“Culture is important,” Cheron Porter, APR, said. “If you want to soar as an organization, to meet your goals and have an engaged employee base, you have to think creatively” and find ways to build a positive work experience. Company culture is measured by “How well your team members enjoy and have bought into the mission of your organization.”
Porter is executive vice president of corporate communications for INLIVIAN: Housing Redefined, an affordable housing authority and developer in Charlotte, N.C. On Oct. 15, she was the guest for Strategies & Tactics Live, PRSA’s monthly series on LinkedIn, broadcast this time from PRSA’s ICON 2024 conference in Anaheim, Calif.
Ahead of her Oct. 17 ICON session called “How to Cultivate a Culture of Belonging, and Why It’s the Ultimate Competitive Edge,” she spoke to John Elsasser, editor-in-chief of PRSA’s Strategies & Tactics publication and host of S&T Live. Backstage at the conference, he asked Porter how an organization can align its internal culture with its strategic objectives.
For internal culture to support business goals, there needs to be “lots of communication,” Porter said. Leaders “need to make sure that those on the front line understand why the company is doing what it’s doing, to be transparent about the direction the organization is heading. And they have to understand the needs of their employees.”
She said that when an organization’s leaders communicate regularly and engage in dialogue with workers, employees will understand the company’s mission and be committed to its success.
Several years ago, her organization surveyed its employees. “We found that our team members felt there was a disconnect, that decisions were being made without an understanding of what was happening on the front lines. They wanted to be part of that conversation and to impact how we make decisions as an organization.”
Belonging within teams
To build a positive internal culture and a sense of belonging among employees, “the easiest thing that any leader can do is take an interest in the people who work for them,” Porter said. “It’s important to say, ‘Hey, how are you doing? How’s your kid doing? How’s the baseball team?’
“Let them know that they are a whole person and that you care about their total experience, and not just about what they can do for you,” she said.
If employees only hear from supervisors when there’s a new task to perform or another deadline to meet, then “it’s very transactional, and there’s no real commitment from the employee to see the organization do better,” Porter said.
She recommends that bosses get to know their reports on a human level. “Another meeting is one thing. Another lunch, that’s something different. People really enjoy getting together over a meal.”
How long employees stay with an organization is a measurement of how well the company has built a positive organizational culture, Porter said. The restless job-hopping of youth aside, “People who feel like they are being challenged, that they’re being respected and valued, and they’re being paid well, are going to stay.”
Watch a replay of the session here.
S&T Live will continue at ICON 2024 with the following guests:
Oct. 16, 9 a.m. PT — Ever wondered what’s on the minds of C-suite leaders? Matt Kucharski, APR, president of Padilla, is ready to share wisdom into how executives think and lead in today’s world. [Sign up here.]
Oct. 17, 9 a.m. PT — Ready to boost your branding and social media game? Matt Prince of Taco Bell has the secrets to success. Learn how the popular brand continues to drive engagement on social media. [Sign up here.]
