Blog Img

What A Culture Code Brings To An Organisation

Back to Blogs

In the words of the Culture Code guru Patty McCord (author of the Netflix Culture Code), Culture Codes are written to give “companies the courage and the permission to not accept that business culture is a given, but something to create.” Patty served as Chief Talent Officer of Netflix for 12 years and co-authored the Netflix Culture Deck, a presentation that has been viewed more than fourteen million times.

 

So what is a culture code? A culture code is a document that gives clarity to what is important for the success of a company, it outlines what the employer expects from their staff and highlights how the company will operate.

There are three main points of reference in this definition that are important to stress in an organisation:

 

What Is Important To The Success Of Your Company

What is your company’s strategy going forward? Steve Jobs did a companywide meeting annually to highlight Apple’s strategy so that staff knew where the company was headed and knew how to help achieve this. This meant that everyone worked towards a common goal and felt like they contributed to the success of the company. By having complete buy in to the company’s strategy departments operated smoothly and staff had certainty in their roles. You can do the same by believing in your staff and trusting them with your strategy.

 

Outline What You Expect From Your Staff

Setting achievable objectives for each staff member and department is important to the success of the company. Having clear objectives and setting a career progression path for all staff leads to a better understanding of people’s roles and the direction of the company over the long term. With this people are more motivated and help towards the company strategy.

 

Highlight How Your Company Will Operate

How are issues handled? What is your training procedures? All this information should be known by your staff in order for them to carry out their roles efficiently. Volunteering this information to employees as they enter the business will lead to trust and confidence between staff and the organisation. This can be as easy as publishing short articles on the intranet around company procedures, an open door policy in HR or regular times where HR are accessible to answer questions in a confidential environment.

 

Patty McCord spoke at National Employment Week’s 2016 Talent Summit in the Mansion House on the 2nd of March.