Like many entrepreneurs, do you also have questions about the importance of corporate culture, the contribution of culture in the success or failure of the organization, the impact of culture on employee performance, and the role of intranet in transforming corporate culture?
Well, corporate culture impacts everything in an organization – from employee retention to business performance to organization perception in the media. Culture depicts the “identity” or “personality” of the company and conveys the information about the brand, beliefs, ethics, work environment, long term goals, mission, and more. The company culture is clearly reflected through the products or services, clients, and even the employees. Corporate culture is very important for the overall health of an organization, people, and customers.
It is important that companies spend time in analyzing their current culture, the scope of changes, and required actions for improvement. To corroborate the importance of corporate culture, here are some statistics from a research study conducted by Graham, Harvey, Popadak, and Rajgopal (2015) in North America.
Are you struggling to setup the right culture in your company? Only plodding according to business plans won’t work to set your corporate culture right. You have to work on it, develop and encourage the culture throughout the company, from employees to managers, and managing directors. The culture of an organization cannot be designed in one go. It evolves and develops over time, as employees learn and adjust and react to the current work culture and managers tweak their expectations to get the most from them. Also, what works for one company may not be conducive for another. For example, a company may expect their employees to set their own goals and complete self-assessments. It may encourage their employees to take risks with out-of-the-box ideas and avoid micromanagement.
In one scenario this may challenge the employees and make them feel valued and trusted and may boost their morale and productivity – so this can be adopted as the company culture. In another scenario the employees may complain about the lack of management and may feel stressed and under pressure – so this cannot be adopted as the company culture.
Along with developing the right culture, you also need a company intranet solution that connects people, processes and information; and which provides tools to effectively communicate and collaborate across the company. Without such a solution it is difficult to support the corporate culture for positive business results.
Corporate Intranet and Culture
The first and foremost interrelation between the intranet and culture is the “exchange of information” in a seamless manner. A corporate intranet software plays a significant role in conveying the culture throughout the organization. Although the intranet is not completely responsible for driving the corporate culture, it can do some groundwork by setting expectations of how communications will flow, how projects and tasks will be managed, approval processes of forms and documents, organization of documents and permissions of sharing and co-authoring, etc. It can also be used for notifying employees of policies and procedures and of expectations of behavior and ethics in the workplace.
Today, most of the workforce is comprised of millennials and post-millennials, who have been “plugged-in” to technology at a very young age. They use technology to manage work and every aspect of their lives outside the workplace. This makes it imperative for companies to focus on their digital transformation and offer modern solutions which make work easy and create a comfortable environment for their employees.
Digital tools like BizPortals 365 increase the productivity of employees, enhance communications and collaboration, and support in transforming the corporate culture which helps in achieving improved business outcomes.
The business landscape is in constant flux due to highly chaotic economic and market conditions. Every company is striving to improve profits and sustainability and implementing a corporate intranet can boost these efforts.
Here are some ways a corporate intranet can transform company culture.
- Enhancing Mobility
With the popular practice of flexible and remote working, a digital workplace is encouraged in most organizations. Employees need not be in the office every day, but at the same time it is important to manage the communication barriers across the team, department, and organization. The relevant digital tools allow the employees to feel connected and fosters the collaborative environment.
With a corporate intranet software, you can experience seamless communications, better management, simplified team tasks, quick approval workflow, enhanced reward system to acknowledge the employees and motivate them to perform better. As a result, collaboration and employee experiences improve, productivity increases and ultimately, the corporate culture grows in a positive direction.
- Improves Synergy and Collaboration
The primary aim of a digital workplace is to make the life of employees easier through collaboration, and in turn create an engaging and productive workforce. Well, collaboration is not achieved simply by using a set of digital tools. It needs to be included in the corporate culture and nurtured continuously to reap the rewards. A strong hierarchical structure and well-formed cohesive groups do support the operational requirements of the organization but may not engage employees collaboratively across the organization.
A corporate intranet works to reduce the silos in the organization and fosters collaboration. It helps establish a collaborative culture in the organization and develops a connection between the employees regardless of their location. An intranet like BizPortals 365 serves as a single hub that offers best-in-class features to promote synergy and collaboration to gain better productivity and success in the organization.
- Reducing the Silos
Most of the companies are bound with organizational silos, which makes sharing and collaborating impossible. The problem of silos leads to a lot of cost and effort duplication, lack of synergy, and lack of knowledge transfer. For example, when the project information is not shared between groups, it leads to negative outcomes and create project or information silos. Similarly, when there is uncertainty about the role of individuals in the organization, it leads to redundancy of work and leads to functional silos. So, it is vital to reduce these silos and create a better company culture.
Whether your company has cultural, project, information, functional, technology, or geographical silos, implementing a collaborative intranet software with agile change management helps to break through these barriers and increases collaboration within the organization.
- Promotes Employee Recognition
Today, employees are dispersed at various locations across the globe and many work remotely or from client locations. This makes it difficult for them to feel connected with the organization and as a result feel less valued and recognized for their work. This affects their productivity and impacts the overall performance of the organization. Therefore, employee recognition should be part of the corporate culture of an organization.
With the help of a modern intranet, employees can be recognized and engaged through employee appreciation programs. Recognition can be from managers and colleagues and can be for work-related activities or for accomplishments outside the realm of work, for example, in education, research, sports, etc. This is one of the most effective ways to boost employee morale, increase their productivity and establish positive corporate culture across the organization. Watch our webinar to learn how to engage your employees with an intranet.
Transform your corporate culture to reap excellent benefits
The business ecosystem works on effective communication, collaboration and synergy across the organization and intranets have created a revolution with digital empowerment. A corporate intranet establishes an effective corporate culture that brings people together from different locations. Schedule a DEMO to understand how you can transform your corporate culture with BizPortals 365 and gain better business profitability.
