New Year: Hit the Reset Button on Company Culture and Employee Engagement
Happy New Year!
An exciting time, full of promise and good intentions which, sadly,
often fall by the wayside after a couple of weeks when people realize that changing their
lives and their daily habits, requires some actual work. It’s one thing to abandon a personal
goal to get fitter or watch less tv, because you’re really only accountable to yourself. But,
when you have a business to run, the stakes are so much higher, and the work is so much harder.
Don’t let that deter you – the rewards are also so much greater!
So, in the spirit of the New Year, here are 5 practicals’, no-holds barred guidelines
that have been proven to work for any organization wishing to improve employee engagement
and workplace culture.
Know what you’re dealing with
You can’t fix something if you don’t know what’s broken or where to begin. Knowledge is power,
and you need to know exactly what it is that you’re dealing with. Collect all the data you possibly can,
from various sources within the business, including culture surveys and suggestions received from
employees. One of the most fascinating trends I have personally observed in all the corporate clients
I work with, is the massive disconnect between perceptions of company culture in the C-Suite as opposed
to views gathered from amongst the lower ranking employees who actually interact with your clients and
products, directly. Contrary to popular belief, it is the lower level employees who have the best
suggestions on how to improve customer service or what innovative products would really set your
brand apart. Give those employees a safe forum to communicate this information and check your ego at
the door if you really want to change anything in your business for the better.
There’s no room for ego-based denial in this process and I strongly recommend you work with an
organizational transformation specialist and a team of coaches, because it’s very hard for senior
leadership to make changes that they don’t truly believe are necessary and that they don’t buy into.
Know what you want
One of the most basic leadership tenets we are all familiar with, is the importance of
having a clear vision. In this context, you need a clear vision of the company culture and the
levels of employee engagement you want to see within your organization. A transformation specialist
or coach can help you gain clarity on exactly what your desired corporate culture looks and feels
like and they will also help you to distill these into behaviors and actions that will support this
desired culture and help cultivate it throughout the business.
Work to change behavior
This is hands down the toughest part of transformation and it’s the number one reason people don’t
follow through with their New Year’s Resolutions. Making a lasting and impactful change is really
hard work – even more so across an entire organization. It is highly likely that this step in the
process will take a minimum of about 6 months of intensive coaching, facilitated learning sessions
and regular feedback meetings, all of which aim to create the habits and behaviors required to change
your culture from what it truly is, to align with the vision you have set for what you want your
culture to become.
Recognize, reward, retain
In order to really embed the changes and ensure that everyone is truly living your values and working
to bring your vision for culture and engagement to life, you will need to re-define the concept of
‘high performance’ to not only include what an employee delivers, but also how they go about achieving
these results through values-congruent behavior.
I am a huge fan of the ‘performance values matrix’ developed by Dr. Cameron Sepah and I work with
clients on implementing this process as part of an organizational transformation. It requires not
only a change in thinking around what constitutes high performance, but also a robust recognition and
rewards programme that enables you to publicly recognize values-congruent behavior and to tie that
recognition back to a reward that actually means something to the employee. This programme, in turn,
should form a core part of your talent management strategy to retain employees who are not only good at
their jobs, but who also display the values and behaviors which advance your desired corporate culture.
Redistribute
Not everyone will be on board with this change and you may need to make some tough decisions
regarding some of your first line managers and supervisors, especially – even if they have historically
been a ‘high performer’. If they cannot or not will not behave in a values-congruent manner and help
advance the culture you are seeking to create, you will need to either redistribute talent within your
business or encourage the worst offenders to seek alternative employment elsewhere. It may seem harsh
and I’m not suggesting you go on a firing spree. Part of the transformation is leadership development
coaching aimed at embedding the desired behaviors and values throughout the entire leadership team.
If there are employees – especially in management and leadership roles – who aren’t improving, there is
no place for them in your organization because they will undo all the good you are trying to achieve.
If you are going to set the intention to create a remarkable corporate culture and a company
where people truly want to work, now is the time to do it. The global HR community is brimming with
thought leaders and transformation specialists, supported by some amazing technology that enables you
to collect workplace data and translate that into actionable steps that will improve communication,
collaboration and innovation in your company. This, in turn, automatically increase engagement and it
reduces absenteeism and staff turnover. Make this the year you start truly listening to your staff and
start taking action to create a workplace you can all be proud of!
Deborah Hartung (https://www.linkedin.com/in/deborah-hartung-2b25619/)
Deborah Hartung is a Culture and Leadership Consultant, Coach, Writer and Keynote Speaker from Johannesburg,
South Africa. She has been working in HR and Leadership Development Coaching for almost 20 years and is
especially passionate about the opportunities for the advancement of humanity through technology and the
potential to improve the human experience in the workplace in the future of work. Deborah is an advocate for
women in leadership and in addition to her global HR transformation consulting and leadership development
coaching work, she writes extensively on this and other topics, for numerous publications.
Connect with Deborah: https://linktr.ee/deborah.hartung.jhb
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