Culture is a buzz word these days! But what does that really mean? Does culture actually produce results or is it just a fun place to work? In a previous post, I mentioned “If your Culture is not what you want it to be, first look at how you’re communicating. Chances are, you are not communicating effectively, leading to poor workflow, resulting in wrong behaviors.
The behaviors are what make up your Culture. If you don’t like the behaviors of your team, change the Culture! If the performance of your team lack results, change the Culture! Unless you’re pleased with a Culture of mediocrity.
Invest Time Up Front!
I have a client that was experiencing high employee turnover in an already high-turnover industry. She has multiple sites and her team spent an inordinate amount of time hiring for replacements. She knew that was not sustainable to continue to offer the quality of service she’s known for. Earlier this year, she committed to improving the turnover by focusing on training. She realized that the lack of training was creating a culture of frustration and indifference in serving her customers since the employees were not equipped to do their jobs.
This sounds too simplistic but I see it too often. When you get into a cycle of hiring for backfills, you want those employees producing in the front line as soon as possible. So you sacrifice the front-end work that is needed to get them equipped for success and call it on-the-job-training! Then you wonder why you can’t create the culture of excellence that you want.
Formula for Winning Culture
What my client did was focus on the Process formula of:
Process = Communication + Flow + Culture
To have world class Processes for a winning Culture, you must have clear Communication and consistent workflow (Flow). My client discovered that the Communication was lacking since their training was not robust enough to set clear expectations. The act of training is communicating clear expectations to get their job done. She also discovered that her workflow was not consistent across her multiple sites. So she documented her Flow and Communicated it through a regimented training program for new and existing employees.
She did this by moving into a more centralized corporate office which included a training facility that mimics her locations. This increased Communication across the board and created consistent Flows before a new employee is placed in the front line. Once at the front line, the employee has already developed a habit of how to serve the customers, thus creating the Culture that she wants. Her turnover has decreased already this year and employee engagement is at its highest!
Behaviors in the Fabric of Your Business
What would your business look like if you focused on the front-end work to equip your employees for success? Imagine a Culture where everyone has clear expectations and executing those expectations through consistent workflows day in and day out . . . as a habit. These habits become commonplace behaviors and ingrained in the fabric of your organization . . . defining your Culture. Now that’s a world class organization!
Do you have the Culture that you want in your company? If not, what’s missing in the formula?
Process = Communication + Flow + Culture
If you have poor Communication or inconsistent and undocumented Flow, you will not develop the habits you want in your business. Take a step back and analyze each variable in this formula.
Take the Organizational Checkup to gauge the health of your company! For more information on creating a healthy business lifestyle, read about the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS).
My next blog will be about the importance of a compelling Vision.
“Where there is no vision, there is no hope.” George Washington Carver
To Your Business Health!