Culture is one of the three pillars of success that Levyl focuses on as a critical piece of the recruitment puzzle. Highly engaged employees are cultivated by leaders and organisations that are proactive in demonstrating healthy and inclusive cultures. When we identify a strong company culture, what we see is an ecosystem of shared values, behaviours, goals and expectations that help align the why (the purpose) with the how (the method).
There are huge social, economic, health and wellbeing benefits on both sides of the employer / employee relationship gained by landing at a place of cultural unity. Both sides of this partnership must feel connected and committed in order to propel individual and company performance forward.
If you’re concerned your current cultural environment is not thriving in unison; where do you start to drive change? In the lead up to what may require a broader change management strategy, we suggest you focus on three key things.
Accountable Leadership
Make sure you have the right leaders in place. Communicate your vision and ask for their support. Invest in your good leaders and focus on succession planning throughout the broader business to nurture more of the same. Put the work in to identify any potential ‘toxic’ leaders and ensure you address their behaviours through the right channels. Retaining the wrong people at a leadership level has a corrosive impact on culture. Your leadership team should be able to lead your organisational strategy, focus on key people, resolve conflict and handle criticism. Ensuring you have a strong leadership team that are all engaged, producing and working in line with the projected cultural ideal is absolutely key.
Effective Talent Management
Focus on instilling the desired behaviours, expectations and values throughout the whole life cycle of recruitment and retention. Emphasise the role each employee has to play in achieving the company vision throughout the recruitment and onboarding process. Once new team members are in place, ensure their performance is assessed in a professional and open way. Set clear standards, have performance metrics and be vulnerable as leaders to be assessed in return (360degree). Reward and recognition play a strong role here too; ensuring that engagement, consistency and alignment is recognised. Also focus on your ‘high potential’ workforce. Don’t overlook those who may become the biggest change advocates. Instead, ensure your pipeline of culture champions stem from all the likely and perhaps less likely, places.
Supportive Infrastructure
Ensuring your tech stack, company policies and compliance procedures allow for seamless decision making and reinforcement is key. Your aspired culture must be reflected in the text of every policy and the functionality of every process. Your infrastructure must project a consistent experience and encourage the behaviours and attitudes desired. The same goes for your workplace facilities, environment or accommodations provided for flexible work or inclusivity. Every touchpoint across an employees’ journey should reinforce the cultural momentum you are trying to create and allow for a ‘speak-up’ culture so that you have the opportunity to focus on continuous improvement and change.
