When considering your company’s culture, sometimes it’s difficult to know where your organization stands in relativity to other businesses like yours. The answer could be closer than you think. When corporations submit to a corporate cultural audit, one of the first things that’s evaluated by the auditor is the communication channels within the corporation, or the intranet. The quality of internal communication says a lot about what your corporation is striving for and the means they are using to achieve it. With intranet platforms like Slack ever-evolving, and a growing tech-savvy generation dominating the workforce, corporations are on notice to improve the quality of their internal communications to improve their operations and retain employees.
In your current position, you may find yourself thinking, “These new hires look younger every day.” You’re not alone. Since 2016, millennials have dominated the workforce as the largest working generation. With that majority comes a completely different scope regarding your corporation’s culture. Not only do millennials have a different set of standards when it comes to corporate culture, but they also turn to technology to improve daily operations, such as intranet platforms like Slack. While intranet platforms like these can be a great way to grease the wheels of communication within your corporation, they can also be unintended whistle blowers. With Slack in particular (depending on the privacy settings of the users), communication on the platform’s channels can be viewed by the administrator of the account.
Connectivity improves between employees through these platforms, but how about the quality of the communication in question? With intranet communications becoming more visible, it’s important that employees do not drop their guard for an application like Slack. The inherent lack of formality in instant messaging can negatively impact the quality of communication moving through it. This extends not just to poor communication, but also inappropriate communications, such as non-work-related subjects, and communications that would be classified as abusive by even the most liberal of human resource officers. These intranet platforms and tools are here to take the communication roadblocks out of the day-to-day operations of the corporation, and it’s important that employees and leadership respect that line of contact.
In evaluating a corporation’s culture, it’s important to gauge whether or not leadership and employees are on the same page when it comes to their company’s vision and mission. Transparency in communication is one of the means to that end. Now that intranet communications are becoming more visible and accessible in corporations across the country, leadership is left with the task of ensuring that their communications are a reflection of their company’s mission and values. The visibility of internal communications means that there’s more and more opportunities for leadership to single out symptoms of poor corporate culture and address them head-on.
Internal crises can be staggering for fast-paced corporations
and small businesses who lack the time or resources to directly address
individual issues. Some corporations build internal teams in order to supervise
pervasive internal issues, but this can be a huge budget issue for some
companies. That’s why more and more issues If your corporation is suffering
from a corporate crisis, don’t hesitate. Even if the crisis seems relatively
minor, it could be symptomatic of a larger problem within your organization.
Call Lauth
Investigations International today for a free quote on our brand-new
Corporate Culture Audit (CCA) program. Our dedicated and qualified staff
composed of former military and law enforcement officers will get to the bottom
of your internal problems. With Lauth Investigations International,
you can expect hands-on, comprehensive services, detailed reports, and expert
recommendations. When it comes to your business or organization, you should
only expect facts, not fiction.
If you are a member of Generation X or older, you might have
noticed your workplace undergoing significant changes more often than usual.
The technology used in daily operations is being updated, streamlined, and
implemented from the top-down. The language of your workplace might be changing
and evolving. The new hires appear to look younger and younger every day. As millennials
age, we will see a rising trend in places of business being dominated by millennial
culture and influence, and that just might be the answer to a necessary major
overhaul of corporate culture throughout the United States.
The Baby Boomer generation used to be the largest generation
currently employed in the United States. As they start to retire and leave the
workforce, the road is paved and shiny for millennials to fill those positions.
Since 2016, millennials
have made up a majority of the American labor force, and American work
environments are seeing the signs of progression. Millennials are an inspired
and ambitious generation, despite their reputation for lacking initiative and
being obsessed with the latest tech. Their most notable trait however is their
standards for corporate culture.
Millennials—more than any other generation—are famous for
job-hopping. Over half of working millennials have reported that they are
usually open to new job opportunities. Not only are they less likely to remain
at any one position indefinitely, but they are also more focused on the comprehensive
definitions of an organization’s culture. If corporations throughout the country
wish to continue hiring new employees, they may have to take a harder look at
their corporate culture. “Clearly, many young professionals are thinking about
more than money and are willing to sacrifice a portion of their salary in
exchange for a career move that more closely aligns with their values or
passions or improves their work-life balance,” said Kristen
Robinson, senior vice president, Women & Young Investors, Fidelity
Investments.
While working millennials have previously been characterized
as desperate hamster-wheel employees struggling to pay off student loan debt,
recent studies have shown that millennials are seeking a work-life balance that
is supported by their employer. Work-life flexibility can come in many forms,
such as flexible scheduling and remote working opportunities. The
Sloan Center on Aging & Work reported “a study of more than 19,000
employees showed that stress and burnout was lower among workers engaged in all
types of flexibility arrangements.”
What we know about the
cycle of corporate culture indicates that these employees who are having
more positive work experiences through work-life balance are then pouring themselves
back into their employment, furthering the health of the organization’s culture.
According to Gallup,
teams with high employee engagement rates are 21% more productive and have 28%
less internal theft than those with low engagement. When employees are engaged,
the wheels of the corporate machine turn fluidly.
Corporations can begin the process of improving their corporate culture by soliciting an independent corporate culture audit from firms in the risk assessment and private investigation industry. If your corporation is suffering from a corporate crisis, don’t hesitate. Even if the crisis seems relatively minor, it could be symptomatic of a larger problem within your organization. Call Lauth Investigations International today for a free quote on our brand-new Corporate Culture Audit (CCA) program. Our dedicated and qualified staff composed of former military and law enforcement officers will get to the bottom of your internal problems. With Lauth Investigations International, you can expect hands-on, comprehensive services, detailed reports, and expert recommendations. When it comes to your business or organization, you should only expect facts, not fiction.
Pervasive internal issues are the malignancies that
contribute to the decline of any corporation. While they come in many shapes
and iterations, issues like communication, employee engagement, and employee relations
can quickly derail a corporation’s mission. That’s why corporations across the
country are electing to undergo corporate
culture audits in order to get a full picture of what the internal issues
are so they can make concentrated efforts towards improving their business.
No two culture
audits will ever be the same—which is as it should be. Every company or
organization is fundamentally different from one other, not only due to its structure
and size, but because no workforce should be evaluated with the same measuring
stick as another. It’s imperative that the context of every single corporation
be fully explored. Full context can include, but is never limited to things
like corporate mission, vision, values, internal operations, structure, and
leadership.
Undergoing corporate culture audits is the first real step in addressing pervasive issues within the workplace. Think of it as an annual physical or checkup with a physician for your business. When you go to the doctor, you undergo an examination, and the specialists run tests in order to determine how healthy you are—a corporate culture audit is no different. A corporate culture auditor comes in and evaluates the level of functionality within your corporation so you can start implementing strategies to improve and grow your business. Here are some things that a corporate auditor might look at when they evaluate a corporation or organization:
Is everyone in the company invested in the same
things?
What are the valued differences between your
corporation and the competition?
What are the key measures of success within your
company?
What is the functionality of the leadership in
place versus the leadership required for success?
What are the environmental factors that are
contributing to the decline in culture?
What is the history of your company’s culture
from its foundation?
What are the subcultures that have formed in
your organization and what is their role within the company?
Corporate culture audits usually begin by speaking to
leadership. As the old adage goes, “The fish stinks from the head.” Many
problems within an organization can be traced back to problems with leadership,
and corporate culture auditors evaluate from the top down. Even if a CEO or
manager is engaged in supervision of daily operations, they may still be making
daily mistakes that contribute to stalls in the process.
Once leadership has been evaluated, auditors turn their
attention to internal operations. This involves looking at the chain of
command, the productivity flow (how the integral processes move from employee
to employee), and the quality of communication throughout the company. This
might involve interviewing department heads, reviewing meeting minutes, and
evaluating the environment of the workplace. This step is crucial, because regardless
of the leadership or employees in place, if the ecosystem of the workplace is
flawed, it can be difficult for even the most efficient, engaged employee to achieve
success.
Evaluating the environment and internal operations is
tantamount to establishing a bulletproof process for success—leaving the
workforce as one of the final pillars to be examined by the auditor. When you
seek a comprehensive picture of your employees’ level of engagement, it’s
important for auditors to identify the subcultures that are either contributing
or derailing your company’s mission and values. For example—there might be a
cluster of apathetic employees, who are not only disengaging together, but their
behavior actively encourages other employees to exhibit the same habits. This kind
of apathy can be a cancer in your corporation and may spread to other parts of
your workforce, further contributing to the decline of business.
Most importantly, at the conclusion of the audit, an
investigator will prepare a detailed report with very explicit recommendations
for how to fix the problems within the corporation or organization. This could
include items such as the termination of toxic employees, the revitalization of
internal operations, and necessary changes to a brick and mortar locations for
increased security or higher accountability. Once the audit is complete, the
burden of change lies with leadership to become beacons of change within the
internal structure. Corporate culture begins to improve when leadership
enforces changes from the top, allowing their example to trickle down through
the organization in the form of higher accountability and increased engagement.
If your corporation is suffering from a corporate crisis, don’t hesitate. Corporate culture audits are pulling more and more companies back into the black every day. Even if the crisis seems relatively minor, it could be symptomatic of a larger problem within your organization. Call Lauth Investigations International today for a free quote on our brand-new Corporate Culture Audit (CCA) program. Our dedicated and qualified staff composed of former military and law enforcement officers will get to the bottom of your internal problems. With Lauth Investigations International, you can expect hands-on, comprehensive services, detailed reports, and expert recommendations. When it comes to your business or organization, you should only expect facts, not fiction.
With retailers like Walmart, Kroger, and Amazon at the forefront of consumer watchdogs, the conversation around corporate culture and how it affects business continues to become inwardly focused. The nature of capitalism and supply-and-demand business models sometimes stand in the way of true reform when it comes to some of the nation’s most profitable corporations. Despite major retailers like Walmart and Kroger vowing to improve culture in several arenas of their business, the actual enforcement of these new “policies” has employees feeling lukewarm.
Walmart has recently been at the forefront of several different types of corporate crisis. Most notably, the tragic active shooter event at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas that killed 20 people and left dozens more injured. This horrible event is an example of a contextual corporate crisis, in which external events directly affect the public’s perception of the company. While contextual corporate crises typically have little to do with internal operations, the ever-growing epidemic of gun violence in the United States has CEOs and leadership of large retailers like Walmart rethinking their strategies. Since the shootings, Walmart CEO and President, Doug McMillon has announced the retailer will now discontinue sales of ammunition in their stores for handguns and military-style firearms like AR-15s. More notably, McMillion also said the company would “respectfully request that customers no longer openly carry firearms into their stores” with the exception of law enforcement. For many in the nation, “respectfully requesting” customers not openly carry in their stores is not enough, but it is symptomatic of changes in a capitalist society.
Following the tragedy at El Paso, eight more stores received threats of varying specificity. In the wake of the statement by McMillion, gun rights activists are already reporting individual stores are not enforcing their “respectful request” to not openly carry in their stores. David Amad, the vice president of Open Carry Texas, has reported members of the organization had openly carried in their local Walmart and not a single member was asked to leave, despite their visible firearm. When asked about it, Amad was quoted as saying, “They’re ducking the issue. They are trying to get the gun haters to leave them alone, while at the same time leave us alone when we carry in their stores.”
When it comes to improving the culture and perception of a company in the public eye, there can be no room for soft enforcement of policy. Revised, enforced policies are how companies improve their culture, and no one knows that better than the employees who are seeing internal operations every day. According to the New York Times, “Walmart employees are instructed not to obstruct peaceful shoppers from openly carrying guns in the stores…But if an employee or customer feels unsafe, the store workers should call law enforcement.”
What we know about the cycle of good corporate culture indicates that when employees feel valued, they remain engaged in operations and contribute to the overall improved health of the company. It is not a leap at all to assume employees who do not feel safe in the workplace do not maintain high engagement in daily operations. This is a corporation that is already the subject of gratuitous coverage involving internal issues, such as compensation, work conditions, and how toxic corporate culture continues to pervade within the organization. Now the soft enforcement of no open-carrying in Walmart stores may cause employees to further lose hope that the retail giant will ever make meaningful changes within the organization. Research has shown, as the workforce continues to age, corporations will have no choice but to improve their corporate culture, or risk a consistent pattern of turnover and decline in profits. Glassdoor reported millennials are the largest generation within the workforce currently, and they are the prospective employees who will make unprecedented choices in their employment, favoring healthy corporate culture over high rates of compensation. If corporations wish to retain otherwise dedicated employees for the continued growth of their organization, they’re level of integrity in changing their corporation’s culture must have a stronger resolve.
Every CEO wants to believe their employees are clocking in for more than a paycheck every day. They believe in their corporation’s mission and perceive their employees to be just as enthusiastic and engaged as they are. They believe their employees’ compensation is more than enough motivation to fully dedicate themselves to the company’s mission in their day-to-day operations. However, a recent study conducted by Glassdoor has shed a very different light on employee engagement with regards to corporate culture.
Glassdoor surveyed 5,000 adults across 4 different countries, including the United States, and found that salary is not the only factor in an employee’s satisfaction with their job. Job seekers are upping their standards when applying for jobs. The study concluded that 70% of applicants would not apply to a company unless its values align with their own. This will only become more prevalent as time marches on, with data points on age producing some unexpected results. The study defined the demographic of millennials as individuals aged 18-34. Those individuals indicated they valued a company’s culture more than the level of compensation. This is significant, because millennials are currently the largest employed generation in the workforce.
As they age, corporations will feel the pressure to change their corporate culture so they can retain existing employees and create a healthy corporate environment for future employees. Social media and smart technology are largely responsible for this shift in the attitude of job seekers. Not only is news and information about corporations ubiquitous and accessible, but current and former employees also have platforms like Indeed and Glassdoor to share their employment experience with the world. With a constant communication line to the rest of the world, the line between one’s work life and personal life will only continue to become more blurred. As such, daily happiness and satisfaction within one’s job is more important than ever.
The study went on to state that 74% of employees who participated in the survey said they would leave a position if the company’s culture has declined. Amanda Stansell, the senior economic research analyst for Glassdoor, points to all of these as reasons why corporations must take their current culture into account, “Even if the company culture is good, it can change, especially if they aren’t reactive and constantly measuring employee satisfaction and actively working to improve it.”
Forbes also noted in recent months that many corporations are expanding internal investigation teams in order to address pervasive internal issues more efficiently. The more we know about the cycle of corporate culture tells us when leadership is engaged. CEOs and management must engage with their employees beyond their quotas and productivity level. Some leadership may believe things like a pitch-in or birthday parties for employees are enough to keep employees happy, but the problem runs much deeper. Employees want to see leadership actively improving daily operations by listening to employee feedback and instituting new strategies that contribute to the health of the workplace. This means supervising communication lines and holding apathetic employees accountable when they contribute to stalls in operations. It is an opportunity to lead by example for the entire workforce. When employees see engaged leadership, they feel validated in their part of driving success within the corporation. This leads to increased engagement within the workforce, which leads to increased productivity. Increased productivity means happy leadership, which starts the cycle anew with happy employees.
When a corporation is functioning as a well-oiled machine, it can be easy to neglect the corporate culture in day-to-day operations. If productivity is up, leadership remains happy—but executives and management must make a focused effort to take an interest in their employees’ happiness in the workplace. This prevents employee apathy, improves daily operations, and overall, contributes to the long-term health of the company. The company retains employees at a higher rate, which decreases turnover expenses, and creates a fortified workforce essential to promoting success.
