Culture & employee engagement: The art of speaking a common language
Culture is nothing more than sharing a common language. It influences our perspective, which in turn affects our behaviour and response to challenges. As businesses grow and move into new markets, they are faced with the potential of navigating the waters of unfamiliar cultures, whilst trying to maintain the integrity of their organisational culture. Many leaders aren’t sure how to make this work, so it’s common for the company culture to become diluted and fragmented.
Here are a few tips to help maintain cultural integrity and workplace engagement in your organisation:
- Understand the difference between organisational and societal culture– There are things that may be indicative of the culture of your organisation that aren’t quite as prevalent in the societal culture. Recognise these differences and find ways to position your culture in a way that works within the construct of societal norms and expectations. This could seriously influence your recruitment process.
- Use purposeful language– Language drives culture. Period. Don’t make it cheesy “corporate-speak”, but do make it unique for your organisation - engage employees. This is NOT an opportunity to take something ugly and try and paint it pretty. If you want to be an innovative company, your language better elicit feelings of freedom, self-expression and autonomy so people believe that innovation is possible.
- Live your culture publicly– As a leader, you need to create opportunity to exemplify the very culture you wish to build or perpetuate. Culture can’t be reduced to some posters hanging around the workplace and screensavers. Leadership has to consistently and publicly reinforce the desired culture and reinforce it so don’t limit it to within the organisation. Find ways to express your organisational culture in the communities in which you do business. This also helps with recruitment and retaining top talent.
- Recruit according to culture– It’s tempting to hire people because they are an industry rock star, but if their temperament and approach to work don’t gel with your culture, it’s simply not a good fit. Let them see exactly how the culture is played out during the recruitment process and on-board so there are no surprises. Improperly represented culture is a key contributor to higher turnover and reducing employee engagement.
