Do you have a corporate culture?

culture-entreprise-metierplus

We are witnessing a new era in the world of recruitment… Indeed, we cannot rely anymore on candidatures that arrives by magic to fill your positions!

We can no longer rely on keeping employees without doing any efforts.

In other words, we must pay attention to the image we project. Especially to our current employees, since they are our main ambassadors.

Undoubtedly, it is no longer a question of wages. People want to be happy at work and feel fulfilled. You have to focus on the working conditions, atmosphere, social activities and more. To do this, it is important to develop a positive corporate culture where people can envision themselves working for the same company for several years.

Where to start? In three simple steps, here’s how to start launching your corporate culture.

1. Someone in charge, please!

First of all, dedicate someone in your team to be in charge. It can be exciting to have ideas and motivation, but if no one is in charge of the process, it won’t get very far.

To get short and long-term results, efforts must be made continuously throughout the year. By having someone in charge of this department, you ensure your ideas get accomplished.

This person may get a title such as Director of Corporate Culture or if you opt for a touch of originality: Manager of internal happiness! There is no need to hire someone specifically to take on these new responsibilities if you do not have the resources. Opt for an employee who cares about the company and has a good relationship with everyone. It could also be a group of people (e.g. social committee).

2. Have a goal!

Now that you have an appointed person, give him or her some work to get is mandate started!

Together, determine the goal(s) you want to reach for the first year. These can be various, depending on your current situation. Here are some examples:

  • Establish the values of the company
  • Do more social activities
  • Improve working environment

Note that it is important not to try to improve everything in the first year. It will be difficult to decide where to focus your efforts and might lose sight of the objectives. Instead, take one step at a time to establish a stable and consistent corporate culture.

3. Action!

Once the leader knows where to put the effort, now is the time to establish a short-term action plan.

Decide what actions need to be taken for the next 3 months, to make sure to reach the pre-established goals by the end of the year.

To give a concrete example, here is what we did at Métier Plus.

Values of the company

First of all, our goal was to put forward the values ​​of the company. We wanted team members to get involved and understand the meaning of our values ​​in order to make them real. To achieve this, our action plan was:

  • Management reviewed the company values ​​to establish the four key values;
  • A special meeting was organised outside the office (in a golf club) by the director of corporate culture;
  • The values ​​were presented and explained to the entire team by the president;
  • Then, 4 teams were assigned one value. Together, they determined the daily actions to take in order to make the values ​​live through each member of the team.

This team meeting launched our corporate culture program. Having this event mandatory for everyone and outside the office made everyone curious, thus giving an extra touch of motivation. Each member left with a better understanding of the Métier Plus DNA and the behaviour to adopt at work.

The feeling of belonging

This short-term plan helped to start the process. Since then, actions have been taken to reinforce the feeling of belonging such as:

  • Values ​​and actions chosen by the team were posted in the conference room, where the team meets for the weekly meeting;
  • Social events are organized every trimester (chosen by the employees during the meeting);
  • Contest and “lunch & learn” related to the values ​​are also organized every trimester;
  • A poster of the values ​​is given to all new employees;
  • All company decisions are taken based on theses values.

Added value

Of course, recruitment for technical jobs remains difficult due to labour shortage in this industry. By focusing on the culture of your business, company becomes more attractive. The best workers will want to work for you and not for your competitor!

Finally, as a recruitment company, we can relate. When it comes time to go head hunting, recruiters see a real added value in negotiations when a corporate culture is present.