Many organizations today are focusing on their company’s culture including determining their culture, deciding what it should be, aligning with strategic goals, and transitioning to the desired culture. Culture is important because it reinforces the values of the organization, which in turn shapes team members’ behavior. There are many success stories of companies with cultures that are aligned to their business goals including Google, Zappos, and Patagonia. These companies have not only developed a culture that supports their business but they have fully embraced their culture.
Organizational culture is the collective behavior of the people who are part of the organization and has important effects on the morale and motivation of the organizational members. It includes the values, norms, systems, beliefs, attitudes, and habits of the organization which impacts the interactions of the employees with each other, and with customers. Even before you define it, you know it is there and that it has an impact on your business. This is why it is so important to internalize the culture and understanding when company activities are in sync or not in sync with the culture.
Once the company values and desired culture are defined, compensation can support and help drive the values and corporate culture. The role of compensation in an organization and the compensation strategy need to be well-defined. For example, where does the organization want to set pay levels in comparison to the competitive market? Perhaps the organization’s culture is strong in training and developing its employees, acknowledging their successes and offering advancement opportunities. This, in turn, may allow the organization to set lower pay levels than what is paid in the market. Of course, when recruiting it is important to align the compensation strategy to support the values of the culture through highlighting performance management, performance appraisals, and the goal-setting process for each team member.
Once values, business objectives, and desired behaviors are determined then compensation plans can be put in place to support the culture. For example, if the business objective is innovation and the desired behavior is risk-taking, then short term incentives may be the compensation strategy. If the goal is for a highly trained workforce and the behavior is learning and upgrading skills, then skill or competency-based pay may be the compensation strategy.
Corporate culture is about people’s behaviors – how goals are accomplished – so to establish a culture that drives company success, organizations should link a significant component of their compensation systems to behaviors.
At WageWatch our compensation consultants can assist with your organization’s compensation needs and help you ensure that your compensation programs are supporting your company’s business strategy and objectives. WageWatch also offers accurate, up-to-date benefit survey data, market compensation data and salary reports that will allow you to stay current with the times. This information is highly beneficial in creating the best salary and benefits packages that meet or rival the industry standards. For more information on our services, including consulting, salary survey data, benefit survey data and market compensation reports, please call WageWatch at 888-330-9243 or contact us online .