Best Practices - 6 #Startups #SMEs

Culture should be defined by the CEO and Founders of the Startup/SME. It will be a great blunder if you let the HR Head to decide and define the culture of the company.

When we get down to basic principles, Company Culture is the sum total of attitudes, behaviors, beliefs, expectations, goals, principles, purposes, standards, values that characterise an organisation . A Culture reflects both the written and unwritten rules that employees in an organization follow. An organization’s Culture is the sum of all that different colleagues think, say, and do as they work together. Company Culture is a set of guiding factors that define how a company does things internally – in the workplace – and externally – when working with customers and clients. Every company has different elements, and these elements combine to constitute a company’s specific Culture.?At its core, Company Culture can be defined as "How things get done around the workplace". This “How” refers to the formal systems as well as the informal behaviors.

What are the reasons that we should keep in mind for not letting HR decide and define the culture of a company ?

1. HR Heads (armed with an exemplary MBA in HRM) tend to put in their theoretical concepts into practice at the workplace. (There is nothing wrong in that practice since most Management Consultants do that). But, Culture is not a practice that can be defined with Management principles. It needs to be evolved.
2. When HR defines the culture, the employees tend to view the same with a lens. They fail to connect with the Culture.
3. When HR defines the Culture, the Founders deem it necessary only for the Employees to follow the same, whilst considering the fact that Culture is not meant for them to follow. This leads to a major disconnect within the company.
4. HR tends to copy the Culture of their past companies because their experience makes them think that successful Culture needs to be copied from other companies. Copying Company Culture from other companies is a sure recipe for disaster, because the "copy cat" Culture kills the mice (employees). Each company has its own culture which drives the organisation from top to bottom. One company's Culture can be a misfit for another company since the companies are run by different Founders.
5. Organisation Culture has to decide HR strategies and not vice versa. HR strategies can facilitate in implementation of the Culture. Culture also reflects in the behavior of the employees within and outside the organisation with different stakeholders etc,.
6. Company Culture defined by HR are not aligned to the Founders (values, beliefs etc), thus creating a polarised atmosphere within the company.
7. Getting HR Head to define the Company Culture, can lead to a prejudiced environment that caters to the whims and fancies of a single Department in the company. Culture has to be a sum total taking into consideration all the Departments.
8. HR department is one department that needs to go by the book (HR Manual) and Business Code of conduct. This intrinsic principle of HR makes Culture Definition mechanical and rigid. Organisation Culture cannot be built this way.
9. HR functions as the crucial "watchman" of the company just like the Security Guard in a building. HR cannot define the Culture for employees to follow.
10. Asking HR to define the Company Culture is analogous to asking a Moral Science Teacher to define the Code of Conduct for a school. It is the Principal who needs to define the Code of Conduct. Asking HR to decide the Culture is similar to asking a janitor to decide the behavioral code of the children in a family estate. Parents (however busy they are), are to decide the behavioral code of kids in the family.

Company Culture has to be first intrinsically defined and then subsequently followed passionately by the Founders / CEO / Board. Then, this Culture needs to be driven for implementation through HR Department. The Role of HR is to percolate the Culture defined by the Top Management into the different levels of employees in the workplace. HR helps in driving the implementation of Culture as decided/defined by the Top Management. HR can always advise the Top Management incase they find any discrepancies in the existing culture or some aspects that need to be changed. But that change has to be analysed, acknowledged and practised in the future by the Top Management before the same is driven into practice by the HR. The Role of HR (just like the Role of a Moral Science Teacher or an Estate Janitor) is to ensure that Culture is implemented constantly, consistently, continuously and successfully.

That is how Organisation Culture needs to be built.