5 ways to improve your Company Culture

Research recently conducted by a multidisciplinary team from Auckland, Massey and Waikato universities, and Birbeck University in London found nearly one in five employees are being subjected to overbearing or belittling behaviour at work.

The survey of 1728 workers in the health, education, travel and hospitality sectors found 18% had been bullied, while 75% had suffered workplace stress. Read full article here

"Bullying is happening and it is not being addressed. It has long been accepted that this is the way of working -- if you cannot stand the heat, get out of the kitchen," says study leader Tim Bentley, associate head of Massey University's school of management.

Levels of workplace stress and bullying were greater than expected and one of the main causes was ineffective leadership.

A study and the end of last year by Hays International also highlighted that two thirds of employees believe their managers do not know what motivates them to perform and one third of staff are planning to leave when the economy recovers. Addressing these issues requires a significant change in the way people see, think and act about their company culture.

Every Culture in a company has a smell - how is yours?

Here are the 5 things that have the biggest impact in improving company culture.

1. Define and articulate the real core values of your businesses not some fluffy statements that are empty words on a plaque. This drives positive behaviour and facilitates the removal of people who do not fit well with your culture

2. Use behavioural profiling tools to improve interpersonal communication and working relationships. This will also identify your people’s strengths and help you understand how to leverage your people’s strengths to increase productivity and personal fulfilment.

3. Identify and overcome any dysfunctional behaviours demonstrated by your management team

4. Survey employee engagement to identify the areas that require attention – a proven way to increase sales, productivity, and customer satisfaction - whilst reducing accidents, absenteeism, and staff turnover.

5. Conduct well-structured meetings every week with your team members. Here you can recognise and reward positive behaviour and address any issues before they become a problem.

Implementing these disciplines can provide a challenge but not as much of a challenge as doing nothing.

Talking Brochure Salespeople

Of all of the industry's over the last few hundred years Sales has been the one that has changed the least. What is interesting is that there has been many opinions on what works and very little data.

Professor Neil Rackham conducted a massive research project of over 35,000 sales call in 12 countries over a 10 year period and found some very interesting data.

What was conclusive is that converting features to benefits is getting less and less effective. This means that Salespeople can no longer afford to be a talking brochure. With information so accessible and over 30 Billion questions getting answered on google every month sales people need to move from being a value communicator to value creators.

It is more important than ever to address this with your sales people. So what value are your salespeople creating for your clients and would your clients be prepared to write a check for their sales call.

Empowering People

One massive challenge I witness is the ability of organisations and leaders to empower their staff. Make it safe for people to make decisions. When they don't it creates bottlenecks and business can not move forward as much. Here are the only 5 questions you staff need to answer to make a decision without you.

1. Is it right for the customer?
2. Is it right for the company?
3. Is it ethical?
4. Is it something you would be willing to be held accountable for?
5. Is it consistent with the Company's values?

If the answer to all 5 is yes then - DON'T ASK - JUST DO IT

Understanding the "Core Values" of Honesty and Integrity

Often I hear that Honesty and Integrity are core values - as they should be. Would you ever Hire someone who wasn't honest or exhibited Integrity? How often though have you employed someone to be disappointed on these values.

The challenge is that you need to go to a deeper level so your people can understand what it really means in your organisation. The words are like the outer layer of an onion and you need to peel back the layers until you get to the real "core" of the definition for your company.

In our company "Live what we teach" defines Integrity for me. We have a client who is a painting contractor that has "3 coats means 3 coats". Isn't this a lot easier for his staff to understand than Integrity.

The difinitions are different for every company. What does the inside of your onion look like for Honesty and Integrity in your company.

Thinking Growth....Time for Action!!

There is definitely a buzz in the air at the moment and whilst not much has changed the attitudes of people we work with are! Things are much more positive and there is a real feeling that the market might just start to lift a little after a long slow winter.

Today we have our "Thinking Growth" seminar (link here) at the Holiday Inn and we have over 150 people attending from many different company's. Why the big response? Well Simon Mundell is an inspirational speaker for starters and as a Director of Results.Com is passionate about what we do. On top of that I think it is just the positive attitudes out there. Business owners are now feeling it is the right time to do something different that will really kick start their business and position it to take full advantage of the economic recovery.

Hope to see you there.

Karl