Measuring Company Culture

September 28, 2016
 

Challenges:

  •  What is culture? How is it defined?
    • The overall philosophy of the company that trickles down to the employees / the attitudes, beliefs, values, and actions that permeate an organization
    • Ambiguous term based on what things feel like around the company?
    • How does everyone feel about the people, work, mission, teamwork, environment, health (physical & financial, engagement, and positive/negative aspects of the company?
  • What metrics are you looking at or which one would you like to measure?
  • Developing Culture is a long process the requires a large investment
    • Developed through actions. I.e. Giving an employee time off to take care of their family
    • Consistent with their values that drive actions
    • Takes time. Ex: PJ Fleck, WMU Football Coach infused a culture into the team and it’s starting to take more traction after 3 years
  • Making sure all levels/positions can relate to the culture
  • Making sure all mangers can manage the culture based on their style of management
  • Managing culture at multiple locations
    • Complexity of culture model gets multiplied by home many locations there are
    • Sometime you need uniformity and sometimes locations need to be unique based on their challenges
    • Each location may appreciate different “perks”
  • Keeping employees aligned with the culture during company growth
  • Some employees are unable to / refuse to embrace the culture. These employees are not the right fit and can drag down the culture.
  • Do you have the right culture based on industry?
  • Items that have a strong effect on culture:
    • Leadership
    • Compensation / Benefits
    • Growth & Development
    • Work-life balance
    • Supervisors / Team Members
    • Family
    • Production
    • Safety
    • Quality
    • Customer care
    • Drivers / Motivation
    • Competition
    • Trust

 Solutions:

  •  Employee engagement survey
    • Complete over time
    • Make sure the survey really connects to the company culture
    • Must be anonymous
    • Show positive and negatives
    • Question leadership first (work-life balance / growth & development)
  • Exit Survey
    • Depends on the “exit”
    • May be best to wait a period of time after exit
  • Be vigilant in supporting the culture you want all the time
  • Involve culture in major company decisions
  • In employee reviews, discuss how the employee contributed to the culture
  • Review employee turnover. Why are they leaving
  • Which employees exemplify the culture and which ones need help
  • Find people who can pick up on areas of contention and be problem solvers for the organization
  • Tools (not one-size fits all)
    • Cultural Index
    • Q12 Survey
    • TEC Engagement Survey
    • Psychometrics
    • Cognitive thinking testing
    • Visionary survey (rate level of agreement, qualitative3 feedback sections)

Takeaways:

  •  Culture is:
    • Attitudes
    • Beliefs
    • Values / Core Values
    • Actions / Quality of actions
  • Culture can be who we are as well as what we want to become. You may not always have it but it’s something to work towards
  • Culture has to be a part of our mission and then figure out our how we want to get there with our vision
  • Ask yourself:
    • How are companies maximizing their capabilities through their culture?
    • Are we leading people or are we coddling them?
    • How is your culture producing the results you desire?
    • Does the vision & mission that we have define our culture?