The workplace culture club

1. Define your desired culture

Great companies have great cultures. They define their culture clearly and articulate it often. They reward behaviours that are consistent with the culture, sending clear messages about what is acceptable. They engage the whole organisation to develop their values. These values are real and lived. They ensure that the culture they create is the one necessary to deliver their organisation’s results. And they develop practices and policies that support and reinforce their unique culture.

2. Create a project plan to get to great

Creating a great workplace doesn’t just happen. It’s the result of management actions and it requires a detailed plan. It is essential that organisations create an environment where individuals can flourish and achieve their personal best. Any organisation that wants to achieve the standard of “great” must put in place the building blocks that will act as a foundation. They need to set clear targets, timeframes and deliverables, because this plan needs resources and energy to deliver results.

3. Secure senior leader buy-in / commitment

For the plan to be successful, it needs the full support of all senior leaders in the organisation. If this is ambivalent, it is doomed. Everybody will look to their leaders to see if they truly believe in this concept. The tone will come from the top. Is it just seen as the chief executive’s special project, or is there an authentic commitment from each and every director. Do they each feel accountable? Have they given it priority when communicating with their teams? Are they up for the challenge? Will they be open to the changes required? If the employees believe this has the absolute commitment from the top, then the whole organisation will align behind it and bring the energy, time and commitment necessary to make it happen.

4. Position the journey correctly with your organisation

This must be seen as a journey. The destination is clear but the path is not, and it will depend upon the starting point, which will only become clear after step 6. How the leadership position this journey is critical. It is essential that they be seen to be doing this for the correct reasons. It has great benefits from a business viewpoint, through increased productivity, reduced absenteeism and attrition, higher levels of collaboration, and innovation leading to higher performance – and, in the corporate sector, often higher profits and shareholder returns. But, above all, it is clearly the right course of action to create a better workplace for all. It is not about chasing a number or a place on a list, but about creating the best possible workplace where everyone can flourish.

5. Devolve ownership to appropriate levels

While the senior leaders need to support this journey and the HR department needs to facilitate it, the real ownership lies with each and every employee. For real success, organisations set up a team drawn from all departments, divisions and geographies, which is seen by all to be truly representative of all employees. This team will need a range of skills, from communication experts to analysts from project managers to marketers. This team will be the ambassadors for the process. They will address the concerns that employees may have. Their enthusiasm will silence the cynics; they will share their knowledge of the process and drive belief in this change programme.

6. Complete a full organisation assessment

The next step in the process is getting a base line. Where is the journey’s starting point? At this point you need to have an external organisation assess and benchmark your policies and practices. In addition, you need to get the views of your employees, often through a detailed and confidential survey, designed to capture and measure the levels of trust, pride and camaraderie that exist at a point in time.

Using open-ended questions will allow employees to express opinions about what they like and what they would like to see changed in the organisation. This survey can be augmented with focus groups and semi-structured interviews to get a deeper understanding of the issues.

7. Analyse and understand the results

Now that you have captured both quantitative and qualitative data, you need to draw the correct conclusions. Mistakenly, organisations often focus on the lowest scores, whereas it is often useful to compare results to local country, size or industry benchmarks to gain more insight. It is important that when you share your understanding of what the employees have said, they agree with your interpretation – otherwise they will become frustrated by the process. More complex organisations require more complex analytical tools.

8. Cascade the results throughout the organisation

Communication is at the key of any successful journey, to ensure you stay on the right path and that people support the process. A timely communication of the findings to all staff ensures they build belief in the process as a way to address concerns, issues and barriers to the creation of a great culture.

9. Agree a prioritised action plan to address identified gaps

Now that you have identified the areas that need to be addressed, you need to prioritise actions. It is tempting to go after quick wins, but this should be resisted. Focus should rest on the issues that will make the biggest difference to most employees. While targets need to be realistic, ambition is required. An organisation’s line managers have a large impact on whether employees experience a positive working environment, and these managers need to be supported in their own journey of improvement through training, mentoring or coaching.

10. Constantly communicate

While those close to the process will see all the work being completed and initiatives being implemented, others may not see these changes and may question the effectiveness of the process. Therefore, a good communications plan with regular updates can reassure them that the process is delivering results. Newsletters, blogs, videos, meetings and posters are all ways to keep communication constantly flowing and keep support for the programme high.

11. Implement changes and drive interventions

The required changes need to be implemented. New, improved practices will be introduced while others will be replaced. Some behaviours will need to change. In some cases, people may not be able to change and may need to find new roles. The organisation will be different. It will be a much better place.

12. Continuously monitor with ongoing dashboard

Getting to the standard of great is a wonderful achievement for any organisation. Staying at that level requires hard work and being willing to constantly review, assess and address issues, improve practices and behaviours, and learn from others. The creation of a dashboard with critical metrics helps keep the process delivering.

The organisation needs to be shown that a high-trust culture can be a real competitive advantage, which can deliver a high performance organisation – and that only by creating and sustaining a high-performance organisation can its potential be realised.

At this stage there is only one more thing to do. Celebrate a job well done!