As a repeat winner of the Best Places to Work award, the team at Denver experiential marketing agency, Webolutions, understands that creating a great company culture doesn’t happen by accident.
Studies of great corporate cultures consistently confirm that the companies with the most amazing cultures have taken very specific steps to make this happen. Whether you’re a small, local business or a major global corporation, creating a winning culture requires:
- A clearly defined brand/cultural platform
- Compelling, consistent leadership communication
- Identification of unique employee and customer experiences that bring the brand to life
- Alignment of hiring, training, and performance management practices around the desired culture
A recent report on worldwide employee engagement (the emotional and intellectual commitment of employees to the company) found that just 31% of employees qualify as truly engaged. This lack of engagement costs organizations billions in lost productivity and turnover each year, so understanding how to create a winning culture is critical.
Communication between employees and senior management is consistently among the top three factors (together with job content and job security) in determining employee satisfaction and engagement. According to the SHRM 2012 survey, it is also the area with one of the largest gaps between importance and satisfaction. That means that employees highly value communications with senior management, but are rather dissatisfied with what they experience on a day-to-day basis. Having worked for a number of Fortune 500 companies, these statistics don’t surprise me one bit. Management communications are frequently ghost written by well-meaning internal communications specialists resulting in messages that are factually correct but emotionally vacant. For any communication, internal or external, to be effective, it needs to motivate the listener on both a factual and emotional level.
It’s not enough for employees to feel that senior management has industry competence and a sound operating strategy. Those things, while important, don’t drive emotional engagement. Successful leaders mold their cultures by making it personal; finding ways to help employees get to know who they are as people and what they believe in. These leaders “walk the talk” by incorporating their beliefs into the fiber of the organization in terms of how they treat customers, employees, and the community at large.
Demonstrating a true commitment to the community is one way to bridge the communication gap between employees and senior management. Employees consistently seek meaning in their employment beyond contributing to the bottom line and joining together with co-workers to benefit the community is a proven way to drive employee engagement, loyalty, and pride. In fact, in one study, employees satisfied with their company’s commitment to social and environmental responsibility were 86% more engaged than those who felt dissatisfied with company CSR policies.
Webolutions has long had a strong commitment to the community. Year after year, our employees participate in a number of activities that bring us together as a team and support our common values. Some of our favorites include:
- Host Denver’s largest Social Media Marketing group
- Participate in South Metro Chamber of Commerce B.I.G. Day
- Sponsor the Castle Rock WineFest
- Drop off center for the Coats for Colorado clothing drive
These activities reinforce who we are. They feed our passion for sharing ideas, giving back, and enjoying time with clients and with each other. These activities and others are an integral and purposeful part of our culture and what helped make us a Best Place to Work in Denver.
How to Use this Information
Does your business have a unique and engaging culture? Are your employees engaged? Is it because they get a paycheck or because they share your vision and values and are proud to be part of a forward-thinking company? If you haven’t invested time in creating a company culture that reflects your world view, chances are your team isn’t as engaged as they might be. Low employee engagement leads to lack-luster customer interactions and potentially downright poor service. As a Denver experiential marketing agency, Webolutions can help you identify your brand and cultural platform. We can help you bring that platform to life with unique branded experiences that drive engagement with both employees and customers. Go ahead, make it personal—let your team members and your clients know what makes you tick. Call Webolutions today at 303-300-2640 to learn more about creating a winning culture.
Already doing great things to drive employee engagement? Tell us about it in the space below.
