Are You Happy With Your Company Culture & Work Environment?

[Published in Manila Bulletin last January 13, 2010 - adapted from a previous blog post]

When you enter an office, clinic, restaurant, store or business establishment, one of the first things that you will notice is its ambience. Is the place clean and well-maintained? Are the people friendly or formal? Is the pace fast or laidback?

All of these represent a company’s culture---the values, customs and way of life of a particular workplace---critical factors that lead to Job Satisfaction, as well as Customer Satisfaction.

JOB SATISFACTION

If you are a Job Seeker, you may want to look into a company’s culture before accepting a job offer from them. Are the company’s premises conducive for work? Will you be comfortable working with the current employees and even managers of the company? Do you believe in what the company stands for?

When I interview applicants, I often ask for the reason why they left their previous employment. Quite a number of them have mentioned that the main reason why they left their previous company is that they were not happy with their jobs due to bosses shouting at them, “tsismis” (gossip) or politics. In short, they didn’t like the culture.

On the other hand, employees who are happy with their co-workers and bosses tend to stay longer in the company. In cases where other companies try to pirate them with a slightly higher salary offer, they will think more than twice before jumping ship. Happy employees tend to stick with their company because they already have it good. Why leave a place and people that you have come to love?

So you see, Job satisfaction is really not just about compensation. It is also about belonging and enjoying your work and the people you work with. A strong company culture and good work environment gives you that.

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

A company's culture is greatly influenced by its management. How the bosses conduct themselves will ultimately be mirrored by the team. For instance, if the management is customer-oriented and conducts business in a professional yet personal way, chances are, you will find their employees acting the same way.

This is evident whenever I visit a private doctor's clinic. I can tell immediately even without meeting the doctor if the s/he has good bedside manners and really cares for the patient. All I do is observe how their secretaries deal with customers and I'll know what the doctor will be like and whether I will continue to see this doctor.

Because customers relate and ultimately come to trust a company due to its culture, building a good Company Culture that leads to a great Corporate Image is a vital function of HR and should not be shoved over to the Marketing Department to invent on its own. Ultimately, a well-defined and practiced culture will greatly increase a company's success... and HR practitioners have a major role in this.

SO HOW DO YOU DEVELOP A STRONG COMPANY CULTURE?

First, Build the Foundation
As a Training and Consultancy firm, we help many of our clients design and inculcate their Vision, Mission and Values (VMV). We assist them in preparing their Company Policies, Employee Orientation and Training Programs. We insist in full management and team support. You don't just write this stuff and expect others to read and follow. Getting people's “Buy In” is key, and the best way to get this is to include them in the process.

Second, Recruit People with the Same Values
Unless your company's primary preference is diversity, it is best to find people whose values and competencies are in line with the company. Some companies employ a competency-based recruitment system with special emphasis on Behavioral Values. Since they started practicing this type of recruitment and selection process, they have noticed that their team is more in sync and work better together.

Third, Train Your People
There are many ways that you can train and orient your people about your company’s values. In our company, we have an automated process for orienting new employees. We conduct a 4-part interactive webinar with quizzes. Then we follow it up with some Coaching, Company sponsored seminars and On-the-Job Training. By constantly training and emphasizing our values, we continuously develop a culture of progress and understanding.

Fourth, Manage Performance
Once, you've selected and trained your employees, you need to constantly ensure that they are performing well and that they are upholding the values of the company. Here you want to build programs that will help you increase productivity and create a system that allows you to track, monitor and evaluate employee's performance. Giving Feedback regularly is a powerful way to manage and increase your team's performance.

Lastly, Reward Your Employees
This is the fun part of the job, developing innovative and cost-effective programs that will make employees happy. There are so many exciting ways you can motivate your employees and keep your culture alive. Aside from an attractive compensation and benefits structure, create fun HR programs that reward good deeds and give incentives to star performers. People who have fun are generally more satisfied with their jobs.

A strong and healthy company culture leads to job satisfaction among employees and customer satisfaction and loyalty. Whether you are an employer, employee or HR practitioner, be sure to contribute and build a happy workplace.

Jhoanna O. Gan-So is president of Businessmaker Academy and the managing director for HR Club Philippines. Her company conducts seminars on HR Management, Business Solutions and Corporate Skills Development. They have also recently launched the INSTANT HR TOOLKIT, a service that provides HR practitioners with over 100 ready-to-use downloadable, customizable and printable HR manuals, contract, letters forms and templates. To know more about HR seminars that they offer, you may visit www.businessmaker-academy.com or call (632)6874645. To know more about the Instant HR Toolkit, you may visit www.hrclubphilippines.com. You may email your comments and questions to: mbworklife@gmail.com

Useful Tools to Communicate & Udpate Employees

Aside from traditional bulletin boards, there are simple tools that you can use to communicate and update your team of employees. Let me share with you a couple of tools that we use in our company...

COMMUNICATIONS LOGBOOK & ONLINE MESSAGE BOARDS
This is especially helpful when you've got employees with different schedule shifts... Or when we need to share information within the team, but don't want to necessarily announce it to the whole world.

Back in college, not so long ago, we had a tambayan (hangout place). Since my friends and I had different class schedules and we didn't see each other daily, we would communicate and update each other using a message logbook. (There were no cellphones yet at that time and not everyone had beepers).

In the same way, we've been using a message logbook in our office for the past 5 years. In the logbook, we write notes, reminders, greetings and such. It's has been a pretty good communications tool.

But we've recently added another improvement in our company. Since everyone in our company now have computers and internet access, we have an Online Message Board for the team. We use the forum to update each other about projects and programs. Unlike email wherein it gets difficult to sort through all the messages that come in, the forum provides a focused discussion thread for us.

It's pretty cool and very easy to do. For more information on simple HR projects that you can do, you may attend Businessmaker Academy's HR Management Seminar Series and become a member of HR Club Philippines. For assistance in setting up your Online Message Board and train your people on how to use it, you may work with an IT specialist or visit BusinessmakerOnline.

>>> Jhoanna O. Gan-So is the president and head of research and development for Businessmaker Academy. She is an educator, entrepreneur, marketing communication specialist and HR practitioner. Together with her husband, Mark So, she is committed to helping people improve their personal, professional and financial lives.

How to Develop a Strong Company Culture

A company's culture is greatly influenced by it's management. How the bosses conduct themselves, will ultimately be mirrored by the team. For instance, if the management is customer-oriented and conducts business in a professional yet personal way, chances are, you will find their employees acting the same way.

This is evident whenever I visit a new private doctor's clinic. I can tell immediately even without meeting the doctor if the doctor has good bedside manners and really cares for the patient. All I do is observe how their secretaries deal with customers and I'll know what the doctor will be like and whether I will continue to see this doctor.

Because customers relate and ultimately come to trust a company due to its culture, building a Good Company Culture that leads to a Credible Corporate Image is a vital function of HR and should not be shoved over to the Marketing Department to invent on its own. Ultimately, a well-defined and practiced culture will greatly increase a company's success... and HR practitioners have an major role in this.

So How Do You Develop a Strong Company Culture?

First, Build the Foundation.
In our company, our management team took the time to discuss and map out our VMV---Vision, Mission and Values. We also prepared our Company Policies, HR manual and Employee Orientation Program. It was important that the whole management team take part in this endeavor. You don't just write this stuff and expect others to read and follow. Getting people's Buy In is key, and the best way to get people's buy in is to include them in the process. (To learn more about building a solid HR foundation for your company, you can check out books and seminars on Fundamentals of HR Management)

Second, Recruit People with the Same Values.
Unless your company's primary preference is diversity, it is best to find people whose values and competencies are in line with the company's VMV. In our company, we started employing competency-based recruitment with special emphasis on Values. Since we started practicing this type of recruitment and selection process, I've noticed that our employee turnover rate has gone down. (To learn more about Effective Employee Recruitment, Retention and Selection, you can check out books and seminars near you)

Third, Train Your People
There our many ways that you can train your people. One of the most successful HR projects we have is an Automated New Employee Orientation Program. This innovative project allows us to orient an employee through a 4-part interactive webinar, so that we don't have to physically conduct the training ourselves every time there's a new employee. Any employee who is hired by us undergoes this process, then we follow it up with some Company sponsored seminars and On-the-Job Training. (To learn more, you can check out BMA's Corporate Training Services or Seminars on Training Program Development and Trainers Training Program)

Fourth, Manage Performance
Once, you've selected and trained your employees, you need to constantly ensure that they are performing well and that they are upholding the values of the company. Here you want to build programs that will help you increase productivity and create a system that allows you to track, monitor and evaluate employee's performance. Giving Feedback regularly is a powerful way to manage and increase your team's performance. (To learn how to build Performance Management Systems and Programs, you may read books, interview professionals and attend seminars)

Lastly, Reward Your Employees
This is the fun part of the job in HR, developing innovative and cost-effective programs that will make employees happy. There are so many exciting ways you can motivate your employees and keep your culture alive. In our company, we continuously try our best to maintain a stable compensation and benefits structure that the company can afford. We also have fun HR programs that reward good deeds and give incentives to star performers. (To learn more, check out Businessmaker Academy's Compensation & Benefits Management Seminar)

In the next posts, I will share with you Successful HR Project Ideas that you can easily implement to build a strong and happy Company Culture.

>>> Jhoanna O. Gan-So is the president and head of research and development for Businessmaker Academy. She is an educator, entrepreneur, marketing communication specialist and HR practitioner. Together with her husband, Mark So, she is committed to helping people improve their personal, professional and financial lives.