”We are really impressed by the effort you put in to build a strong family-like company culture.” – IHRP assessors, Kornferry.
We were thrilled. IHRP assessors from Kornferry had conducted a Human Capital Audit at InspireTech. The two years spent investing in a third-party strategic HR partner with coaching services has been worth it.
If there is a correlation between organization culture and employee retention, as brought up in the past two SGTech Captain HR Seminars, we can attest to it. Having scored highly on our organization culture and observing higher employee engagement rate, we will like to share some key steps that InspireTech took to achieve it.
Tip 1: Understand the Motivation of Employees
There are many things beyond money that may motivate an individual. To understand our employees better, we had them take a short quiz on what motivates them. We were pleasantly surprised by the similarities in what drives them intrinsically at work. Learning and harmony in the workplace turned out to be key motivators. Knowing this, we were able to communicate, plan and encourage them to have stretch goals in the workplace.
Tip 2: Enable Social Learning
Social learning happens when we recognize that we can learn from anyone’s sharing. We introduced cross-border lunch and learn sessions for our international and local employees to forge a common identity across locations. Using the Growthbeans Way of running these sessions, employees get to bond as they share more about themselves as individuals – their interests, experiences, challenges and successes – while developing cultural awareness and embracing cultural diversity.
Such lunch and learn sessions foster greater relationship and understanding within the team and with the bosses, making it an effective regular team-building session.
Tip 3: Communicate transparently and frequently
Just like in any close-knitted family and relationships, communication is key. It is important to be transparent in our communication with employees on company matters. This reduces the need for the grapevine and office politics. Communication also means providing time constructive feedback to one another to help each other improve.
Tip 4: Create a Buddy Check-in System
It is easy, amidst the buzz of daily activities and firefighting, to forget to “look out for one another” and focus only on the tasks. However, every human being appreciates care and concern, someone asking them how they are doing. It adds a personal touch and enhances the emotional and social well-being of individuals. This is even more crucial for new employees settling into a new environment. We set up a buddy system for them to receive the support they need to integrate into the culture and be brought up to speed with the knowledge they need to perform.
Tip 5: Offer Mentoring and Coaching
Check in on employees from time to time to see how things are with them and provide them with mentoring where needed. This can help keep them engaged when they know there is support available in the organization. When there are mental or emotional hurdles to cross, be it at work or at home, employees can turn to the Growthbeans coach within the organization to seek support for their wellbeing, or be a sounding board for ideas.
In these sessions, they gain deeper levels of self awareness and can craft empowering action steps they want to take to help themselves achieve their goals.
We have seen the benefits of doing these within our organization and it has helped to create an environment where everyone loves working in. We hope these tips will be beneficial for you too in helping you build your organization culture.
If you are keen to find out more about the Growthbeans Way and enhance the self-awareness in your employees through coaching and sharing or to find a cost effective team-building and personal development activity for your team within Singapore, you may like to check out the Growthbeans Self Awareness Festival happening on 2 November 2019.
