In the new normal organizational approach to innovate, create and manage employee engagement; culture is going to play a pivotal role. Irrespective of business size, industry, or location, every business has a culture that is a reflection of the leadership mindset and vision. However, not all company cultures are created equal or reflect what its top leadership believes. Human Capital Experts and teams are the custodians and play a quintessential role in managing the culture for the intellectual capital of an organization.
Amidst the myriad tools that organizations have, including data management, social media presence, instant big data analytics, artificial intelligence, and vast databases, it is the culture of a company that often makes the difference between a highly successful organization and an average organization. The reason that a people first culture is so important amidst the technological advantages that organizations have today is that it prioritizes people over results.
A performance management culture is a direct result of the strategies implemented by the organization’s leadership, however, without employee inspiration, strategic leadership means nothing. For this reason building, a performance management culture is dependent on the development of employee potential and motivating an organization through a shared goal.
Studies have shown that employees that feel valued within their organization are more likely to report better physical and mental health, higher levels of engagement, motivation, and career satisfaction. Even when organizations express high-level expectations on their employees, if an employee feels valued, they are more likely to not only meet high-level expectations but also surpass them. This is why organizations like Amazon, Google, Virgin group, and Facebook have flourished as organizations that demand the most out of their employees, yet provide a creative, collaborative culture that stimulates innovation.
Performance management processes that follow a Gaussian distribution (bell curve) and primarily focus on past performance rather than the future promise have come under critical focus in several research papers in recent years. Thus while assessing performance one needs to have a greater emphasis on potential and subsequent development methods of the same. To properly implement a culture of performance -people – profitability, an organization needs to keep a watch on the culture landscape.
6 Ways to create a culture of an inspired workforce:
- Agility & Adaptability to Change– The biggest learning from the covid times has been the agility of intellectual capital and business contingency methods, to provide continuous value to the clients. Whether WFM(Work from Home) or coming to the office with precautions or automating systems etc, everything is a continuous improvement to current systems. Understanding and addressing roadblocks from time to time is the most critical aspect to keep the workforce engaged and adaptable to unpredictable or ambiguous situations. In fact, performance management and development methods should have programs and projects to build this skill over time.
- Create the Foundation– Introduce new concepts and expectations for both employees and managers. A performance management culture is established through open, honest, and clear communication. By communicating the big picture, employees will not only feel included and valued but also internalize and take ownership of the goals of the organization.
- Building Trust -Organisations that have built trust with customers and employees have reaped the benefits in the long run. Business environments have come a long way in creating transparency -trust and teamwork. Amazon is one of the best examples in context to this, they have included the customers -consumers-vendors and employees to benefit from the platform. Creating an environment where everyone wins together is a great culture that can catapult the performance and progress of the organization and the people associated with the same.
- Encourage the Right Behaviours – Rather than reprimanding for actions, orienting employees towards the right behaviors and rewarding the same can go a long way to create a culture of excellence. Employees must be given ongoing feedback on both expectations and accomplishments. This feedback is critical for both the employee and manager to commit to sharing both positive and disappointing results. Through the development of sustainable expectations, managers are able to delegate quicker and more efficiently to employees who grow with increased expectations and organizational goals. Studies show that routine check-ins in employee performance give employees a constant feed of information that stimulates professional growth and performance.
- Job Rotations, promotions, and role upgrade – Important aspect of creating a culture of ownership and skill-will building is job expansion and consistent creation of tacit knowledge through exposure. Opportunities to understand and exposure to other roles help performance in one’s own expertise.
- Encouraging Peer and Leadership coaching – The best way to bring in an ecosystem of acceptance and leverage of talents is to encourage coaching. Leadership which engages in regular coaching conversations, allow a lot of independence -innovation and ideation in the teams. This also helps people to bring in a fearless thought-process which is the catalyst to client delight. Both our academia and work space thrive on fear based command which is most often a compromised methodology. Coaching creates more empowerment -encouragement-empathy and excitement towards the new.
Focus on the culture supports organizations better adapt to changing technologies, create environments of creativity and collaboration, as well as develop sustainable results. As technologies continue to change and organizations utilize the vast resources for industry advancement, the constant of human and knowledge capital can be better leveraged.
What is your approach to creating a lasting culture of engaged employees, delighted customers, and ongoing profitability-automation initiatives? We would be excited to hear from you. To orient empowered workforce do check our webinar –Power of behaviors
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