Competitive Corporate Cultures

By R. Bruce Dalglish, CEO of Alliance Hospice

Today’s workforce is picky, in some industries more than others.  Candidates diligently research companies before applying for new jobs – and one of the key components they look for is a positive corporate culture.  Nowadays, many companies feel the need to improve their workplace culture not only to retain current employees and avoid turnover, but as a recruiting method linked to the public perception of their workplace.

If a company is determined to hire new and high quality talent, they need to be prepared to compete for that calibre of a candidate.  For companies to be perceived as desirable places to work, they need to make the cultivation of positive corporate cultures a priority.  Ultimately, this competition among corporate cultures will not only land quality hires, improve employee retention and prevent costly turnover/transition costs – it will help, not hurt, a company’s overall productivity.

Committing time to nurturing a positive work climate is not a waste.  It’s a long term investment that is interlinked with profitability.

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Ask Your Employees…

By R. Bruce Dalglish, CEO of Alliance Hospice

Tapping into your employees’ insight is a productive exercise to explore.   Your employees’ assessment of your company’s current workplace culture is a helpful way to determine the level of your employees’ overall satisfaction with their work conditions and environment.   By discovering what your employees’ likes and dislikes are, you will procure invaluable insider information to help improve and nurture the most positive workplace culture that is best suited to the specific needs of your staff and company.

Your employees can provide feedback about which elements of their job experience they enjoy the most, or offer examples about why your company is a wonderful place to work.  Understanding which elements of your current workplace atmosphere are positive is a way to determine which direction to pursue, focus on and even improve upon.  Likewise, obtaining a clear picture of aspects of the corporate culture that are not resonating with your employees provides a sense of what to eliminate and adjust.

Furthermore, it’s important to expand, strengthen and leverage the pre-existing positive elements of your workplace environment, and make sure to capitalize on external branding of these elements to improve your image in the eyes of potential hires, customers and other businesses.

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Re-evaluate Your Company’s Values

By R. Bruce Dalglish, CEO of Alliance Hospice

Striking the right balance to maintain a positive corporate culture is not always easy or obvious. Often, it requires the need to periodically carve out time to re-valuate your company’s values. If your values feel antiquated, or have not progressed in the same direction as your company’s product or services, then it’s time to update them.

Your employees and customers can only benefit from this type of update. When a consistent culture can be felt throughout all of the different aspects of a company, employees are typically more content and able to fulfil their tasks more readily and easily. At Alliance Hospice, we value equality, fairness, respect, honesty and trust. Patients can sense if there’s a breakdown of any of these values among staff. In our hospice care facilities, we strive to maintain all of these important values at all times, to ensure that our patients receive the best care possible.

A company’s culture and values spills over into all forms of communication, procedures and decision-making. Commitment to these values foments stability and consistency among staff. If your company’s values are outdated and no longer relevant to the services provided, updating them will get your corporate culture back on track.

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Recruit Employees to Match Corporate Culture Tones

By R. Bruce Dalglish, CEO of Alliance Hospice

When hiring new employees, companies tend to focus solely on a candidate’s skills and experience. In addition to finding a qualified employee that meets the skillset and criteria for a particular position, hiring personnel should also recruit candidates that match the tone of their company’s corporate culture. At Alliance Hospice, we seek employees that are not only skilled in the realm of hospice care, but also encompass the type of sincerity, compassion and empathy necessary to fit into our culture.

The hiring process should be fully comprehensive. Finding employees that will have an easy time fitting into the pre-established work culture is a plus. This hiring tactic saves time, facilitates smooth integration into the team, and reinforces the values of a company’s corporate culture. Existing personnel will adapt better to someone with similar workplace values, and the company’s turnover rate will likely be reduced. By planning ahead and making corporate culture an important part of the hiring and screening process, companies and all staff will benefit in the long run.

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Positive Work Cultures Streamline Businesses

By R. Bruce Dalglish, CEO of Alliance Hospice

The benefits of fostering a positive work culture extend beyond retaining employees and creating a pleasant experience within the office. A company that facilitates a positive work culture tends to translate similar values into its goals and procedures. 

In fact, it’s the integration of these shared values across the board that truly make a business successful in streamlining practices and procedures.  If employees are provided with clear guidelines regarding how to conduct business internally, miscommunication and mistakes can be dramatically reduced.  All employees will share the same understanding concerning methods, pecking orders, decision-making and best practices – all linked by shared terminology.  At Alliance Hospice and All Caring Hospice, we strive to incorporate these positive values and parameters in all of our interactions.

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Positive Work Culture = Positive Company Branding

By R. Bruce Dalglish, CEO of Alliance Hospice

Nowadays, everything’s online and public – including the way in which employees review their individual work experiences.  If an employee feels unhappy at work due to a negative work environment, those feelings may be broadcast on multiple social media sites and online company review sites.  The disgruntled employee’s friends and colleagues will comment on these negative experiences, exponentially damaging the company’s reputation.

Companies need to prevent such potential disasters by ensuring that their internal work culture is positive.  Committing to and then truly integrating positive values ultimately improves the brand of a business.  Instead of having dissatisfied employees smear a company’s name, imagine having a cadre of employees boasting about how well they are treated and how inspired they feel to come to work every day.  To reference a specific example, visit Glassdoor.com to read positive reviews of Alliance Hospice.

This type of positive reinforcement is invaluable, and could end up being a lucrative advertising method to attract and retain employees.

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Best Way to Retain Employees is to Foster a Positive Work Culture

By R. Bruce Dalglish, CEO of Alliance Hospice

Today’s professionals are not only interested in pursuing their industry-related careers, but are more determined than ever to find a welcoming work environment that makes them feel at home.  Since most people spend more time with their co-workers than with their own families, a positive work environments is one of the key elements that professionals look for during job searches.  As the Founder and CEO of Alliance Hospice and All Caring Hospice, I can attest to this notion first-hand.

However, the real challenge for companies today is retaining their employees once hired.  After all, most managers prefer maintaining employees and a sense of stability.  The alternative is expensive, time-consuming and undesirable.  Having to deal with hiring new employees and inevitable business disruptions add to transition costs and headaches. 

Attracting talented professionals and maintaining them hinges on the amount of effort a company invests into their culture.  The ideal work culture involves trust, pride and positive relationships.  If a company invests enough time into weaving these values into its overall culture, it will be one of the best long-term investments made, and employees will be less likely to search for another job.

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Strong Workplace Culture Helps Create Successful Businesses

By R. Bruce Dalglish, CEO of Alliance Hospice

Having a positive work culture is one of the most important keys to maintaining a successful business.  When employees feel valued and respected, they are more likely to feel inspired to not only fulfill their work obligations – but perhaps even exceed expectations. 

This type of sought-after motivation stems in part from employees feeling as though they are part of a trusted work environment.  Fostering a positive corporate culture that provides a sense of trust is typically accomplished when a company clearly defines and shares its values.  This critical investment is reflected through the integration of the company’s values into all aspects of the business.  Consistent messaging must be reinforced through the company’s communications, decision-making, procedures, recognition, and even in the hiring and firing processes.

A cohesive workplace leads to positivity, stability, team-building and boosts morale – all of which are critical to every business’ prosperity. At Alliance Hospice, we make it a priority to foster this sense of positivity for the sake of our staff, and our patients.

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