Technology and Your Corporate Culture
Technology and corporate culture. These are two of the top concerns for organizations. Tech has rapidly ingrained itself into every aspect of life from home, to work, to the way we get around, all whilst the people making the latest and greatest products steam ahead creating the next groundbreaking technology for humans to adjust to.
Meanwhile, as the labour market shifts to an employee focus, corporate culture has come to the forefront for employers to ensure they are attracting top talent to their companies. A shift in employee expectations to a positive workplace experience also make culture a crucial area of focus of organizations.
There’s no doubting that both areas are increasingly crucial to a successful organization but what is less obvious is how important having the right technology is to having a strong corporate culture. There is a misconception-perhaps even a myth- that technology is the enemy of corporate culture.
In today’s world, people are connected 24/7/365 through their smartphone which leads to the concern of overwhelmed employees who can never fully switch off from work. That, added with the constant distraction of social media looming over staff, employers are increasingly cautious of technology. But technology and corporate culture can (and should) go hand-in-hand to create a company at the front of the line for attracting top talent.
So the question is, “what are the keys to making technology work in favour of your corporate culture?” One thing to consider is, what is the desired corporate culture you want for your organization?
The Cornerstone of Collaboration
If you want a culture of collaboration, there are outstanding technologies that will allow that to happen. This could mean making instant messaging services such as Slack or Hangouts, webcams and document sharing capabilities available to all employees. Deloitte recently noted that only 14% of companies believe their internal processes for collaboration are working well.
It can be assumed that of the other 86% who don’t believe their processes are working are trying to foster a culture of collaboration as well. One reason it’s not happening could be because they simply don’t have the tools. You’d be amazed how quickly these same companies would see an improvement in their collaboration processes just by starting with something simple like instant messaging.
Always Engaging
Employee engagement has recently emerged as one of the key factors to create a positive corporate culture. Employees rarely feel that they are engaged or communicated with sufficiently and they’re starting to expect more.
For many employees, often it isn’t until their annual review that they are even asked for any semblance of feedback. Collaborative technology is helping to make lack of engagement a thing of the past.
A key cornerstone of corporate culture is to create a positive environment and focus on continuous improvement. Human Resources now have a host of feedback apps and features available to them which, when utilized, can vastly increase engagement with employees.
Large HR systems such as Workday allow for constant engagement in a variety of ways such as surveys and notifications boosting the input of crucial data for improving corporate culture. These tools give HR the opportunity to understand, all year round, what their employees want and whether certain company changes are welcome or very much the opposite. There’s no telling what that could do for corporate culture.
Communication is Key
But there’s also something else to consider when it comes to employee engagement; Deloitte’s Human Capital Trends Report notes that 77% of companies no longer see email as a viable tool for communication. This points to smartphones once again. Apps aren’t geared towards viewing and writing emails.
Instead, instant messaging apps used by HR, management and employees to communicate and collaborate is becoming the way of the future. This means it isn’t enough to just say your company culture is promoting open communication. It is necessary to put into action now, using modern communication channels.
Perfect Performance
Let’s not forget how important performance management is to corporate culture. The bi-annual review is quickly becoming a thing of the past. Technology now finds ways to transform the experience to be continuous and much more meaningful.
Pulse feedback tools can help managers to get quick responses and effective data to improve team morale and performance. Not only this but removing the inconvenience of formal reviews for managers, HR and employees frees up time for more important projects (not to mention fun stuff like team pizza!).
These pulse feedback tools such as Officevibe, GetFeedback and TINYpulse are easily available and essential to create a corporate culture of nurturing and development in the modern era.
Access to Information
Smartphones have given everyone access to information instantly and the expectation is that this should now translate into their workplace. To create a strong corporate culture, access to information is highly important.
Having apps that employees can download to instantly access their vacation time, benefits and wellness information can be highly beneficial. Workday, Bamboo and many other HR apps are now offering very user friendly apps that make quick access to information possible.
Not only does making this information easily accessible improve corporate culture but it once again frees up time for HR to focus on other important things rather than spending time responding to dozens of emails asking for time off, payment details etc.
It is easy to be overwhelmed at the idea of trying to implement all these changes to boost your technology and, in turn, your corporate culture but have faith. Change takes time. Employees now expect an overall better designed experience in their workplaces but they equally understand that change doesn’t happen overnight.
If you can be proactively working towards the cutting-edge of technology and simultaneously improve your corporate culture, employees will climb on-board. Just don’t leave technology out of the equation for building a great corporate culture.