People-First Culture – Successful Business Strategy

Author Max Freer, Founder, OOK Agency
 
A people-first culture creates harmonised working when people purpose, productivity and profit come together to create a successful and sustainable business strategy.
 
A business strategy that is driven by brand culture and purpose is more likely to succeed because it allows people to flourish in work. This impacts people personally, the work they do and consequently, the results they achieve for the business and the wider organisational purpose that their role contributes towards.

Culture of Contribution

When employees work in a solid people-first culture, they treat each other and their customers with kindness and empathy. They are a culture committed to finding solutions to go above and beyond to care for people, and business. If you are a customer of such a company, you will feel it, take Disney as an example.
 
Disney’s culture model is one of contribution. A winning corporate culture helps both people and business succeed, simultaneously. The best culture is also the best business strategy, and the best business strategy depends on the organisation’s culture to come to successful fruition. Disney put their people at the core, building a corporate culture that creates the conditions for people to thrive and flourish, enabling them to become more effective in the work they do.
 
A people-first culture doesn’t prevent a successful business strategy, it is essential to it. When employees are more engaged, they are more satisfied and committed and that has a powerful impact on results.

People-First Culture

When organisations focus on building a people-first culture they are creating the conditions for these things to happen:

• People feeling that they are cared for as humans, and not just as employees
• People knowing that their work matters for an important purpose that goes beyond making money for shareholders
• People finding ways to (if only partially) realise their passions and purpose at work and find an interesting outlet to their creative power and talents.
• People already do this, generally outside of work since they don’t have the opportunities to do so in their jobs.
• Trust increases among people and with their leaders

Potential Meets Opportunity

When potential meets opportunity amazing things happen. When employees are cared for, when they know that their work matters, when they can realise their potential at work and when they can trust their colleagues and their leaders, higher levels of job satisfaction and engagement happen which positively impacts performance and productivity.

 
When a business cares for the people and translates that care into a better corporate culture, it will see the results not just in stronger culture which makes people happier, but also in their performance and productivity.

Employer Brands of Choice

The employment marketplace is very competitive with future employees interviewing the employer. The rise of ‘Employer of Brand Choice’ means future employees are actively prospecting their future employer, without you knowing.
 
Organisations and business leaders who focus on culture rather than just business strategy will be more successful at winning the best candidates.

Tips on Building a People-First Culture

Leadership:

Leaders must live the culture. Leaders are agents of cultural transformation and cultural embodiment. A company can say it has the best culture in the world, but unless the leaders are living up to that promise, then it really isn’t the best culture.

Respect:

Treat people as adults. Respect is one of the most powerful drivers of inclusion and belonging, which have an impact on productivity and performance.

Recognition and Appreciation:

 
Show gratitude in your company attitude. Recognition and appreciation increase high levels of job engagement and satisfaction.

Belonging:

A workplace with purpose can give people a bigger sense of belonging to an organisation that makes the connections at work more meaningful. Create a culture of inclusion, community and belonging.

A positive work environment:

A positive work environment is one in which people are cared for beyond their condition as ‘employees’, but in their totality as a human. This creates a strong sense of belonging to the organisation. People in a positive work environment see their own success as an extension of the success of the organisation.

In Conclusion

 
Today’s employee seeks more than remuneration, they want to spend their workday in an environment where company purpose and profit work as good partners in a culture of contribution that gives employees’ a sense of belonging and meaning.

 
We deliver workshops in building and executing company culture in partnership with leading human resources consultancy
hralchemy.co.uk

For more information drop us a line Max@ookdesign.co.uk

Max Freer is a Creative Brand Strategist based in Northeast England. She is founder of OOK Agency a UK based purpose-driven freelance brand agency where her work focuses on brand, marketing and campaign management. Max has 30 years industry expertise working with recognised UK Media organisations, national and international brands.