Take charge of corporate culture

THE culture of an organisation is its personality or the feeling you get when you visit the business. It shapes the way in which people interpret and respond to organisational situations.

“Culture underpins everything in an organisation — and I mean everything,” says Jane Stevenson, business development director at Boomtown.

She adds that culture can make the difference between people wanting to come to work and feeling that they have to. “This has a direct impact on the bottom line,” she says.

The leadership is entirely responsible for creating, implementing and measuring organisational culture.

“Culture is based on core values: a set of behaviours that determine the way we would like our organisation to be seen internally and externally. It’s easy to put values in a frame in reception . . . you can Google that in two seconds. The litmus test is in living these values daily in order for people to see and feel them without listing them on paper,” says Stevenson.

Alison Treadaway, MD of Striata, suggests the following as areas to consider when addressing corporate culture:

People like to belong to something larger than themselves that provides a unified view of the world. As management, you need to make sure that each person understands the values of the organisation and the role they play in maintaining a solid foundation;

Codes of conduct that cover working hours and ethics must provide a clear set of boundaries that all members of the organisation must respect; and

Culture will go a long way to addressing an organisation’s retention policy if the culture can be used to make work fun. — Margaret Harris