Transforming your business culture is easier said than done! It takes commitment to bring about a successful culture shift that ensures your team feels secure, valued and like they belong.
Business culture is an integral part of every organisation’s function. However, sometimes this culture needs to change and adapt with changes in your business. Transforming your business culture can help improve your employee satisfaction and boost productivity. After all, workers that feel valued in their positions and within their organisation are 50% more productive than those that don’t.
Transforming your business culture is easier said than done! It takes commitment to bring about a successful culture shift that ensures your team feels secure, valued and like they belong. The hard work is worth it though, as it can help the long-term success and sustainability of your organisation.
So, “how exactly do I do this?” we hear you ask!
We can’t promise you it will be easy, but here are some suggestions to help you begin to transform your business culture.
Why opt for a business culture change anyway?
Before any real change can take place, it’s best to explain to your team why you want it to happen. This provides understanding and insight into why there needs to be a change, which can help them get on board with your vision. On the other hand, if they don’t understand how or what they do fits into the business culture and mission, they may wonder why bother.
Make it clear how your people will benefit from the changes you want to make. If each employee can understand the benefits for them in their day to day job, it’ll be easier for them to put the effort in and embrace change as it happens.
To get a sense of your current culture and its challenges (what needs to change), you could:
- Conduct an employee survey
- Hold meetings with team leaders and entry-level roles
- Hold focus groups
- Meet with those that impact the business’s culture
These steps can help you gauge what your current business culture is like and how everyone feels about it across the board.
Tip: Record any focus groups or team meetings. Rewatching them later can help you track key points and remind yourself of what people had to say. Video tagging allows you to tag key parts of the video and make comments you can come back to. This can help improve your feedback and influence your future decision making.
Culture change doesn’t happen overnight
Behaviours can be embedded deep within people, and employees may take a while to adjust to your vision. Particularly if they’ve been in the company a long time. When this is the case, it helps to have a clear understanding of what motivates your team and what may encourage them to change for the better.
You can’t just introduce Friday beers and free snacks and expect your business culture to transform overnight. It’s a little bit more complicated than that. Change doesn’t happen instantly – it’s a process so be patient if it takes some time.
Uncover what needs to change
Before you begin transforming your business culture, you first need to uncover which behaviours need to change (and which don’t). To assess the current situation so that you can be clear on your company’s future accepted values and behaviours, you could ask:
- What behaviours / actions do we want to stop?
- What behaviours / actions do we want to continue?
- What behaviours /actions aren’t we seeing that we want to introduce?
Find a meaningful connection
Company culture is shared expectations of what you want to achieve together and how you behave with each other. So establishing a meaningful connection between your employees and what they do with the company can help when it comes to introducing new ways of thinking and working.
Creating those connections is key to building trust, it’s the foundation of creating the business culture you want.
If those in leadership positions start acting and leading by example, others will follow. A strong vision that is established by those ‘at the top’, gives everyone a clear picture of the overall goal and helps them to see the part they play in it. Couple this with a clear set of shared values and company principles (with clear reasons), your team will have a much clearer picture of the daily behaviours they should look to convey.
Be accommodating
A vital thing to understand is that what works for one person, may not work for another. You must be accommodating to individuals’ needs when transforming your business culture. They will be thankful that you have put in the effort, and it will make them feel valued. One way to do this is by working on giving better instructions. This can help ensure clarity and get everyone on the same page.
Tip: Share videos to demonstrate what good looks like in your organisation (VEO can help). This allows you to set clear standards throughout your business that everyone can understand. Being able to visually see standards and examples of good work can help employees digest what is expected of them. With VEO, you can create your own video tags to highlight specific moments, and comment to give more context on why the behaviour being demonstrated in the video is what you’d like to see from them.
Recognise and reward
When people start exuding your new business culture, you should recognise and reward it. Recognising high performers can promote role models that others can emulate. Your team likely wants to do meaningful work that contributes value to the organisation, and if they know they will be rewarded for this, they’ll likely work harder to be recognised for it.
So, now you can work on transforming your business culture. We can’t promise that the change will happen overnight, but by taking this advice on board, you’ll be well on your way!
Get a VEO demo
The best way to see how VEO works is through a demo, get in touch to arrange a demo with one of our team today.
