There are many different definitions of what a corporate culture is and what it should look like. There is no one right answer. Investopedia defines it as “the beliefs and behaviors that determine how a company’s employees and management interact and handle outside business transactions.” Others will define it differently; such as discussing corporate values or talking about employee engagement and satisfaction. If the people are happy, that means they like what’s going on, right? Not necessarily.
While these definitions aren’t wrong, they don’t cover the entire picture. They enjoy what they think is going on. They could be seeing the culture of your company one way, while someone else views it another way. Your company may have a high satisfaction rate, but what exactly is the cause? Most surveys won’t tell you. Your corporate culture is what you make it and the values you want to instill at your company; however, making sure that everyone is on the same page is a different issue altogether.
At CIS, we test for alignment of your culture, making sure everyone is feeling the same way. We look at 28 different cultural styles of your company, ranging from Company Power Structure, to Communications Style, to Risk Avoidance. We take a very in-depth look at this degree of alignment, more so than most other cultural surveys, and this is something many don’t even think to consider. Most of the time we find there is a vast disconnect between the people in the boardroom setting the cultural values and the employees who are expected to know and exhibit them. We break down the information we receive into very easy to understand bar graphs and pie charts and don’t solely deliver raw data and numbers. Our survey allows us to learn what your employees think of the current culture but also, and more importantly, what your employees would like to see as a future culture. This gives you actionable intelligence on changes you might consider or things that need to be made clear. By showing the difference on current to future gaps, a business owner can make more informed decisions.
Most culture surveys are usually disguised employee satisfaction surveys. You can have an employee who is satisfied with what they believe is company culture, but their idea could be completely different than that of the owners, or even other employees. These types of surveys can show if the employee is unhappy, but TRaX50 Culture can show WHY that employee is unhappy.
Want to see if your employees are on the same page? Give CIS a call at 501-420-4194 EXT 701.