Insight Blog

In our previous post, Organizational Culture & Its Impact on Recruitment & Retention, we discussed the importance of a positive organizational culture and its impact upon employee engagement, recruitment and retention. So what entails a strong organizational culture and how can you begin improving yours? The most important thing to remember is that there is no right or wrong culture. A healthy culture is simply where people are aligned and are all moving in the same direction, toward the same goals. While there is no ‘ideal’ culture that applies to every organization, there are similar attributes of well-respected cultures and these characteristics include:

• High level of trust in leadership.

• Open communication between leadership and other levels.

• Overall goals are openly communicated.

• Opportunities for career development, mentoring and training.

• Autonomy at all levels, especially in senior leadership roles.

• High accountability with clearly defined objectives and expectations of individual roles.

• Recognition of innovation and extra efforts.

• Employee opinions are taken into account in decision-making.

• Progressive recruitment and retention programs.

• Strong values of work / life balance of employees.

While achieving the above can seem like a monumental challenge at first glance, cultural improvements can be made in small steps such as:

• Creating an environment of trust.

• Respecting the work/life balance of employees.

• Considering what leadership is giving attention to and measuring.

• Developing and openly communicating core values and principals.

• Encouraging creativity, innovation and the sharing of ideas.

• Demonstrating risk tolerance and the allowance for mistakes.

• Empowering employees by giving them a voice in decisions.

• Allowing employees to be influential in their roles.

• Establishing clear expectations of individual positions.

Initiating changes to your organizational culture such as the ones above is not difficult - it just takes commitment and time. When you consider the benefits of improving your culture and the impact upon recruitment, retention and employee engagement, you understand that any effort is well worth it.