Learning Culture Archives

An Army Of Leadership: Aligning For Workplace Culture

Workplace culture is the not-so-secret ingredient for the success of any organisation.

When a business has a positive workplace culture, then everything just works better.

But creating this positive environment can be challenging.

Especially if you don’t quite have the right recipe for success – too much spice and there will be conflict, not enough and everything becomes bland and unengaged.

It’s about achieving the right balance of ingredients.

The Acentia framework can help you achieve that balance. It offers a new and integrated approach to culture development and provides a practical strategy for fostering continuous culture growth.

Sounds pretty good, right?

Let’s discover more about how you can create a strong workplace culture using all the tools at your disposal.

Why Workplace Culture Is A Priority

In today’s business landscape, positive workplace culture is more than just a nice thing to have! It’s actually a critical component of an organisation’s success and a drawcard for attracting and retaining talented employees. A company’s culture is a vital aspect of its brand identity. A positive culture can translate into being viewed more favourably by your team members, customers and community as a whole.

There are positives within the business too. When you have a good workplace culture, you generally have higher levels of team engagement. Your employees are more likely to feel valued and respected, making them want to stay and grow with the company. You’ll also open the door for creative thinking, innovation and a natural increase in productivity levels.

It’s not just about benefits for the organisation either. When your team feels supported by the workplace culture, their mental and physical health can improve. You’ll also find that job satisfaction significantly increases, especially if your team is able to formulate a strong work-life balance.

Creating The Positive Culture

So, how can you work to create this positive culture? Well, the road to a better culture starts with your leaders. “Culture cannot be developed, grown or improved by leaders that are not ready for it or properly aligned.” These wise words were spoken by the team at Acentia, specialists in developing a healthy workplace.

The Acentia framework is all about equipping leaders with the knowledge and skills to foster the right kind of workplace culture within their organisations. This is particularly important in today’s turbulent world. In 2024, the workplace landscape has evolved beyond the 5 days a week, 9 to 5 in the office structure. Now, leaders must build a cohesive culture while navigating economic uncertainty, fear of the unknown and a team that could be working flexible hours or remotely.

Safe to say, that can be a challenge!

That’s why The Spice Gals are excited to announce that the Acentia framework is now part of our extensive toolbelt of resources, enabling us to bring highly valuable leadership and culture workshops to your business!

Perfect for businesses of all sizes and stages, this unique leadership training helps to simplify the way your business can achieve continuous cultural growth.

The Importance Of Leadership In Workplace Culture

You will have heard the saying that change has to come from the top. That’s because it does! Your leaders are in a position to guide everyone towards a culture of excellence and deal with any behaviours that go against the success of that initiative.

Leadership is the foundation on which a positive workplace culture is built. When your leaders are not prepared or well equipped, then it is unlikely you will be able to maintain any positive change on the workplace culture front.

However, if they are empowered with the skills and confidence to lead the charge from the start, they will be far more likely to stay the course to nurture and preserve an amazing workplace culture. Without this leadership, your organisation will likely struggle to make positive, long-lasting change.

How Can You Prepare Your Leaders

There are three key steps to follow when preparing your leaders for cultural change. They are:

1: Create an Army of Leaders

When you have aligned leadership goals across your entire organisation, you create an army of leaders! Including ALL levels of leaders will create a shared responsibility for cultural change. Many businesses make the mistake of only focusing on the generals, but it is the sergeants that are on the ground working directly with the people of your organisation. That means they have the most direct influence for creating change.

Fill your army of leaders with all the people that lead teams, but also consider including suitable individuals like senior team members who may not formally lead people, but still have the respect of their peers and strong influence over them.

2: Get the Army into Formation

The right foundation of leadership is achieved when your army is aligned in formation. While the individual development of each leader is still important work, that’s not what we are looking to achieve in this instance.

This battle plan is all about getting everyone into formation with a shared goal and leadership approach. Each leader should know how important their contribution is to this mission and the critical role they play in creating the appropriate culture within your organisation.

3: Consider the Hierarchy

While you will need every leader on board to make the mission a success, the work always needs to start from the top. Getting the buy-in of your CEO and upper management team is essential. Often, this team will do extensive pre-work before rolling the blueprint down to the lower levels of leadership to ensure everything is planned well.

But, by doing this work and having your top team own and lead the development, you’ll have the ultimate role models for everyone else to follow. They can also support their direct reports in maximising the opportunities to lead as the mission rolls out to all levels of your team.

Time To Take Action?

If you are ready to align your leadership team to build a healthier culture within your business, then now is the time to do it.

With the modern workplace looking very different than it did even three years ago, workplace culture is suffering. Getting your leaders onto this important work will benefit your business immensely.

But it can be hard to do without support.

Luckily, the Spice Gals are here to help. Armed with the powerful Acentia framework, we can help transform the culture at your workplace so that you can reap the benefits long term.

Reach out to us today to find out more about the revolutionary programme.

How To Create Inclusion With Cultural Diversity In The Workplace

The world is an amazing place. Packed full of rich cultures, there are people from every corner of the world who have something unique and beautiful to offer.

Which is why celebrating the richness of the world’s cultures is the focus of World Cultural Diversity Day. Held every year on 21 May, its purpose is to generate social cohesion and promote intercultural dialogue to help achieve peace and sustainable development.

So, with this important day looming, we thought it was the perfect opportunity to explore the importance of embracing cultural diversity in the workplace.

Let’s look at what workplace cultural diversity is, why it is beneficial for your business and how you can create an inclusive workplace culture for all.

How To Create Inclusion With Cultural Diversity In The Workplace

Recognising Cultural Diversity In The Workplace

New Zealand is an incredibly diverse place. We have a large range of cultures, ethnicities and religions living in our beautiful country. Recognising this cultural diversity in the workplace is not only essential, but it can also be very beneficial!

Employees from different cultural backgrounds work alongside each other every day. So, it’s imperative to recognise the needs and values of the different cultures, ethnicities and nationalities amongst your team.

Successful businesses are increasingly those that recognise the importance of promoting cultural diversity in the workplace and who take deliberate steps to create inclusive environments, allowing team members of all backgrounds to thrive.

What Embracing Diversity Can Do For Business

There are many reasons to embrace cultural diversity in your workplace. Firstly, as we’ve already mentioned, we live in a diverse society, so any number of cultures can be represented in a workplace. Recognising and embracing that allows people to be comfortable in their workplace and allows them to be at their best every day.

When people are comfortable, they thrive. Being part of a diverse and inclusive environment creates increased creativity and innovation, improved problem-solving abilities, and a better understanding of different perspectives and ideas. Creating a welcoming workplace culture that values diversity promotes a place of respect for all team members.

Aside from the team culture aspect, it is important to note that many younger employees (who make up a growing proportion of workers) hesitate to join organisations with poor ethics and diversity. So, it could actually be detrimental to your business to ignore the diversity that no doubt exists in your workplace!

The Benefits Of Workplace Cultural Diversity

Cultural diversity can bring many benefits for both employers and employees. Some of the key benefits are:

Better understanding: Working with people from different cultural backgrounds brings the opportunity to learn from each other and gain a better understanding of different customs, beliefs, and values. This can lead to an overall greater cultural awareness and more sensitivity, which can improve communication and collaboration.
Improved customer service: Having employees who understand and can relate to different cultural groups can be a real advantage in terms of customer service. Customers will feel more comfortable and valued when they encounter employees who share their cultural background or are sensitive to different cultural needs.
Greater innovation: A diverse workplace brings together people with different backgrounds, skills, experiences, and perspectives. This can lead to greater creativity and innovation as employees are consistently exposed to new ideas and ways of thinking.
Improved problem solving: As well as innovation, diverse teams are often better equipped to solve complex problems. That is because they bring different perspectives and approaches to the table. This can result in more effective problem-solving and decision-making company-wide, giving your business a competitive advantage.
Employee retention: When employees feel valued and respected for their unique contributions and perspectives, they are more likely to be engaged and committed to their work. This can lead to higher levels of job satisfaction and lower turnover rates.

Increased profits: Being known as a culturally diverse company earns you a great reputation, both as an employer and as a company of choice for customers. People who align with your company values will choose to shop with you, potentially leading to increased profits.

How To Embrace Cultural Diversity In The Workplace

Creating a harmonious, culturally diverse workplace doesn’t have to be hard. Here are some of our best tips to make it happen:

Company Values

Consider ways that you can tie your organisation’s core values to your employee’s personal principles. This will give them a strong connection with your business. Not only does this help to create cultural diversity in the workplace, but it can also increase engagement within your team and improve staff retention.

Conscious Recruitment

When you recruit consciously, you are aligning your hiring process with your organisation’s mission and long-term goals. It involves looking at each candidate in depth, not only to assess their skills, but also how they would fit into your organisation as a whole and whether they believe in your mission and align with your values.

The great thing about recruiting in this way is that you can share your values around cultural diversity to avoid bias when hiring.

Celebrate Different Cultures

We can all learn a lot from each other whether it be skills, knowledge or cultural experience. By celebrating different cultures in your workplace, you can integrate and recognise other cultural values and points of view for greater understanding and communication.

Encourage inclusion by hosting shared cultural lunches and recognising specific festivals or other significant dates. Not only are you promoting learning and acceptance, but you can all have a great time while doing it!

Adopt Flexibility

You may find that people from different cultures have different needs in the workplace. So, adopting flexibility will allow you to cater for everyone. Get to know your team members and ask them what their individual needs are. Then, come up with a way that each employee can maximise their opportunities while still adhering to their culture. Remember, one size does not have to fit all!

Encourage Communication

We may not all speak the same native language, but we can all still achieve excellent levels of communication. Ensure you have a workplace that creates spaces for open and honest conversations. Address conflict as soon as it arises and encourage awareness and respect amongst your team.

Consider Cross-Cultural Awareness

You may even choose to undertake a cross-cultural awareness programme within your organisation. This is a form of training that helps all your team understand and respect the cultural diversity that exists within their workplace. It helps address language barriers, and specific cultural communication styles while promoting being open to the differences in each culture without stereotyping or bias.

Embracing Cultural Diversity

Diversity is part of what makes the world a fascinating place and promoting inclusion in your workplace can have many benefits for employers and employees.

So, if you are ready to embrace diversity in your workplace, we are ready to help you do it. Chat to the Spice Gals today about how to create an environment of inclusion.

Is Learning Part of Your Company Culture?

Have you ever wondered what the Spice Girls would be like now if they had stayed together? We sure have! Sadly, we can only imagine the incredible tunes they might have produced if they had been allowed to grow and evolve within the group instead of being trapped in their predetermined ‘roles’. Today’s workforce is much like Posh, Ginger, Sporty, Scary, and Baby: they need to be in an environment where their learning and development opportunities are supported.

If denied that learning culture, they will quickly move on.

So, what can you do about it? How can you create a strong learning culture in your company?

Let’s explore what a training and development culture looks like, and why it’s so vital.

Is Learning Part of Your Company Culture?

What Does A Learning Culture Look Like?

Because every business is different, there’s no one-size-fits-all prescription for a learning culture. Each business should create development and training opportunities that fit into the values and culture that already exists.

However, there are commonalities.

Training and development is not merely a “ticking the boxes” kind of activity. It’s a strategy that encompasses all the ways your people share, support, and learn together, both on individual and collective levels.

It’s about connecting the dots and understanding that individual learning is the foundation for collective success.

Opportunities Are Everywhere

Traditionally, training meant sending your staff to lengthy courses and trying to cover their time out of the office. Now, development opportunities can take place both inside and outside the workplace.

The standard 70:20:10 model suggests that a mere 10 percent of learning occurs at formal training sessions, 20 percent from informal studying, and a whopping 70 percent is on the job development.

Online courses are extremely popular, but less structured opportunities to learn, such as YouTube videos or TED talks, can be equally effective. Find the tools and resources to fit your team.

People Enablement Is Where It’s At

The concept of people enablement was trending a few years ago and is still growing in popularity.

Rather than a static progression along a pre-defined pathway, organisations are focusing on a learning culture that allows employees to gain valuable experience, explore new skillsets, and reinvent themselves.

Training opportunities could look different for each team member, depending on their skillset, progression ambitions and availability.

Integrate Development Plans

Performance and development go hand in hand, so development plans should be part of your toolkit. Employee reviews and catchups should have a heavy focus on growth and development. They should be created as a two-way discussion with employees, where you both identify the support and tools needed for success.

It’s a great opportunity to speak with each team member about the areas they want to improve in and how the business can enable them to skill up.

The Delicious Side Effects of A Culture Of Learning

Providing development opportunities to your team drives employee engagement and strengthens your culture. The benefits are numerous and include:

Employee Retention

The modern workforce, particularly Millennials and Gen Z, highly value learning and development. If they can see opportunities to upskill within an organisation with a robust, built-in learning culture, they are likely to be fulfilled and won’t need to seek opportunities elsewhere.

In fact, 93 percent of employees say they will remain at an organisation that invests in their development and training. Not only will you retain your best employees, but you will also save money by reducing employee turnover.

Recruitment

To attract top talent, your organisation needs to become an employer of choice. Having a successful culture of learning builds your brand and makes you more attractive to skilled employees. This reputation will generate a better quality of candidate.

Improved Performance

At the most basic level, training helps people perform their tasks efficiently. Enhanced efficiency equals enhanced productivity. But beyond this, there are other tangible benefits, such as increased confidence, innovation, and creativity, a problem-solving mindset, and improved morale.

People development initiatives are just one piece of the puzzle in building an engaged, exciting, and high performing team. Your employees are your biggest asset, so it makes perfect sense that an investment in their knowledge and skills is an investment in your organisation, too.

Don’t let your team drift apart to make their own opportunities like the Spice Girls did… provide them with opportunities to grow, learn, and experiment, and you’ll stay strong for years to come!

If you would like to discuss how this could look in your business, then get in touch with us here at Spice HR. We can help you create a people and culture development program that will make your company an enviable place to work! Drop us a line today.