You’ve probably heard the term corporate culture more times than you can count in the last six months. Corporate culture is among the many trending topics regarding performance management that have been making waves as a part of cutting-edge changes in the corporate world.

What does corporate culture mean? Corporate culture is defined as how your team members conduct themselves at work, as well as the expected conduct and rituals within an organization.

Basically, your corporate culture is how team members are expected to carry themselves and basically the image your company carries behind the scenes. Think of corporate culture as your brand image within the office, if that makes sense.

There’s no doubt about how much organizations have shifted in terms of their corporate cultures in the last year. With so much change in technology and the way work is conducted, it’s only natural.

Even if you’re not aware of what corporate culture is, the fact is, it’s still there. Someone within your organization is shaping it, whether they know it or not.

If you want your organization to move in the right direction, you need to make sure whoever is influencing your corporate culture is doing it in the right way. This is especially true considering it affects the success of everyone within your company.

Corporate Culture

How Do Employees See Culture?

Normally, employees have a pretty good attitude when it comes to corporate culture. However, there are significant differences when it comes to employees that are engaged with corporate culture and those that aren’t.

When employees are engaged at a high level, they claim that their organization has an extremely strong culture. Only a small number of unengaged employees agree with that sentiment.

Team members that aren’t engaged at high rates are likely to quit their jobs for an organization they feel has a better culture. Where team members work also has a huge influence on how they look at company culture.

Many managers and members of corporate felt that the increases in remote work would have a negative impact on their culture. However, research has shown that the exact opposite is what took place.

Remote workers are engaged at a much higher level and most likely view their company’s culture more positively than in-office workers. The chances are also much higher that they’ll stay with their companies because of the culture.

Instead of attempting to bring your talent back to work to increase the culture, organizations and managers need to put their sights on more important areas. Employee engagement is the driving force behind a large part of corporate culture, and it only makes sense to give this dynamic more attention.

Additionally, employee engagement increases productivity and revenue in general, so it should always be at the forefront, to begin with.

You should reconsider your approach to defining your organization’s culture.

Be Clear About What Culture Is

The first thing you need to do is send a clear message about what corporate culture is. If your employees don’t understand it, it might as well not exist.

Through research conducted, it’s been discovered that employees feel a connection with corporate culture through the following elements:

  • Your organization’s mission statement
  • How employees are rewarded
  • How your organization approaches performance management

Alternatively, the areas that affect their connection to corporate culture the least are:

  • The onboarding process
  • Their physical area or workspace

The biggest problem is the definition of culture. Culture isn’t necessarily about rituals and normal behaviors within your company. They do have an impact, but that’s not what company culture is all about.

Honestly, company culture is more about how team members decide on important issues. It’s about how they communicate and recognize other team members. It’s also about their behavior and conduct during all hours at work, not just when projects are being completed.

Basically, corporate culture is the summary of an employees’ daily experiences with work, peers, and the entire organization as a whole. It’s not a separate dynamic from employee to employee; it’s a direct connection to every element of the company.

This list gives you the best ways to be proactive about your company’s culture.

Be Proactive Regarding Company Culture

Use the following tips to spread the message about getting team members engaged with company culture.

    1. Aim Your Culture Strategy Towards Engagement

You can sink all of the revenue into the corporate culture that you want. You can purchase training programs or whatever you feel is effective, but the point is, you have to aim for the right things.

The bottom line is the top producing companies have managers that put engagement over everything. This covers all of the most important dynamics within your company. It doesn’t just encompass corporate culture, so you’re benefiting on several levels.

Engagement directly affects your business outcomes and will help you accomplish ALL of your goals. When your organization can remain focused on the big picture while still reaching for fringe goals, you maximize your resources and really get a huge return on your time investment.

    2. How You Approach Employee Performance

The way you approach employee performance is critical when it comes to your team members’ experiences and directly affects your company’s culture. It’s important that you work on the performance process and strategy and optimize your performance management system portal.

Special attention should be placed on the methods that keep your team members focused and maximize the talents they have while allowing them to level up with new skills.

The following elements of performance management promote a healthy corporate culture:

  • When goals are aligned
  • When you have continued and effective feedback
  • Recognizing employees at the right time
  • Empowering your employees

Focusing on these areas doesn’t take extra energy or additional focus onto completely new areas. By aligning your current strategies (engagement, recognition, etc.) with your focus on corporate culture, you can continue to move towards the big goals while directing your team members’ attention to the importance of culture. The eLeaP continuous performance management system provides organizations with powerful options to attract and retain high caliber team members.