Many leaders are under the assumption that culture can be developed through gimmicks
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by Aron McEwan, HR Advisory Leader, Gartner
The traditional model of driving culture has led with a top-down approach from the C-suite; where leaders use phrases such as ‘innovation’, ‘customer centricity’ or ‘collaboration’ and then try to personalise it for their organisation.
Gartner research has found that a top-down approach doesn’t work, and that there is no single culture that enhances financial performance.
Instead, aligning the workforce to a common vision of culture is what drives business performance; this is called Workforce Culture Alignment (WCA).
WCA is challenging what organisations know and understand about their culture and urges them to combine values and beliefs to create an environment that allows employees to get their work done.
WCA can increase performance revenue goals by 9 per cent, increase reputation outcomes by 16 per cent and see a 22 per cent increase in employee performance. In comparison, when WCA is low, progress toward the desired culture is slowed and both business and talent outcomes suffer as a result.
The biggest barrier to creating a culture that performs is the degree to which leaders can actually get employees living that culture in their everyday work.
For an organisation to live and breathe the culture that can drive performance, it requires employees to change the way they behave and carry out their work.
For example, a call centre employee cannot deliver the best experience or be ‘customer centric’ if they are faced with insufficient access to customer records or red tape; leaving them unable to do their job.
Today’s workers are unique in their ability to inform, influence, shape, drive and live organisational culture. It’s their input and passion for their work that will impact business results, and employees can only do this when they are armed with the tools and processes in an environment that enables them to succeed.
To create a culture that performs and to maximise WCA, organisations must measure the depth of knowledge the workforce has of current values, whether they have the mindset that the culture is the right type to pursue and whether they know what behavioural norms align with that culture.
Organisations that do this are the ones most likely to achieve a higher level of alignment between the workforce and the desired culture.
