Across nearly every industry, competition for attracting the best and brightest has intensified with the global market creating even more opportunities for organizations and job seekers. Attracting the key talent you need is half the battle but getting your employees motivated and fully engaged in organizational success is just as critical. Several industry studies reveal that employee engagement of the newly hired begins to decline in as little as six months, and at the two-year mark, many employees are starting to consider taking the leap elsewhere, further raising the stakes when competing for talent. In order to differentiate themselves from its competitors, a company needs to leverage its secret weapon: corporate culture. By doing so, you can take advantage of what might be your biggest and potentially most under-utilized asset when recruiting and retaining a high-performing workforce.

How important is organizational culture? Considering that it has been demonstrated to affect outcomes as diverse as employee morale, performance, absenteeism, safety, recruiting, retention, quality of products or services, customer satisfaction and profits, a well-defined organizational culture can be the ultimate contributor to a high-performing and highly engaged workforce. By succinctly defining and establishing a well-communicated corporate culture, and creating an environment where people are valued, developed and rewarded, organizations gain a significant competitive advantage and can begin to build a stronger, more loyal and more productive workforce.

Know Thyself
Whether or not they have actively chosen to create one, every organization has a cultural identity. In order to use this cultural identity as a competitive advantage, it is important for organizations to first cultivate an environment that not only defines expectations for its people but also consistently delivers messages about how they are expected to contribute to it and how their contributions help support the achievement of organizational goals. Crafting the right messages to help internal and external constituents understand the organization’s culture is one of the first steps in utilizing corporate culture as a competitive advantage. An organization that clearly defines its purpose and its expectations from employees is one that excels in using corporate culture to its advantage.

Pitney Bowes, providers of the world’s largest suite of mailstream services, recognizes that committed, engaged employees are critical for business success and it has made enormous strides in defining its organization as a great place to work. Beyond branding and touting that as its internal mantra, the company is supporting that message by learning about what resonates with their employees and delivering on those expectations to create a truly great place to work. Incorporating engagement as part of its strategic architecture, the company relies on employee engagement surveys to tap into the pulse of issues and concerns relevant to its employee populations around the world. Learning that expectations of current reward and recognition programs were not being met, as well as employee desires for additional opportunities for career development, the organization has instituted various initiatives, illustrating that it not only heard what employees wanted in a great place to work, but its actually acting on it to deliver on their expectations.

By committing to cultivate a great place to work, Pitney Bowes leverages its 34,000 employees as brand ambassadors, letting potential job seekers know that inside the company walls is indeed what it says it is. That clearly defined message offers the company a significant competitive advantage by setting it apart from its competitors who either lack a clear-cut employment brand or obfuscate recruitment messages. After all, doesn’t everyone want to be employed by a company that is known as a great place to work?

Cultures That Enable Performance Will Deliver Improved Results
Another characteristic of cultural strength is an organization that enables employees to deliver on those expectations. First by ensuring employees know what the company stands for and sharing what the performance expectations are, and then providing employees the resources they need to deliver on those expectations, individuals can directly impact the organization’s performance, affecting its brand and top-line revenue growth.

Strong cultural differentiation is exhibited in organizations that not only communicate what is expected in terms of performance but also provide employees with the tools, resources and training needed in order to deliver on the company’s core message. Additionally a culture that supports ongoing, regular feedback and fosters open communication delivers greater satisfaction to employees. The employees understand what is expected of them and are given the right resources to succeed.

Take advantage of what might be your biggest and potentially most under-utilized asset when recruiting and retaining a high-performing workforce.

Effective cultural branding is providing employees with a sense of future and the long-term benefits of remaining with the organization. Employees want to take pride in their achievements. They want to contribute to organizational success, knowing that there are development opportunities and rewards available to them at their company. An integral part of delivering on future needs is creating a highly engaged workforce.

Greenwich, Connecticut-based United Rentals, the country’s largest equipment rental company, wanted to drive employee commitment and performance and reduce turnover. With distributed branch offices across the country, it was important that employees recognize that a big company was standing behind them, listening to their issues, and focusing on ways to improve their work environment better. By using engagement surveys, the organization has an accurate snapshot of workforce concerns and has gained an understanding of what is driving employee turnover.

After learning the most important drivers of engagement are management effectiveness, involvement and career opportunities, United Rentals has made great strides in improving communication with its workforce and promoting internal career opportunities. By providing employees with development programs and advancement in their careers, they understand there are career paths and a prospective future for them at the company.

It is very clear that the vast majority of employees who come to work for an organization do so with the expectation and the desire to do a high-quality job and to perform well. It is also clear that the situations that they face within an organization will oftentimes prevent them from doing so. One goal of the organization should be to provide and develop the cultural characteristics that allow the individual, and hence the organization, to achieve its maximum potential.

Attracting the Best and Brightest
To maximize the potential of people within the organization and to attract the best and brightest to join the company ranks, a well-defined message has to start internally before being projected to the outside. According to a recent industry survey, the most satisfied people in the organization are the ones most recently hired. Painting a realistic picture of what it’s like behind the company walls can sustain the initial enthusiasm new hires bring to a job as it helps to avoid a sense of unmet expectations, and ultimately reduce turnover. If people are presented with a realistic view of the corporate culture, they will have a better understanding of what it is like to work there and whether it is a place that mirrors their own needs.

Building a culture that outperforms the competition starts by attracting and recruiting the right people in the first place. Organizations need to do a first-rate job of recognizing talent potential and selecting the right people to sustain longevity and building a high-performing workforce.

At Golden Corral restaurants, management recognizes that hiring the right people results in increased profits and greater employee satisfaction. Several years ago the company realized its turnover numbers were undesirably high and negatively impacted business results. The company also noticed that restaurants with reduced turnover performed better. So, it set its sights on improving its ability to hire people whose attitude and performance better reflected that of their corporate culture. Using a screening solution to identify talent has enabled the company to reduce their recruiting time and gain immediate insight into the desirability of further pursuing a candidate.

Likewise, American City Business Journals also implemented a selection tool in its recruiting process to equip managers with the ability to make smarter hiring decisions. By identifying talent that will best mesh with its corporate culture, the solution helps the company find more people like its very best, building a more cohesive workforce.

It is very clear that the vast majority of employees who come to work for an organization do so with the expectation, the desire, to do a high quality job, to perform well. It is also clear that the situationsthat they face within an organization will often times prevent them from doing so.

People Are All the Same and They are All Different
While the fundamental characteristics of what people desire out of an employment relationship are extremely similar regardless of gender, generation, ethnicity or geography, it is also clear that people’s skills and abilities, as well as a host of other personal characteristics, are very different. While it is important to have a culture in which people reflect similar attitudes and expectations and an understanding of how they fit into it, it is also important to note that a focus on diversity is also part of the cultural advantage. A winning corporate culture combines the positive attributes of all employees who can work together to build a high-performance workforce that drives the company’s goals and mission.

A stronger approach to diversity also yields more consistent organizational performance, a finding that some might find to be counter-intuitive. By having a wide array of strengths, skills and cultural experiences, organizations can take advantage of different points of view, can more readily adapt to rapidly changing circumstances, and relate to a wider customer base across global markets.

Because diversity is a good thing, it also means that companies need to understand that different issues and concerns matter at different points during an employee’s career. If an employer has put forth the effort to hire only the very best, the next logical step is to ensure these same employees remain engaged in success with the organization.

Life-cycle surveys at various points during employee tenure deliver insight into employee perceptions and attitudes that can ensure the organization is delivering on its cultural promise. For instance, socialization or new hire surveys, often at the six-month mark, capture whether an employee is delivering on expectations and provides honest information about the actual culture and how it is being perceived. Exit interviews provide an understanding of the reasons why employees are leaving and create the opportunity to address relevant issues before a corporate exodus is instigated. Because people are sometimes wary of providing candid responses, a neutral third-party partner can often deliver more honest feedback, enabling organizations to make a difference in creating a culture that pays significant dividends.

A well-developed corporate culture improves morale, performance and engagement and it offers significant competitive strength when competing for customers as well as talent. Employee loyalty to companies has changed and while today’s employees do not necessarily expect a job for life, they do expect to feel valued, developed and rewarded for the contributions made towards a company’s success. By understanding and meeting the needs of its people, and ensuring the right tools are in place to make it happen, an organization is able to reap the sizeable rewards of a strong positive culture and cultivate a high-performing workforce.

A winning corporate culture combines the positive attributes of all employees who can work together to build a high-performance workforce that drives the company’s goals and mission.