What Is Culture Shift?

If you were being really honest with yourself, what kind of culture would you say your company has?

Is it a culture that inspires people to come leaping and bounding into work with big smiles on their faces every day, ready to collaborate in teams to deliver consistent high performance?

Or, do people trundle in sheepishly, looking a bit anxious about what the day ahead might hold?

Maybe it’s uneven, with some good days and others bad?

A positive workplace culture is proven to improve organisational performance; while companies with negative cultures experience high staff turnover, high absenteeism and financial loss. 

Culture, therefore, is important. Critically so. And if your organisation fails to address a poor culture, then it must prepare to fail.

Find out more about workplace culture and how Tribe 365’s six-week Culture Shift programme will help you transform your business.

What Even Is Workplace Culture?

Workplace culture is the sum of your organisation’s values, beliefs, interactions, behaviours and attitudes. In short, it’s your company’s character and personality.

A great working culture filled with happy and motivated people will deliver cost efficiencies, higher productivity, increased margins, and greater profitability. It will attract talent, drive engagement and cultivate company-wide high performance. 

A malfunctioning work culture, on the other hand, is likely to experience just the opposite. Your organisation will be characterised by in-fighting, disunity, unhappiness and the departure of your best talent – and, ultimately, lead to widespread poor performance.

Out With Old Cutthroat Attitudes

Some of us will have experienced a cutthroat culture at some point in our careers. 

Perhaps not as extreme as the ‘rank and yank’ culture championed by the likes of General Electric CEO Jack Welch in the 1980s. 

Welch would richly reward high performance but, infamously, trim what he perceived to be inefficiencies by firing at least 10% of his managers each year almost indiscriminately. Brutal. 

Many people will point to the fact that his approach worked. 

After all, ‘Neutron Jack’ transformed GE from a supplier of industrial products into a multinational corporation with a vast portfolio that included financial services and media. 

And this success is used as a reason why some companies persist in pursuing or maintaining these kinds of cutthroat cultures we see featured in films, TV series or media exposés (albeit that HR laws and approaches have, mercifully, advanced since Welch’s time). 

But a large and ever-growing body of research on positive management demonstrates that cutthroat environments are harmful to productivity over time. And, that – conversely –  a positive and happy environment will lead to dramatic benefits for employers, employees and the bottom line.

There’s also a perpetual assumption that stress and pressure lead to high levels of performance. But, actually, there’s a serious fall-out from that kind of attitude, including high staff turnover, absenteeism, lack of teamwork and the incurring of hidden medical or legal costs.

In all, cutthroat cultures must be a thing of the past, as they’re not only very unpleasant indeed but are also simply unsustainable.

The Risks Of Disengagement

One of the biggest threats to a positive work environment is disengagement. 

What is disengagement? 

A disengaged employee is, to use a colloquialism, a ‘clock watcher’. They don’t enjoy their work; aren’t emotionally invested in it; and, as a result, put in the minimum amount of effort. 

And those who are ‘actively’ disengaged are likely to be disruptive internally and speak badly of the company externally on social media and platforms like Glassdoor, which will have a severely negative impact on recruitment strategy.

Combined studies have shown that disengaged workers employees are:

• 37% more prone to absenteeism
• Have 49% more accidents
• Commit 60% more errors 

Organisations with low employee engagement scores experience:

• 18% lower productivity
• 16% lower profitability
• 37% lower job growth
• 65% lower share price over time 

Are these people ‘bad apples’? 

One or two, sure. But if you’ve got whole teams filled with people displaying these behaviours, then your company needs to take a look at itself and the way it’s looking after and engaging with employees.

Perks Do Not Equal Real Engagement

Some organisations try to cover up the cracks in their culture and pull the wool over their employees’ eyes with supposed engagement perks like working from home, subsidised staff canteens, office gyms and yoga. 

But these companies fail to take into account the research that shows that employees want to be properly engaged above all else – that is, to feel included, supported, listened to, and consulted. 

Real engagement isn’t about material goods but is dependent on companies and their people always adhering to four key principles:

1. Everyone believing in what you are trying to achieve

2. Everyone being on board with all decisions

3. Managing your conditions

4. 100% Operational Honesty

Culture Shift – A Programme Preparing Teams For Growth

So, how do you go about moulding truly engaged people and teams?

Culture Shift  is a six-week transformation programme for business leaders that will give them the practical tools and insight to create engaged and high performing teams.

Culture Shift is powered by the Tribe 365 App – a world-first employee engagement tool which empowers employees to give anonymous, real and honest feedback that helps organisations shape better working cultures.

The data drawn from the Tribe 365 app paints a true picture of your organisation and the problems it is facing in terms of failing to:

• Properly engage employees 
• Keep the company vision on track
• Stoke passion
• Create and maintain high performing teams
• Generally help employees feel valued and happy at work

Tribe 365’s trainers are experts in transforming workplace cultures. They will assess and generate a report on the app’s findings, and use these to shape a bespoke training course for your leaders spread over six weeks.

The end result is a simplified leadership focus that facilitates speedier and better-informed organisational decision-making which leads to much-improved employee engagement and high performance.

Interested in learning more about Culture Shift? Then get in touch with the Tribe 365 team via our contact form or give us a call on +44 (0) 1325 734 846 today!