Corporate culture has become a major talking point among talent managers. It’s an integral part of the business model and employee engagement and retention tactics. A recent article from Salary.com author Jeffrey M. Saltzman discusses how organizations across the board are searching for the newest ways to attract top-talent. The competition to attract these type of employees is intense – Finding the right fit for the job is a big part of the battle but keeping them is the other part. With such a versatile and still-volatile job economy, employee motivation and engagement is a big deal for talent managers. What tools have your organization implemented to keep employees engaged?
Several industry studies reveal that employee engagement of the newly hired begins to decline in as little as six months, and at the two-year mark, many employees are starting to consider taking the leap elsewhere, further raising the stakes when competing for talent.
What’s the answer? Is there a secret weapon to fight this statistic? Well, as a talent manager, you should utilize company culture to its fullest. Matching your new hires to the company culture will increase the chances of that individual being engaged and motivated to do what’s good for the company. Company culture has shown to enhance more than just engagement and motivation – it also influences employee morale, performance, absenteeism, customer satisfaction and profits. Creating a finely tuned and defined company culture will benefit the organization’s bottom line. High-performance employees will benefit from clearly defined organizational culture because it creates an environment where employees know they are valued, where they know they can develop and be rewarded.
Each and every organization has a culture, whether or not they have distinctly chosen to identify it. First and foremost, you must define the expectations for your employees: how they are supposed to contribute to the organization and how those contributions help achieve company-wide goals. Create distinct messages to help people inside and outside the organization understand the company culture message. Clearly define the company’s purpose and expectations to enhance the advantageous nature of the culture message.
Not only do your employees need to understand clearly the expectations of them, they must also know that you will give them the tools they need to succeed. Enable your employees to do the best job they can by offering guidance, support or advice. Your employees will perform better thus enhancing revenue growth for the company. Two major keys to the culture strategy are communication and providing employees with the tools, resources and training to do the job right. Feedback is another tool that talent managers can utilize to strengthen relationships with their employees. Maintain an open communication channel with your employees, so they can feel free to come to you for help or support.
Effective cultural branding is providing employees with a sense of future and the long-term benefits of remaining with the organization. Employees want to take pride in their achievements. They want to contribute to organizational success, knowing that there are development opportunities and rewards available to them at their company.
Attracting top-talent to your organization has to begin with a well-defined internal cultural message. When you hire new employees, it’s important that they are aware of the actuality of the organization, not just the high of having a new job. Be sure they are aware of what the organization actually is. Being upfront will reduce the feeling of unmet expectations later down the line which means you can reduce turnover from day one with a clear internal culture message. Having a realistic view of the company from the first day will let the employee have a better comprehension of what it will be like to work for your company in the future. The key here is recruiting the right person in the first place. Just because a resume looks awesome does not mean that the individual is the right hire for your organization.
Generally speaking, most people want the same thing out of a job, regardless of gender or other geographical characteristics. On the same note, it’s also true that most people have different personal characteristics, skills sets and knowledge-ability. So, people are very much the same and very much different. Despite similar minds may be attracted to a specific company culture, diversity is a large factor to the success of the organization, as there are numerous different roles to be filled within the company.
A winning company culture combines the positive attitudes of all employees who can work together to build a high-performance workforce that drives the company’s goals and mission.
As a talent manager, having a vast assortment of characteristics at your fingertips is only a plus. This allows the company to take advantage of a wider vantage point of ideas, points of view and suggestions. It also makes the company more able to adapt to fluctuations in economic circumstances. Diversity is a good thing. It can also make your company more relate-able to your clients.
The company life cycle of employees also offers some insight into how they feel as they are hired to when they depart from the company. Six-month reviews and exit interviews are a good time to find out how the employee felt about the company’s culture.
Overall, an appropriately developed company culture strategy can increase and enhance employee morale, performance and engagement. It helps the company’s image with clients and customers, as well as with potential employees. Company culture is beneficial to employee loyalty and satisfaction – give them the recognition, tools, and resources they need to succeed. These things will not only nurture top-talent, they will also enhance the overall success of the organization.
A winning corporate culture combines the positive attitudes of all employees who can work together to build a high-performance workforce that drives the company’s goals and mission.
To read more about how to implement a strong company culture strategy within your organization, or tips on how to enhance your current policy, click here to read the full article.