What makes a real corporate culture? It encompasses the values, ethos and morality of an organisation. These values are defined by executives, but it is up to HR to implement, mediate, and, if necessary, change these elements within organisations.
In addition to the implementation of new corporate strategies, the right approach to solving digital change is with the employees. It is the workforce that has to deal with the new developments in a practical and active manner and incorporate the strategies on a daily basis. For this reason, it is vital to establish the best possible corporate culture.
Here’s some clues to agree your strategy and corporate culture:
Flexibility for HR
If a company wants to change through its employees, this also means HR needs to re-establish itself. HR must position itself differently and, as a result, act as a strategic partner, instead of presenting itself as an aid to the management.
Take Risks
The fact that companies are often afraid of risks lies in the nature of the matter. Nevertheless, there are always phases in economic development, where risks are important. Digital change is one of these risks. It is also the only way to promote innovation and creativity. Leadership means not only to command, but also to inspire. Creating new digital strategies may be a risk but no culture can develop without even exploring its limits. Each manager must ask his or herself whether they are ready, to take the risk.
Speed up the transfer of knowledge
Interlink your organisation in terms of learning. According to Cornerstone’s A License to Skill: Embracing the Reskilling Revolution report, there remains a confidence gap between organisations and their people when it comes to skills development suggesting investments in learning may not currently produce the desired outcome for your people. This breakdown in communication cannot be solved by further investments though, you first need to establish a learning environment. The scientists McCall, Lombardo and Morrison showed in 1988 that employees learn 10 percent through formal further education, 20 percent from colleagues and 70 percent by challenges. Successful managers should encourage their employees to learn autodidactically with their colleagues at the workplace. Investment in internal social networks – based on the rules of the collaboration functions – should not be stopped but encouraged. The goal must be unified learning processes in which the collaboration and sharing of knowledge among colleagues are the focus. This will accelerate the exchange of knowledge enormously and improve the efficiency of employees.
Consolidation
Over the past few years, a highly-fragmented system has developed, which makes it difficult for companies to coordinate their network environment. The consequences are often unclear procedures and high costs, which lead to conflicts within the team and harm company culture. Large organisations often use different systems in each of their offices which are repeatedly incompatible. All processes and standards of a company should be standardised to consolidate internal processes. This will prevent disturbances and create transparency across the company.
Communication
Transparency allows teams across the company to understand all of the processes and to see themselves as part of a larger unit. Practices that actively promote this and are available to managers are, for example, performance reviews and employee interviews that take place not only quarterly or annually but continuously.
Corporate strategy and corporate culture do not have to take separate paths, but represent two sides of a medal. The factors that make up the culture are like the oil in a machine consisting of innovation and success.
This blog originally published in July 2017 and updated in November 2020.
