The Need for a Corporate Culture

The Need for a Corporate Culture

Strategies can only be successfully implemented if everyone is on board

By Scott Garvey

Kathryn Doan Director, AgCareers.com

Developing a corporate strategy to build sales or grow a company is important as managers look to the future, but the success or failure of those plans hinge on one critical factor: that everyone in the company will get onboard and push toward that common goal. Fostering the right corporate culture and keeping it up to date is the key to ensuring that.

“Culture eats strategy for breakfast,” says Kathryn Doan, director at AgCareers.com and CareersInFood.com. “The importance of culture remains vital. Yet as corporate goals shift or management changes, the organizational culture can adapt as well.

“Culturally our organization has evolved from being a very entrepreneurial start up tech company 20 years ago to a service-based company now relying on in-house and competitive technology. As such, with size, complexity and competition; our culture has adapted.”

According to a 2012 survey conducted by Deloitte, 94 per cent of executives and 84 per cent of employees said they believed having a relevant and distinct corporate culture was important to overall business success. In developing that kind of dynamic culture, Doan recommends organizations foster a common goal or vision, which needs to be shared with and communicated to the entire team.

Doan says this common, unifying goal will be the basis of the corporate culture. She explains, “For example, at AgCareers.com it is about feeding the world with talent; thus a key component is having a workplace that encourages networking, the use of technology, including social media as tools to collaborate and connect. Because without connections, the business would fail. Therefore we strive to have a culture which celebrates connections.”

When it comes to using social media tools to help cultivate a corporation’s internal culture, however, the Deloitte survey cautions managers about relying too heavily on them. Their data shows managers were generally about twice as likely to say social media efforts have a significant positive impact on fostering a corporate culture than the rank and file workers.

And even though the percentages of employees and managers who believe that culture is important are very high, only a small number of both think their company has actually achieved that. So, how should executives go about creating one?

The most important element of culture is the desire of employees to feel connected.

“The most important element of culture is the desire of employees to feel connected,” says Doan. “They must inherently value the skills they bring to the market and the output brought to the Agri sector. Given the right ag labour market, employees will not stay with organizations where they don’t feel valued.” Doan believes that for those new to the workforce, feeling valued, connecting with the organization, and feeling they are making a difference in the world can be as important as their compensation packages.

And the Deloitte survey confirms that. Although 62 per cent of managers in the survey said they saw compensation as the most critical factor in staff retention, the most important factors cited by employees, themselves, were regular and candid communications (50%), employee recognition (49%), and access to management or leadership (47%).

Moulding or reshaping a culture within an organization needs to be done carefully. While trying to create or reshape that sense of common purpose it is possible to alienate some individuals within a workforce. Doan says that is one of the biggest challenges.

“The challenge with adapting or changing a culture is disengagement,” she explains. “In other words, when staff are challenged with workplace dynamics, don’t feel part of the greater plan or are simply not happy, that change is difficult to make.

“One big challenge is recognizing that sometimes employees do not embody the appropriate culture of an organization. Failing their ability to adapt, making personnel changes can be difficult, especially in the short term.”

But once a stable culture starts to form, it can help with employee retention efforts as well, according to Deloitte. That happens because workers feel more at home and less likely to pull up stakes and leave.

“Aside from results based performance management, the opportunity to engage employees in the softer side of work is a valuable experience for all involved,” says Doan, “especially when it comes down to organizational fit. Too often we know we can teach the technical skills, but we can’t teach fit. When cultural alignment is lacking, honest conversations need to occur.”

Making the effort to get that fit right, though, can pay off on the balance sheet as well. The Deloitte survey remarks, “There is a correlation between clearly articulated and lived culture and strong business performance.” Which means those businesses that are highly successful financially can usually boast of having a strong corporate culture.

So it’s up to managers to work at building a culture, but it’s important to remember to demonstrate those values with their own actions. As part of the overall effort, identifying employees that also already embody the important core elements and using them to help promote and amplify culture building efforts can help significantly.

“As a manager, reviewing organizational goals is key to demonstrating the culture you are looking to build and maintain,” advises Doan. “It can really help to leverage and engage key employees to act as brand ambassadors and having actions that truly reflect the company’s values.”