Balancing Organizational Culture with Bottom-Line Results
December 4, 2024
By Dan Ward, APR, CPRC
A lot has changed in the workplace in recent years.
From the pandemic to the growth of virtual and hybrid work, to the influx of “Gen Z” professionals who are motivated more by culture than compensation, these factors and more have forced companies to reevaluate how they do business.
As noted in Business News Daily, a 2019 international survey by Glassdoor found that 77% of workers would “consider a company’s culture” before seeking a job there. Another 56% said a positive culture was more important than salary.
To win the recruitment wars at a time of low unemployment, many companies are relying more on establishing positive cultural elements in their workplaces – everything from increased flexibility and time off to parties, in-office recreation and opportunities for professional development.
But ours is also a capitalist society, and a company’s bottom line is measured by performance and productivity. As such, companies today must strike the balance between positive culture and financial results. The good news is that the two are not mutually exclusive.
According to the Harvard Division of Continuing Education, people who work in companies with a positive corporate culture are healthier, happier, more productive and less likely to leave. They point to Fortune’s annual 100 Best Companies to Work For list, and how those on the list report much higher annual returns.
So how do you find that balance? For us, it falls into four key areas:
- Ensure culture is authentic
- Communicate that results are what allow for investment in culture
- Build achievement into company values
- Make rewards part of your culture
Be Authentic
About a decade ago, I was at a University of Central Florida (my alma mater) football game, and the public address announcer told the crowd to lock arms for a “new tradition” (oxymoron alert!) in which we would all sway in unison while singing some tune. More than 40,000 people looked at each other with the same quizzical look and mumbled a less appropriate version of “what the heck?!”
Let’s just say the “new tradition” lasted about two games. Tradition can’t be forced. It has to be organic and authentic. The same is true with corporate culture.
How does that apply to the bottom line? If your culture isn’t authentic to your personal and professional values, your team will notice … and will soon seek to be part of someone else’s team where culture is lived and demonstrated, not just spoken about.
People can sense authenticity, even in the workplace. Demonstrate your values in practice, and productivity and retention will be positively impacted.
Communicate
Everyone wants to enjoy where they work. For us, that extends to a “People First” family culture where we focus on flexibility, time off, and celebrations of personal and professional milestones.
Most of those cultural elements require time, and in a professional service setting, field time is money. Culture is an investment. Make sure your team knows and understands that fact. A company’s ability to invest in the things that make a workplace fun depends on it first being a workplace.
Ensure that your employees understand that results, profitability and efficiency are what support cultural investments, not the other way around.
Build Achievement into Your Culture
Communicating the link between results and investments in culture is step one. Step two is building achievement into your culture. Make sure performance is not just rewarded but expected. Performance, achievement and success can be not only what drive investment in a fun culture, they should also be part of the culture itself.
At Curley & Pynn, we’ve built those expectations into our core values. We Hustle – taking the initiative and focusing on excellence at speed. We Give a Shit – demonstrating to each other and our clients that we care deeply about the programs we manage and their success. And we Win as a Team – celebrating victories and the efforts of every team member’s contributions.
Achieving bottom-line results is celebrated as part of our culture. Your team should know that and naturally want to help you achieve your company’s goals.
Reward Results
How do you make achievement fun? Reward it!
Financial rewards are great, but remember the majority of today’s workers value a positive culture just as much as salary.
Recognition is a reward. In our firm, we recognize people who live up to our five core values with the biweekly awarding of “The Five,” an inexpensive but visual symbol of success. Award winners are nominated by their peers, reiterating our “Win as a Team” ethos that encourages everyone to be involved.
When someone goes beyond the expected and achieves at a high level, we have additional rewards – again, inexpensive but visual and public – everything from spinning a wheel to winning a gift card to grabbing lunch or dinner on the corporate card.
Sometimes a reward needs to be nothing more than a sincere “thank you” for a job well done. Let your people know their contributions are noticed and appreciated.
If your company rewards, celebrates and communicates that results are part of your company culture, you can make bottom-line achievement part of a fun culture that makes people enjoy the work they do and the company and clients they do it for.
