Many books have been written about creating a culture of success. But there is very little information circulating about how to merge traditional management theory with the very untraditional (and even virtual) environments we find ourselves working in today.
My free eBook How to Cultivate Success in Real-Time offers a path of convergence between experience-based best practices and the “learn as you go” demands of real-time execution that managers and leaders now face. Here is a special preview of part 4, called 5 Steps to Creating a Real-Time Culture of Success:
Step 1: Build on Shared Values
A lackluster corporate culture often develops because of what is not present in an organization, and over time a fuzzy vision and a lack of clearly articulated values emerge. To create your culture of success, first you must construct a foundation of enduring, well-communicated values:
Collectively decide what the company stands for and believes in.
Model and convey these values consistently to employees, customers, and in the marketplace.
Ensure that decisions, communications, and standard practices actively reflect and sustain these values.
A value is a lasting belief that specific behaviors or modes of conduct are socially or personally preferable. Shared values provide structure to guide the judgments and behaviors of individuals within a group, creating consensus, unity of purpose, and greater efficacy. When an individual’s values don’t match those of the group, conflict (internal and/or external) builds. If conflict between personal and group values (associated with the work environment) is significant, it creates disengagement, increases stress, and can contribute to a toxic workplace. So it is important to hire people who can buy in to your shared organizational values.
Explicitly communicating and demonstrating shared values on a day-to-day basis allows you to attract and retain employees whose values align with those of the organization. This alignment of values enables employees to engage fully with the corporate culture, enhancing overall satisfaction and performance.
To define values within an existing group, each individual must be allowed to actively participate in the dialogue honestly and openly. Individuals must decide whether they support each value, and the group must come to a consensus over selected values. Once values are established, they should be clearly articulated to future employees early in the recruitment process. Then by accepting a job offer, new employees are also agreeing to accept and support the organization’s shared values.
Articulate Shared Values
If executives and managers want employees to behave in a certain way, then it is up to them to set the standard. For example, if managers want to keep the mood in the office light and somewhat playful, then they must behave that way themselves. Simply defining shared values isn’t enough. Executives, managers and employees need to talk about them—publicly and regularly.
For example, publicly recognizing actions that are consistent with the company’s shared values articulates and reinforces those values in a very concrete way. Some ways you might do this include:
Using photographs of employees “living the values” in a company newsletter.
Recognizing customers who exemplify one or more of your shared values.
Asking employees to publicly congratulate co-workers who typify one or more shared values.
Codify and Embed Shared Values
Start by codifying your shared values; i.e. make them part of the company’s “code of conduct.” At the most basic level, this means having them written down and easily accessible—in the employee handbook, for example. In our increasingly digital work environments, placing shared corporate values in a searchable online format makes a lot of sense. Of course, embedding shared values into your high performance culture requires more than simply adding them to company documents; it requires that everyone think, speak and act in terms of those values in all aspects of their work, every single day.
Here are some other ways your company might begin to embed and reinforce shared values:
Post values to your HR platform or intranet.
Install decals, posters or banners throughout your facilities.
List the values on your company’s careers website and include them in job postings.
Ensure that recruitment/selection practices demonstrate and reference shared values.
Create a presentation about company values to share with new employees as part of onboarding activities. Use it as a refresher for everyone else at company events.
Create cartoons, icons, badges or images that represent each of the values and use them to acknowledge employees who demonstrate the respective value(s).
Name meeting rooms or other areas of your facility after specific shared values.
Use individual values as themes for activities or events.
Base elements of performance feedback on how well managers and employees demonstrate organizational values.
When problems arise, regularly tie solutions back to shared values. This provides both a touchstone for the person struggling to solve the problem and a broader demonstration of the organization’s commitment to its stated values.
Making the right hire is one of the hardest tasks that businesses ask HR to help perform. And while there are a number of strategies that can help you (shameless plug: maybe an applicant tracking system from TribeHR?), still it can feel like the best prospects simply aren’t interested in getting new jobs.
Networking, recruiting agencies, online job portals, and even beautiful robust applicant tracking systems (sorry!) won’t always cut it.
So what if you could just buy them out?
Flickr/A.Currell
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2011 was another challenging year for human resource management. With ever-changing laws, policies and regulations, coupled with continued economic difficulties and the ever-present threat of downsizing, the only constant demand for HR managers was "change."
With more of the same expected for 2012, TribeHR has rounded up five of last year’s most useful and insightful peer-reviewed HR papers.1. "Strategic Human Resource Management in Small and Growing Firms: Aligning Valuable Resources."
Hargis, M.B., & Bradley, D.B. (2011). Academy of Strategic Management Journal. Preview.
Michael Hargis at the University of Central Arkansas, and Don Bradley at East Carolina University, take a look
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The reality TV world may contend that crab fisherman have the deadliest job, but “desk jockey” may not be far behind. People are increasingly becoming more sedentary, and our bad habits are pushing us towards a healthcare epidemic.America in crisis
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What we didn’t mention was Marc’s frighteningly long list of academic credentials.
He has a BSc in Theoretical Physics, two Master of Science degrees(Nuclear Physics and Applied Mathematics), an MBA from Wilfred Laurier University(where he is a Finance Lecturer), and a PhD in Neuroscience(his thesis was called “Dynamic Judgments of Spatial Extent: Behavioural, Neural, and Computational Studies”).
Marc Hurwitz and Samantha Hurwitz
Clearly, Marc Hurwitz is a thought leader in a number of different fields. His HR specialty, though, is understanding
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A long day feels like a long day no matter where you live. In some countries, though, the working day actually does last for a few more hours.
In July, we looked at overtime laws from around the world. This week, we pulled data from the OECD to find out which country has the longest average working day. We also compared unpaid working time by gender. Guess who spends more time gardening; the answer might surprise you!
Don’t forget to check out all of the HR infographics from TribeHR (maker of awesome HR software).
Do you operate a
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Research from the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management has found that past appraisals of an evaluating manager’s performance(even when completely made-up) have a dramatic effect on that manager’s view of their staff.
Can you supercharge a performance appraisal with flattery? Flickr/Roadsidepictures
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If you find that you or your staff are coming into work tired, or are exhausted by the end of the day, you aren’t alone. In fact, you’re in very good company.
Only 31% of Americans have gotten enough sleep every night in the past month. 11% didn’t get enough sleep on any night.
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Take a stab at talking about workplace violence.
Don’t let your workplace be consumed by the threat of violence. Matt Wharton/Flickr
When incivility and workplace bullying descend into violence, the financial and emotional toll can be stunning.
In the United States, there are 1.7 million violent victimizations in the workplace every year. 1.4 million people are regularly abused at work.
The hidden costs of lost productivity from turnover, absenteeism, and other factors range from $17,000 to $24,000 per victim. Estimates of individual settlements from employers who tolerate workplace violence range from $500,000 to a whopping $3,000,000 per victim.
All told, workplace violence costs the
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