Posts

#TChat Recap: Employee Engagement & Its Path To Culture

Employee Engagement & Its Path To Culture

Culture is something that we’re all born into. It sustains us, and it grows regardless whether we nurture it or not. Whether it’s good or bad, culture is something we mustn’t ignore. Company culture gives life to employee engagement or crushes it. This week on #TChat, we were joined by guest: Josh Levine, Director of Strategy and Founder at Great Monday and Co-Founder of CultureLab. Josh’s unique experience and perspective on employee engagement guided our knowledge on the matter and its connection with building great company culture, because culture is only a moment away from being impactful to employee retention and productivity. Company culture is not defined by high-performers and profitability. Culture has to be more than just that. Since culture requires constant looking after, culture management is not only a business priority, it can be what makes or breaks an organization.

The battle for keeping employees engaged starts with understanding the 5 P’s of culture: package, potential, people, purpose, & perception. And why not? Each help cohesively align an organization’s vision with their employees’ goals to create an engaged workforce. Great company culture is so critical to have because:

Some of us have already had the light-bulb moment, while others are still wandering around aimlessly trying to figure out why their employees dread coming to work everyday. Luckily, the few organizations that understand their business priorities must align with their employees priorities have either knowingly or unknowingly tapped into the 5 P’s of culture. Creating employee engagement involves learning and understanding employees’ potential to match their purpose. Culture often gets lost and jumbled into the mix of organizational priorities and sustained profitability. A harsh truth, but:

Employees are the organizational priority. An organization exists because they exist. Packaging their personalities and skills into their work is how we find that correlation. Building a position around an employee’s personality and skills helps them unleash their potential and engages them. As vital as the 5 P’s to culture are, the glue that holds them together is communication. Management cannot develop and sustain company culture without being the first to jump onboard and communicate to employees what’s trying to be accomplished. Current employees have to get onboard as well and follow management’s lead. By aligning current employees with where the organization is going and communicating the importance of building culture and cohesion then we can start to build a unified culture. Bringing in new employees and aligning them to the game plan will happen with the understanding that:

Be upfront and honest when bringing new employees onboard. Have current employees educate candidates and new hires about the company culture. Set the tone right from the very beginning and employee engagement will start to grow on day one. The 5 P’s of culture isn’t about painting a pretty picture. It’s about being real, intelligent, and supportive with employees and candidates. Remember, culture is always changing and it happens the moment a new employee walks into the office. We must be mindful and perceptive of this. To understand culture, we must invest in:

Purpose is what employees want and often seek out. Being there to help them create their own place in an organization shows real emotional intelligence. It shows employees that the organization cares about building trust and understanding that the 5 P’s of culture build employee engagement by taking employees’ priorities and turning them into organizational priorities. Employees breathe company culture the moment they walk in the door. Good or bad, it’s there and it’s very real. Bad company culture shouldn’t be similar to inhaling bad fumes. Having a healthy and positive company culture means employees are engaged, which means productivity levels should be higher than normal and profitability should come with it.

Want To See The #TChat Replay?

 

Closing Notes & What’s Ahead

Thanks again to our guest: Josh Levine, Director of Strategy and Founder at Great Monday and Co-Founder of CultureLab.

Wednesday, Oct. 29th, #TChat Events: How to Avoid the Business Leadership Cliff

TChatRadio_logo_020813 #TChat Radio 7pm ET / 4pm PT — Are you plugged in to #TChat radio? Did you know you can listen live to ANY of our shows ANY time? Now you know. Click the box to head on over to our channel or listen to How to Avoid the Business Leadership Cliff.

Note To Bloggers: Did this week’s events prompt you to write about trends on the engagement experience?

We welcome your thoughts. Post a link on Twitter (include #TChat or @TalentCulture), or insert a comment below, and we may feature it!

Contributor CTA

Save The Date: Wednesday, October 29th!

Join us next week, as we talk about How to Avoid the Business Leadership Cliff during #TChat Events. The TalentCulture conversation continues daily on #TChat Twitter, in our LinkedIn group, and on our new Google+ community. So join us anytime on your favorite social channels!

Passive-Recruiting

 

Photo credit: Jay Mantri cc

#TChat Preview: Employee Engagement And The Culture Control Panel

The TalentCulture #TChat Show is back live on Wednesday, October 22, 2014, from 7-8 pm ET (4-5 pm PT). The #TChat radio portion runs the first 30 minutes from 7-7:30 pm ET, followed by the #TChat Twitter chat from 7:30-8 pm ET.

Last week we talked about how to use company culture to attract candidates, and this week we’re going to talk about employee engagement and the culture control panel.

Culture is increasingly a legitimate business concern in the world of work, and that means methods for measuring and managing it are more critical than ever before.

The problem is, when businesses scale at any speed, operational concerns often take priority over people concerns. When left unchecked, rapid growth “grooms” disengaged workers and then the problems mount when leaders realize how difficult it is to hire and retain top talent.

And by the way, high-performers can smell a poorly managed culture from a mile away. Add to that the fact that employee tenure continues to shrink and the prospect of building a strong, sustainable culture grows even more grim.

This week’s guest will share five important points of culture that all businesses from startups to blue chips can use to build employee engagement and improve retention — and extra profit — from day one.

Join TalentCulture #TChat Show co-creators and co-hosts Meghan M. Biro and Kevin W. Grossman learn how to measure culture via engagement with this week’s guest: Josh Levine, Director of Strategy and Founder at Great Monday and Co-Founder of CultureLab.

Sneak Peek:

Related Reading:

Meghan M. Biro: Employee Engagement Is a Leadership Commitment

Natalie Kate Meehan: Transparency In Your Company Culture Is Important. Here’s Why.

Rick Hein: Tips For Measuring And Improving Employee Engagement

Evie Nagy: How A Balanced Workplace Culture Can Support Your Mission

Andre Lavoie: The Two Transformative Influences On Employee Engagement

Gina O’Reilly: Why We Replaced (In)Human Resources With “Employee Experience”

We hope you’ll join the #TChat conversation this week and share your questions, opinions and ideas with our guest and the TalentCulture Community.

#TChat Events: Employee Engagement And The Culture Control Panel

TChatRadio_logo_020813#TChat Radio — Wed, October 22nd — 7 pm ET / 4 pm PT Tune in to the #TChat Radio show with our hosts, Meghan M. Biro and Kevin W. Grossman, as they talk with our guest: Josh Levine.

Tune in LIVE online this Wednesday!

#TChat Twitter Chat — Wed, October 22nd — 7:30 pm ET / 4:30 pm PT Immediately following the radio show, Meghan, Kevin and Josh will move to the #TChat Twitter stream, where we’ll continue the discussion with the entire TalentCulture community. Everyone with a Twitter account is invited to participate, as we gather for a dynamic live chat, focused on these related questions:

Q1: Why is company culture so critical to engagement? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Q2: How do companies prevent operational priorities from overtaking people priorities? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Q3: If you had a startup, or ran a large company, what cultural engagement factors would you focus on? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Throughout the week, we’ll keep the discussion going on the #TChat Twitter feed, our TalentCulture World of Work Community LinkedIn group, and in our new TalentCulture G+ community. So feel free to drop by anytime and share your questions, ideas and opinions. See you there!!

photo credit: overthinkingme via photopin cc