018 February 2022

Organisational culture is key to a company’s success

Workers seem to agree that organisational culture affects their motivation, productivity and satisfaction.

A recent Randstad survey revealed that organisational culture is critical to employees. According to this survey, organisational culture greatly impacts the morale, productivity, and satisfaction of a company’s workers. Therefore, in times of crisis such as those of the last two years, when organisational culture has been affected by layoffs and worsening employee conditions, the right thing to do is precisely to strengthen the culture to improve performance and better cope with the crisis. By Catalina Franco R.

Organisational culture has been a recurring theme in human resources analysis and departments. For some, a topic of great importance; for others, a somewhat trite one; and for others, one that is overrated, that does not transcend too much and in which it is not necessary to invest more than necessary.

It is precisely this group of those who do not care much about organisational culture that came to the fore during the economic crisis of the last two years, when it became evident that a significant number of companies focused only on staff and cost cuts to control the budget, almost completely forgetting about organisational culture and well-being within their organisations, which probably had a bearing on the overall business results.

This is according to Randstad’s latest “Work Watch” survey, which claims the organisational culture is key to success. While organisational culture could have been a very effective strategy and the best tool to retain star employees and strengthen their engagement, morale, and productivity during the crisis, companies bludgeon it, making workers feel less and less committed to their work.

The survey was conducted online among more than 1,000 employees over the age of 18.

Agreeing on the importance of organisational culture

The crisis has seen organisational culture take a back seat for companies in difficult times; reflecting its importance does not mean that it is also important to employees, nor does it reflect how relevant it is to them. According to the report, 66% of workers surveyed agree that organisational culture is very important to the success of their companies, 35% believe it has the greatest impact on employee morale, 22% believe it has the greatest impact on employee productivity, and 23% of younger workers (aged 18-34) believe it has the greatest impact on job satisfaction.

And workers do notice when their organisational culture is affected and when managers neglect it: 59% believe that the economic crisis, with all its layoffs and reductions in pay and benefits, had a negative impact on their company’s organisational culture, resulting in demotivation.

According to Eileen Habelow, vice president of organisational development at Randstad, “The elements that build a culture are unique to each organisation. However, there are similar characteristics among strong cultures. Companies looking to change their culture should focus on a few key areas – building employee morale through incentive and training programmes, clearly defining values through mission and vision, establishing strong leaders who set the tone and empower others, and, finally, creating better relationships with both employees and customers.”

To understand the common priorities, the survey asked participants for the most critical elements for organisational culture and found that the first is employee attitude (69%), followed by effective management (64%); strong, trusting relationships (57%); customer focus (55%); high standards of accountability (50%); commitment to training and development (47%); compensation and reward programmes (45%); support for innovation and new ideas (42%); helpful resources, technology and tools (41%); and emphasis on recruiting and retaining outstanding employees (40%).

Organisational culture as a strategy

As mentioned above, the study focuses on organisational culture as an opportunity and as a strategy that can be very effective in improving the current and future conditions of a business, especially if it is facing a crisis or going through a difficult time.

The report stresses that, as the recovery progresses, companies will need to look for ways to improve their overall productivity and performance. To do this, it talks about the possibility of creating improvements in organisational culture, starting with the current culture as a point of reference (being clear about its definition, what it means to employees and what they would like it to be), and then moving on to make the changes that are deemed necessary.

In Habelow’s words, “Companies that will perform well will take care of the factors that make their employees feel happy, engaged at work, more connected to the overall results, and more motivated to make greater contributions. Going forward, companies cannot ignore culture. Instead, it should be considered a critical component of their overall business strategy”.

According to the data revealed by the survey, organisational culture is a fundamental part of how any company operates and is perceived in this way by its employees, making it necessary for a company to take it into account and capitalise on it if it is not to become an aspect that works against the overall bottom line.

, often focused on supporting the most vulnerable who bear a disproportionate share of the burden.