6 Ways to Build a Winning Organizational Culture
Creating a winning organization that acknowledges and celebrates your workforce creates a positive environment, ultimately driving business success.
Sixty percent of workers say they've seen a shift in organizational culture since the start of the pandemic. Many workers also feel low morale (30 percent), less flexibility (28 percent) and less inclusivity (27 percent) in their workplaces.
Are you doing what it takes to develop a winning culture that fosters collaboration, belonging and purpose? If not, you're missing a golden opportunity to maximize employee engagement, boost retention and make your organization more attractive to prospective employees.
Here are six ways that can help you ensure you're building a winning organizational culture:
1. Define your culture with input from your employees
Ask your employees to write down what they love about your organization and what inspires them daily. Highlight aspects of your culture in your organization's brand and mission statement and share both with current and prospective employees.
2. Equip employees for success from day one
Help new employees know they made the right decision to join your organization and position them to succeed. Have the necessary tools ready to go on their first day, including any equipment, supplies and access they might need to do their work. Provide an onboarding buddy who's available in person or remotely. Then, manage expectations by providing a roadmap-for-success checklist that spells out their personal goals after the first week, month, quarter, six months and their first anniversary.
3. Nurture a sense of belonging
Regularly communicate how employees are uniquely valued and an integral part of your team. Explain how the work they do helps the overall organization to succeed. As a team activity, have employees share their top three strengths with their peers and how they've put them into action at work. When you see these strengths in action, share them with the team. Providing employees with a sense of camaraderie and belonging inspires loyalty and productivity.
4. Show employees they're uniquely valued
Managers should take the time to learn an employee's unique skill set, what interests them the most and apply these to the employee's job and goals. Also, give employees the confidence and forums to have their voice heard to help the organization succeed.
5. Inspire employees to be tomorrow's leaders
Give employees the tools and opportunities to pursue new challenges and help them grow personally and professionally. Develop and provide employees a well-defined path to help them move up the organizational ladder. Be sure to align their career trajectory with their passions to maximize engagement and retention.
6. Adjust your culture as needed
An organization's culture needs to evolve. For example, due to the pandemic, adjustments may be necessary to address remote working, work-life balance and other employee expectations. Annually, ask your employees what changes are needed to the organization's culture.
Creating a winning organization that acknowledges and celebrates your workforce creates a positive environment, ultimately driving business success.
For more guidance on building a winning organizational culture that supports and empowers your talent, visit the ADP Talent Resource Center.
