Think about a great workplace experience, what words would you use to describe it? And then consider an unpleasant one? That's often a question we ask when looking to describe workplace culture, we refer to things more often felt rather than seen.
Workplace culture sits beneath the surface. When beliefs, values and ideologies are shared between colleagues pervasively and implicitly, they form workplace culture. The core of what we do at PeopleQ is bringing visibility to workplace culture, so leaders can be intentional rather than passive towards it. When something is visible, we are more likely to pay attention, without visibility, it's out of sight, out of mind.
Bringing visibility to workplace culture requires an organisational shift from thinking culture just happens. From a passive leadership mindset to a more intentional, inclusive, and empowered leadership mindset where we proactively look for, and nurture potential, foster connection and trust and turn the volume up on all voices to make it a great place to work. And there are numerous benefits to this. Productivity goes up. Turnover reduces. People are Happier at work. Customer Satisfaction improves as a result. Business flow is more rhythmic rather than irregular.
It’s all about the choices we make!
Today, the cost of disengagement in Australia is estimated at AU$211 billion annually. And low engagement typically culminates into an 18% reduction in productivity and results in higher turnover which is estimated to result in a $3.8b loss to productivity. Yikes, disengagement + turnover amplify each other and productivity losses.
Thriving shouldn't just be a word used to describe our workplaces, or on career pages and socials. It should be what people have the potential to experience at work. And if we’re going to be intentional about nurturing a thriving workplace culture, we should also consider what is needed to protect it as people come and go from our workplaces.
For us, this means acknowledging the role of your Talent Team and Hiring Managers as first responders of workplace culture. You heard it here at PeopleQ first, talent teams as First Responders of Workplace Culture!
As first responders, what considerations might be important when assessing potential employees for workplace culture. We jotted down a few of our thoughts to share with you on this.
1️⃣Start with Inclusivity
Identify if potential new employees are willing to listen to others with a curious mindset resting their judgments and biases, as well as show appreciation for others' contribution to foster belonging. And share with them why inclusivity is so important to protecting your workplace culture, inviting them to imagine how they might contribute to this.
2️⃣Check in on Self-Awareness
There is no doubt this is the super-skill of the decade. So take a moment to understand if your potential new employee is regularly flexing their self-awareness. Self-reflection is a skill that enables a deeper sense of self, to stretch our habitual thinking patterns resulting in more productive choices for ourselves. It signals a willingness to adapt and grow.
3️⃣Team
Team Harmony doesn't mean avoiding robust discussions, it means a collective curious approach to improving the status quo whilst appreciating and inviting individual contribution. So ask potential new employees what team harmony means to them and how they demonstrate appreciation for individual contribution whilst supporting the team to achieve greater outcomes as a collective. What stories and experiences can they share, and if their team experiences have not been great because they’ve come from a poor workplace culture, then invite them to imagine themselves in your team’s environment and to describe what opportunities and growth they can see for themselves. It's an interview and coaching question wrapped up in one!
4️⃣Accountable for culture
We all contribute to workplace culture. And therefore, we should all be accountable for workplace culture. So set your potential new employee up for success and ask them what role that might play in being accountable for a thriving workplace culture.
As first responders of workplace culture we acknowledge it's not so black and white, here are a few things to consider to either adjust or finesse your approach.
What’s the Leader’s and Organisation's appetite for protecting/improving workplace culture? The higher the appetite, the more creativity you can serve up.
It’s not as easy as assessing previous experience and capability, so decipher between what can be developed or nurtured versus what is nature. And now would be a great time to consider a move away from personality assessments, personally we prefer a more skills based approach like hiring for emotional intelligence.
Honour diversity and neurodivergent talent in your processes. We don't think the same and different environmental elements will either amplify our talents or have the opposite effect. My son was recently diagnosed with mild ADHD, and I’m fairly certain, as my husband constantly reminds me, it came from me. Environments that enable him to thrive will amplify his talents, but a leader who doesn't understand the divergence in thinking, will easily get frustrated with the lack of focus and quickly shut down any potential.
Skills Shortages can have a detrimental effect on an organisation's ability to fulfil its customer’s needs. And so we get that in these periods, long hiring times could domino quickly and negatively impact the organisation. In these times, be prepared for what you’re willing to sacrifice, get creative and proactively strategise for these periods with your employer branding efforts now.
Which leads us to the next point, building your employer brand brings enormous benefits. Get to work and talk to experts like Brett Mitchington or Outhire for the latest tech in this space. A strong employer brand can reduce the cost per hire by 50%.
For more information on how PeopleQ can help support your workplace cultures to thrive, get in touch. Speak to Melina Lipkiewicz (PeopleQ) or Suria Ward today.
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