Why Your Workplace Culture is Everything  

(The following is an excerpt from Michael’s book, Hire, Inspire, and Fuel Their Fire)

If you’re reading this book, chances are you already understand how critical workplace culture is to your success. But just in case you need to convince a skeptical boss or a gaggle of doubting colleagues, here’s a quick reminder why workplace culture matters:

Your workplace culture is your #1 competitive advantage.

There. I told you it would be quick.

It’s true. Your culture is your primary competitive advantage when it comes to attracting top-notch employees, turning long-term employees into loyal employees (there’s a crucial difference between the two), attracting customers, and turning customers into raving fans of your business.

Why? Because your culture impacts every aspect of everything you do, including:

• Your productivity;
• The level of trust in your organization;
• How openly and honestly employees communicate with each other;
• How well teams work together;
• How well people work across teams;
• Whether your meetings are soul-sapping or effective and energizing;
• The level of creativity and innovation in your organization;
• How well employees manage their stress;
• The mental and physical health of your employees;
• The happiness of your employees;
• How safely employees work and how well they look out for each other’s safety;
• How resilient your organization and employees are in the face of market downturns, setbacks, disruptions, and chaos;
• How well your leadership team and employees adapt to change… or better still, lead change;
• How willing employees are to step up, take responsibility for their actions, and show initiative;
• How effectively your leaders lead;
• Your commitment to outstanding customer service;
• Your external brand and image in your community;
• How much fun people have at work; and
• Whether or not employees view your organization as a soul-sapping, fun-sucking, “HAVE-to” work environment OR a thriving, innovative, energizing “WANT-to” workplace where people are happy to arrive on a Monday morning, do their best work, and serve as raving ambassadors for your company!

I could go on, but you get the gist.

Because culture influences all of the above (and more!), it truly is your #1 competitive advantage when it comes to attracting and retaining top talent. Yes, there is always someone down the road who can pay your employees more and offer them better benefits, but that’s a race for talent you can’t always win and one you likely can’t do much about, anyway.

What you can control, however, is your relentless, intentional focus on your culture, a mindset that has more benefits than you can shake a stapler at:

• You are always going to lose employees, but you want to lose them for the right reasons: a career opportunity they couldn’t turn down, they’re off to college, or they’ve decided to relocate to Bora Bora and open a taco stand. What you can’t afford is to lose employees for the wrong reasons: a micromanaging boss, a bullying employee, or a toxic work environment that didn’t allow them to contribute as their best selves.

 

• Despite what many people believe, money is a lousy motivator. Money motivates people to look for a job when they are unemployed and money makes people show up to your workplace week after week. In other words, money puts derrieres in seats. But to get those derrieres up and moving, contributing their ideas, and sharing their passion requires a relentless focus on your culture.

 

• Survey after survey suggests employees are willing to switch jobs for all sorts of reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with salary. I won’t bore you with the finer details of the results, but I will remind you that employees are increasingly interested in working for companies that have an inspiring mission or a more caring, creative, human-centered, healthy, and fun culture. In fact, surveys show employees will take a pay cut just to work somewhere they are more trusted, recognized and appreciated; have a greater say in how things are run; where they are allowed to be more creative; or where they enjoy a healthier work/life balance.

 

• According to one Harvard business study, how a company hires, trains, and treats its employees accounts for between 30% and 300% of growth over their competitors.

 

• Another Harvard study of more than 200 companies found that a focus on workplace culture increased the net income of those companies by 765% over 10 years.

 

• According to a recent Gallup poll, 12 key factors that influence employee retention rates are related to culture; half of those factors relate to a sense of feeling valued.

 

• Finally, take this to heart: If you want to attract the best people to your company, remember that by virtue of being “the best”, these people can theoretically work anywhere they darn well please. And since great employees increasingly want to be part of an inspiring workplace culture, they are in a position to flip the standard interview question on its head: “So tell me… why should I come work for you?”

 

“Okay, okay… enough already!” you might be thinking. You get it.

But… do you really get it?

A mountain of evidence suggests there is an enormous gap between knowing that culture matters, and actually doing something about it. Here are just two examples:

As I explore in my book, The Humor Advantage – Why Some Businesses are Laughing All the Way to the Bank, Beryl Health Call Centers, based in Bedford, Texas, has an employee turnover rate that is typically in the 15% range, compared to an industry norm in the call-center business of up to 400%! Why? Because Beryl puts an enormous amount of energy into their hiring and into their fun, family-friendly culture.

Also featured in The Humor Advantage is Michael Abrashoff, the commander of the US naval destroyer, the USS Benfold. Abrashoff turned around the performance of the worst-performing ship in the navy in only 18 months by focusing on their culture. The Benfold’s crew retention rate skyrocketed from 8% to a remarkable 100%!

As these examples illustrate, inspiring leaders and successful organizations understand that great cultures don’t just happen by accident. You can’t fake a great culture and you sure as heck can’t buy it at Costco or Ikea.

You need to be intentional about building a rockin’, creative, inspiring, and energizing workplace culture that drives outrageous business results.

And that starts by getting your hiring, onboarding, and training right.

Michael Kerr is a Canadian Hall of Fame Speaker, highly in-demand international keynote speaker, and the creator of the Culture Leadership Online Academy. Michael is also the author of 8 books, including:  The Humor Advantage: Why Some Businesses Are Laughing All the Way to the Bank;  Hire, Inspire, and Fuel Their Fire; and The Jerk-Free Workplace: How You Can Take the Lead to Create a Happier, More Inspiring Workplace.  www.MikeKerr.com