It’s no secret that organizational culture plays a critical role in employee success and satisfaction. A company with a solid and healthy culture attracts and retains talent, drives innovation and improves productivity. That’s why it’s essential that companies invest time and effort in evaluating it continuously, especially in companies with branches in different regions or countries.
If culture isn’t consistently reinforced across all areas, company policies and practices could be applied unevenly, leading to discontent and perceptions of favoritism or discrimination among employees.
The result? A team disconnected from the vision, mission and values of the company, with communication issues and difficulty collaborating towards a common goal.
If your company is spread across multiple areas with different branches and you want to know how to maintain a strong corporate culture, in the following lines we share with you some techniques and tips that you can use to achieve a united and cohesive team, regardless of the distance that separates them.
3 effective techniques to keep the company culture
Each company is different and there is no single method to maintain a unified culture that is present in all geographies. But there are some strategies that are very popular among the companies that lead their sector. We present three of them:
Surveys to assess the perception of organizational culture
One of the most used tools for evaluating organizational culture, due to its power and simplicity, is the survey.
Employee surveys allow team leaders to gather valuable information about their colleagues’ perceptions of important issues that influence their day-to-day, such as: internal communication, leadership, job satisfaction, rewards and benefits, and, of course, collaboration between departments.
However, not all surveys work equally well. To obtain meaningful results, the questions you ask must be valid and reliable. That is, the questions must be formulated in the appropriate way and aligned with what you want to measure.
Another crucial aspect is the factor of anonymity. If you don’t want biased results, it’s essential that employee responses guarantee their confidentiality, as this ensures they can express their opinions without fear of repercussions.
If done correctly, the use of employee surveys will allow you to identify areas for improvement and opportunities for growth in your corporate culture.
At Team Insights, we offer a catalog of surveys designed with the most relevant metrics for team management, completely anonymous, easy to send, and with real-time results so you can start acting immediately.
Individual and group interviews for in-depth exploration
Interviews, both individual and group, are another useful method for evaluating organizational culture.
Unlike surveys, interviews allow employees to speak in-depth about their experiences and concerns, providing qualitative information that can be difficult to obtain through other means.
When conducting them, it’s advisable to have an experienced person who can guide the conversation and know how to extract the appropriate information from team members.
Also, just like in surveys, it’s important to ensure the confidentiality of the participants to foster honesty and openness.
Culture audits and direct observation
In addition to surveys and interviews, companies can also assess their organizational culture through audits and direct observation.
On the one hand, culture audits are a systematic and exhaustive process that allows evaluating the organizational culture of a company by reviewing and analyzing its policies, practices, behaviors, values, and beliefs.
The objective of the audit is to identify if the policies and practices are aligned with the philosophy that the company wants to represent, and if they are reinforced and communicated effectively or, on the contrary, need to be reviewed and improved.
Direct observation, on the other hand, involves leaders or external consultants visiting the branches to firsthand evaluate how the organizational culture is experienced on a daily basis. This includes: interactions between colleagues, hierarchical behaviors, and workplace practices.
Through direct observation, the evaluators can gain a deeper and contextualized understanding of how organizational culture is lived and manifested, and thus propose more specific actions.
Use the results to improve organizational culture
Once the data has been collected and analyzed, do not forget to use this information to implement changes and improvements based on the results: from the implementation of new habits, to the training of leaders and collaborators, or the creation of recognition and reward programs.
It’s crucial that whatever you’re going to do, you communicate it clearly and accurately to every employee in every branch. This will demonstrate the organization’s commitment to bringing the team together and will also help maximize workforce participation in achieving this.
Continuous monitoring and follow-up of the organizational culture
Evaluating and improving organizational culture is not a one-off process. It is not enough to do it once and forget it.
Actually, it is necessary to track the progress of your actions and carry out periodic evaluations to ensure that the improvements are sustained over time. This will help you adapt to change more easily and proactively respond to your employees’ needs and expectations as they evolve.
Digital tools and platforms for the evaluation and improvement of corporate culture
Ensuring organizational culture does not have to be a titanic effort. In fact, advances in technology have led to the development of various tools and platforms that make this job easier.
Solutions like Team Insights allow you to automate survey administration, analyze data, and generate reports without investing large amounts of effort (or money). Why don’t you try it now? It’s free!
