Culture Change and the Importance of Internal Communications
How your employees work is as important as what they do. Yet capturing something as intangible as culture and setting it down on paper can feel like catching mist.
As an agency specialising in internal communication, employee engagement and change, we’re experts in this area and we want to share an overview of the thinking that influences our approach:
• What is Culture and how do you Execute Culture Change
• Understanding what Motivates Employees
• Why Internal Communication is the Key to Culture Change
What is Culture and how do You Execute & Manage Culture Change?
The importance of Organisational Culture and the impact of values
Organisational culture is a whole lot greater than the sum of its parts. Organisational culture is both influenced by and formed from every area of your business - from structure and social systems, policies and procedures, to the beliefs and behaviours of your people. We have provided a more in-depth look at what culture is and how you execute culture change here.
However, to start unpacking your organisational culture, a good place to start is to look at your values and whether the values are clearly brought to life within the business.
Company values are the standards that guide the way you do business and they have a huge influence on organisational culture. Typically articulated in an organisation’s values statement, they form the beliefs, principles and behaviours expected from employees and, as such, guide the way colleagues behave with one another and with customers and suppliers outside the organisation. They create a public perception of the enterprise and they can make or break a business’ reputation, regardless of size or sector.
Let’s take a look at the value statements of a couple of well-known companies:
H&M:
“Individually, our values may seem obvious. But put them together and our unique company culture is born. Our values are part of who we are, what we stand for and how we act.”
· We are one team
· Entrepreneurial spirit
· Straightforward and open-minded
· Cost-conscious
Deloitte:
“Our shared values are timeless. They succinctly describe the core principles that distinguish the Deloitte culture.”
· Integrity
· Outstanding value to markets and clients
· Commitment to each other
· Strength from cultural diversity
By clearly setting out the values, beliefs and behaviours, these organisations are providing guidance for managers and employees at every stage of the employee lifecycle: from recruitment and selection to performance management, learning and development and beyond. Organisations are better able to attract employees who will thrive with a shared world view, aligned with and committed to the same goals as the organisation. This has also been shown to boost employee engagement and happiness, which positively impacts retention (1).
Clear values that are truly embedded in your business go a long way to supporting your organisational culture – but why is that important for a successful business? With the right culture in place, leaders and employees also ask the right questions, honestly evaluate their responses and challenge the business to change and improve. By shifting an organisation’s focus from profit to the way work gets done, enterprises are better able to grow and achieve longevity through solid results (1). A strong culture can also help organisations successfully navigate tricky periods or capitalise and thrive when times are good.
In short, when culture comes first, performance follows.
So, how can organisations drive culture change?
Understanding What Motivates Employees to work
The Impact of Carrots, Sticks and Top-Down Change on Company Culture
Leaders are often encouraged to use carrots to reward employees for adherence to company standards or sticks to punish - or at least threaten punishment - for non-compliance.
More recently, managers have leaned towards tempting their teams with carrots. An example of this is the use of gamification in e-learning that encourages employees to complete modules in return for points; or the increasing use of online social platforms especially designed for reward and recognition.
Although evidence suggests that rewards have a greater impact on employee desire than punishment, in order to keep motivation high, it follows that employees must keep being rewarded. Yet, if the prizes become commonplace, they lose their shine and their motivational impact.
And there’s another problem with this approach. Both carrots and sticks put a focus on compliance and place leaders in the role of judge and jury enforcing culture from the top down. If employees don’t feel intrinsically motivated by the company’s culture, pushing values down, on to employees, will only ever be a symbolic gesture.
This can result in change communications falling on deaf ears. Be that adapting ways of working or introducing new technology, communications are likely to fall flat because employees are misaligned with leadership, which can lead to communication becoming a tick box exercise - emails sent out, job done. Except it isn’t.
A far more subtle and involved approach is required.
Why Motivation Is Key to Inspiring Great Performance
Internal communication simply isn’t effective when people are told what to do. Organisations need to dedicate time to thinking about how to best engage employees based on an appreciation of human behaviour.
As Forbes’ neuroscience contributor, Christine Comaford explains, the carrot and stick might work for a short time: “but it does not yield the intrinsic motivation that creates innovation and long-term sustainable results. The carrot raises anxiety levels for non-performers … while people who are already performing are not stretched. The stick focuses attention on behaviours that don’t work and on the situations that preceded them.” (2)
An alternative is to sit employees down and tell them how you want them to change. However, Comaford notes that this is ineffectual because they didn’t think of it themselves: “they haven’t had that “aha” moment that would help them contribute their piece of the puzzle…” And when people miss out on the rush of accompanying neurotransmitters, they also fail to understand the "why." (3)
So, how can organisations best engage employees?
How to Generate and Harness Enthusiasm
Instead of focusing solely on getting employees to do their work, a shift towards helping employees to feel great about their work moves the focus from what they are doing to how and why they are doing it. This brings the purpose and wider impact of the organisation into view and serves to highlight the important role each employee plays in this which, in turn, can have a far greater effect on motivating people over the longer term.
If this sounds a little theoretical, here are three steps to help you generate and harness enthusiasm, so you can put it to work for your organisation:
1. Explain context and make it relevant
Connecting employees’ work to something meaningful, rather than a financial statement, lays the foundations for motivation. Share the context for the work you’re doing or the goals you want to achieve. Explore what your organisation wants to deliver and how each team’s work contributes to this. Explain why this matters - to customers, the public, the environment or society at large. Be clear on what success looks and feels like for the team and clarify the role each individual plays in delivering these outcomes to ensure they realise the importance and relevance of their role.
2. Anticipate roadblocks and engage people in solving them
Asking employees to tackle challenges won’t always be plain sailing. There will be storms along the way and how they’re dealt with can have a major impact on motivation. Create space for them to raise any issues, engage with their views on the best ways to avoid or resolve them and make sure they know you’re on hand to provide resources or support. By working together in this way, you’ll empower your teams to overcome challenges, create a stronger sense of engagement and maintain motivation.
3. Demonstrate culture from the top down and show your appreciation
Everyone likes to be recognised when they’ve done well or gone above and beyond. Instead of thinking of recognition as a carrot to incentivise the right cultural behaviours, consider it a way to sustain motivation. Instilling a culture of feedback goes a long way to putting culture at the heart of how you operate - create structures that help employees reflect, learn and develop. By ensuring your employees feel valued and appreciated you’ll continue to bring out their best efforts. And you’ll also be able to showcase what good looks like to other team members, creating a ripple effect of good behaviour that will breed a consistently high-performing company culture.
Demonstrating your business’ culture isn’t limited to people in non-leadership roles. For change to be truly effective, everyone in the organisation needs to exhibit the required behaviour and whether it is the open-door culture or walking the floors, leaders should make themselves accessible and demonstrate the culture and values of their business through all their actions.
Why Internal Communication is the Key to Culture Change
We have set out above the importance of organisational culture, the role that the company values have and the far-reaching impact of employee motivation. So, for those organisations who have recognised that they have a need to effect culture change in their business, why do internal communications have a key role to play?
As we say in our own values, no great idea or invention ever came to life without communicating – we value communication as one of the human race’s greatest and most valuable skills. Translating business strategy into communications that resonate with employees plays a central role in inspiring behaviour change. That’s where internal communication comes into play and will be key to providing the structure and approach to successfully navigating culture change.
By understanding employee experience and organisational need, internal communication experts blend the two to create a powerful internal communication strategy that will, among other things:
• Consult employees about the culture and ask them to contribute their thoughts and ideas, leading to a sense of ownership and support for the initiative
• Create urgency around the need for change, making it a priority
• Highlight elements of employees’ work that will be preserved - this can boost morale and reassure those who are nervous of, or resistant to, change.
A well-devised internal communication strategy will provide the basis for successful organisational culture development and change. Executed properly, this will grip employees’ imaginations and take them on a change journey to achieve their ‘aha’ moment and find their intrinsic motivation.
As change becomes the norm, internal communication and culture change has become the responsibility of all managers. By 2021, Gartner predicts that Chief Information Officers will be as responsible for changing culture as HR (3).
Where communication isn’t part of an individual’s core skill set, it’s time to bring in a tried and trusted internal communications agency to craft the comms that help you to build a winning culture, deliver your strategy, make change stick and achieve your goals.
Award-Winning Expertise
Partner with Enthuse, an award-winning Manchester internal communication, engagement and change communication agency, by contacting us today on 07812 343 310 or via email at andrea.law@enthuse-comms.co.uk.
If you’d like more information on what it’s like to work with Enthuse Communications, why not continue reading our case studies here, or discover more about us here.
Or, if you’re looking for more interesting reads, browse our blog for more! We think you’ll love our blog on why visible leaders are essential for successful culture change.
Resources:
1 - “Return on Culture”, Grant Thornton LLP and Oxford Economic, April 2019
3 - “Gartner Predicts by 2021, CIOs Will Be as Responsible for Culture Change as Chief HR Officers”, Gartner, February 2019