Culture works for businesses, culture works for employees, culture works internally in companies to facilitate organizational change, stop churn and make productivity soar.
We solve the problem of churn, lack of productivity and inefficient or noncompliant internal processes. We are experts at implementing organization-wide value and role alignment. We are not like other HR companies. We think and live outside the box. Our team fits into your culture.
Your purpose creates our success. Our focus is culture infused QGPs. Our team impacts culture & talent by aligning & integrating people and processes.
Our team transforms role alignment which in turn increases engagement, creating an operationalized culture, aligned values and most importantly… RESULTS.
Top Proactive Recruitment Strategies
NewsToday’s job market is HOT! As an employer, how can you attract the right talent and build your bench?
The answer? Proactive recruitment.
Let’s talk about proactive recruiting – what is it and what are some strategies your business can implement to do it well?
What is Proactive Recruitment?
Proactive recruitment is exactly what it sounds like. If you’ve visited the Culture Works site or have been in the human resources space for long enough, chances are you’ve heard of it.
According to Ideal, proactive recruitment is “the process of identifying and engaging with candidates long before a position comes open.” This means they’re not actually “candidates” at that point. “Rather, they’re people with skill sets in a given geographic area and job role, and you build relationships with them.”
Proactive recruitment is a practical tool to utilize, and with remote work being more popular than ever, proactive recruitment has become even more tangible in the workforce.
Top Proactive Recruitment Strategies
As we wrote in our article on proactive recruiting to build a killer bench, most companies today practice a reactive recruitment approach. Reactive recruiting means not posting about your business or job until a position needs to be filled.
Proactive recruitment searches for the right people before you need them and is a much more effective method. In fact, at Culture Works we believe building a killer bench can take six months to a year.
Here are our top proactive recruitment strategies.
Begin the Search
When it comes to proactive recruitment, the first thing to do is look for and reach out to prospective candidates.
Remember, you don’t want to be reaching out to just anyone. Ask yourself, what kind of person will be a long-term, engaged candidate with an interest in becoming an employee at my business?
This requires narrowing down your search and getting down to the nitty-gritty of who you want to hire in the first place. Consider partnering with your team to create an ‘ideal candidate profile’ for each future role that might need to be filled.
Find candidates by using:
Engage Prospects
When it comes to engaging prospective candidates, personalization is key. After deciding who your ideal candidate is, you must pique their interest.
Although you might have found someone or a group of prospects, hiring is a two-way street. Remember, they aren’t the candidate yet.
Engage prospective candidates by sending them a personalized message. You can:
Nurture Relationships
In sales, lead nurturing is “the process of developing and maintaining relationships with customers at every stage of their journey, usually through marketing and communications messaging.”
Similarly, in this phase of proactive recruitment, you need to develop and maintain relationships with prospective candidates.
Let the stats speak for themselves. According to Finances Online, 63% of candidates find employer communication inadequate during the recruiting process. Let this statistic encourage you to nurture relationships with prospective candidates.
Nurturing these relationships helps keep prospective candidates interested, and likely, with proper nurturing, your business will be top of mind if they begin to seek out a job.
Nurturing might look like keeping in touch through:
Convert Prospects into Applicants (Then Employees!)
At this point in your proactive recruitment strategy, you’ve laid a solid foundation for prospective candidates and future hires.
When a job now opens up, chances are the individuals in this funnel will be encouraged to apply. After you receive their application, however, it’s up to you to make sure the experience with your business exceeds their expectations.
Josh Tolan, Spark Hire’s CEO and Founder says, “In a competitive market, the ability to move candidates through the process quickly can be the difference between making the hire and not.
Efficiency, communication, and understanding are especially key in the world of remote work. If you don’t have a team designated to streamline your hiring processes, consider implementing recruiting software to stay on top of things.
A Final Word
Surely, the tips listed above are not all you can do to maximize your proactive recruitment strategy. Read on to learn more about how your business can attract the right talent and proactive recruitment. And, happy hiring!
How to ensure successful culture integration post-M&A
NewsThe M&A process is an exciting but lengthy one. It can last anywhere from months to years depending on the size of the company involved. During this period, the merging of two company cultures can create culture shock, damaging productivity, profitability, and morale. Let’s talk about how to avoid that!
Entering into a merger can be challenging for both companies. Whatever the reasoning behind the merger, one thing is for sure—change is coming. According to Harvard Business Review, between 70 and 90% of mergers and acquisitions fail. A culture clash is often to blame for this extremely high number.
Due Diligence
Preparing for a merger or acquisition requires time and planning. A large portion of this time is dedicated to conducting due diligence. Not sure how to go about your due diligence? Check out our due diligence checklist to ensure a smooth transition during an M&A.
Due diligence happens during the process of an M&A — But what about the potential culture shock post-M&A?
Leadership can help bring together the best of both cultures.
Employee engagement doesn’t have to suffer when you merge two different cultures. The leaders of both companies hold the power to protect employees and help them successfully share their cultures. One strategy is a weekly leadership meeting in which everyone steps back from the chaos of the merger to highlight the advantages of both cultures and strategize on ways to bring the best of each culture together to create a new, optimized company culture that works for everyone.
Creating a successful company culture requires an investment from everyone on the team and is essential to retaining employees and keeping them engaged in their work. Here’s how to get started.
Redefine your company’s core values.
Your culture and your purpose are defined by your core values. Merging two different sets of core values can be challenging. In many cases, the acquiring company attempts to keep its core values and share them with the other team. This frequently results in a sense of disenfranchisement by the acquired company’s employees and results in reduced morale, productivity, and in turn, profitability. A more egalitarian approach incorporates a process in which the leadership, often facilitated by an outside coach or consulting team, finds the best elements of both sets of principles and works to merge them, creating a new set of core values that speak to the merged company.
Training and development.
As you work to merge two different cultures together, it’s important to engage in team-building activities and ongoing training for all levels of the organization.
Another aspect of the development of your team is ensuring your team members are aligned in their roles. Role alignment is essential to the success of your new merged business. When employees are aligned in roles that match their strengths they will be more engaged and excited about work.
Through training and development programs, team members who are not role aligned can discover their optimal roles and, in the process of reconfiguring the companies in the merger, change roles to be more productive and set up for success.
Check-in with employees regularly.
During a merger, it is essential that leadership and HR communicate regularly with all employees to ensure their concerns are being addressed. This can be done through informal check-ins, and/or formal employee engagement surveys. Monthly performance reviews can focus on an employee’s individual contributions to the overall company goals and assure them that their role is secure in the transition
Communication
One of the top reasons mergers and acquisitions fail is a lack of communication. When communication is lacking between managers and employees, employees are left asking questions: Why is the company merging? How will I be affected? How will I be supported throughout this merger? Am I about to lose my job?
Lack of communication with your employees may leave them confused and unmotivated to work hard for the newly merged company. Keep employees updated on the context of the merger, the timeline of what’s next, and other frequently asked questions related to the merger. Like restructuring the Org chart.
Employee engagement before and after the merger.
Analyzing employee data before and after the merger can help you better understand how your organization has been impacted by the merger. In doing so, you can identify areas of your culture that may need work.
Employee retention
Employees will likely feel on edge during this major transition. They may be faced with fears of losing their jobs, being asked to re-apply for their job, or drastic company culture changes. Losing employees during the merger will negatively affect profitability. So focus on communication, incentives, clear goals, and strategies to keep your team engaged and in the know.
How to Prevent the Great Resignation in your Business
NewsCBS News reported that in the second half of 2021, over 20 million people left their jobs for various reasons. Reasons for the increased resignation rates are likely due to culture, compensation, and flexibility. Although this is an alarming statistic, there are a few steps business owners can take to prevent the great resignation from affecting their business.
What is the Great Resignation?
The Great Resignation is described by Investopedia as a “higher-than-normal quit rate of American workers that began in the spring of 2021 and continued into the fall.”
Why are so many people quitting their jobs?
Over the course of 2 years, people have created a clear image of what they want their work-life balance to look like. The requirement to work from home over the last few years created a world of possibilities for many companies. Employees now understand what is possible, in terms of workplace flexibility.
The collective experience of the last two years has also caused more people to focus on company culture and the employee experience. According to IDC, some of the most important focuses in terms of employee experience include:
Employee Burnout and the Great Resignation
Another area of employee experience that has become a huge topic of discussion for most employers, is burnout.
Indeed released a study on workplace burnout that reported: “67% of all workers believe burnout has worsened during the pandemic.” They also found that “53% of millennials were already burned out pre-COVID, and remain the most affected population with 59% experiencing it [burnout] today.”
The chart featured below shows the level of burnout among different generations over the span of COVID-19.
How to spot employee burnout
As mentioned above, Forbes reported that even companies with a positive work culture are being affected by the Great Resignation. This is most likely due to the increased burnout rate over the last few years.
So, one of the most preventative steps an employer can look out for is employee burnout. Forbes lists the three warning signs of burnout as:
How can you prevent the Great Resignation from influencing your company?
There are actions your company can take to prevent your employee retention rate from taking a hit this year. Companies that have provided a great work environment are also being affected by the Great Resignation, so how can you retain your employees?
Let’s look into some preventive measures that companies can take in 2022.
Foster Positive Company Culture
There are a LOT of factors that go into creating positive company culture. Some aspects of work that improve by strong company culture include:
As you try to attract and retain the best and brightest workers in your business, you can be sure that potential employees are looking for a place where they will feel valued, and enjoy coming to work. That doesn’t always mean smiles and high-fives. Positive company culture means one where accountability, high standards, and the ability to give and receive feedback are present.
At Culture Works, we start with purpose, people, and process. First: align with a higher purpose, then, get your people on board with how they bring value and are integral to the company’s success, and finally, implement processes that put HR and operations into action to make company culture repeatable and actionable every day.
Implementing HR processes is at the core of building aligned organizational culture and reaching your business goals.
Not all team-building exercises involve trust falls or baby pictures. There are many team-building exercises that don’t suck. Some examples include:
Read our blog to see if your company checks off the 5 signs of positive company culture.
Learning and Development
Culture Works believes that Learning and Development (L&D) plays a major role in fostering a positive and productive work environment.
Investing in your team means more than buying lunch every month (although, who doesn’t appreciate a free meal!?). Quality L&D means investing in your employees daily and encouraging their personal and professional growth. One of the best ways to invest in the learning and development of your employees is to provide additional courses that increase your employee’s skills and bring them to the next level, so they can be promoted within!
Allowing for a Flexible Work Environment
CNBC reports that 57% of workers require employers to provide options for a flexible work environment. This means creating a space where employees can successfully complete their roles remotely, in person, or with a hybrid work model.
The moral of the story is: A flexible workplace can be the difference between you and another employer.
Combating burnout, finding value-aligned employees, and creating a positive company culture are only a few ways you can work to prevent the Great Resignation from affecting your business.
How long has it been since you thought about your company’s culture? Do you bring your company’s values into your daily conversations? We’ve put together an article explaining how you can start setting team goals, with your values in mind, to foster company culture and increase employee retention. Read more here.
What’s the Difference Between a Leader and a Manager?
NewsAs Julias Campbell says in Remember the Titans, “attitude reflects leadership, captain.” This reigns true for the workplace as well. Leadership is the driving force of your company’s culture.
One question we often receive from clients is, “What is the difference between a leader and a manager?” Let’s dive into the differences between the two, and the impact they have on the organization.
Manager vs. Leader
As you have probably seen in any workplace, leaders have people who follow them and get behind their ideas and initiatives. While a manager simply has people who work for them. The biggest difference between the two is the influence and impact they have on the people with whom they interact.
As a business owner, ensuring you have managers who have strong leadership qualities is essential to your success.
Some of the most influential characteristics of a leader include:
The characteristics of a strong manager that you also want to be on the lookout for include:
A manager who has a blend of the two sets of characteristics has a real opportunity to drive change and create a positive workplace culture.
BoredPanda provides great illustrations that sum up the differences between a leader and simply a boss. The common theme between all the images is the difference in processes and the rhetoric used in the office.
Taking Leadership Beyond Management
At Culture Works we understand that leading a team, an organization, or just a single person can be challenging. Creating success for your company as a leader requires a well-thought-out and actionable plan.
Here are the foundational steps you can take to step closer into the leadership role:
First, begin with defining your purpose.
Create a vision and purpose for yourself and your team. Effectively communicate this purpose with your team and other employees at all levels. This creates a cohesive company spirit that makes everyone feel included.
Next, show that you are passionate about your purpose and vision.
Enthusiasm is contagious. If you show you care, your employee will care more in return. If people see that they are important to implementing the company’s vision, they will feel important and appreciated.
Show your employees the example of what they should be doing, by doing it yourself.
If you hold yourself to a higher standard than those around you, your employees will rise to the standard you set.
Maintain flexibility in how you reach your goals.
While your goals should be fixed, the way you attain them can change based on circumstances. Stay determined and focused on achieving goals, while changing course when necessary.
As you begin to create these goals for your team, be sure to consider the decisions that will create sustainable success.
Quick fixes and wins do not build momentum or increase employee engagement. Planning for long-term success will allow your employees to feel safe and secure with their employment.
Have a dual focus as you navigate through your company’s decisions.
Be sure to keep the big picture in mind always, but pay attention to the small details that build the big picture. Create your business strategy by using those small details.
Want to know more about how you can take your leadership or your team’s leadership beyond management? Read more on our taking leadership beyond management blog.
Hiring Trends in the New Year
NewsThe hiring process has changed over the last year and will continue to change in 2022.
Culture Works believes that intentional hiring can be achieved in the new year with the use of role alignment and culture operations.
These are some of the tools that Culture Works uses with clients, but what other hiring trends are coming in 2022?
Proactive Recruitment
A buzzword that is being thrown around in the HR sector is “proactive recruitment.” Well, it turns out that proactive recruitment is more than a buzzword, it’s also a practical tool to utilize.
Proactive recruitment is exactly what it sounds like. A company might actively talk to candidates who are already hired in another role at another company. It sounds risky, but the main hiring trend of 2022 is that anything goes. The remote work culture has additionally made proactive recruitment more tangible in the workforce.
Remote Work is Here to Stay
LinkedIn did a worldwide analysis on the job market and determined that the most sought-after jobs in the new year are remote.
This can be explained for many reasons. One of the biggest draws towards remote work is that location doesn’t matter anymore! A couple of years ago, the “Are you willing to relocate?” section of job applications might have been a scary thing to check off. Now, relocating isn’t required as often.
How Does Remote Work Affect Employee Benefits for the Future?
Business Insider warns future job seekers to look out for “too good to be true” scenarios. This means that a company may offer a tight-knit community full of happy hours, free lunches, and other one-off perks.
While these offers are tempting, there are sometimes factors about the workplace that are not ideal to work in (despite the tempting happy hour offers).
Some questions to ask about benefits and company culture in 2022 might include:
These questions are a starting point for understanding what companies are painting themselves as—compared to how they actually operate.
How to Narrow Your Search (AKA Avoid the Black Hole of LinkedIn!)
The remote workforce often means remote recruiting and hiring.
If your company posts a job offer, chances are hundreds of applicants are going to see the job posting on LinkedIn. So, how do you narrow down your talent search in the age of “one-click” job recruitment?
On LinkedIn’s blog, they highlight the best practices to use as a company using LinkedIn for hiring. Some of their main focuses for LinkedIn specifically include:
These are all great tips for after people have applied for a job through LinkedIn, but the time is just as valuable as your own. How can you make the process as simple but effective as possible? Some great guidelines to follow include:
The communication process through hiring has shifted. If a potential hire has spent an hour crafting a cover letter and application, and they never hear back regardless of the outcome, then there is less credibility tied to your business based on word-of-mouth.
Market Yourself to Potential Employees
If your company doesn’t have a marketing strategy, you’re already behind.
While your competitors are marketing themselves to clients and future employees on various social media platforms, you have stayed in the same networking circle.
People love and value the human side of a company. So, if your company isn’t ready to step into hiring an outsourced marketing agency, there are small steps you can take to start attracting high-value hires.
One of these steps is sharing client and employee testimonials and stories on LinkedIn or any social platforms your company has. This builds a trusting brand that new hires will be looking for when applying for jobs.
Top Skills to Be on the Lookout For
Okay, now you’re active on LinkedIn and have put effort into marketing yourself to potential employees — What’s next?
There are top skills that are being sought after in the 2022 job hiring market. These skills revolve around an individual being adaptable to situations and roles. Along with being adaptable, these following traits should be considered as a hiring manager listed by Hire Digital:
Are you positive your company has a positive company culture? Oftentimes the positive phrases plastered over a company website don’t ring true for current employees. Learn more by reading the five signs you have a company culture on our blog.
How to Set New Year’s Resolutions that Foster Company Culture
NewsYou’ve made it to the new year, congratulations! There are often a lot of goals and New Year’s resolutions that people make for their personal life. The good news is, there’s a way to set goals in the office that foster company culture.
Setting team goals for 2022
Maybe your office normally sets goals each New Year. How realistic are the goals normally?
We love the optimism of shooting for the stars, truly. But maybe “Fly to Mars with Elon Musk” isn’t as doable this year. It helps as a team to create a combination of goals that are tangible and goals that are long shots. Creating a balanced list means that there will most likely be moments of checking a goal off the list— which feels great— to learning moments.
One important aspect of setting team goals is speaking in simple terms. The simpler the goal, the easier it will be to reach that goal and check it off the list!
Keep in mind that simple language does not mean vague. Another factor to consider is to keep goals specific. For example, simply stating “In 2022 I want the team to get closer” is hard to navigate because there are no tangible ways to measure the success of a goal. One way to switch the language to be more specific could be, “In 2022 we want to have 10 different team bonding days marked in the calendar.”
See? Much more manageable. If you need help figuring out what team bonding exercises to do, read our blog, “5 team-bonding exercises that don’t suck.”
Creating a Collaborative Culture
So, what happens after you make the perfect list of goals for 2022? A list is only as strong as the collaborative effort that continues on with those goals.
Forbes discusses how to create attainable goals, with the main tips centered around:
Let’s dive deeper into how these tips can be implemented into your team.
Accountability in the workplace
As mentioned above, tangible goals will lead to real results. But how does accountability play into reaching a point where real results are accomplished?
Accountability is key.
If the set goals are simple and clear for everyone, then accountability will be easier to implement. For example, using the example above of the goal “In 2022 we want to have 10 different team bonding days marked in the calendar.”
Well, If it’s halfway through 2022 and there has only been one team-bonding activity, with no more planned in sight, then a conversation can be had between the team about how to still make that goal achievable.
Identify internal challenges
The learning process is a part of any goal. As a team, it’s important to identify the internal challenges that could be limiting the ability to achieve the New Year’s resolutions.
Taking a step back and looking at the processes that are set in place is a great way to start looking at internal challenges. What is holding the team back from achieving their goals? It might be resources, time, culture fit, and everything in between that impacts human nature. If the internal challenges are identified and addressed, then a positive company culture is more likely to follow.
Are you positive your company has a positive company culture? Learn the “Five Indications of a Positive Company Culture” on our blog.
5 Team-Building Exercises That Don’t Suck
News5 Team-Building Exercises That Don’t Suck
Here, stand on a table and fall backward into my arms: 5 team-building exercises that don’t suck
New year, same drill! (If you want your employees to actually enjoy team bonding, that is).
Picture this: your manager walks into your office, tells you to be in the common room in 15 minutes for ‘team-building’ exercises. What’s your first instinct? Speaking from experience… we’d argue you’re thinking “run!”
But what if we told you the days of dreaded, forced team-building exercises are over? Believe it or not, it’s possible to make team-building a positive experience for everyone involved. We know… ground-breaking.
In order to make team-building effective and fun, you need to gain your team’s buy-in. In other words, you need to understand your team members.
For some teams, a beach bonfire or a backyard BBQ will be enough to bring employees together. Other teams, however, may want something structured, exercises that can be done in the office together, or team-building that can be completed in 20 minutes. If that sounds like a better fit for your team, here are a few simple, effective team-building exercises for you to try today!
The Human Knot
Depending on your team’s ability to communicate with each other, this exercise should only take about 20-30 minutes! You can include anywhere between 8-20 people in this activity. Start by creating a circle with your team with everyone standing shoulder to shoulder.
Once everyone is in the circle, each member puts their right hand out and grabs someone across the circle. Then, have them repeat this with their left hands. Once everyone is holding two different people’s hands, it’s time to untangle!
This team-building activity builds communication, teamwork, and comradery between coworkers. Disclaimer: this may be a better activity to try out post-pandemic.
Blindfolded Drawing
This next team-building activity, blindfolded drawing, can serve as a socially distanced option! This exercise will enhance your team’s communication skills.
For this exercise, one person has a pen and paper, the other has a picture of the organizer’s choice. The employee with the picture has to describe in detail how to draw what they’re looking at. The employee with a pen and paper has to interpret what the other is saying and draw what they think they are describing. This one is sure to solicit some laughs!
Salt and Pepper
Is your team mostly new or particularly large and needs some help getting to know each other? If so, this activity is perfect for you!
Ensure you have an even number of participants before beginning. Start by creating a list of well-known pairs (salt/pepper, peanut butter/jelly, yin/yang … you get the idea) and write these pairs on separate pieces of paper.
Once all pairs are written, tape one word on each person’s back– but don’t let them see it! After everyone has a word, allow everyone to mingle. Players are only allowed to ask yes or no questions to try to figure out what their tag says.
Once they’ve figured out their word, they need to find their pair. After everyone has found their partner, instruct them to sit down and discuss 3 things they have in common or 3 interesting facts about one another.
Virtual Trivia
Even in remote situations, team building is important. As many companies continue to work remotely in 2021, it’s important to implement a few team-building activities to boost morale and connect teams. A great way to team-build remotely is to play a game of company-wide trivia.
In order to facilitate this event, you’ll need a host to ask questions, count answers, and keep score. Divide your team into smaller teams and organize breakout rooms in Zoom so they can discuss each set of questions. Each section of questions should include about 5-10 questions.
Think about common trivia subjects, but also get creative! You can even include a company trivia section with questions about your CEO and leadership team.
Whose Office Is it, Anyway?
Another way for your team to bond while working remotely is to play ‘Whose Office is it, Anyway?’ Request for each team member to send in a photo of their home office. Have everyone on the team guess whose workspace is whose.
Continue the game with Whose Coffee Mug is it, Anyway? Whose desktop background is it Anyway? And Whose View is it Anyway? This is a simple, easy, and quick way to unify your team and have some fun while they’re out of the office.
As we mentioned before, team building doesn’t have to be something your employees dread. Think of a few simple ways to create a community within your company, while hopefully sharing a laugh!
For those interested in learning more about how to nail your remote company culture, read on here.
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April 11, 2021/by Becca JonesFive Signs You Have a Positive Company Culture
NewsAre you positive? Positive that you have a great company culture, that is? There are a LOT of factors that go into creating positive company culture. Let’s look at some of the aspects of work that are improved by strong company culture.
As you try to attract and retain the best and brightest workers in your business, you can be sure that potential employees are looking for a place where they will feel valued, and enjoy coming to work. That doesn’t always mean smiles and high-fives. Positive company culture means one where accountability, high standards and the ability to give and receive feedback are present.
There is a LOT of talk in the Human Resources space about company culture. But what does a positive company culture actually look like in practice? And does your company have a positive company culture?
What are the green flags that let you know your culture is headed in the right direction? Here’s a brief overview of what to look for:
You Invest in Your Team
In general, “you get what you pay for” rings true for company culture, especially with leadership investing time, resources and energy into their teams. But what does this look like in practice?
Learning and Development
Culture Works is a big advocate for consistently including Learning and Development (L&D) into the company culture. Investing in your team means more than buying lunch every month (although, who doesn’t appreciate a free meal!?). Quality L&D means investing in your employees daily.
At Culture Works, we start with purpose, people, and process. First: align with a higher purpose, then, get your people on board with how they bring value and are integral to the company’s success, and finally, implement processes that put HR and operations into action to make company culture repeatable and actionable every day.
Implementing HR processes is at the core of building aligned organizational culture and reaching your business goals.
Not all team-building exercises involve trust falls or baby pictures. There are many team-building exercises that don’t suck. Some examples include:
Team building and emotional intelligence days are becoming the standard in modern office spaces. But what does continuing education look like?
Continuing Education
If a company is truly invested in employees and their future, then they are committed to that employees personal and professional growth and development. While on the job training works for vertical depth of knowledge, it takes outside learning to increase the breadth of experience.
Companies can offer to pay for classes or courses that will improve the employee’s skillset or understanding of the industry.
An example of a company that values continued education is Starbucks. Starbucks offers financial aid for any employee who is pursuing higher education.
Their website states, “We’re committed to the success of our partners (employees). Every eligible U.S. partner working part -or full time receives 100% tuition coverage for a first-time bachelor’s degree through Arizona State University’s online program.”
The result of their investment can be seen in their loyal employees, positive social media presence, and ability to retain workers when other industries are struggling.
Maintaining Neutrality
Politics in the workplace have never been a great idea. This is, even more, the case now when we have seen political differences creating turmoil within office spaces across the country.
The best strategy to keep the peace is an absence of politics at work. This has become very apparent with the recent shift in vaccine mandates. Read our Founder, Kristi Pastore’s letter to companies who are managing the changes in mandated vaccines HERE.
Creating a “neutral space” does not mean that there is no room for conversation about company policy. It does, however, mean that those discussions will be more productive if they are held in a monitored, structured environment.
At Culture Works, we know that a scared workforce is an unproductive workforce. If the political views of coworkers are hindering anyone’s ability to perform their job, that’s a culture issue that can be addressed, remedied, and cleared for a more peaceful work environment going forward. Making sure that employees feel safe at work should be at the forefront of any company’s initiatives.
A healthy conversation in a scheduled meeting instead of gossiping at the coffee machine will make work a better place to be.
Retention and Role Alignment
What if we told you your prospects are interviewing you as much as you are interviewing them?
If you’re looking to hire new employees, they will evaluate your company to see if it’s a good fit for them just as you are evaluating whether they are a good fit for you. One key component any new hire is going to seek out is the current company culture. Long-term employees are a sign of positive company culture as are Glass Door reviews, articles your employees post on social media, and whether or not you promote from within.
Role alignment means that a company sees an individual as more than just a cog in a machine. When a company values role alignment they may move an employee into a role that is better for that employee’s strengths. Role alignment means tracking an employee’s growth and development and adding or taking away responsibilities when it creates opportunities for growth for that employee.
The foundation of a business can crack if new hires don’t align with the company’s core purpose. Our team prioritizes role alignment in every recruiting engagement we participate in. Why? We’ve observed time after time that when your employees are aligned in their roles, they are more likely to succeed, be productive and provide long-term value.
A Flexible Work Environment
We live in an age of flexible work environments. Half the country is working off a hybrid work model, others are fully remote, and some are back to going into the office daily.
Creating a flexible work environment, however, goes deeper than where your employees are working from. Going into 2022, there will be an urgent need for more flexible work hours and other considerations.
We’re not saying let your employees work for one hour, then go surfing the rest of the day. Rather, if you’re on a Zoom meeting call with clients or employees who are working from home, there is a chance that a distraction that is unavoidable will come up.
This might mean a kid running into the frame or someone at the door who needs a sign-off on a delivery. There can and should be flexibility in these situations insofar as it doesn’t take away from the productivity of the meeting.
The biggest way to show you’re flexible in the workplace is if something like this comes up during a call, just take a moment to pause the conversation until everyone can be fully engaged again.
Does all this warm fuzzy stuff make you worried that your employees will be less productive? We’d challenge you to invite your team to Make Mistakes at Work. Read on to know why!
What it looks like to work for (and with!) Culture Works
NewsHave you wondered what happens behind the scenes at the Culture Works office? Or, what partnering with us looks like? We have many roles and systems in place to make sure we provide the best possible service for your company, which also means hiring the right people.
Culture Works is Your Recruiting Partner
If you partner with Culture Works, we help make the recruitment process as painless as possible (yes, there are many ways to do this without scrolling through hundreds of LinkedIn applications).
We follow a unique process that aligns with your internal hiring team to create and implement a customized recruitment strategy.
What this process looks like in practice is:
Value and role alignment is at the core of everything we do in recruiting. Why is it important? With the right people in roles that enhance their strengths and interests, you will likely see more productive employees, more engaged employees, and a happier workforce all around.
Value Alignment
Our team spends countless hours creating a “bench” of great talent. So, when you’re ready to find a great team member, we know just the people to start your search.
Glassdoor published a study that highlights what employees value most in the workplace. The culture and values of a company are what employees placed the most emphasis on. Translation? Value alignment is extremely important in ensuring your top employees remain with your company.
What do we mean when we say value alignment? Value alignment is the process by which your established company values are a match with the candidate you’re speaking with. If your employees value honesty and transparency, but that’s not part of your core functions as a company, you will likely run into problems down the road.
Oftentimes, miscommunication within a company arises because company values are unclear. One way to avoid this miscommunication is to clearly state your company values and to frequently come back to them.
While you’re running your business, there may be adjustments in your company values, and that’s OK! The process of establishing core values that align with both you and your company is the starting point to aligning on a recruitment strategy that really works.
Role Alignment
Another area of focus for the Culture Works team when recruiting both internally and for our clients is role alignment. What, you ask, is role alignment?
Role alignment is uncovering the strengths, weaknesses, and interests of your candidate and finding a role that fits those areas. If you have a non-detail-oriented person in a heavy-detail-focused role, they will likely be unhappy and you could lose what could be a great member of your team.
Our team prioritizes role alignment in every recruiting engagement we participate in. When your employees are aligned in their roles, based on experience, personality type, and strengths, they are more likely to succeed.
It can be tempting to dismiss people who haven’t ticked every box required for the role, but we suggest that you look past the confining checklist under the job description and potentially uncover where they may be a better fit.
Our process encourages you to focus on other values that can’t be taught. For example, flexibility is crucial for any employee to thrive in a new environment. The employee might not check all the boxes on the job description, but they are eager and quick learners. This sets the company up for a more successful retention rate.
Talent Strategy
Talent strategy is another factor we encourage in our recruiting partnerships. We help your company attract the right talent. Some of these strategies include:
The best way to attract future employees is to pay attention to what is happening internally. When you create a company culture that is ideal for both the company and your employees, more people will want to join your organization.
Working for Culture Works
At Culture Works, we like to practice what we preach by fostering a positive work environment that encourages our team to grow both in their career and personally. This means implementing everything mentioned above, and more.
Perks and Benefits
We value transparency on all levels. This is highlighted on our website where we outline the perks and benefits that all Culture Works employees have access to:
0-90 Days Onboarding
90 Days to 1 Year
1 to 5 Years
5+ Years
Growth and Development
Logistics aside, there are personal growth opportunities within our company.
How?
We develop and empower our own team by valuing security, attention to detail, and expertise. We are teachers and students. We are proactive, gritty, and all the way bought into the vision of Culture Works. This means we follow this plan for each employee:
0-90 Days Onboarding
90 days to 1 Year
1 to 5 Years
5+ Years
Do you still have questions about what it’s like to work with or for Culture Works? Reach out today for more information.
Want to dive deeper into the role alignment conversation? Take a look at this article on our blog, to understand the importance of role alignment in hiring.