5 Essentials for Building a Healthy and Effective Organizational Culture
Organizational culture is more than just fun Friday activities in the office. It is the result of your company’s values which define and shape your work environment. Your organization’s culture will affect how goals are created, how challenges are met, and how vision is achieved.
Your organizational culture is constructed by the behaviors, communications, and processes that allow you to run your business. Building a good organizational culture takes time, effort, and leadership that is willing to slow down enough to ensure the foundation of their organization is strong and cohesive.
Below are five principles to help you build an effective organizational culture and bring a positive impact to your company.
1. Build shared values
Every organization is guided by core values, whether or not they are always made explicit. These values will be evident in how employees treat one another, their expectations from the company, the goals you create, and the collective identity that binds the team together.
Values, which are rooted in the way organizations go about meeting needs and solving problems, are what eventually produce culture. Therefore, values cannot be assumed or left unstated. We encourage leaders to be intentional in meeting with your organization and making values explicit– this will help organization members or employees to be on the same page.This can happen in a variety of ways, but conversation is always a good starting point. Organize a meeting to ask what members believe are their core values– compare these values and then establish which of these values you truly want to define your organization or business. Throughout the year, make sure that the goals and projects that you undertake are always in alignment with these values.
Your company’s values should be made explicit on the front end in the hiring process, but each employee must be empowered to take ownership of these values in order to be integrated into the organization’s vision. When all employees from the newest to senior management share organizational values and are able to communicate and practice them, then the resulting culture will have clearer boundaries within which to develop.
2. Build a diverse team
A vital part of every organizational culture is ensuring a sense of belonging, and that begins with building a diverse workforce. A diverse workforce will give your team a competitive advantage by bringing in varied ideas and experiences. Diversity can come in many forms– gender, ethnicity, educational background, and experience are of course objective traits to consider. It’s also important to think about personalities and work styles within an organization, especially when creating smaller teams. Building strong teams requires a diversity in which different team members’ strengths and weaknesses, as well as overall capacity and competencies, are capitalized upon.
Additionally, activities like hosting interactive sessions and talk events on topics around identity and workplace challenges will encourage healthy discussions and awareness.
3. Build substantial hiring and onboarding processes
Organizational culture begins the moment a person affiliates with your company—especially during the hiring and onboarding processes. Make sure your new employees feel welcome and understand the requirements of the role, and the functioning of your company. They should also have access to the information they need, including lines of communication– where to direct questions and concerns, what methods of communication should be utilized for high or low priority questions, etc.
Often, new employees feel isolated and get overwhelmed by the already existing work culture. This can be mitigated by a thorough and ongoing onboarding process during which expectations and values are made clear. HR professionals generally agree that onboarding should last at least three months. However, research suggests companies can increase employee retention by extending onboarding throughout an employee’s entire first year.
4. Coherent and considerate communication
Knowing how to communicate is essential for a healthy work culture. Miscommunication can cause dissatisfaction and insecurity, and lead to a toxic workplace if unchecked.
Help your employees by doing your part to communicate well, encouraging their contributions, and sharing ideas in a concise way. Encourage asking questions, especially when communication happens over email or messaging apps. Make sure that clear boundaries are established, communicated, and upheld in terms of when and how to send communications. In general, try to establish a culture of generosity within text- based communications, as there is always a level of obfuscation when communication shifts from face-to-face to online. Check out this online communication etiquette guide for more tips!
5. Encourage Feedback
In an established workplace environment, it can be easy to become used to the way things are and to eventually develop blind spots. Without an active feedback loop, problems and inefficiencies can go unaddressed. Organizations can lag in productivity and people could feel as if their voices are not valued if there isn’t a clear process in place for giving and receiving feedback. Employees need to know where to take their concerns when they have them, so it is a healthy practice for managers and leaders to take time to provide feedback regarding any issues and also encourage others to do the same. Feedback need not be negative and critical (though sometimes that’s necessary), rather it can be communicated professionally offering viable solutions to the problems.
