultancy Gallup found that 84% of the value of an S&P 500 company comes directly from the skills, knowledge, work ethic and health of its employees. This highlights the need to start taking culture more seriously, nurturing it in the same way we would any other business parameters. Gallup's team also found that revenue can increase by as much as 33% when culture is stronger, which just goes to show that it is possible to correlate profits and people.
A misguided approach
The issue is that, while most business leaders now acknowledge the benefits of a strong company culture, many still fail to prioritise tangible investment towards it, often overestimating the happiness of their employees and struggling to pinpoint what might be going wrong.
Read more: Putting people on the analytics map
As such, they flounder on, tending to rely on snippets of conversation, overheard feelings and small anecdotes to make decisions, leading to misguided efforts that backfire or flop, limiting their ability to improve and keep people happy. Perhaps, for example, they decide to offer free drinks in the office as a solution to stress, when what people really need is improved access to mental health services.
In order to make a real difference, then, they must move away from ambiguous terms like 'work/life balance', which mean very little unless backed up by clear policy and tangible action, instead moving towards data-driven actions and measurable KPIs.
Read more: How can HR become more data-driven?
For instance, rather than promising people a more balanced working life, tell them that this means never working past 5pm, and what kind of flexible working arrangements are available. Then, track the uptake of flexitime use to get a real gauge on if people feel overworked, rather than simply promising something without the action to back this up, or the ability to track it. Only then can you determine which way to move forward.
A clearer cultural picture
The first step in embracing a more data-driven approach to culture has to be establishing a clearer picture of your company’s current cultural status. It’s important to gain a solid understanding of how you are performing now, across several key cultural areas, so as to identify what’s working well and what could benefit from improvement.
Once this has been established, you can then translate your aspirations into actionable strategies that will produce reportable results that can be shared with people. It’s a win-win situation, allowing you stay on track with implementations as you gain something definite to report to key stakeholders to secure future investment, be it financial backing or employee commitment and effort.
Bridge the gap
In order to do this successfully, you must also establish a clear understanding of what you want your culture to be, and how this compares to where you currently are. This means setting clear, measurable goals to benchmark against, allowing you to bridge the gap.
For instance, if you’re looking to foster a more accountable culture, you’ll need to research the measures that would encourage accountability within the workforce, tracking usage of any services as well as monitoring the results, to assess the success. If people aren’t practising more accountable behaviours as much as intended, find out why and make any necessary changes to ensure that the desired behaviours are prioritised. This more rigorous approach will deliver change much faster than abstract, unmonitored initiatives alone, bridging the gap between current and desired culture.
Develop a cultural strategy
Ultimately, achieving your desired company culture is a question of strategy. When you prioritise the alignment of certain behaviours, these will, in turn, improve employee productivity and boost employee engagement and wellbeing as an outcome.
Read more: Four ways to get people to care about HR data
Armed with objective data, you’ll be well on your way to understanding who you are as a business and who you want and need to be. The same data will illuminate the path you need to take to achieve this, allowing you to make any necessary adjustments along the way. In other words, real, people-driven change starts with numbers and graphs, as robotic and inhuman as they might initially appear to be.
By Charlie Coode, founder of Culture15
