Investing in society is no longer "icing on the cake".
Many companies took a hit over the last few years when details of their “boys club” company culture were exposed to the public. While today the stories are shocking, just watch an episode of Mad Men for an eye-popping reminder of how leaders used to conduct themselves at work.
Back then, consumers were less concerned with the ethics and politics of the companies in their lives. The internet wasn’t yet a platform for giving any unhappy employee a forum to publish her or his views to the world.
Nor had a culture of self-expression emerged—one that is intertwined with the millennial generation’s demand for a meaningful, positive purpose—and a growing willingness to leave a job if the company doesn’t match their values.
Dramatic societal and technological changes are creating new challenges for organizations as they seek to attract the best talent as well as win over customers.
The common denominator among changes that companies need to adapt to? People.
The days of unreformed “bad-boy” CEOs are numbered.
CEOs need to be champions of their people while also driving business results. Once controversial, many CEOs are now coming forward and saying business results aren’t the only metric they should be measured by.
This month the Business Roundtable, a lobbying group composed of the nation’s leading CEOs, redefined the purpose of a corporation. They outlined a modern standard for corporate responsibility that puts supporting the community and investing in employees before shareholder profits.
“This starts with compensating them fairly and providing important benefits, as well as offering training and education so that they can develop new skills for a rapidly changing world”.
If the cynic in you thinks this might be a load of hot air, Great Place To Work-Certified companiesare already making this their M.O. And they're seeing incredible results in return.
For example, millennials who experience a great workplace are 50 times more likely to plan a long-term future at their company compared to millennials who don't experience a great workplace.
Rapidly changing competitive landscapes are putting a premium on agility.
Companies need to evolve quickly to grow. Removing barriers to innovation is the difference between success and failure for many companies. Highly innovative companies require a high-trust culture of inclusion.
These companies maximize a company's human potential by tapping into the intelligence, skills, and passion of everyone, no matter if they are flipping assets or flipping burgers.
Companies that build an ‘Innovation By All’ culture generate more high-quality ideas, realize greater speed in implementation, and achieve greater agility— resulting in 5.5 times the revenue growth of peers with a less inclusive approach to innovation.
The need for decentralized decision making increases the importance of getting the best from everyone.
When employees feel trust from their managers and empowered to make decisions, they do their best work. The most forward-thinking companies today are abandoning the idea that decisions should be top down.
They recognize that when decisions are escalated to higher levels of management, they not only experience delays in productivity but also a decrease in quality, due to the manager’s lack of first-hand context.
All these examples show that making people issues more crucial is a shift to an economy where essential human qualities such as passion, collaboration, and creativity are vital to business success.
If you want to learn how to tap into the unique qualities of your people, you first need to find out how they’re experiencing your workplace culture. Use our culture management platform to benchmark your company culture and find your strengths and areas for growth today.
