In times of crisis, a company’s risks become bigger and bigger, most commonly involving inadequate investment in employees and a lack of accountability. Due to the global pandemic, today we are witnessing an increase in high-stress environments in which unrealistic goals lead to neglect of fundamental values. Many employers are unaware of this, but employees would rather tolerate a lower salary and title than deal with a bad corporate culture. To help you minimize cultural risk, we bring you basic steps to preserve your corporate culture.
1. Be honest
Ensure the commitment and engagement of leaders and honesty in communicating the current situation. Research shows that the active and visible engagement of leaders contributes the most to creating a successful corporate culture. Honest communication is truly the only way to achieve the changes.
2. Involve leaders
Assemble a team in charge of culture management! Preserving corporate culture requires the involvement of all levels. That is why it is important to include human resources, leaders and executive leaders in the team that analyzes the current situation and defines the desired changes. Corporate culture must not be delegated only to human resources.
3. Define your expectations Clearly define your expectations.
Employees cannot know what is expected of them if the desired behaviours are not clearly defined. Assess how well your employees understand organizational values and whether they behave in accordance with them. If necessary, change the values or remove those values that no longer reflect your organization. Stick to what you are. If you do not have defined core values, initiate an inclusive process to define them. Make sure the newly created values support not only the culture you want to foster, but also the business strategy you're trying to achieve.
4. Monitor and measure culture Design a permanent culture development strategy and act on it.
Determine how you will monitor and measure the culture and do it regularly because that's the only way you can get a realistic view of the current state. It is also important to define action plans based on the results obtained through regular measurement. Hire employees who you believe are true examples of core values. Such employees can be allies in preserving cultural risks and finding solutions. Also, such employees will be the best ambassadors of your brand externally.
5. Develop strategy and culture together Leaders often develop a business strategy in a vacuum.
They are not guided by fundamental principles and do not take into account whether the fundamental organizational values will support the set goals or will stop their realization. Strategy and culture must be evaluated often, and in harmony with each other, as symbiotic drivers of business results. In order for a company to remain successful in the market, it is important to continuously adapt and improve its culture. It is desirable to test and experiment with new ways and models of work that can reconsider current practices. Unfortunately, these processes often include mistakes, unwanted outcomes, losses, setbacks and disappointments, but these are all part and parcel of change. That is why it is important to build a healthy organizational culture because it will help the organization in its resilience and endurance in demanding and challenging moments. A healthy culture will contribute to employees maintaining trust, accepting new ideas, seeing obstacles as a challenge, and being creative and positive - when it matters most.
