Ep 155 - Organizational Change: Rebuilding Trust & Culture

According to research by Deloitte, 94% of executives and 88% of employees believe a distinct corporate culture is important to a business’ success. My next guest believes that there is a strong correlation between employees who claim to feel happy and valued at work and those who say their company has a strong culture, but it’s so much more than that. And today we’re going to talk about why that is.

Episode 155: Driving Organizational Change: Rebuilding Trust and Culture with Marylene Delbourg-Delphis (@mddelphis)

Today, I’m joined by Marylene Delbourg-Delphis. She’s a serial entrepreneur and CEO who’s been passionate about and focused on building great teams. Marylene is an accomplished speaker and writer who also is one of the first European women to found a technology company in Silicon Valley. Her new book is titled Everybody Wants to Love Their Job.

Marylene says the biggest concern for HR and business leaders today is talent attraction and retention. She says, regardless of the job market, companies want to attract the right talent and retain employees. Why is it so hard to retain those workers? Marylene says it is not all about supply and demand. Instead, it’s about companies’ ability to be motivating enough to attract and retain talent. Attraction is about how a company comes across externally for job seekers, and talent retention is about how a company comes across internally for employees.

Creating a Workplace Culture of Belongingness That Drives Retention

So what does it mean? People want to join and stay if they feel they belong in the company as opposed to belonging to the company. And a sense of belongingness is driven by a company’s culture as people experience it inside and outside the organization. Talent attraction and retention problems or successes are almost entirely dependent upon the company culture and how it sits in our society at large. Marylene adds that an effective organizational culture can account for 20 to 30 percent of the differential in performance compared to culturally remarkable competitors.

[bctt tweet=”Chief People Officers (HR) must truly be in charge of the human infrastructure. This responsibility of HR is an even bigger job than the job of a CTO of pure finance. – @mddelphis #pocdcast #shrm #hr ” via=”no”]

Hiring and Retention is a Learned Habit For Organizations

One of Marylene’s observations is that hiring and retention are most important for larger organizations, although effective hiring is typically discussed in great depth for startups. Excellent hiring practices are often lost as an organization grows, when the span of control is greater and the daily touches by the CEO and leadership team are far fewer. Hiring and retention programs need to be front and center for organizations of all sizes. A focus on hiring and retention needs to be a habit that is established and maintained as a company grows.

Starting small and establishing these habits is key. It is so much easier to drive change in a swimming pool versus a vast and expansive ocean. Organizations can develop these habits and commitments early, or if they are in a larger organization, they can drive change in small pools or pockets of the organization with the plan to expand and grow. This builds momentum and proof of concept that can make a difference in all areas of the organization.

Culture is organic. It isn’t something that can be created or produced by a single individual. It’s a collective organism that is influenced and driven by the employees within your community. I love Marylene’s examples and pragmatic approach. I believe it appeals to executives and senior business leaders, which is why I wanted to have her a guest on the podcast today.

Connect with Marylene Delbourg-Delphis.