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The culture of your company is a big deal. It represents your personality as an organization – the values and behaviors that contribute to the unique social and psychological environment of your workplace.
The culture of your company is a big deal. It represents your personality as an organization – the values and behaviors that contribute to the unique social and psychological environment of your workplace.
Employee perception of company culture is paramount after a work-related injury. How will I be treated by my employer? Will I lose my job if I don’t work through pain, or if I report my injury? What does my future now hold, and do I need an attorney as maybe I don’t have trust in my employer to keep my best interests in mind?
We as owners want the perception of “us against them” (as in our company against our competitors), not management versus its own employees. Obtaining an accurate assessment of your culture involves a neutral third party obtaining detailed and candid input from all of your “stakeholders” without fear of retribution – including your C-suite executives, middle management, employees at all levels, and even Union representatives if applicable. While owners and top managers often believe all stakeholders share the same opinions of company culture, reality is often far different than assumed.
When I practiced law at Brown & Carlson, PA for over 25 years, senior shareholders took firm culture as serious as we did our profit & loss statement. Culture actually does have a direct impact on the health of your P&L. Replacing employees is always very expensive, but beyond that, we always felt attrition was tantamount to the loss of a family member. Satisfied employees treat your clients in a more positive and productive manner, which results in a strong relationship of continued work and the healthy corresponding cash flow. Employees and management who are fully engaged in the culture of the company feel positive about what they do and with whom they work. As I stated in an article for Minnesota Insurance magazine, “A pleasant, enjoyable employee culture is paramount to us. At some places work is a four-letter word, but hopefully not here. We all work very hard, but allowing for regular celebration and team fun makes the office a place where our people want to come.” Culture is also often the key differentiator from your competitors. At B&C we had an epic beer fridge, regular pot luck lunches, parties to celebrate “wins,” yearly bowling event and trophy for high game. We encouraged all employees (regardless of their role in the company) to contribute to marketing ideas, new client opportunities, office efficiencies, and participation in charitable events. This authentic activity really engaged our whole organization – owners and employees alike. I consistently stated to my team “You don’t work for me, but with me,” and I sincerely meant it. I chaired our “Culture Committee” at B&C, which met monthly to brainstorm on relevant issues and implement new strategies to maximize workforce satisfaction. In both 2017 and 2018 Brown & Carlson, PA was honored as a Top 150 Workplace in Minnesota, by the Star Tribune – a designation bestowed upon very few law firms.
Optimal culture takes work. It all starts with a desire for improvement – the base reason for the development of Employer Consult, LLC. Culture does not just organically happen without measuring, monitoring, developing specific process, and plan implementation. This valuable exercise pays key dividends. Strong employee satisfaction and perception of company culture translated into less attrition, increased work performance, less days away from work, and increased overall revenue production, and many more nontangible benefits beyond profitability.
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By Jeffrey Carlson, Employer Consult, LLC
Choosing a work comp professional for your business 
I have worked for some very large corporations in my career and it is difficult to engage everyone. What I have seen from these organizations are pockets(departments) of employees who are more engaged and satisfied than others. In my experience, the engagement and satisfaction comes down to front line supervisors and management as they are there everyday with the employee. While it is sometimes difficult for the frontline level management to deliver the wishes of those upper management, if they have good engagement and satisfaction, the demands are taken as more of a challenge than a burden.
In larger companies I think it difficult to get everyone one the same page at times. This leads to varying levels of engagement and satisfaction throughout an organization. Figuring out where the areas that could increase their satisfaction and engagement is one part of improving a situation. The next is how to improve it. Whatever the solution to increasing satisfaction and engagement is for any given situation it needs to be sincere. This means more than a sign in the break room. Need to have the actions back up the words. Upper management has to make efforts to understand what makes an area tick and what works to get increased engagement and satisfaction. Not everything will be a success but if it isn’t learn from it and move on. Needs to be an ongoing process and success and failure measured periodically. When a company has a strong culture things just go better from top to bottom.
I concur that in large companies it is difficult to get on same page. Leadership is about creating relationships and maintaining them that starts at the top and drifts on down. Employees want to feel valued and not feel victimized by mistakes. Trust and politeness are important to engage and empower a team to drive them to the goals as well listening to the front line personnel who do the work and understand what happens in the trenches. Disrespect and arrogance has no place in the frame work but learning to avoid mistakes rather than blame as well trust and loyalty makes people feel valued and appreciated.
The culture of your company is not only a big deal, but a positive culture is not created by accident. A positive culture, and a culture of trust, may take years to create and is only possible with a complete commitment from upper management all the way down to the front line supervisor. The behaviors that are demonstrated by management must be consistent and positive in order to grow the culture of trust and respect within the organization. For each occurrence that a manager is not consistent or displays something other than the positive culture you are striving for, it will take numerous additional experiences for employees to move on and continue again down the path towards that positive culture you desire. A positive culture will overcome many things, including some work comp and safety issues, such as employees reporting things and making management aware of issues that they have not in the past.
I have worked at companies both big and small and they have all struggled with creating and maintaining a positive work culture with their employees. It is very difficult to create a culture where all employees feel comfortable, happy, and valued. The thing I have seen make the biggest difference in employee perception is when leaders take the time to listen to their employees, and provide feedback to what they hear. Even if the feedback isn’t what that employee wanted to hear, they appreciate when leaders take time from their day to listen attentively and provide that employee with some sort of response to their concern. Being straight forward and considerate, and remembering that everyone working for them is an individual with their own view points and struggles can go a long way towards leaders earning trust and respect.
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