Walking the Talk of a Winning Culture Begins with Leadership and Ends with Execution

As companies navigate through the pandemic and seek to distinguish themselves in a competitive employee landscape, one of the most important HR topics is how to develop and maintain a strong company culture. Culture reinforcement, reflective of mission, values, beliefs and customs, includes everything from purpose and  perks, to health and wellness and even, social positioning and commitment. 

Creating and maintaining a strong culture, has become even more challenging with the realities of remote working circumstances caused by COVID-19. To attract new talent and engage existing employees, companies have been spending more time and effort developing strong employee-focused cultures. How should organizations think about creating their own unique culture, and then find ways to maintain its vibrancy? Since it’s important for every company to define its unique values and beliefs as well as its strategic priorities, how can companies align their culture to reflect these unique characteristics? 

The process of creating and maintaining a positive workplace culture starts at the top. Leadership is able to drive change more quickly and more effectively than others in the organization. Given their reach and influence, leaders are also better able to broadly promote new ideas and to define culture than are mid-level managers and non-managers. Therefore, when building a company culture, senior leadership needs to be visible and accessible in providing strong and consistent support for the culture they wish to promote and which makes sense for their organization. Currently, this type of top-level support is notoriously missing from the workplace. According to Achievers, only 9% of employees said their company’s leadership is very committed to improving company culture and employee experience. Given the remote nature of today’s workplace, leadership from the top, while it may look a bit different over Zoom, is more important than ever.

While senior leaders need to be vocal about the culture they wish to create (or maintain), it is imperative that they follow through on their words and promises. Simply voicing support for these issues is not enough. Senior leaders need to act by example on cultural issues that are important to the company. Without transparent and meaningful support from senior leadership, employees won’t feel as empowered to engage with the culture and to begin to fully embrace it and to evangelize it.  According to the 2020 LinkedIn Global Talent Report, 43% of employees said that while their leadership talked about improving the employee experience, they don’t actually prioritize it enough in practice (LinkedIn). Similarly, Achievers found that while 38% of employees have heard senior leadership talk about culture, they cited a lack of action to back it up. 

We’ve seen a recent example of this type of action with the renewed global focus on DEI initiatives. Following the public demonstrations for social justice and racial equality this summer, many of the world’s foremost leaders have not only spoken up about their desire to improve their company’s efforts in this area, they have actually published clear commitments to making real change. For even greater support, look no further than the recently proposed NASDAQ requirement for board diversity of all listed companies (Wall St Journal). However, whether there is a large scale issue like diversity or a  smaller, more focused initiative such as continued learning and development, or whether a company of 5,000 or 50 is involved, high level attention to culture-related issues is critical. A great company culture stems from having senior leaders who walk the talk of culture and purpose. 

While it may be challenging for senior leaders to carry out these efforts due to time constraints, leaders can follow through - with actions and behavior -  on what they say to employees, customers and the public.  One way to ensure the wide adoption of cultural beliefs and values, is to create a team that is accountable for these initiatives. This team can help to encourage employees to shape and live the company’s culture and to understand how the culture may be evolving. If empowered effectively, this group will ultimately have responsibility for holding the company accountable for achieving the desired culture, and for continuously adapting the culture based on feedback at the individual and team level. This team should be adept at building strong relationships and should have the freedom to think creatively about new ideas and proposed solutions, with a clear understanding that senior leadership supports their efforts and broader mission. 

Once assembled, this Culture Team will need to identify which aspects of company culture upon which to focus. In our recent interview with Michael Brown of Cogo Labs (Link to be added), he stressed the importance of using a combination of a company's mission and goals, together with key insights about employees needs and desires, to determine where and how to develop and refine elements of company culture. Data collection efforts like pulse surveys and focus groups can help to drive specific areas of improvement, such as the need to set up a new Slack thread for IT and technical problems during COVID-19. Alternatively, a company could respond to broader DEI conversations by publicly committing to clear and concrete diversity hiring goals, or by committing to  enhance mental health awareness by offering employees a subscription to meditation and wellness applications. 

Current and prospective employees are looking for the company they join, or stay with, to reflect a strong culture that aligns with their own values and believes.  In fact, according to BuiltIn, employees who don’t value or align with their organization’s culture are 24% more likely to quit. And while culture begins with strong leadership support, it lives through dedicated and focused action on the part of a small team.

Have any other thoughts about building a strong and vibrant culture? We’d love to hear from you! Reach out to abenson@bensonsearch.com if you want to continue the conversation further!