Some of my posts touched on the importance of Corporate Cultures. Culture affects how employees behave. It also has an influence on how the company is perceived by external stakeholders. So making your Culture visible is imperative and an effective method is to simply use your website.
Some of the “Best Companies” lists published by magazines, consultants and other sources are useful sources of competitive intelligence to get started. However, “Best Company Cultures” ratings are virtually non-existent. I was able to find one in Canada. It is Waterstone Human Capital’s Canada‘s 10 Most Admired Corporate CulturesTM . The 2007 winners are —
1. WESTJET AIRLINES LTD. www.westjet.com
2. FOUR SEASONS HOTELS INC. www.fourseasons.com
3. BOSTON PIZZA INTERNATIONAL. www.bostonpizza.com
4. ROYAL BANK OF CANADA. www.royalbank.com
5. YELLOW PAGES GROUP CO. www.ypg.com
6. MAPLE LEAF FOODS INC. www.mapleleaf.ca
7. MANULIFE FINANCIAL CO. www.manulife.com
8. PUROLATOR COURIER LTD. www.purolator.com
9. TIM HORTONS INC. www.timhortons.com
10.TORONTO DOMINION BANK FINANCIAL GROUP www.td.com
Step one would be to visit the websites of the top rated companies to get some ideas on how to organize your Culture section. Visit the top company, WESTJET and you will see the essential ingredients –
You need to post a short description of the Culture statement, mission vision and values. You could stop here but anything that reinforces these items should be included.
If you visit Toyota Motors, a company that appears on various “Best Company” lists, you find a more glitzy and subtle approach. TOYOTA MOTORS
There are some issues with the Toyota approach, the essential ingredients not as explicit as WESTJET. You have to search to find any mention of culture. I finally found a culture statement buried in Environment Section . Toyota has a good story to tell, they just need to flaunt it.
The lesson learned is that if you want to display your Corporate Culture, keep it focused and make it easily visible.
Ed Konczal has an MBA from New York University's Stern School of Business (with distinction). He has spent the last 10 years as an executive consultant focusing on human resources, leadership, market research, and business planning. Ed has over 10 years of top-level experience from AT&T in the areas of new ventures and business planning. He is co-author of the book "Simple Stories for Leadership Insight," published by University Press of America.
Sweet!! I would have to agree that RBC has one of the best corporate cultures… I’ve had an amazing experience working here…
Upon entering the workforce, I honestly saw myself company jumping every few years, but they’ve managed to keep me here and super-engaged for almost 5 years now, by providing me with the opportunities that I was looking for. (I now manage a blog… Awesome!)
Thanks for the mention!