Talent and Culture Alignment | Why They Matter For Scaling Your Business
You’re relieved that your team is finally coming together with the talent you need to grow and scale your business to the next level. What could possibly go wrong?
You’re the leader of a Tech Start-up and have spent a lot of time and money recruiting for a new hire, or indeed several new hires, in a tough and candidate-savvy marketplace. You’re relieved that your team is finally coming together with the talent you need to grow and scale your business to the next level.
What could possibly go wrong?
Well, in today’s candidate-centric marketplace, there are great expectations, especially from the tech talent who are in high demand. Money alone doesn’t cut it anymore. People want to go home with more than just money and those in high demand won’t settle for less. They want to feel that they are part of something that holds meaning to them and aligns with their expectations, realities, and experiences as individuals.
Aligning your business, culture, and talent strategies may not seem like a high priority but it most definitely should be. Jill Maidment points out how large businesses such as Hewlett Packard, IBM, and Xerox, all weakened because they didn’t have this essential strategic alignment and therefore failed to innovate and expand.
Why Isn’t It Practised?
It’s often neglected because the business of the business usually takes precedence; leaders are understandably consumed by bettering or extending the product or service that they offer. Of course, that’s the point of the organisation and satisfied customers keep the business afloat. However, without an integrated and driven team to put in the necessary work, the quality of the offering will gradually decrease and sales and reputation will diminish.
Aligning culture and talent with the business is something that can’t exactly be quantified or measured so it appears hard to gauge. It can be thought of as an abstract ‘feeling’ and ‘atmosphere’ which itself seems like a difficult thing to physically put into practice. However, in today’s world, reputations precede businesses and if you claim to be something that isn’t embedded into your organisational structure and strategy then that will be quickly discovered in public.
If the business culture doesn’t recognize, reward, and embody the very qualities you need to grow the business then the business will progressively decline. To acknowledge and inspire qualities such as innovation, transparency and unparalleled customer service is to put those very qualities back into the offering of your business.
To align these components means changing the way you do things. We all know that habits are hard to break (many of us developed some less than-positive ones in lockdown 🍷 ;)) and so the status quo usually sticks. However, with younger people entering the job market and the speed at which technology is revolutionizing the way we work, it’s crucial to evolve and adapt to achieve and retain a competitive advantage.
Why Is It So Important?
As well as totally transforming the growth potential and brand of your business, focusing on the business alone will yield poor results.
The funny and widely shared memes about Monday being a dreaded day are often relatable for people who have worked for salary alone. They feature humorous and sarcastic quips about unapproachable bosses with unrealistic expectations, unnecessary miscommunication, work overload, and the general drama of office politics, mistrust, and burnout. This type of environment leaves the teams you fought so hard to hire, with a feeling of demotivation and apathy at best and discontent, restlessness, and underperformance at worst. Not only will this NOT take your business to the next level, but it also won’t even be able to stay afloat.
It turns into a vicious cycle where dissatisfaction, mistrust, and lack of input from employees negatively affect the business’s KPIs and growth.
An alignment of strategies means that your talent will be excited about work; engaged and productive with a sense of purpose and meaning. They’re defined by the environment in which they work and are committed to making it something they want to embody.
When these components are holistically managed it gives the business and the teams clear common goals to work towards. Your employer brand and reputation are significantly enhanced and talent (from your new candidates to the current employees) feels included, invested in, and satisfied. As a result, productivity, innovation, and advancement are at an all-time high.
And hey, you won’t be the butt of an unflattering meme so that’s something to smile about ☺
This type of success extends to talent strategy too. That’s why it’s so essential now to attract, hire and retain talent with more than just a compensation package. It’s about keeping morale high, and refining your employer brand by aligning business, culture, and talent strategies to work as a complete system.
A survey found that although 72% of executives agreed that culture is extremely important to business performance, only 32% declared that their own business culture is aligned with their business strategies.
Don’t be in that 32%!
What Happens When You Align?
The short answer is a top talent, teamwork, and a successful scalable business. “Teamwork is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results”. Andrew Carnegie
When business, talent, and culture strategies are aligned it gives your business an enormous competitive advantage; allowing for agility and flexibility so your business is able “to adapt their ‘game plan’ to changing requirements and competitors.”
Your leadership becomes one to be valued, admired, and replicated. You have a team of people who despite their differences, are all pulling in the same direction professionally and culturally. That creates a harmonious environment where the business and talent flourish.
There is a free flow of open communication where people feel heard and acknowledged. Team members are satisfied and motivated to make a difference in your business. The talent is getting their needs met by a culture of choice, openness, and flexibility and so innovation increases, people take measured risks, initiative, and your business, therefore, grows exponentially.
In a survey businesses with highly aligned culture and innovation strategies obtained 30% higher enterprise value growth and 17% higher profit growth than businesses with lower levels of alignment.
When alignment exists, time is freed up. Instead of complaints, dissatisfaction, and discontent; the talent you employ is unencumbered to meet and exceed your business goals. Moreover, when those people have a say in the organisational culture they perform even better.
9 Steps To Alignment
1 - Reliable And Regular Communication From The Top
It starts from the top. Consistent, transparent, and open communication from senior leadership filters down throughout the business. Transparent communication about the goals, missions, and values from senior leadership fosters connection, support, and engagement with the talent and the business as a whole. Senior leadership should be able to recognise and convey when something isn’t working and they should encourage feedback from those doing the nitty-gritty work wherever possible.
2 - Have A Clear Mission
Make sure the mission and vision are clear. This way each team member knows exactly what they need to do and how it contributes to the overarching organisational goals. This ensures their work and projects are well defined and they get a feeling of inclusion and value for what they bring to the business.
3 - Define And Talk About The Culture.
Culture is the glue that holds people and businesses together. It’s the accepted standards and behaviours that people embody that affect the environment in which they work; as well as how the business conducts its business.
Ask yourself what culture means to your business.
How does it affect the day-to-day running?
What culture do you have right now and what culture would you like to create?
As William Craig said “Culture is the forceful spirit and strategy is the instrument. Take pride in your services and products — do more social good for the world”
4 - Revamp Your Recruitment Process
Talent is everything. This is worth repeating. You need the right people who share your vision, values, and culture to help your business thrive. Your hiring tactics speak volumes about the type of business you are. Ensure that you treat your candidates like customers. Show up on time for interviews (they’re interviewing you too!) give them all the necessary information and get back to them promptly.
Now that everyone has a voice online you want to make their experience as seamless as possible (even if you don’t hire them!) The candidates should have a great impression of your business since an online reputation can make or break your brand.
Closely related is “The Match” (not a new TV dating show before you ask) between the business and potential employees. The candidate’s professional and social capabilities must meet the business requirements but they also need to complement the culture of the business too. More than once I’ve turned someone down, not because they weren’t able to do the job but because they weren’t an appropriate match for the ethos and character of our business.
5 - Continuous Feedback And One To One Meetings
Ensure that the talent gets regular one-to-one time with their manager to discuss issues and ideas. Of course, no one wants to be micromanaged but talent needs a place to be heard and have their points understood. This also helps keep people on track with the organisational goals and priorities which are often changing at an increasing pace. The traditional annual appraisals don’t cut the mustard anymore. People don’t want to wait that long to be able to air concerns, give feedback or discover the opportunities for courses, learning, and development.
6 - Personalise Your Reward System
Karen McCandless was spot on when she talked about rewarding hard work in a creative and personalised way. We all know that money is important but there are also other ways of making your talent feel valued and appreciated. It could be a duvet day, a business-paid lunch, more flexible working arrangements, or a business-wide email celebrating them for their achievements.
To personalise this, ask them how they would like to be recognized. Some people would prefer an email as a form of recognition whilst others would love an extra day of the holiday. This way the talent feels that not only are they being rewarded for the hard work but it’s being done in a way that suits them.
7 - Provide Bespoke Opportunities For Learning And Development
Let the talent choose the type of learning and development that suits them and they will feel better about themselves at work. They’ll be more dedicated and driven in your business if they’ve chosen a course and they’ll feel valued that the business is investing in them.
8 - Be More Agile
Although this sounds a bit vague and hard to measure, it’s really about taking a good look inwards to see what processes and practices are outdated, rigid, and holding your business back from moving forward. In today’s fast-paced, high-tech world, agility is more important than ever before to keep up (and indeed beat) the competition. With agility, comes reduced turnover, increased productivity, improved employee experiences, and the chance for your business to scale to its full potential.
9 - Consider Your Off-boarding Process
Another very interesting one is to consider how you treat those exiting the business Karen McCandless makes another great point on this often-overlooked element. When an employee is leaving it’s a chance to see it as an opportunity to get some much-valued feedback. Make sure you conduct an exit interview with them to learn about their reasons for leaving and what you can improve upon as a result. You should continue to treat them as valued team members until they leave. They might be able to refer another person to you if they’ve had a positive experience or might even want to rejoin the business again someday so always keep the relationship sweet.
Creating this harmonious system is an absolute must to survive and grow.
Don’t stay stuck where you are, successfully scale your business, with alignment!
It’s one small step to make a big change.
Bingo! Your team's finally piecing together, right?
Now imagine the climb to the top with talent that shares your vision and fits your culture like a glove.
You and I, we can make this happen!
Time to pull up our socks and get this talent-culture party started.