What is one strategy to promote cultural continuity in the workplace?
To help promote cultural continuity in the workplace, we asked HR leaders, business executives and owners this question for their best insights. From celebrating all holidays to developing a culture wheel, there are several recommendations below that may help your organization preserve and promote great company culture.
Here are ten strategies for promoting cultural continuity in the workplace:
- Celebrate ALL Holidays
- Train Your Replacement
- Begin From the Top
- Develop a Culture Wheel
- Focus On Employee Development
- Invest in Community-Building Events
- Ensure a Solid Onboarding
- Host Quarterly Retreats
- Start a Culture Committee
- Have Leadership Share Their Origin Stories
Celebrate All Holidays
An important strategy to promote cultural continuity in the workplace is to simply support, acknowledge, and celebrate all cultural holidays and heritage months throughout the year. Being aware of what cultural and indigenous holidays are going on helps bring diversity and a new perspective to the workplace and of course supports your fellow co-workers whose cultures are being recognized! Having a section of a team meeting to discuss facts and stories regarding specific cultural days, ordering in a specific cultural food for lunch, and asking fellow co-workers to present aspects and traditions of their culture are all great examples and starting points for promoting cultural continuity.
James Burati, 1-800-PackRat
Train Your Replacement
At our work, we have this little mindset of doing things in a way that is in the spirit of “training your replacement”. It does two things; one that benefits you, one that benefits the other and more importantly, the whole is richer because of this generous attitude. First, training your replacement is more a mindset than actually a formal training. It helps you mentor others in a way that is nurturing and in that sense, it helps them grow their contribution. New people love to be given more and more responsibility and people usually respond positively to you helping them grow.
Second, you become more free to dream and pursue your next challenge in the workplace. You arrive at a place where you are seeking people to mentor you in new challenges. As a result the entire culture is passed on organically from one person to the next instead of a co-ordinated formal training. It’s more like an apprenticeship and those bonds are priceless.
Yolande Grill, InfoSol Inc.
Begin From the Top
Cultural continuity truly starts to have an impact on a company when those in management and leadership positions prioritize it as a need and critical part of the company. As a senior manager, asking yourself questions about business continuity and how the organization will stay resilient in the face of disruption in order to prevent the loss of culture is a start and can be talking points with middle-managers and employees in associate levels. Of course, this will trickle down and impact your organization’s alignment with culture and overall continue to contribute to a positive workplace culture.
Joe Spector, Dutch
Develop a Culture Wheel
To promote cultural continuity each part of the management has to know very well the company’s cultural identity. My personal strategy has proven its efficiency through the years and I strongly believe in it. In the core of it, is the development of a culture wheel that includes the most important identity factors about your business. My examples are our values, traditions, arts, language, techniques and skills, knowledge and stories. Once you have your own wheel, make sure it works as a reminder for all your employees, as well as newbies. Set whatever it includes as a solution in tough situations and as an example how the work should be done.
Stefan Chekanov, Brosix
Focus On Employee Development
A continuous development plan for your employees ensures cultural continuity in the workplace by guaranteeing a continuous churn of employees who embody your workplace’s cultural identity. At Mobitrix, our strategy involved signing up our employees to online courses that shape how they think and perceive the digital workplace we offer them. Moreover, we’ve tailored some of these online courses to focus on teaching our employees about our company, its vision and mission, and general best practices when working for us. All these efforts ensure that our employees can identify with our workplace culture, live and implement it, and teach it to others who continue coming in through our talent pipeline.
John Tian, Mobitrix
Invest in Community-Building Events
Invest in -building events, like stand-up comedy, after-work casual sports leagues, or even a weekend matinee. A business should not only organize the event for its employees, it should offer to pay the cost of admission, and enable employees to bring their spouses, partners, and family members. The goal is for your employees to build strong personal relationships, which will add to the overall sense of community and a positive work culture. The hardest part is getting a pattern of community started–so make sure your first events are filled with incentives for employees to show.
Dan Bladen, Kadence
Ensure a Solid Onboarding
As more and more businesses pivot to permanent remote working schedules, cultural continuity is becoming increasingly important to the overall levels of engagement and productivity. Ensuring that new hires are effectively onboarded and seamlessly integrated into the cultural fabric of your business will help to promote cultural continuity moving forward. Spotlighting new employees in their first weeks and providing them with ample opportunities to interact with colleagues is vital to this process, however, it can often be hard to achieve in a remote setting. I recommend engaging in virtual team building activities to introduce new hires in an informal setting. This strategy has worked wonders in the past and provides employees with a great opportunity to identify common interests and develop bonds that will benefit the overall culture of your business.
Teresha Aird, Offices.net
Host Quarterly Retreats
Hosting quarterly retreats is a great way to reinforce workplace culture and promote cultural continuity, particularly for businesses that have high turnover and are frequently onboarding new employees. All employees, both new and old, need to be periodically reminded of the key cultural pillars that make up your business. Retreats provide multiple opportunities for team building activities designed to maintain and build new cultural ties between colleagues, something which is particularly important for new employees looking to integrate themselves. Remote businesses would also be wise to explore the potential of digital retreats. Digital retreats often involve virtual team building sessions and guest speaking sessions, providing colleagues with a lot of the benefits of traditional corporate retreats in a remote setting.
Clare Jones, OfficeSpaceAU
Start a Culture Committee
One strategy for promoting cultural continuity in the workplace is to start a culture committee. This employee-run group can consist of team members from different departments and plan regular programming that creates a consistent company culture. This approach ensures consistency and regularity in company core values, team building programming, employee morale, and workplace atmosphere.
Carly Hill, Virtual Holiday Party
Have Leadership Share Their Origin Stories
About pages of companies are usually factual but boring, the equivalent of a lame resume. Hearing the drama from former or jaded employees is always fascinating! Encourage current employees to share THEIR history with the organization constructively. Start by having leadership share their origin stories. Stories of human beings being human resonate with most people.
Juan Kingsbury, Career Blindspot
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