The Reinvention of Company Culture

The reinvention of company culture: what should be your top priority?

According to LinkedIn's Global Talent Trends report, three prominent elements stand out in terms of what employees want from their employers.

Flexibility, Well-being, and reshuffling. It’s clear that the pandemic has impacted the way companies work and how they foster great cultures, but what do people really want now that we have recovered and are back to normal?

The only way to make improvements to your culture is to know what needs to be done and how to do it, and you can only get this information by asking and listening to the people who experience it daily – your employees.

“Listening also helps you see whether you have the kind of culture that attracts candidates, one that aligns with people’s values. According to a 2019 survey of workers in the United States, United Kingdom, France, and Germany, nearly two-thirds of employees listed “corporate culture” as among the most important reasons that they would stay with their current employer or start searching for work elsewhere.”

Source: LinkedIn.

As a business, where should you start?

Flexibility

Well-Being

Reshuffling

Surveys

Listen

Act on the feedback

Flexibility

According to LinkedIn, employees want flexibility in where, when and how they work. After nearly 2 years of remote or hybrid working through the pandemic, employees want to maintain their freedom and control.

Whether you offer flexible hours or remote working, giving your employees a choice of what suits them is beneficial for everyone. Not everyone is the same, and therefore, some people may be more productive when working from home, and some may be more productive when working from the office. Giving them the choice means more productivity from them and better outcomes for you as an employer.

In fact, employees reported being 2.6x happier when they were given time and location flexibility, and they are also 2.1x more likely to recommend working for the company to friends.

Offering your employees flexibility is also becoming a key value proposition for employers, making their open roles more attractive to potential candidates. LinkedIn reports there is a 35% increase in engagements for job posts when a company mentions flexibility.  

Companies are adopting flexibility slowly, and LinkedIn has seen an 83% increase in job posts mentioning flexibility since 2019, which is no doubt encouraged by the pandemic. There has also been a huge increase of 343% in mentions of flexibility in company posts since 2019.

If you’re not offering flexibility as an option to your employees, you could be missing out on future talent for your competition. Flexibility is rarely seen as a benefit, but more of a necessity.

Well-Being

Your company would be nothing without its people, which is why you need to look after them. Companies are recognising that the key to their own success starts with fostering a culture that prioritises the mental, physical and emotional well-being of their employees.

Fortunately, many forward-thinking organisations are moving towards a culture that no longer celebrates workaholics and burnout. Employers are taking care of their people and offering an increased number of well-being and wellness initiatives, and for good reason. LinkedIn reports that if employees feel cared for at work, they are 3.2x more likely to be happier and 3.7x more likely to recommend the company's work to a friend.

If you’re looking to hire more women or younger people, well-being content is also highly valued. Women are 41% more likely to engage in company posts mentioning well-being. GenZ reports wanting a culture built on mental health and wellness, with 66% saying more investment in mental health will improve company culture.

Reshuffling

People have had a lot of time to reflect on their careers in the last 2 years of working from home. People are realising what is really important to them and making changes to their lives to prioritise this.

A record number of employees are walking away from their jobs. In the US, close to 39 million resigned in the first month of 2021, the highest number since 2000, with more than 40% of workers globally thinking about quitting their jobs, according to a Microsoft survey.

While this may seem negative, it is also a great chance for companies to capitalise on this available talent pool.

Organisations that are stuck in their old ways are going to lose talent, whereas organisations that are giving people what they want, and need, are going to attract great people.

Culture can be a selling point, and it shows in the way professionals have been browsing LinkedIn. More people are open than ever, and they are more actively shopping for new opportunities too. According to LinkedIn, there was a 2x increase in job posts viewed per application in 2021 compared to 2019, and companies that mentioned company culture in their job adverts experienced a 67% engagement boost.

The attraction of great company culture is not going anywhere.

Surveys

The great thing about surveys is that they can be anonymous. By using an anonymous survey to ask questions, it encourages people to be openly honest, as there are no repercussions for expressing their, possibly controversial, opinions.

With the increase of hybrid and remote working models, online surveys allow you to ask everyone their opinions at the same time. Online surveys will also allow you to quickly analyse the data and feedback that comes back, so you can focus on making the relevant changes to your company as quickly as possible

Not only will this enable you to find out what you need to improve, but it will also shine a light on what you do well and what you should use as a selling point when speaking to potential candidates. Be strategic about the questions you include in your survey, as people don’t want to take part in long, time-consuming data collection.

Listen

Everyone in your company is different. Some are introverts and may prefer telling you things through email, surveys or messaging; others will be extroverts and like expressing their opinions in person or in group meetings. Having multiple feedback streams will enable you to get the most information possible so you can get a full picture of how people are feeling and what you can do to improve that.

Listening sessions are also a great way to get people’s opinions and suggestions for improvement. Why not add 20 minutes to your next team meeting to ask what could be improved to make their time with the company better?

Act on the feedback

It’s great to have all these streams of feedback; however, if you don’t make any changes and do nothing with the information you’ve collected, your efforts are wasted.

Not acting on people’s feedback can be worse than never asking for feedback in the first place. If people have taken the time to give you their internal opinion on the business and you don’t listen, they will likely feel that their opinion is not valuable, which can lead to demotivation and disengagement.

When you analyse your feedback, you should partner this with a possible solution. It may not be possible to implement all your solutions at once, but showing that you are constantly improving and changing your business shows you care about your employees and bettering your company culture for them.

Why listen?

• Listening to your employees shows you respect them and their opinions, which is vital to company culture

• Caring about your employees’ opinions shows that you are a supportive leader, which is important for employee attraction and retention.

• Regularly listening to employees creates loyalty and inclusion.

• Listening to your employees shows you are committed to continuous development and improvement of company culture, contributing to higher retention rates in employees.

There are also warning signs that you may have a bad culture without realising it. You may think you have a great company culture, but what if you don’t? If your feedback says you have a good culture, but you fear you don’t, here are some signs that you should introduce change. If you’re joining a new company and have questions surrounding company culture, question whether they may be culture washing.

New starters come and go quickly

New starters should excite existing employees because they are new members of the team. They have been handpicked to join the company by the management and hiring teams, so your employees should embrace them. New employees need to be introduced properly and have the chance to get to know their team and vice versa.

Not being made to feel welcome or part of the team won’t give your new starters a great impression, and without feeling comfortable and at home in their new job, they’re more likely to up and leave as soon as a new opportunity comes along. Make sure you give new starters time to settle into the culture. A workday isn’t just about work – it’s where an individual spends most of their time; they need to get to know the people.

High employee turnover rate

Do people come and go all the time? Employee turnover rates are a great indication of a bad company culture.  Why do people want to leave so quickly? – assess employee perks, contracts and development; if it’s none of these, your company culture is most likely the reason. Here are 15 employee turnover statistics to shape your retention.

Small things outweigh the large

It’s important to stay positive in every situation. Are your meetings about how someone was late twice last week or about creating a better working environment?

How will discussing these points affect your company culture? If discussing small, pointless issues is always on the agenda, it may be time to have a discussion overhaul. Focus on the positive, and this positivity will be infectious throughout your whole company.

There is a lack of buzz and smiles

Working in an office where people are on the phones should mean there is some sort of buzz in the office.  Look around, are there smiles? People should be happy to be at work – they don’t need to be smiling all the time, but they need to be enjoying their day.

Sales offices should be buzzing, and they should rarely be silent. If you sense a lack of buzz in your office, it’s time to evaluate your culture.

Bad leaders

Leaders, whether they are good or bad, will have some impact on their team. They are culture influencers, and their moods can often be seen reflected in their teams.  Not every leader is going to bring sunshine to your office all day, every day, but they should be creating an environment for your employees which is motivating and welcoming. Take a look at your leaders – are they moody, sad and unmotivated?  It may be time to look for a new leader.

No one socialises outside of work

This is a warning sign for any company.  The likelihood of everyone in your company getting on is very small; however, there should be relationships in your office that are close. Not having internal relationships = no company culture.  Internal relationships can’t be forced either, so it’s important to think about this right at the beginning of the recruitment process – hire people who are going to fit in.

Take-Aways

• The shift in culture is no longer focused on tools and technology but more on mindset and employee desires.

• Stay competitive when trying to attract great talent. You could lose people to your competition if you’re not offering people what they truly want.

• Focus on creating a healthy, human-centred company culture and listen to your employees.