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Creating a Magnetic Company Culture

Published Monday Jun 27, 2022

Author Dave Solomon

Creating a Magnetic Company Culture

With the nation’s “quit rate” at a 20-year high, workers are voluntarily abandoning their jobs for better opportunities in record numbers, leaving many business owners struggling.

“A few years ago, you might have three people competing for your one job, and now it’s more likely that you have two other businesses competing for one candidate,” says Kristen Wilhelm, owner and principal consultant at Orchard HR, a human resources consulting firm in Nashua.

Candidates are comparing options and what businesses have to offer.

So how does a business create a magnetic culture?

According to a Pew Research Center survey released in March, “low pay, a lack of opportunities for advancement and feeling disrespected at work are the top reasons why Americans quit their jobs last year.”

Those who changed jobs, for the most part, say their new job has better pay, more opportunities for advancement and more work-life balance and flexibility, according to Pew.

“There are definitely characteristics that are common in companies people don’t want to work for, and there are characteristics that make a company more desirable,” Wilhelm says.

While workers want equitable pay and good benefits, those only go so far in building that magnetic culture.

Inclusivity and Involvement
“Inclusivity is a word used a lot more these days,” says business consultant Dave Heeter of Merrimack, owner of Thrive Life Coaching. “How do I include employees in running the business, get their ideas, get their thoughts and contributions in ways that make them feel more valued in the company?”

In addition to one-to-one conversations and structured meetings, many businesses are also conducting employee surveys, according to Wilhelm. “They’re asking the employees through anonymous surveys, what do you think about the company? What do you like? What don’t you like? What’s important? What’s less important?”

These surveys take the pulse of employees and determine whether management and employees are aligned.

“We think we provide an excellent work environment; do employees agree?” asks Wilhelm. “The key here is if you ask someone what they think and then don’t do anything about it or respond, eventually they are going to stop telling you what they think.”

Effective Communication
This starts in the hiring process, which must be geared toward finding the best possible match for the company culture even in a competitive hiring environment. “A lot of small businesses, they don’t have a clear job description; they don’t have a clear understanding of the personality they need for a specific role,” says Heeter.

The wrong hire can have far more adverse effects on a company than allowing an opening to go unfilled. “Even though it’s a tough hiring market right now, if you really want to improve retention, you still have to screen and interview for cultural fit and understand it’s not just about what skills and experience the candidate has on paper. Are they going to fit in with your culture?” Wilhelm says.

Good communication has to continue with a thorough onboarding process for the new employee, in which they receive the information they need to hit the ground running but are not overwhelmed with technical details.

“Beyond that, I think businesses that have good communication have both structured and unstructured feedback,” says Wilhelm. Unstructured feedback means that workers are in regular work-related conversation with peers and getting day-to-day feedback from managers. While challenging with remote workers, the best organizations are adapting.

The structured piece is the formal performance review process. “Generally, employees should know they are going to have a weekly or at least biweekly check-ins with a manager; and they’re going to have annual or biannual reviews, where they sit down and go over the last year to talk about what their goals are and what they would like to continue doing,” Wilhelm says.

Making sure that all newly opened positions are posted internally also sends an important message about advancement opportunities. “It seems like such a simple thing, but you’d be surprised how many times I’ve seen businesses assume no one is interested or determine that they don’t have anyone who meets the expectations or qualifies for that role,” says Wilhelm.

Advancement and Growth
An attractive work culture is also one in which workers are consistently learning new skills and advancing.

Employees want to see their employer is interested in their continued professional development. “If a business is willing to spend money on that, that really is compelling. It communicates that they value you for more than just your 40 hours a week,” says Wilhelm.

These initiatives can take the form of continuing education reimbursement, seminars, conferences and on-the-job training leading to certification or licensing.

“Sometimes they are not even all that related to the job,” says Wilhelm. “I have one client who expanded tuition and continuing education reimbursement to include mental health and general well-being. Employees are using it to get therapy or for yoga classes.”

Flexibility
There are some jobs where workers simply have to be present for certain hours and must be onsite. But for many jobs, that’s not necessarily the case, and the pandemic has forever changed the debate over working from home.

“A lot of people having gotten a taste of being able to work from home, may want to go back to the office part-time, because they want to see people and engage with their team, but many employees are realizing the benefits of being able to work from home and have a break from the commute. Right now, that’s a big one,” says Wilhelm.

Generous paid time-off packages are also in demand, Wilhelm says. “It’s a big draw,” she says. “Valuing employees by saying we understand that work is not your entire life, and we want you to have time to spend with family and pursue other interests and take vacations and a break from work.”

It Starts at the Top
Most organizations, to a large degree, reflect leadership. With the right leadership, a constructive culture can be created even in an environment that simply doesn’t allow for remote work or flex-time scheduling.

“The thing about culture, it’s something that is developed and created through the decisions that a business makes, how it operates and how the leadership behaves,” says Wilhelm. “A lot of it filters down from the top, so a number of things come together to create that corporate culture. You can control a lot of it through the way you run the business, the way you treat employees, and the policies and procedures you have in place.”

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