When you're desperate to start making changes to your organization's culture, it is very tempting to just start implementing initiatives that sound like really good ideas. Let's have a social committee to organize office parties! Let's implement a rewards and recognitions programme! Let's get everyone together for group therapy! Although some of these may be good ideas to enhance employee engagement and boost morale, the effects will be short-lived if the initiatives don't address the specific gaps in your current company culture.
In this article we'll discuss why it is a good idea to start with an evaluation of the current culture and specifically to evaluate.
Reasons to evaluate the current culture
1. Identifying the cause of a toxic or weak culture informs the cure
Culture initiatives need to address the underlying root causes, in order to effectively and authentically change the company's culture. If the underlying toxicity or concerns are not addressed, every attempt at improving culture will fall flat. To illustrate, let's look at a hypothetical example of an organization that tried to implement a good idea, but still ended up missing the mark:
Fred is a star developer at a local outsource development company, Stars Development. Although he has not been unhappy at his job, he would like to be given the authority to make more decisions day-to-day, and the opportunity to grow into a team lead or managerial position. At the moment, Fred's manager, Claire, makes all the decisions. She tells everyone what to do and how to do it, leaving little to no room for negotiation.
Sensing some unhappiness around the watercooler, Stars Development's leaders decided to "improve their culture" by implementing a rewards programme. The star employee in each category will win a bonus every year for their top performance. Even though Fred has won this award and will go on to win it again, it does not improve his sense of belonging and enthusiasm for his role at all. What he wants is not recognition, what he wants is authority and career development opportunities.
Claire's need for control has created an autocratic culture for her team at Stars Development, and THAT is what needs to be addressed. By evaluating the culture before implementing any improvements, organizations can be sure they are targeting the right problems in an effective manner.
2. An evaluation of current culture will illustrate the magnitude of the problem
Culture is an intangible thing and as such, it's often hard to estimate the scale of any problem. There could be rumors that some employees are dissatisfied with their compensation, but it may only be employees in a specific role. Some employees may dislike their manager for always blaming them for his mistakes, but it may only be a problem in a specific team. Without a thorough evaluation of the current culture, leaders and HR professionals might mistakenly attribute a small problem to everyone, or a large problem to only certain employees, downplaying its true impact.
An evaluation needs to make clear what the magnitude of the problem is, how many employees it affects and what the risks are of leaving the situation unaddressed, before effective action can be decided upon. Just as it would be ineffective to put a cast on a finger that is not broken, or to attempt to stop a bleeding headwound with a band-aid, it would be ineffective to attempt any improvements in culture without understanding how widespread and severe each problem is.
What do we look for when evaluating culture?
Cultures are either created purposely or subliminally. Our goal is to purposely set a culture and work towards encouraging behaviour, attitudes and beliefs that are in line with our intended culture. When cultures are created subliminally, the subtext of the culture is hidden in messages displayed in priorities, behaviors, attitudes, beliefs, processes and policies. These messages indicate what is important to an organization, what people are expected to spend most of their time on, what they would get rewarded or punished for, all of which shape culture.
To evaluate the current organizational culture, evaluate the following:
1. Priorities
Looking at priorities is one of the ways to identify the values held by the organization. Observe and enquire about what gets talked about the most, what gets reported on the most, what is most of the time spent on, what is the most budget allocated to, the order in which items are addressed in meetings. All of these hold clues as to what the organization really values. For example, if all Exco meetings start with a review of the numbers, it is safe to say that hitting a financial target is the most important item on the agenda. If the customer experience metrics are the last item on the agenda and sometimes skipped due to time constraints, achieving customer experience targets are less important than meeting financial targets.
Values might have been agreed upon and even printed on the walls, but take note of what is actually lived out and how it relates to the chosen, documented values.
2. Behaviors, attitudes and beliefs
Evaluate what people do and why they do it. People behave according to the beliefs they hold. If they believe they will be successful by stepping on other people's toes and forcing their views onto their peers, that is exactly how they will behave. If they believe "business is business" and "there's no room for emotions at work", they probably won't act with consideration for other people's feelings.
You can also deduce beliefs from behaviors. If your colleagues expect you to answer their calls even though you are in a meeting, or they schedule meetings with you even when you are already engaged elsewhere, their belief is that their time and agenda is more important than your time and agenda.
Evaluate the patterns of behaviors that occur. A leader might not be very organized and not ask for information at set intervals, but may want a report at a moment's notice. This may happen again and again, no matter the inconvenience and chaos it causes further down the chain of command. These patterns of behavior indicate certain beliefs (perhaps, that they are encouraging agility) and in turn, define the type of culture that exists (chaotic).
3. Processes and Policies
Processes will include the promotion process, recruitment process, induction process, time sheeting process, invoicing processes, performance management processes, training processes and so on.
Policies will include remote work or work from home policy, rewards and recognition policy, remuneration policy, training and development policy, employee relations policy and any other formalized policies that exist.
Each of the items mentioned above send a message to employees. If there is a policy that allows employees to work from home, the underlying message is that the organization trusts its employees enough to allow them to work remotely. If employees are given a very short induction, and are then immediately expected to jump in and start working, the organization is sending a message that they expect employees to work with a high degree of independence and the ability to self-start.
Processes and policies are often documented, but not necessarily followed as they are prescribed. It is important to take note of the documented processes and policies as well as what is happening in practice, noting any differences.
What methods should be used to gather this information?
Culture information can be gathered via various methods and the best approach is to use a combination of two or three methods to get as holistic a picture as possible.
Surveys
Traditional, quantitative surveys can be used but have to be distinguished from employee engagement surveys. Employee engagement surveys ask employees how they feel about things (your organization, your manager), where culture surveys ask questions about how employees are expected to behave day-by-day and what is important to the organization. These surveys seek to find what is truly valued.
Quantitative surveys are also only effective when they are truly anonymous, to ensure there are no opportunities for negative consequences to employee responses. Quantitative surveys are also not sufficient to get a holistic view of culture. Psychologists are leaning more and more to qualitative surveys as a means of measuring human behaviour. Human behaviour doesn't always fit in a box, you cannot pick up on issues that are not specifically being asked for and you cannot capture the real nuance of responses.
Interviews
One-on-one, confidential interviews are a great way to evaluate culture. The interviewer is given a set of guiding questions but can ask the employee to elaborate and ask additional open-ended questions to elicit much more in-depth feedback than an online survey can.
Drawbacks for interviews are that they are time consuming and require an experienced interviewer that will make the employee feel comfortable to open up, will not lead the employee subconsciously to specific answers and that has the ability to really listen to what is being said.
Focus groups
Focus groups allow for more employees' views to be aired at the same time, saving time and reaching a broader audience. The focus groups need to be assembled and facilitated carefully to encourage participation and to allow all participants' views to be aired. This also requires an experienced facilitator that has the ability to read the room and uncover more than what is being said.
Observation
Being a fly on the wall in meetings and day-to-day interactions can be very illuminating. Everything from the vibe in the office to how people greet each other in the beginning and the end of the day, how meetings are run and how people interact during breaks or at the watercooler can provide great opportunities to experience the company culture first hand and bring some of the hidden cultural messages to life.
Documentation Review
All documented processes, policies, job profiles, goals, values statements and other collateral should be reviewed and taken into account during the other information gathering methods to determine the extent to which they are being endorsed.
We typically recommend a blended approach to methods of evaluation, based on each customer's situation.
Setting off on a culture transformation can be a daunting task, requiring a lot of effort and dedication. A holistic and rigorous evaluation of the current culture will assist in making sure all future change efforts are on point, aimed at addressing the right problems, and at a scale appropriate to the current situation.
