Did you know that the company culture is an important factor for 46% of job seekers? That’s right. Many candidates are now seeking workplaces that do not just offer good money, but that the organization’s beliefs also intertwine with an employee’s personal values.
As leaders grapple with how to recruit top candidates and reduce employee turnover, they must rethink and build an organizational culture that unites people around a common cause and enables them to achieve their personal goals along with the company’s overall goals.
In this article, we discuss the importance of having a strong work culture for every organization, how important it is for employees to have personal goals, and how the HR and leadership can ensure that the two concepts align with each other.
What is Organizational Culture?
Organizational culture is the collection of values, goals, and overall vibe of a company. It includes different experiences, ways of thinking, beliefs, and future expectations. It is also intuitive, with repetitive habits and emotional responses of people working within the organization.
Organizational culture is also referred to as ‘Company Culture’. Founders and HR leaders usually develop and evangelize the culture, but in most cases, it’s a constantly changing, employee-powered concept.
Organizational culture describes how organizations get things done and why. It’s what makes a difference between a hardworking, satisfied team and a group of grumpy and dissatisfied strangers.
The Importance of Organizational Culture
Organizational culture plays a crucial role in helping companies achieve success. Companies with a strong work culture appeal more to candidates looking for a permanent position and opportunities for career growth. And usually, these are the top-level candidates that prove to be an asset to any organization.
In addition to this, company culture is important for several other reasons. A positive work culture fosters a healthy work environment for any team, and this results in enhanced productivity and employee engagement – two factors that play a key role in determining how successful an organization is.
Here are some other benefits of having a positive organizational culture:
- Effective onboarding
- Strong brand identity
- Decreased turnover
- Ability to retain top performers
- Transformational power
- Healthy work environment
How Important are Personal Goals?
Be it work or personal life, every individual has certain goals that they want to achieve. These goals may be short-term, such as getting an online certification, or they can be long-term, like mastering a job-specific skill.
Both short-term and long-term goals are incredibly important for success in the workplace (and outside too). They provide a sense of direction to an individual and give them something to work towards in their daily life.
However, an employee can only achieve their goals if they have a supportive environment at work that motivates them to do better. In other words, employees can achieve their personal goals if those goals align with the organizational culture.
5 Tips to Align the Organizational Culture with Employee Goals
There’s a lot of talk nowadays about what makes an organization ‘a great place to work at’. While there are a lot of factors involved, one of the key factors is how well an organization’s culture aligns with an employee’s personal goals.
While every organization’s culture is inherent and isn’t usually written down on a piece of paper, the HR and top-level executives have a strong influence over it.
Here are five ways to instil a positive culture within your organization that also aligns with employee goals:
1. Implementing Shared Values
Many people assume shared values are the same as company values, even though they are two different concepts. Company values relate directly to an organization’s mission and vision. In contrast, shared values have more to do with how employees relate to one another.
Having shared values at work means employees have similar work attitudes and principles as their colleagues. This can assist in instilling a feeling of camaraderie, a sense of belonging, and a shared interest in success. It can also reflect how an employee’s personal values align with the organization and the work they’re doing.
2. A DEI Strategy
Corporate social responsibility isn’t a new concept in the business world. However, more and more companies are now adopting the diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI) strategy in their operations and beyond as today’s employees seek organizations that are inculcating this strategy in their work culture.
According to research, effective DEI strategies aren’t ones that typically include a control-and-command approach. Instead, strategies that focus on principles, such as encouraging social accountability for change at the top level, have a greater impact on aligning organizational culture with employees’ goals.
3. One-on-One Meetings
Conducting one-on-one meetings with your employees might not seem like an important task, but on the contrary, putting in little effort and checking in on your employees through one-on-one meetings can go a long way.
Such meetings offer employees a chance to give (and receive) constructive feedback. It also aids managers in getting to know their employees better, including what their personal goals are. Using this feedback, you can create a culture that aligns well with your employees’ common goals, and make them feel important, which ultimately results in greater productivity.
4. Identifying Cultural Attributes that Foster Engagement
Every culture has certain positive (and negative) attributes, including:
- Fairness
- Trust
- Adaptability
- Results Orientation
- Teamwork
- Employee Engagement
- Accountability
- Learning Opportunities
- Purpose
- Communication
- Decision Making
- Shared goals
Although all of these attributes hold equal importance, some may be more prevalent than the others in workplaces, depending on the organization’s structure. It’s crucial for employers to identify which attributes play a key role in encouraging employee engagement within their organization, and use those attributes to engage their employees on a greater level.
5. Learning and Development (L&D) Strategy
In today’s world, the learning and development (L&D) strategy is a critical component of every organization’s culture. This strategy seeks to support employees’ professional development and build capabilities across the company, on time, and in a cost-effective manner.
Most employees have a personal goal of improving their professional knowledge and skills for career advancements. Hence, incorporating the L&D strategy in your organization’s culture can assist in aligning it with the employees’ personal goals. Encourage employees to help each other, motivate senior level executives to provide mentorship to younger employees, and give all employees a chance to learn something new every week (if not every day).
Summing it Up
Having a proper system in place within your organization can only take you so far – what truly gives companies an edge over their competitors is their work culture, which determines several things, including the calibre of employees joining your organization, employee turnover and productivity, and most importantly, sustainable success and growth as an organization.
Therefore, if you feel your organization is lacking a proper culture or the culture has negative vibes, it’s time to dig deep, find the issue, and work on a solution with your employees, because teamwork makes the dream work!
