The culture of any company is the cement that holds the organization together. A culture that is effectively integrated into the company, where all employees are held accountable for its adherence, along with a rewards program that supports the agreed upon culture will add value to the company. A fractured culture erodes confidence in the products and services a company sells and can lead to serious long-term challenges for the HR professional and leadership team.
HR professionals should consider implementing these three recommendations to support the successful implementation of a culture based upon the mission statement of the company, the values of the organization and the strategic vision of the leadership team.
Communicate Your Mission to the Employees
Creating a cohesive organization based upon shared values will allow your employees to be make the transition from just viewing their role as just a job to a career with the organization. The value of examining your company’s mission statement will ensure that the mission is aligned with reality and current practices. Communicating the agreed upon mission statement to employees, customers, vendors and shareholders will ensure that all stakeholders subscribe to these principles.
Hold Managers Accountable for Living the Company Values
An increase in stakeholder
loyalty can boost profits and productivity; however, this is predicated upon
the managers and the leaders of the organization being held accounting for
“living the values” of the company.
Research has shown that ethical managers that communicate these shared
values will lead to greater profitability and growth. According the Gallup Business Journal (June,
2013) work units in the top quartile in employee engagement outperformed
bottom-quartile units by 10% on customer ratings, 22% in profitability, and 21%
in productivity
Employers
today want to understand how they can secure more support from their
employees. On-going management and
accountability based upon the vision, mission and vision will make it easier
for the HR professional and the leadership team to determine how to best execute
the strategy for the future.
Tie Pay and Performance to the Adherence of the Agreed Upon Values
We all know that what gets measured gets
managed with success. Performance
reviews are a great tool to tie the successful communication of the mission with
the success of the leaders. If the
executive team has a vested interest in the process and are measured on their
success of tying their decisions to the published values; this measurement will
add accountability to the process. While
tying pay, accountability and performance is not a guarantee of success the
outcome with be more probable.
