quirements and not acting in the best interests of your customer or your company.

Your first step should be to assess your existing culture across every employee group or segment in your company, and from top to bottom. Using modern internet based survey and analysis techniques, in conjunction with experts on such matters as employee culture, organization development, and employee satisfaction can produce rapid and affordable insights. Consider experts who can provide a b

Do your employees behave toward your customers the way you would expect them to? Is the culture of your senior executive team consistent with the culture of your lowest level line workers in the field? Do you really know what your company’s culture is? Why is employee culture important?

Your company’s culture can include:
• the behaviors of your employees as they interact with each other and with customers,
• the decisions they make as they conduct their work,
• the way they collaborate and solve problems,
• the way they rise to new challenges and obstacles to achieve your goals,
• the way they express their purpose and loyalty to a common purpose or mission,
• and the value and meaning they derive from the work they do.

If the basic behaviors and tendencies of your employee population are aligned with your mission, or brand promise, then they will produce consistent results and customer experiences. Empowered people must believe in their leaders, in their team members, in their purpose and mission, and in their ability to deliver results to delight the customer. If they cannot feel any cultural affinity with their leaders or their team members, they will narrowly act in ways that conform to the business goals you have laid out for them. They will make decisions that fit those goals within the strict confines of their own specific work domains and personal spheres of influence. They will not risk a confrontation (i.e., collaboration) with other people who may choose a different approach to addressing the same decision. If you have an environment where your workers are managing demanding processes and working heads-down for hours on end, you may be successful in spite of the lack of cultural affinity across your population. However, even then a predominant culture of fear is likely to emerge as employees focus on meeting the letter of their performance requirements and not acting in the best interests of your customer or your company.

Your first step should be to assess your existing culture across every employee group or segment in your company, and from top to bottom. Using modern internet based survey and analysis techniques, in conjunction with experts on such matters as employee culture, organization development, and employee satisfaction can produce rapid and affordable insights. Consider experts who can provide a be

• the way they collaborate and solve problems,
• the way they rise to new challenges and obstacles to achieve your goals,
• the way they express their purpose and loyalty to a common purpose or mission,
• and the value and meaning they derive from the work they do.

If the basic behaviors and tendencies of your employee population are aligned with your mission, or brand promise, then they will produce consistent results and customer experiences. Empowered people must believe in their leaders, in their team members, in their purpose and mission, and in their ability to deliver results to delight the customer. If they cannot feel any cultural affinity with their leaders or their team members, they will narrowly act in ways that conform to the business goals you have laid out for them. They will make decisions that fit those goals within the strict confines of their own specific work domains and personal spheres of influence. They will not risk a confrontation (i.e., collaboration) with other people who may choose a different approach to addressing the same decision. If you have an environment where your workers are managing demanding processes and working heads-down for hours on end, you may be successful in spite of the lack of cultural affinity across your population. However, even then a predominant culture of fear is likely to emerge as employees focus on meeting the letter of their performance requirements and not acting in the best interests of your customer or your company.

Your first step should be to assess your existing culture across every employee group or segment in your company, and from top to bottom. Using modern internet based survey and analysis techniques, in conjunction with experts on such matters as employee culture, organization development, and employee satisfaction can produce rapid and affordable insights. Consider experts who can provide a b

ed people must believe in their leaders, in their team members, in their purpose and mission, and in their ability to deliver results to delight the customer. If they cannot feel any cultural affinity with their leaders or their team members, they will narrowly act in ways that conform to the business goals you have laid out for them. They will make decisions that fit those goals within the strict confines of their own specific work domains and personal spheres of influence. They will not risk a confrontation (i.e., collaboration) with other people who may choose a different approach to addressing the same decision. If you have an environment where your workers are managing demanding processes and working heads-down for hours on end, you may be successful in spite of the lack of cultural affinity across your population. However, even then a predominant culture of fear is likely to emerge as employees focus on meeting the letter of their performance requirements and not acting in the best interests of your customer or your company.

Your first step should be to assess your existing culture across every employee group or segment in your company, and from top to bottom. Using modern internet based survey and analysis techniques, in conjunction with experts on such matters as employee culture, organization development, and employee satisfaction can produce rapid and affordable insights. Consider experts who can provide a b

ey will not risk a confrontation (i.e., collaboration) with other people who may choose a different approach to addressing the same decision. If you have an environment where your workers are managing demanding processes and working heads-down for hours on end, you may be successful in spite of the lack of cultural affinity across your population. However, even then a predominant culture of fear is likely to emerge as employees focus on meeting the letter of their performance requirements and not acting in the best interests of your customer or your company.

Your first step should be to assess your existing culture across every employee group or segment in your company, and from top to bottom. Using modern internet based survey and analysis techniques, in conjunction with experts on such matters as employee culture, organization development, and employee satisfaction can produce rapid and affordable insights. Consider experts who can provide a b

quirements and not acting in the best interests of your customer or your company.

Your first step should be to assess your existing culture across every employee group or segment in your company, and from top to bottom. Using modern internet based survey and analysis techniques, in conjunction with experts on such matters as employee culture, organization development, and employee satisfaction can produce rapid and affordable insights. Consider experts who can provide a benchmark for your company to understand how your culture compares to others in your category, and the correlation between culture gaps and business performance. Once you have this research and reporting in hand, your next step will be to develop a roadmap for planning and implementing the changes to your employee culture. Be prepared for a long term process that can easily take up to two years to realize the full benefits of the changes.

In addition to the experience in delivering effective surveys and analyses, a consultant offers a very important factor: the independent objective observer. If your company has a disjointed, unbalanced, or even a toxic culture, then a report on employee behaviors and attitudes may be best delivered and received by everyone – perhaps executives in particular – from a neutral independent party that has no stake in the outcome, no internal agenda, and no historical political “baggage”. If your employees see that the executive team are taking the proposals seriously, agreeing to make the changes personally, and acting as champions for the new culture, then the chances for a successful transition are far greater. Three other important tools can be very useful in affecting change in employee culture and their understanding of their role in accomplishing and delivering on the brand promise of the company. They are: learning and development, reward and recognition, and performance management processes.

When new employees join your company, or when they are promoted or transferred internally to new positions, do you offer any training to orient them with the company and their new role? Such training can be immensely useful in clarifying your purpose, objectives, culture, values, and tools that are available to the employee to help them become productive quickly. The messages and personality of your culture can be embedded from the start of the employee’s engagem