IT culture

Welcome to part two of a three-part series on culture, looking into what impacts it, why it is valuable, and how we can look to change or scale it. In the second instalment, Nick Gubb reflects on one of the non-monetary benefits he considered when job hunting. How can you attract great people without throwing more money at them?

Having just been on the hunt for a new role, I knew that the organisation culture took up one of the spaces on my top three list of non-negotiables.

Like many others working in a post(ish)-pandemic world, flexible working arrangements have quickly become a core requirement for me and my family obligations, with competitive remuneration rounding out the final spot.

After working in a few places that didn't have a great culture, I realised how important it is to foster an environment where working with a group of people who are comfortable challenging ideas while supporting each other and genuinely having a laugh is crucial.

It did get me thinking. What does a good culture look and feel like? Is it a company offering fancy baubles around the workplace, such as the flash coffee machine in the breakroom? How about the open bar on Friday afternoons? They are certainly nice to haves, and for years I had seen those benefits as a sign of a strong culture and a great place to work (mainly because they had them in workplaces that I didn't happen to work at).

It took me some time in my career to realise that those benefits don't fundamentally change the underlying culture of an organisation. If I got frustrated that my leader wasn't considering my opinion or my peers promised things they couldn't deliver, the freebie gym membership and fruit bowl Tuesdays wouldn't help.

What is far more important is how the team feel when they interact with leadership and how the leadership communicate and motivates the team towards the organisational vision. Much more relevant questions I had to ask myself were "Would I feel valued here?", "Will I get the chance to have my feedback thoughtfully considered?" and "Will they support me in learning and developing to further my career?".

Culture is a tricky thing to pin down. Michael K Sahota defines culture as: "The identity, the beliefs and the behaviours of all the people who work within the organisation. It's how we show up around here. It's how people work together and how people respond during a crisis."

Depending on who you talk to, the pillars that form a strong culture and the values that make up those pillars can vary greatly depending on the business and how they want to operate. No one-size-fits-all approach will work for every organisation.

Instead, companies must think clearly about how they want their employees to operate within their structure. Here are a few examples of the pillars and values that resonate the most with me on my job hunt:

• Communication
  • Without clear and frequent communication, the whole thing is a bust. You must celebrate your wins and rally the troops when you suffer a loss. Leaders need to be accessible and understand that communication goes both ways. As an employee, I need to be able to hear the vision and direction while offering a different viewpoint or seeking further clarification when needed.
• Vision
  • What's the overarching, aspirational goal of the enterprise? What can the team rally around and feel a sense of achievement? What positive impacts does their effort lead to?
• Collaboration
  • How can we dismantle barriers that stop or slow teams from working with each other? For software delivery teams, it could be championing a DevOps approach, sharing ideas, coaching and mentoring each other. It's certainly not a reason to have more meetings!
• Values
  • These are the bedrock beliefs that guide all employees within a company. They help us to collaborate around a common goal and build a stronger team. They make sure we are doing things for the right reasons.
    • Trust
      • An implicit mutual understanding with your peers is essential to share ideas safely and increase engagement. When teams trust each other, they communicate more openly and honestly.
    • Innovation
      • We should challenge existing norms, constantly push to improve processes and systems, think of new ways to tackle issues, and implement new technologies to empower our people.
    • Accountability
      • We take pride in our work. If we say we will do something, we need to deliver on that or clearly communicate the issues that held us back.
    • Fun
      • The fun keeps people returning to work refreshed, energised, and engaged. It reduces stress, helps to build relationships, and improves job satisfaction.

Culture isn't something that you inherit the next time you decide to complete a company brand refresh. It's not something that leadership can explicitly set out as a company expectation. Everyone who works within the organisation creates the culture. Leadership can shape the culture by living the values, promoting the behaviours they want to see and supporting growth in their desired direction.

A large part of shaping culture is ensuring the right people are in the right place and doing the right thing at the right time.

But once you know what you want in a culture, how do you steer it in the right direction?

What tweaks will give you the biggest bang for your buck? Can you translate a culture from a small team to a larger one? I have more homework and will write about this in the next blog post.

Other posts in this series:

Part 1: People, not resources

Part 3: Culture change