How does your company's culture measure up?

The following points describe some common attributes of successful cultures:

Culture is not a human resource responsibility. New-hire training on areas such as

mission, culture and values should be taught by the employee's peers. The leaders of
an organization are the true stewards of an organization's culture.

Culture should encourage knowledge sharing. All companies have formal

communication networks for disseminating information throughout the organization.
But does your company encourage knowledge sharing through informal social
networks? In many organizations today, time spent socializing at the water cooler is
no longer wasted time, but an opportunity to engage in knowledge sharing and crossfunctional problem solving.

Culture requires management enthusiasm. Senior management of an organization is

ultimately the caretaker of an organization's mission, values and culture. The attitude
and devotion that management portrays towards the cultural aspects of the company
will determine how successfully those efforts will be adopted by newer employees.

Culture should promote mentoring. An organization-wide mentoring program is an

important cultural attribute for the retention of employees. A formal mentoring
program administered by the human resources department is not the objective. Ideally,
mentoring should occur within informal relationships that develop naturally in the
work environment. However, formal mentoring programs are beneficial for
integrating new hires into the organization's culture. Successful mentoring programs,
formal or informal, require the support and buy-in from senior management.

Culture should be aligned with your corporate strategy. When culture is appropriately
aligned with business strategy it provides focus and can be used as an organizational
enabler to improving employee morale, retention and loyalty.

Culture requires tempo. Employees like to identify themselves with a successful

organization. Thus, senior management has the responsibility to publicize the major
wins of a firm and those people that contributed to the success. Another way to

develop a sense of tempo is to revisit the recent past during company-wide meetings;
review the past two or three years chronologically to show the major milestones and
successes that have brought the organization to it's current position.

Culture should be fun. Keep in mind that fun, like culture, means different things to
different people. However, one example that has been used very successfully to inject
fun into all aspects of work is to emulate a family-like environment in your culture.
Close families will tease each other, laugh at themselves, plan group activities,
recognize major accomplishments, interact socially, and come to agreement on
difficult issues for the sake of the family bond. Other suggestions for incorporating
fun into the work environment include using toys during meetings, having regularly
scheduled social events, recognizing funny or embarrassing situations that occur in
the work environment, and sponsoring team activities such as walk-a-thons or relay
races.

During a reflection of your company's culture, it is also important to identify the anti-cultural
attributes of your organization. In other words, what attributes of your culture are counterproductive to building the organization that should be eliminated? One way to reduce the
occurrence of anti-cultural behavior is to develop a practice of identifying when it happens
and use the culture's peer pressure to minimize the occurrence of the behavior. For example,
pagers and cellular phones ringing during meetings could be an anti-cultural behavior. One
way to reduce the occurrence of this behavior is to issue yellow cards to all employees, and
when someone's cell phone rings during a meeting employees can yellow card their
colleague's anti-cultural behavior.
The recruitment and retention of people has become a vicious circle. Not only is it costly to
find and train talented individuals, but as salary expectations continue to rise it is expensive
to hold onto those employees.
Any edge a company can develop to the work experience for its people is also a powerful tool
for attracting the most sought-after job candidates. Organizations that are successful at
developing strong corporate cultures will be able to attract and retain people while benefiting
from the intellectual capital payoff of low employee turnover.

What is corporate culture, and why is it important?

Corporate culture is the personality of an organization, revolving around consistent and
shared beliefs, values and behaviors of a specific company.
And according to research news source ScienceDaily, corporate culture is the single most
important factor in driving innovation: the key to growth, success and wealth for a firm.
Now, of course, most companies dont have the resources to purchase the space or amenities
that make Googles corporate culture stand out as it does. But, developing a great working
environment is still central to employee engagement and retention and can be done without
bamboo-lined hallways or in-house eyebrow waxing (not making that up).
Lets check out a few cool ways to build a corporate culture employees will love and how
these drive next-level culture, engagement and retention.
1) Create an accessible mission statement that can be tangibly deployed every day
At Google, the companys unique way of approaching business is apparent across all its
branding, starting with its mission statement. In other words, from the second a potential
employee visits Googles company site, it is apparent the firm values hard work in a modern,
casual environment. By contrast, many companies struggle from a mission that either not all
employees understand, or that isnt embraced at all levels of the organization.

With that in mind, decide what values and goals are central to the organizations success,
instill the importance of those values to employees and lead by example in rolling them out
on a daily basis. This way, employees can latch on to the fact that their work is actually
helping propel the company forward rather than trying to reach ambiguous goals that are
constantly in flux. Employees who know theyre making a difference=employees who will
want to continue making a difference.
2) Always have something that employees can look forward to
Theres no shortage of folks that advocate a fun workplace. But, the natural worry for
executives is that creating a workplace thats too loose will stand in the way of employee
productivity. While this is certainly a viable concern, nothing will damage morale and
turnaround more than employees who feel stuck completing the same tasks with nothing
cheerful on the horizon to shake things up.

Avoid these ^ kinds of employees: always have something exciting coming up

One way to avoid this attitude is by always having things employees can look forward to.
While many offices have holiday parties, casual Fridays and occasional field trips, employers

can also promote sporadic revelry based on the achievement of team goals. For example, set
out a timeline for specific sales initiatives at the beginning of the year with rewards (nice
dinners, days off, tickets to concerts or sporting events) for hitting the goals on target. As a
result, employees will be motivated to work together to achieve these rewards, building interoffice camaraderie and avoiding stressful, cutthroat environments in which co-workers are
pitted against one another. Its that positive reinforcement kind of thing.
3) Promote an active office culture
More and more jobs today especially in the explosive tech and startup fields require staff
to be tethered to a desk, conducting all of their duties through the computer. While this may
suit some, there are lots of folks out there who are less than enthused about staring at a screen
for nine hours a day.
But, not only is sitting at the desk all day boring, its actually bad for health and productivity.
When you sit, you distort the natural curve of the spine, which means your back muscles
have to do something to hold your back in shape because youre no longer using the natural
curves of the spine to lift yourself up against gravity, said Stanford University health
psychologist Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D a back and neck specialist. In laymens terms, sitting
at your desk for hours on end is no good.
Additionally, a recent article written by Forbes columnist Susan Adams cites experts like
James A. Levine of integrated clinical practice, education and research institution The Mayo
Clinic who mentions that the thought process is not meant to be continuous, and that
professional efficiency is maximized when employees work in shorter, uninterrupted periods
with breaks in between.
All of these ideas point to the fact that a great corporate culture is one that gives employees
options to get away from their desks and computers during the workday. For example,
management can promote staff members taking solid lunch breaks, going for walks mid-day
or using the conference room for a stretch so they can return to their daily tasks with a clearer
head and refreshed enthusiasm.
Additionally, while most companies dont have the budget to outfit a game room like
Googles, investing in a pong-pong table, foosball, darts, Nerf basketball hoop or similar

recreational devices are a perfect way for employees to break up their day, get the blood
flowing, interact with colleagues and ultimately get back to their desk with a clearer head.
Management can also facilitate an active office culture by providing employees with gym
memberships or discounts. Activity=endorphins=natural highs=happy employees=good place
to work. Isnt math fun?
4) Enable workplace flexibility
This is a big one, especially in our native tech community. With the pervasiveness of mobile
and cloud computing, employees have the ability to complete their work from almost
anywhere. What they dont always have is a corporate culture that enables them to do so.
But, according to April 2011 data collected from leading tech job board Dice, flexibility is so
important to technical professionals that the Dice community expressed a willingness to take
a salary cut of nearly $8,000 on average for the chance to work remotely.
But, the report mentions that Less than one percent or 500 of the total jobs posted
on Dice mention telecommuting as an option. Consequently, employers that can cater to this
expressed desire will have effectively differentiated their corporate culture and increased their
chances at retaining top talent who dont want to come into a traditional office every day.
This may also be an effective cost-reduction strategy.
5) Foster open and honest communication, all the time
As much as job candidates are motivated by a large salary, just as many are hungry for an
ability to contribute in a meaningful way especially when it comes to the Millennial
generation currently in the early stages of their careers.
With that in mind, it is in employers best interest to design a corporate culture in which every
staff members input is clearly valued. Allow employees to challenge existing practices and
to expand upon existing ideas. Have different departments share information with one another
and have as few physical barriers separating employees as possible. When employees know
there is a perpetually open forum for their voice to be heard, thats when theyll feel they
made a difference, exponentially increasing their comfort level and their willingness to grow
with the company.

Ultimately, this is what will not only motivate loyalty, but will drive innovation. Think the
guy who designed the built-in sauce holder in the Burger King chicken fries containers would
have changed the way we dip if he was busy fuming over the fact that no one listened to his
ideas? I think not.
The bottom line is that these strategies are only effective if they come from the top down.
Create a next level corporate culture and employees will thank you by putting forth their best
effort, every day.
Culture is defined by those shared beliefs, values, and norms that guide organizational
behavior. Well defined organizational culture is important as it unites employees by
providing a sense of identity with the organization, enables organizations to differentiate
themselves from others, generates commitment superseding personal interest over the
organizations, sets norms, rules & standards for proper functioning of employees & guides
their behavior & is the guiding light towards achieving goals & objectives.
The first step is to create the right culture using employee feedback from exit interviews,
talking to new employees on their expectations at the time of hiring, studying employee
behavior pattern & through personal experience of running an organization. Culture today
needs to be dynamic as newer generations enter workplace & expectations change far more
rapidly than one can create changes.
Doug Conant of Campbell Soup has rightly said To win in the marketplace, you must first
win in the workplace. A great & conducive work culture therefore becomes critical for
successful employee engagement.
My personal experience has been that to retain employees, a great work culture today must
focus on the following:
1.

Clear Vision & Mission: Organizational vision is critical to set the organizational
direction. Employees need to understand what the company aims to achieve & how. While
Mission answers why we exist? Vision defines What we will become if we fulfill our
mission. While the Mission is for now, the vision is the future. A clearly defined Vision &
Mission helps align all employees in one direction & is critical for setting expectations.

2.

Values: Organization values are principles & ethics that guide the behavior,
perspective & actions of the organization. They form the ethical foundation of the

organization & define what is right & what is wrong. Employees love working for
organizations that have listed out clear values & adhere to the same
3.

Compassion: Today employees have more personal issues than ever before. These
could relate to family & children, health, long commuting, work related anxiety, depression
etc. It is important for organizations to be compassionate & stand by their employees in
creating flexibility which allows them to attend to their problems without fear of being
penalized or loss of job.

4.

Communication: Two way communications with employees is absolutely critical.

Employees must be able to express themselves without fear & see the management as
responsive. Management must be able to communicate their vision, policies, feedback with
clarity & straightforwardness. A face to face communication on a one-to-one basis is far
more effective than written & mass communication. The tone & tenor of ones words can
be mis-communicated when done remotely

5.

Continuous Feedback: Employees today expect a regular feedback on their

performance & areas of improvement. Organizations must have a system of regular &
honest feedback designed to improve employees performance on a continuous basis. The
feedback must focus on an employees strength & attributes he/he possesses followed by
areas of improvement. The feedback must be given fearlessly, without lowering an
employees self- esteem, as that can lead to extreme de-motivation. Subsequent feedbacks
must monitor improvement over previous feedbacks. More important than success is the
feeling of gradual improvement

6.

Seamless Operations: An organization must operate seamlessly across teams &

departments. Employees should be able to reach out to anyone, including the top
management, for any support or help. There should be a spirit of cooperation, collaboration
& support amongst all. People must think organization above self. This helps in reducing
office politics & groupism & ultimately stress.

7.

Transparency: An organisation must be seen to be transparent in its dealingsinternally & externally. Employees must have access to all information & must know what
the management is thinking & how the organisation is performing. All facts must be
accessible. Transparency leads to trust & trust leads to loyalty.

As important as it is to have a good culture, it is important to hire people for ones culture-fit.
A wrong hire can hugely damage the culture. For this reason it is critical to run a proper
Socialisation & induction programme which will help employees understand the culture
faster & help settle-in quickly in their new environment.

At the end of the day there are 3 things employees seek that can help improve their loyalty &
longevity in an organisation- continuous learning, a clear line of professional growth &
happiness at work. An organizational culture must strive to attain all these to be effective.

Ways of Improving Employee Retention

Employee retention is a critical issue facing today's enterprises as they
compete for talent in a recovering economy. As Josh Bersin, principal at
Deloitte and founder of Bersin by Deloitte, spells out, the costs of
employee turnover are increasingly high, as much as 1.5 to 2 times an
employee's salary. There are also other, soft costs, such as lowered
productivity and a decrease in employee morale. These all add up to big
trouble for businesses that aren't investing in their human capital.
If you wait until a valued employee's exit interview to find out why he or
she decided to move on, you've missed out on keeping a productive
member of your team. And if they aren't forthcoming about why they are
leaving, you also miss a golden opportunity to identify obstacles and
challenges within your organization and fix them before you lose others.

How to Measure Employee Retention

Measuring how many employees chose to stay or leave your organization is, on the
surface, a straight-forward measure. But for this metric to be valuable in shaping your
practices, and therefore worth the effort of measuring, requires some clear judgments
about who you want to retain and why.
The basic measure of employee retention is often referred to as turnover. This is
calculated in the following way:
Number of employees leaving the organization
Total Number of employees
(Note: Contract or temporary staff are usually excluded from both the top and bottom
number. Part-Time staff would usually be included.)
Multiplying this number by 100 will express your turnover as a percentage. It is
important that you calculate the top and the bottom number over the same time period.
Looking at this number quarterly is usually sufficient for most organizations. To get an
annual turnover percentage you should average the results for your four quarters.
Although this number is fairly simple to calculate it does not tell you anything really
useful. The key with turnover is to look at who you are losing, from where and, if

possible, why. This is where your measurement discipline starts to focus more on
coding or describing the information you are processing rather than simply processing
high level data.
To make your retention measure meaningful you should be able to identify how much of
your turnover is:

Voluntary and involuntary

Due to retirement
Due to people leaving laterally to other jobs
Due to people leaving into promoted roles,
At different tenure stages such as less than 1 year, 1-3 years, 3-5 years, etc
People identified as critical to the business for their skills or succession potential
From different levels within the organization such as entry level, individual
contributor, supervisor / manager, executive, senior executive etc.
From hard to fill roles
From new hires
This list is a short indication of what you can look at. Deciding which three to five factors
are the most important is where your judgment and organizational knowledge is key.
Only once you know what is critical can you design your data collection process to
capture this information.
The simplest way to capture this information is to include your three to five factors with
standard descriptions on the forms required to process an employee exit. This requires
the manager to provide this information in order to complete their responsibilities. It will
be much harder to gather once the person has left or the final pay check has been
written.
Your three to five factors, once tracked and used to calculate your scores, will start to
show you the pattern of retention within your organization. However they will not answer
the crucial question of why these patterns exist. This is best done through employee
survey questions or effective anonymous exit interviews. This combination of
quantitative and qualitative data will provide the information required to develop and
track the effectiveness of your retention efforts.

How to Calculate HR Employee Retention Rates

Employee retention rate is a helpful statistic for an employer to calculate both as a
benchmark and periodically (ex: quarterly or bi-annually). The formula is simple.
Divide the number of employees who left during a period by the total number of
employees at the end of a period to get the percentage.

Sample Inputs

Sample Calculation

Period of Time: Fourth Quarter

24 4 = 20

Total Employees at Beginning of Q4:24

20 / 24 = .83

Total Employees Terminated in Q4: 4

.83 x 100 = 83%

Standard employee retention rates are anywhere from 70% - 85% but vary greatly by
industry and calculation method (for example, are you measuring only voluntary
turnover or all terminated employees?

Employee retention is incredibly important, especially in tough

times. Companies need to be constantly looking for ways to
improve their retention rates.
There are massive costs to employee turnover, which Ill discuss more later in this
post, both emotional and financial, that can have major effects on employee
engagement. This is why its important to take retention so seriously.
If you go through all of the trouble of onboarding an employee, integrating them into
the team, training them, assuming that theyre a good fit, then its in your best interest
to keep them in the company.
Consider the costs of losing an employee:

Costs of hiring (posting a job and conducting interviews)

Costs of onboarding (time spent by manager training)

Learning curve (a new employee will take months before theyre as good as
the old employee)

Emotional costs (lower productivity from the rest of the team)

Its also important for managers to understand that employees are whats known as an
appreciating asset, meaning that they appreciate in value over time. The longer
someone stays at a company, the more productive and valuable they are.

Many studies show that the costs of replacing an employee range anywhere from 20200% of their annual salary. Either way, its crazy expensive.
How can I measure employee loyalty and satisfaction?
Finding out if your employees are happy and committed to working for your company is a vital part in improving productivity and
reducing staff turnover.
Customer loyalty is often dependant on staff loyalty as people like to deal with companies who are stable, so it should always be a key
priority of your business to assess and improve employee satisfaction levels. Happy employees are also less likely to entertain
alternative job offers and may actually bring in new potential employees as they tell friends and family how great your company is to
work for.
Getting an insight
You're never going to get a good idea of what your employees think if you don't ask them. Honesty is always the best policy, but often
it's the case that employees are scared of telling you exactly what they think. There are various open and anonymous methods you can
use to canvas your employees:

Suggestion box the simplest form of getting employee opinions, but one that is difficult to get any real insight from.
Suggestions are open to interpretation, and although you may get some vague ideas about what your employees want (such as
better quality toilet paper) you're never going to find out the real issues.

Online comments the online form of the suggestion box and a great way of generate some discussion. If your company
has an intranet, you should look to launch a forum where employees can discuss the various aspects of the business. Employees
can then develop ideas and the management team can respond to suggestions for all to see. If you do decide on this method, make
sure there is a long term commitment to respond to queries from someone in the HR or management teams.

Questionnaires These can be conducted at regular intervals and follow roughly the same format so you can get an idea
of how your employee satisfaction fluctuates over time. There should be a mixture of qualitative and quantitative questions which
allow you to see both general opinions (such as quality of food in the canteen) and individual views (such as suggestions for ways
their working experience could be made better).

Employee committees Every company should aim to have a group of employees who represent the various parts of the
business that meet regularly to discuss the main issues. They should present their thoughts to the management team who will
discuss what can and can't be done to improve the satisfaction of employees.

Q&A The most natural form of canvassing opinion, but not always the most effective. Putting your managers up in front of
employees and getting the to answer questions gives them very little time to research answers, even if some of the questions have
been planted.
Individual discussions
As well as getting opinion of your employees as a group, you need to focus on individuals and their specific needs.
1-2-1 discussions should take place with their direct line manager, but you should also look to have a process where all employees can
approach other people within the business to discuss issues they don't feel they can raise with their usual boss. You should take notice
of difficulties in achieving a work life balance, increase pressure and stress levels, conflicts with other employees and any other
concerns they have.
Always try and investigate if your employees need extra training. Often people become dissatisfied in their job because they feel they
have nothing left to learn. Giving them a new skill to develop could be the motivation they are looking for.
Find out from people what it is they want to get out of their job, what their dream job is and what goals they hope to achieve. Then see
what you can feasibly do to help them achieve these goals within your company.
Take notice
There's no point conducting these surveys if you do nothing with the results. After collating and analysing the results of whatever
surveying methods you decide upon, communicate with your employees, either as a group or individually, what you plan to do.
It's unlikely that you will be able to meet all the improvements your employees are looking for but don't just dismiss them out of hand.
Your employees need to know that there isn't a bottomless pit of funds to run the business so in some cases they must choose between
a weekly bar night paid for by the company and a Christmas bonus.
Nothing gets solved by bottling things up, so make your business an open environment where issues get discussed, and changes
actually happen.

the top five things employees look for when seeking a new job are:

1.

Stability

2.

Compensation

3.

Respect

4.

Health Benefits

5.

Work-Life Balance