Assessing Corporate Culture is Like Eating Fish, You'll Know When It's Bad - Here are 3 Test
Everyone wants to work in a company that has a great culture. While everyone might have a slightly different definition of what constitutes a great organizational culture, most gurus on corporate culture will tell you that a great corporate culture exists in most cases because the executives value corporate culture as a competitive advantage.
Over the years, I have found that employees can always tell you quite specifically why they think their company culture is poor (just like knowing when you are eating a bad fish). Those working within a poor organizational culture can point to lack of empowerment, too much micromanagement, lack of transparency, regularly overworked, unclear vision, constant reorganizations, poor pay equity, lack of community involvement, or poor client focus as examples as to why they assess the culture as bad. On the flip side, employees who proclaim their company has a great culture have a harder time describing the specifics of why. They just know that they work in a great company. It's a strong feeling. When pushed, they will often site that they feel valued and well treated. If you get them to be more specific they will add teamwork, great link to customers, regular community involvement, visible management, leaders that listen and share information as why they like to work where they do. Notice that a great pay is never the first thing that is mentioned.
Bottom line is culture drives performance. It is no surprise then to find some shared values and focus in companies with great cultures. These include sense of vision, transparency, employee respect, focus on customers, and community involvement or a social cause. Obviously, stating what constitutes your corporate culture is one thing, living them every minute of every day is another. As a future employee, you are more concerned with the latter.
So, how do you assess if the company you are seeking to join is actually living up to its corporate culture statements?
When I asked a fish monger how I can tell if a fish is fresh, he gave me three pointers: (1) smell, (2) bright eyes and bright gills, and (3) moist flesh. Here are three ways to ensure you know what you're getting into when joining a company:
(1) Speak to recent employees who left and ask them about the exit process. Were they treated with dignity and fairness on the way out, or were they escorted to the door like criminals and given the bare minimum severance. The way a company treats people when they have to lay them off is an incredibly great insight into how they are value employees.
(2) Speak to existing clients and ask them why they do business with the company. Do they speak right away about the fact that they get the cheapest price or do they start by mentioning the great employees and how well they take care of customers. Clients who are impressed with a company culture will almost always start with that when describing why they do business with that company.
(3) Speak to the HR business partner assigned to the group you are about to join and ask him/her what makes that group great and its leader great. Then, ask a future colleague the same question and if you have alignment, awesome. If not, ask yourself why?
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