Crushing Culture: One Beer at a Time

During my career I’ve had the opportunity to work for companies that offered free beer-on-tap, took employees on shopping sprees, allowed pets at work or threw amazing parties. Other companies I've known have provided free food, provided activities like ping pong, foosball, cornhole, and even took trips to Hawaii. 

To the casual observer, these offices must have seemed like wonderful places to come to work each day. Unfortunately, the reality is that in some cases many employees feel stressed, frustrated, and rarely take advantage of many of the fun perks being offered (perhaps with the exception of the beer). These businesses spent a lot of time and money trying to create fun cultures, “one beer at a time” but the result seemed to be the opposite. Is it possible that office perks like free beer can actually be bad for a company culture?

The examples above are representative of a pretty common mistake. Often times leaders and business owners attempt to improve “culture” on their teams or at their company by making improvements or additions to the work environment. Frequently, these leaders are convinced if they can find the right blend of office perks then employee morale will pick up and they will have created a successful culture. The unfortunate truth is that addressing the office environment as a first step (or as an only step) in building culture will likely come across to employees as disingenuous, inauthentic or possibly even manipulative. 

If leaders can’t even gain employee satisfaction with free beer, what’s the solution? Below are some suggestions arranged in order of those that should be addressed first. It’s important when building a culture to start with a solid foundation. Otherwise the time and effort spent infusing fun or energy into the work environment won’t deliver the desired impact. It’s not expected that a company will be perfect at all the suggestions below, however if it’s clear your organization has a problem with one of the categories, your efforts should begin at that point before spending additional effort on the subsequent suggestions. Here's where to start when making efforts to improve culture:

Assess whether the company mission and vision are clear and authentic. I spoke with a leader once who said, “our purpose couldn’t be more clear to employees.'' Ironically, most the employees I spoke with felt the purpose had shifted recently and wasn’t clear at all. Clarity around why the company exists is the starting point for addressing culture concerns. This is the first place you should look if the culture doesn’t feel right. Employees who are aligned with the purpose of the company are more engaged and passionate about being part of the success of the company. Since leaders tend to live and breath the company mission, it can be easy to miss when your employees lack the same clarity. Be especially watchful during significant change when mission can easily become fuzzy. Acquisitions, changes to senior leadership roles, significant technology changes, or new government regulations will likely require renewed emphasis on the mission.

Equally challenging is when employees don’t feel the mission is authentic. This is most common when employees see leaders acting in ways that appear to be counter to the mission. For example, a cost saving emphasis from leaders that employees feel is a roadblock to the mission of creating a world-class customer experience. Or a mission related to fiscal responsibility in a company where leaders seem to be over-budget on a regular basis. A strong culture must begin with a clear understanding of the mission and vision of the company; and it requires a leadership team leading the way as role models. 

Does the organization exercise universal values? Whereas mission is about why a company exits, values are about how the company (and employees in the company) work/s. Similar to having a clear mission, when leaders live by clear values it helps employees feel they are part of a group with similar goals and they become motivated to be a successful member of the group. While each company should have values that are specific to their culture and the work they do, there are some universal values that promote a positive culture. While not an exhaustive list, some of the universal values found in effective cultures include:

• Commitment to transparency in leadership decisions
• Open and honest communication at all levels
• Trusting in the intentions of others
• Clearly communicated goals
• Belief in employee potential and their desire to grow and develop

Often, when leaders are looking for a culture quick-fix (free beer), what they really need is a plan to restore basic universal values. No amount of improvement to the work environment will improve employee engagement if leaders have eroded the trust in their teams by not living universal values. 

Are your policies, procedures and processes (PPP’s) culture building? I once reviewed the employee handbook for a small company that indicated more than 30 times the ways in which an employee could be fired. Just about every page had a statement like, “... up to, and including termination of employment”. This same company claimed to have a goal to help employees “be their best selves”. These types of contradictions are culture killers. As you review your PPP's, consider the following:

• Do you have PPP’s in place that need to be changed because they restrict how employees choose to get their work done. PPE’s should give employees the opportunity to solve problems in creative ways and share their ideas with the team. 
• Do you have a structure in place to allow employees continual growth? Are employees given opportunities to learn and become experts in their fields? 
• Do you have incentives, bonuses, or compensation structures that need to be changed because they put pressure on employees to choose between doing what is best to meet the company mission and doing what is best for them personally? Monetary incentives can cause a change in behavior but do not drive long term motivation.  
• Do you have PPP’s that allow employees opportunities to collaborate, share knowledge, and make friendships? 
• Do you have a person or group that is accountable for monitoring culture? Do you have metrics in place to assess the state of the culture?

Are there changes to the work environment that can add collaboration and fun. Now comes the fun part. After you have ensured that employees are aligned with the mission, you have taken steps to ensure universal values are being practiced, and your PPP's have been reviewed, it's time to examine the work environment for things that might add fun and collaboration. This tends to be the easiest category for finding ideas to promote culture. A simple employee survey will probably provide you with more than enough ideas for how to improve the work environment. When trying to decide which activity to start with, consider the following two criteria for decision making: 

• Which ideas, if implemented, will increase the likelihood of employees interacting with one another. Improvements to the work environment are most impactful when the improvements allow employees to collaborate and share ideas both work related and not. Using this criteria, you may find it more useful to hold a weekly lunch-and-learn (with the company providing lunch), rather than making free beer/soda available. 
• Which ideas are employees willing to lead or take a significant part in implementing? When HR is leading the charge on a new workplace event it’s common for employees to quickly perceive this as something the company is pushing. I’ve even seen a case where an employee committee was 100% responsible for making a decision about a workplace change that they felt would be welcomed by staff. However the change was rolled out by HR and received a luke-warm reception by staff. When HR is seen as the only advocate, it's easy for employees to find fault rather than jumping in to make improvements. The willingness of staff to be part of the development and implementation of a new idea in the work environment should be a litmus test for whether the idea is worth pursuing. 

There is significant data available showing the impact a positive culture can have on the financial success of a business. However, building a positive culture requires more than simply offering free beer or arcade games. In fact, if leaders attempt to improve culture with additions to the work environment before they address foundational issues, their efforts may create more damage than good.