How can corporate culture engage employees?
By Serge Beauchemin
In a highly competitive economic context, attracting new talent can be difficult given the multitude of attractive offers employees get from your competitors. But hiring employees is not enough, once they are on board, you have to know how to keep them. This is where the corporate culture can be leveraged.
Several studies have revealed that a strong corporate culture plays a key role in a business’s success, while other studies have shown that for employees, a strong team, an agreeable atmosphere and a good hierarchical relationship contribute to a positive work environment. What are the cultural factors that foster business performance? How can they mobilize employees?
What is corporate culture?
Corporate culture is a set of factors that encompasses all of an organization’s codes and values and embodies its core identity. Several components such as communication, corporate behavior and actions, atmosphere or image are directly related to the corporate culture. What defines culture is the organization’s genesis, its reason for being, its values and mission. It, therefore, originates from the vision and intentions of the first managers and employees and spreads and evolves through the daily activities of the various work teams.
A lever to attract and retain talent
A strong corporate culture has a direct impact on the organization’s performance by improving employee productivity. It fosters the creation of a community of people who share the same essential nature and focus on collective rather than individual interests. It’s a key argument for organizations that want to attract new talent. It’s a way to display its identity and appeal to people who would fit in with who it is and what it does on a daily basis. It also sets the organization apart from its competitors.
In this era of workforce shortage, salary is no longer enough. To attract and retain talent, you have to show them that they are valued through the tangible manifestation of how important human capital is within your organization. Communication, professional development, recognition and celebrating successes are part of a consistent and participative approach that shows employees that their personal success and the organizations are closely linked.
Corporate culture also has a social component that ensures cohesion and brings people together around common objectives. It satisfies the need to be recognized and fosters a sense of belonging, of being part of something greater than oneself. Putting a corporate culture into place requires introspection to determine what defines the organization, what it is prepared to defend, what is non-negotiable. The resulting ideas then have to be translated into words and, especially, into actions.
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