It's time to be Intentional About your Agency's Culture BY: DANI KIMBLE, CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER AT O’NEILL INSURANCE Now more than ever, organizations with a strong company culture are thriving. Why? Because if you can unite your team around a shared purpose and a set of core behaviors you become unstoppable, regardless of what is happening in the world around us.
at O’Neill Insurance - and it has a direct correlation with my high level of engagement, job satisfaction and desire and momentum to move the agency forward.
As you read this, a pandemic has transformed the way your employees are working, while taking care of their personal lives.
My story is one of many examples of the daily personal challenges your team members are facing. Whether they are caring for an elderly family member, grieving the loss of a loved one, struggling with a relationship, balancing the life of a working parent, facing health issues, etc. - life can be challenging and stressful at times. When your employer is there for you, it helps.
My story is one of many. For over 75 days, I worked full-time from home while homeschooling my 1st grader, pre-kindergartner and preschooler. While the day-to-day activities were busy, my most challenging moments revolved around educating my children on what was happening as their school and extracurricular activities all came to a screeching halt. They desperately missed their friends. Their spring sports were cancelled. They feared seeing masks in public. There was no formal goodbye from teachers and classmates. Though we made many beautiful moments during quarantine, there were still times where they felt sad. They felt scared. They were overwhelmed. They struggled to understand. They felt frustrated. While my children and family have always come first, these particular moments required a significant amount of focus, time and intentionality on my part. I have shifted the weight of my priorities to ensure a nurturing environment where my children feel safe and are socially and emotionally healthy. How did I achieve peace through all of this? By working for an organization who consistently prioritizes my role as a mother and wife over and above my role as their employee. They led with empathy, offered flexibility and respected my need for stronger work/ life balance. Simply put, it’s a reflection of our culture
Culture speaks volumes.
The average American spends one-third of their life working. That is equivalent to an estimated 90,000 hours in a lifetime! Your organization has the power to make a significant impact on your team members’ quality of life. It starts with a very intentional and clearly defined workplace culture. What is Workplace Culture? Oftentimes, when people think about workplace culture they immediately jump to the “fun” elements of the work environment. Foosball tables in the break room, unlimited PTO, happy hours with the team, dogs in the workplace, yoga balls for desk chairs, etc. The list goes on and on! The problem is, however, that when we define our culture in this format, workplace culture becomes “fluffy.” Rightly so. While all of these elements listed above can certainly play a role in the overall culture of an organization, they do not give substance to the foundation of your company culture. Deloitte defines culture as a system of values, beliefs and behaviors that shape how “real work” gets done in an organization. I’m not the first to refer to workplace culture as the heartbeat of your organization. When you put your people and your culture at the core of your business 29 | Kentucky IA - Summer 2020
