Measure them. We have a balanced scorecard process where we define the overall company goals and roll that into individual scorecards. That way, they know exactly what their goals and objectives are, what their measurements are, and how that ties into the company goals. We have annual reviews of those objectives, along with monthly or quarterly type of meetings to review progress as each person goes along. You don’t want to get too far down the road to the point that you’re getting off track. You want to make sure that everyone is on track as they go, and then help them reach their goals as they need help.
Define your culture. We’ve gone through an effort as a management team to define our culture and document it. That is something that an individual can refer to as they come in. But the other piece is just really one-on-one contact, depending on the level of the individuals coming in. You have initial discussions with individuals as they come in, centering on what is important at the company and helping to guide them if they, for some reason, do something that is outside of what we like to see. But you need to create an environment that is clear, through examples of others, on culture and the type of culture you want to have.
The bottom line here is that culture starts with the top-level executives. You have to define what is important to you first. Based on the way those individuals execute day to day, that is going to give the rest of the company a huge indicator as to how they’re expected to run and conduct themselves each day. But in addition, going back to the collaboration piece, you need to get everybody communicating on what is important to them. That helps bring everybody together on what type of culture is going to drive business growth, what is going to make for a very good work environment for the employees and what is going to help you deliver on the overall objectives of the business.
How to reach: LHP Inc., (812) 373-0880 or www.lhpcompanies.com
