Corporate Culture

Each person is unique. They have their own background and personality. It defines who they are and how they operate. When bringing people together for extended periods, cultures start to shape. There's an emphasis on where backgrounds and traits overlap. Shared core values, perceptions, goals, and authority structures create new social constructs that define "how we do things around here". They connect people and are fundamental to how they cooperate. The strongest cultures have the most engaged members who effectively work together toward their shared goals.

Corporate culture is the beating heart of an organization. The secret sauce to success. It's the collective identity of a company molded by shared norms, values, attitudes, and practices. At its core, corporate culture is about how things get done. Building culture in an organization is an extensive process to which all employees contribute. It can be broken down into multiple dimensions, including leadership practices, equity and respect, career fulfillment, communication, and work-life balance. Efforts in each of these dimensions have an impact on the employees, customers, and community. Concrete displays of corporate culture are the missions and values of the organization, how successes are recognized and celebrated, and a company's approach to performance. Culture is not set in stone. As work dynamics change, so does organizational culture. A strong corporate culture consistently provides employees with a sense of belonging, recognition, a safe work environment, balance, and, most importantly, inspiration. 

Organizations face many workforce challenges, including recruiting, engaging, and retaining talent. Culture plays a key role in addressing these challenges and is, therefore, of high importance to business leadership. Leaders who are effective at implementing and sustaining a strong corporate culture see their organizations benefit from increased employee productivity, participation, attendance, and well-being. The positive impact of a resilient culture on the workforce further translates to better business outcomes. Organizations with a distinctively good culture are better at attracting and retaining talent, have lower recruitment and absenteeism-related costs, are more innovative, deliver higher-quality customer service, are better equipped to adapt to changing market conditions, set themselves apart from the competition, and report bigger profits. Especially now, in a time of accelerated technological change and more automation, culture is the bedrock of an organization. It's how employees stay connected and motivated.

An unhealthy corporate culture gives employees more than one reason to leave an organization. According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM, 2024), four out of five reasons for employees planning to change employers are related to culture. 36% of employees say it's because of insufficient career perspective, 29% say it's due to poor management, 29% say it's related to them not getting enough opportunities to develop, and 28% say it's because of being treated unfairly (SHRM, 2024). Those are dangerous statistics from talent already planning to leave. At the same time, only 20% of employees feel connected to their organization's culture (Gallup, 2023). Research by Korn Ferry (2023) concludes that the global talent gap could grow to 85 million jobs by 2030.  With this information, there's no doubt that leaders have to stop giving employees reasons to leave and invest more in building and nurturing a strong culture. The difference between a poor and a strong culture is as big as the difference between night and day. When employees feel connected and engaged at work they and their organizations thrive. Data by EY shows that organizations with a people-first mindset are 140% more optimistic in their ability to attract talent, 204% more likely to agree that their productivity has recently improved, 131% more likely to agree they did well under recent external pressures, and 187% more likely to agree flexible work has been operationalized successfully. On top of that, employees working in organizations with a robust culture are 790% more likely to feel satisfied at work and 83% less likely to be actively looking for a new job. 

Developing a booming corporate culture is done in four phases: define, align, adopt, and sustain. Although it's good to start early, there are plenty of reasons why leaders have difficulties defining a culture when they're just getting started. There's nothing to go on and there are many competing priorities. Defining company culture, therefore, doesn't have to be done at the very start. Throughout the organization's existence, there are various moments at which it's recommended to evaluate and (re)define culture. It's up to leaders to identify, systematize, and scale the best of their organizations in the different stages of their maturity. Once that's done, leaders have to rally their employees behind the (re)defined culture. They have to make sure that the workforce feels connected to the culture and recognizes itself in the company's purpose, vision, and strategies. This leads to employees embracing the corporate culture and opening the door to adoption. That means they'll start adjusting their behaviors to more strongly connect with the culture. In addition, leaders must change their organizations' processes, systems, and policies to live and breathe that culture. When leaders achieve their goal, what remains is sustaining that thriving culture. Together with their teams, they need to keep emphasizing positive behaviors through best practices, systems, and structures.

Culture is the identity of an organization. Time and contributions from all workers help shape the norms, values, attitudes, and practices that define how an organization gets things done. When employees feel strongly connected to their organizations' culture they are more engaged and have fewer reasons to leave. More satisfied employees render better business outcomes. Today, just two in ten employees feel connected to their organizations' culture causing employers to miss out on capturing the full potential of their workforce. (Re)establishing a good company culture doesn't have to be hard but will demand leaders invest effort in defining culture, rallying employees behind it, investing in actions that are directly linked to culture, and constantly nurturing and evolving what's been built.