written by Nick Baxter, CEO at The IN Group.

The intangible truth

Culture – it’s incredibly hard to define and even harder to create; also impossible to get away from. It’s become a buzzword that organisations and leaders use to tell everyone
why they’re brilliant, without usually understanding their own culture or how to improve it.

Let’s get it straight – a positive culture is not only about hybrid working, flexible hours or a casual dress code. It’s a set of values, behaviours and actions that signal what your company stands for and what’s important. Understanding your people and creating an inclusive environment that works for them, while remembering that fun is an intrinsic part of work, is a significant step in the right direction.

You can measure engagement, staff retention and job satisfaction in various ways but our experience is that too many organisations feel that culture is something they should leave to HR. But it’s not an HR issue. It’s engrained in everything an organisation does and should start at the top.

What is a culture to me? It’s how you behave, what you stand for and who you are – it’s your identity as a business. It’s how all the different characters within your organisation mesh together. Your culture will never stand still; it should always evolve.

The tangible impact

Culture might be hard to define, but it has a very tangible impact on your business. When you neglect your culture, people will leave and your business will go backwards… It’s our job to create an environment where our people are progressing, learning and developing; have a reward scheme which is industry leading; understand the business strategy and are excited by it; and enjoy coming to work.

For this magazine, we’ve brought together a range of views, from both inside and outside our organisation, on many aspects of culture. These include: Cohesive cultures in global teams, How to create a high-performance culture – where I speak to culture expert and
best-selling author Damian Hughes; and Scaling cultures without breaking them – from entrepreneur Phil Burns.

I hope you’ll not only find this magazine an interesting read, but a useful source of advice on how to solve your culture-related challenges.

If you’d like to discuss any of these articles or just want to talk culture, please get in touch.

Unlocked: Culture