Culture what does it mean? Well if you ask AI it’s this “Workplace culture is the set of values, beliefs, and behaviors that define the work environment of an organization. It's what makes a business unique and impacts how employees interact with each other”. In essence it is how you and your team behave in the workplace, those accepted behaviours and implied ways of working. To understand the culture of a business you have to understand what is happening beneath the behaviour you see.
When you read about culture there is much discussion around values, company goals being aligned to people’s goals and objectives, people feeling connected to their colleagues, the company and it’s mission. Of course that is true and I am a strong advocate of employees understanding their purpose at work and how what they do on a day to day basis contributes to the overall success of the business. Does this definition really explain culture though?
Many businesses have values, they talk about them on their website and display them in the workplace but if you stop and ask employees, can they tell you what they are, much less how they live them at work? Do they believe that senior management display and live these values? Do they know what the company mission is and more importantly how they help the business achieve it?
The values of many companies are pretty similar, with things like trust, integrity, we do what we say etc. How many times have you had a conversation with someone, in a company somewhere and been told I’ll get back to you at this time and then they don’t? And what about trust as a value, trusting employees to get the job done and then in the next breath demanding a return to work because we don’t trust employees to do their job unless we can see them doing it. Of course I am generalising and there are great people out there who do call you back and companies who embrace the flexibility of working from home. The point is though that the values are often incongruent with what actually happens.
Now I’m not saying don’t have values, just that if you do, they have to be embedded in your business. They should be demonstrably lived from the top down, they should be defined by employees not management and they should be reflected in everything you do and from day one for new employees.
Culture is a tricky thing and within an organisation there are often subcultures, in one team a manager is flexible about taking time for health appointments trusting their team to get the work done and in another team the manager wants them to make the time up, or take holiday, or be unpaid.
Senior management may enforce working in the office and then work from home themselves. Send emails after work and expect a response whilst talking about work-life balance. Some managers may actively manage performance and others don’t. Employees talk and so this inconsistency causes low morale, lack of trust and conflict, after all why should I have to follow the rules when so and so over there doesn’t and gets away with it.
All these examples are of the culture which is lived, good practices may be written down but in reality not followed. It is about expectations and consistency across the business, across teams and everyone being treated the same. If you run a small business often culture is built on those relationships, having clear boundaries and expectations is key because your team will see how you treat them versus a colleague and if its more favourable, this causes a sense of unfairness and disengagement.
Having policies, clear communication and a consistent approach will ensure that you create a culture of trust, accountability, sense of purpose and fairness, all of which make for a happy working environment. To invest in your culture and build a thriving workplace contact me at bev@bdhr.co.uk for a chat as to how I can help.
