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What does a future-ready culture really look like? (i4cp login required)

Tue, 15 Oct 2024 13:16:00 GMT

See the key findings from i4cp's latest global study into the health of organizations' cultures.

Ten Common Types of Corporate Cultures (i4cp login required)

Wed, 09 Oct 2024 16:08:00 GMT

What kind of corporate culture does your organization have? Read our article going through the 10 most common culture types.

Early Bird Pricing Ends November 15 (i4cp login required)

Thu, 12 Sep 2024 17:53:00 GMT

Join us for the i4cp 2025 Next Practices Now Conference, March 3 - 6 in Scottsdale, AZ, and virtual - the top-rated event for HR leaders. Sign up by November 15 and save $300.

How Precision Collaboration Unleashes Productivity (i4cp login required)

Wed, 29 May 2024 12:00:00 GMT

See the key findings from i4cp's latest global study into team effectiveness.

What the Ruling on Non-Competes Means for Employers (i4cp login required)

Mon, 29 Apr 2024 16:33:00 GMT

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued its final ruling on non-compete clauses in employment contracts—a 570-page document detailing its decision —this week.

Who’s Challenging Workplace DE&I Efforts? Managers. (i4cp login required)

Wed, 27 Mar 2024 18:21:00 GMT

Lack of leadership accountability is the number-one obstacle to DE&I progress

Article: The Productivity Predicament (i4cp login required)

Wed, 01 Nov 2023 15:28:00 GMT

Workforce productivity is waning worldwide, according to measures in multiple countries. No one seems to know exactly why, but the theories are plentiful.

Is HR Already Behind in the AI Revolution? (i4cp login required)

Thu, 21 Sep 2023 12:07:00 GMT

See the key findings from i4cp's new global study on AI adoption and what practices set high-performance organizations apart.

Employee Recognition and Innovation at HPE (i4cp login required)

Thu, 27 Jul 2023 15:44:00 GMT

The Next Practices Weekly call series has become a well-attended and wide-ranging discussion for HR leaders each Thursday at 11am ET / 8am PT. On this week's call, i4cp Membership Director Jenelle Buatti, and i4cp Senior Research Analyst Tom Stone, facilitated a conversation with special guests Samanntha Dubridge, Vice President of Global Benefits, Culture & People Experience and Cile Lucas, Global Culture & Team Member Experience Lead at HPE, the Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company. Here are some highlights from the call:

HPE is a global edge-to-cloud company that delivers solutions as a service that help organizations connect, protect, analyze, and act on all their data and applications. HPE was formed in 2015 after a split from HP Inc. HPE has about $30B in revenue, around 60,000 global team members, produces around 1,000 patents annually, and recently was #32 on Fortune's 100 Best employers.
HPE's four core beliefs help to shape their culture, with each having three related behaviors:
- We believe in accelerating what's next. (Obsess over the customer; Look beyond the competition; Commit and go)
- We believe in bold moves. (Be relentlessly curious; Embrace courage over comfort; Fail fast, learn, and improve)
- We believe in the power of 'Yes We Can'. (Exercise healthy impatience; Push for better; Demonstrate WE before I)
- We believe in being a force for good. (Solve for humanity with humanity; Use technology to make the world better; Be unconditionally inclusive)
Similar, HPE has a "Four E's" of How We Lead:
- Engage: Energize others to collaborate and win together
- Empower: Develop and enable our people to succeed
- Evolve: Demonstrate courage and boldness to transform
- Execute: Obsess over our customers and deliver excellence
They shared how HPE integrates culture into the daily lives of their team members:
- Culture component in senior leader meetings and goals
- Tailored approach to key segments (e.g., Sales, Tech)
- 700+ Culture Catalyst Network
- Campaigns and events for key culture beliefs and moments
- Global team member contests
They also shared their holistic approach to team member wellbeing, which they provide tools and resources across four pillars: Physical health, Financial well-being, Mental and emotional health, Community well-being. Three campaigns that they shared were:
- Global Wellness Challenges: twice a year, team members connect with each other and increase their physical activity.
- Financial Well-Being Campaign: Tools, webinars, 1:1 consultations, to help team members with budgeting, investing, and preparing for life's big moments.
- International Women's/Men's Days: Focus on mental and emotional health issues more common among women and men.
One of two innovation-focused initiatives that they shared about was called "The Innovation Quest." The purpose is to reinforce the role of innovation in HPE transformation, to fuel the spirit of innovation as part of their culture, and to create potential for game-changing outcomes. The Innovation Quest is an annual global contest inviting team members to submit their boldest and most innovative ideas to accelerate our transformation. It includes executive sponsorship and finalist judging at EC level, and has had 1,600 ideas submitted in first 3 years. All ideas are referred to the business for consideration, with winners participating in a development forum and securing resources to implement.
The other innovation-focused initiative is called "Escape the Red Tape." It is a global team member contest for ideas to remove inefficiency and drive productivity/engagement. Ideas are submitted under three categories: "Fix it", "Accelerate it", or "Eliminate it". They've seen over 650 entries narrowed down to 22 finalists, with winners in each category selected by the CEO and executive team, with support and project team then provided. Celebration for all winners reinforces HPE's commitment and spirit of innovation.
They also shared what the key areas of focus are for their HR team -- the initiatives that are helping HPE to sustain high engagement and low attrition, while helping to attract talent and accelerate business transformation: culture and innovation; Hybrid work environment; Team member wellbeing; and Team norms and future of work.

Links to resources shared on the call:

Upcoming i4cp virtual events
i4cp's Next Practices Now conference
Information on i4cp Membership
i4cp's The Productivity Predicament report (members only)
i4cp's The Productivity Predicament brief (publicly available)
i4cp's Next Practices in Holistic Well-Being (report)

How Merck Uses Impact & Belonging to Transform Culture & Drive Business Results (i4cp login required)

Thu, 20 Jul 2023 15:44:00 GMT

The Next Practices Weekly call series has become a well-attended and wide-ranging discussion for HR leaders each Thursday at 11am ET / 8am PT. On this week's call, i4cp's Director of Member Engagement Nina Holtsberry and Creative Director Eric Davis, along with Jacqui Robertson, Chair of i4cp's CDO Board and Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer at The Cleveland Clinic, facilitated a conversation with special guest Celeste Warren, VP of Merck's Global Diversity and Inclusion Center of Excellence. Here are some highlights from the call:

Warren shared that the purpose of DEI at Merck is to create a more globally diverse work environment for their employees, surrounding them with a culture of engagement, empowerment, equity, and psychological safety so that they can achieve the organization's mission of saving and improving lives. She elaborated on how the focus is in four areas: people, culture, business, and world.
A major focus for Warren and Merck has been psychological safety. This has come up recently in regard to the return to office shift. Another focus has been on employees and their various identities, leveraging some of their ten ERGs to help inform the approach.
Warren noted the importance at Merck of allyship, noting their launch of an Ally Resource Center. Their belief is that allyship is not defined as those that are in power being the allies of those not in power, but rather that everyone should be an ally to others who identify differently than they do.
Warren also spoke to the importance of diversity in medicine and specifically in clinical trials, in order to better understand the impacts of healthcare disparity on different communities.
In response to a participant question about how to drive greater diversity in various regions of the world, Warren stressed the need to change where you source talent by building relationships in the relevant communities--you can't take an "if you build it they will come" approach and just hope it will work.
Regarding the role of a Chief Diversity Officer, Warren noted that some of the critical capabilities include strong communication throughout an organization, strong business acumen, and an understanding of the global, external environment.

During the call, we asked the following participant poll question: "How have recent judicial and legislative actions related to DE&I affected your personal and/or professional sense of well-being?"
- 3% - Very positive (I'm energized!)
- 17% - Positive (Up to the challenge)
- 24% - No impact
- 40% - Negative (I'm hurt/sad/worried)
- 16% - Very negative (I'm discouraged)

During the call, we asked the following participant poll question: "How are recent judicial and legislative actions impacting your organization's current or planned DE&I initiatives? (select all that apply)"
- 40% - We have reaffirmed our organization's commitment to DE&I?
- 18% - We are anticipating and preparing for challenges to our DE&I practices
- 40% - We are proceeding as normal
- 20% - We have discussed with legal, but no change
- 2% - We have already started retooling our DE&I representation practices
- 0% - We have paused some practices pending legal challenges

Links to resources shared on the call:

Employers Are Responding to Anti-LGBTQ+ Legislation (i4cp login required)

Mon, 12 Jun 2023 14:12:00 GMT

i4cp's recent survey found that 72% of organizations say they openly support the LGBTQ community, though only 18% have spoken out against new laws. However, they are taking other actions as well.

Watch: Healthy Culture Habits of High-Performance Organizations (i4cp login required)

Thu, 16 Feb 2023 15:44:00 GMT

The Next Practices Weekly call series has become a well-attended and wide-ranging discussion for HR leaders each Thursday at 11am ET / 8am PT. On this week's call, i4cp' s CEO and Co-Founder, Kevin Oakes, and i4cp Senior Research Analyst, Katheryn Brekken, presented findings from, and facilitated a discussion about, i4cp's latest major study, Culture Fitness. Here are some highlights from the call:

The Fitter the Culture, the Better the Performance. The headline finding is that high-performance organizations are nearly 6x more likely to have fit cultures compared to low-performance organizations.
Fit Culture Defined. A culture that employees rated as very healthy (compared to somewhat healthy, somewhat toxic, or very toxic), and one which they commonly described using these six traits: Employee-Focused, Inclusive, Quality, Learning, Innovative, Collaborative.
Culture Impacts Productivity. Culture fitness explained nearly 20% of the variation among organizations' employee productivity over the past two years (controlling for size and market performance.)
The Unfortunate Reality. More than a third of large organizations surveyed (34%) report becoming more toxic in the past two years.
Toxic Cultures During the Pandemic. During the pandemic, organizations with toxic cultures were far more likely to struggle with...
- Disrespectful behavior
- Senior leaders who don't trust employees
- Employees who don't trust senior leaders
- Leaders favoring on-site vs. remote employees
- Unsafe environments for expressing opinions/concerns
- Bullying
- Pay inequity
- Lack of recognition
- Lack of inclusiveness
More Data on Toxic Cultures.
- Those who described their organizations' cultures as toxic were 16x more likely to indicate "lack of trust in senior leaders" as an issue that needs to be addressed.
- They were also 10x more likely to indicate an "unsafe environment for expressing opinions or concerns" as a top issue in their organizations.
- Poor behavior is often overlooked during talent decisions. Leaders in organizations with toxic cultures were 4 to 5x more likely to be described as disregarding poor behavior when making decisions about advancement, compensation, succession planning, performance rating, awards and recognition, and high-potential employee designations.
Not All Cultures Suffered During the Pandemic. 43% of companies reported their culture became healthier during the pandemic.
The Seven Habits of Very Healthy Cultures. These are:
- More flexible work arrangements
- A learning mindset
- Boards care about culture
- Leaders lead by example
- Leaders held accountable for employee outcomes
- Leaders regularly communicate values
- Poor behavior is addressed immediately

During the call we asked the following participant poll: "What Culture Type is your organization?" (Select all that apply)
- 54% Customer-focused
- 48% Purpose/Mission
- 38% Collaborative
- 34% Performance
- 21% Learning
- 19% Inclusive
- 18% Innovative
- 16% Safety
- 16% Agile
- 16% Quality

Maximal Flexibility. Organizations that have workforces that are currently mostly remote are more likely to report having:
- A healthier culture
- Culture improvement in the past two years
- Increased employee well-being in the past two years
Cultures of Learning are Healthy Cultures. These are common traits of strong learning cultures:
- Knowledge sharing is common amongst workforce
- Senior leaders & front-line leaders are trained on the desired behaviors
- Internal mobility is formalized
- A talent marketplace is in place
Leaders are the Lynchpin. Very healthy cultures have leaders who:
- Lead by example
- Are held accountable for employee outcomes
- Regularly communicate values
- Address poor behavior immediately
Fit Cultures Constantly Monitor Progress. Organizations that use these methods to measure tend to have healthier cultures:
- Culture Audits
- Stay Interviews
- Customer Feedback
- Listening Sessions

Links to resources shared on the call:

Upcoming i4cp virtual events
2023 i4cp Next Practices Now Conference - March 27-30, 2023, in Scottsdale, Arizona (and virtual). Now open for registration!
i4cp's Culture Fitness report - a new resources exclusively for i4cp members
Culture Renovation - resources related to i4cp's research on Culture Renovation
Recent article from Fortune, "The return to the office could be the real reason for the slump in productivity. Here's the data to prove it"
Recent article from Bloomberg Law, "McDonald's Toxic Culture Ruling Sheds Light on Officer Liability"
I4cp's Employee Listening series - resources for i4cp members
I4cp's Flexibility or Flight series - resources for i4cp members

Reimagining Talent Acquisition and Mobility (i4cp login required)

Thu, 09 Feb 2023 15:44:00 GMT

The Next Practices Weekly call series has become a well-attended and wide-ranging discussion for HR leaders each Thursday at 11am ET / 8am PT. On this week's call, i4cp' s Managing Editor and Vice President of Research, Lorrie Lykins, and i4cp's Vice President of Executive Search, Mimi Turner, facilitated a discussion on reimagining talent acquisition and mobility. Here are some highlights from the call:

We led off the call with the following participant poll: Has your organization experienced a layoff in the past 90 days?
- 32% - Yes
- 63% - No
- 6% - Not yet, but I'm anticipating it
i4cp's Talent Acquisition Board indicated four top priorities for 2023, with one being "Enhancing the organization's workforce planning capabilities." This includes an emphasis on talent mobility, which helps to engage and retain employees. It can also help mitigate the need for layoffs, by first mapping employees' skills and capabilities to internal openings to verify if some of them can stay on in a different role.
Is there a best practice around time-in-role required before internal mobility becomes an option? Turner noted that it can depend on the organization. For instance, startups might be inclined to allow for internal moves with very little tenure with the organization, because everything is moving so quickly and the company needs to be very agile. Other, more mature organizations, might reasonably have requirements of a year or more, but should consider carefully the why behind such rules in order to not stifle best-fit moves for top talent.
Many participants on the call noted that their organizations are focused on increasing talent mobility, but admit they are at various levels of maturity in this area.
Lykins noted the critical role of the managers: i4cp's research has found high-performance organization far more often incentivize and recognize managers who develop and move their talent in the organization. Doing this is one way to fight against the natural tendency for managers to hoard their top talent. Turner added that a key cultural aspect is shifting the mindset so that managers and leaders see employees as the organization's talent, not their talent.
Lykins and Turner discussed the issue of the many recent reductions in force at many large organizations. These aren't always handled in the best way, with organizations often not thinking through the process that should involve optimal communications, benefits, support, etc. This has a negative impact not only on those employees laid off, but also those who remain (e.g., survivor's guilt, questions about the organization's culture, etc.) and the public perception of the organizations culture, employee value proposition, and leadership.
A stronger people analytics muscle in organizations, particularly in regards to workforce planning, could have helped reduce the level of layoffs that we have seen at many companies. Not only might they have not scaled up as much or as quickly only to need to layoff many workers now, but they could better connect employees with good-match open internal roles rather than letting the talent go. Hopefully more organizations will learn this from the current period and avoid the over-hire/layoff cycle in the future.
Employer branding can really be hit negatively when an organization needs to do a significant reduction in force. Turner noted that when a RIF has happened, there is no way to ignore it. So it is critical that you explain and clearly communicate why it happened, so that candidates you are now interviewing understand and remain interested in your organization.
Turner described three key practices to optimize an organization's candidate experience:
- Nail the job description by making sure it includes everything salient for the candidate to really understand what to expect.
- Follow-up with candidates. Yes, it is true you often have an overwhelming number of candidates, and some of them ghost your organization during the process, but it is important to apply the golden rule and treat your candidates in the way you would want to be treated.
- Mind the gap between TA and onboarding. Either make sure there is strong communication and alignment between these functions, or blend them together in terms of organization structure to guarantee the transition for new hires is smooth.
Lykins noted the shift in the past few years to reconsider the requirements for many roles, e.g., asking whether degrees are necessary for certain roles.
Organizations also need to make very clear, and to be honest about, the work model for each role in terms of remote, hybrid, flexibility, etc. Candidates use those aspects of a job as a filter of whether to pursue the opportunity or not.
Lykins noted i4cp's research that found high-performance organizations more often leverage their ERGs/BRGs as a source of leadership development and to better support internal talent mobility.

Links to resources shared on the call:

Upcoming i4cp virtual events
2023 i4cp Next Practices Now Conference -- March 27-30, 2023, in Scottsdale, Arizona (and virtual). Now open for registration!
i4cp's Culture Fitness report - a new resources exclusively for i4cp members
i4cp's Creating a Skills Database guidebook -- a resource exclusively for i4cp members
i4cp's Bias Audit Checklist Series

Get Your Organization’s Culture in Shape This Year (i4cp login required)

Mon, 06 Feb 2023 14:38:00 GMT

Download i4cp's latest research-based workout proven to create a fitter culture.

Microsoft’s Data-driven Decisions that Drive Flexible Work (i4cp login required)

Thu, 26 Jan 2023 15:44:00 GMT

The Next Practices Weekly call series has become a well-attended and wide-ranging discussion for HR leaders each Thursday at 11am ET / 8am PT. On this week's call, i4cp' s CEO and Co-founder, Kevin Oakes, and Senior Research Analyst Tom Stone facilitated a conversation with special guest Rachel Russell, Director, Flexible Work at Microsoft. Here are some highlights from the call:

Russell became focused on flexible work a full year before the pandemic, in early 2019, when she was tasked with researching how Microsoft could increase employee and workplace flexibility. This research led to a 5-10 year plan, which of course was helpful for Microsoft to have when the pandemic arose in 2020.
After the initial shift to remote work, the new flexible work strategy was rolled out at Microsoft in October 2020. Since offices did not fully re-open for over a year beyond that, they had plenty of time to socialize and get feedback on the approach.
Going back to 2019 and before, leaders at Microsoft saw flexible work as a strategic decision, not a perk. This is similar to how forward-looking leaders are starting to see it strategically, not as a concession to employee demands.
Microsoft's philosophy is to provide "as much flexibility as possible." What that means will vary from role to role, team to team, etc. But on average the baseline is around 50% of time (per week) working remotely, with manager approval needed for more than that.
Microsoft's approach is not "one size fits all," and managers are encouraged to find a way to "get to yes" when employee's make the case for more remote time. The key is to balance the needs of the individual with those of the team(s) they are on, and the overall needs of the business and its culture.
Russell noted that the nature of work today means that team needs have become increasingly important, and that this includes your primary (hierarchical) team, as well as the many -- often virtual -- project- and role-based teams that each employee is a part of (some of which are temporary and will change over time).
On that point, Russell noted they ask managers to have team agreements to make explicit how members will collaborate, communicate, etc., both in-person and virtually.
This approach also aligns with the movements in some countries that have pending legislation around formalizing flexible work expectations.
At Microsoft, "hybrid" involves three dimensions: work site, work location (geo region), and work hours. Much attention has been spent on the first two, with more consideration now being spent on the time aspect.
Russell noted that their approach is "hybrid by design," but that doesn't always mean "hybrid first." She noted the case of hybrid training, where synchronous training events with some people gathered in-person and some online can be very challenging and so often might not be the best approach. In some cases they might instead run the training completely in-person or completely online instead of "hybrid".
Microsoft's philosophy when it comes to decision making is "data over dogma." This has been followed in developing their flexible work policies, with extensive employee listening that includes daily pulses of a subset of employees to get quick input. Open-answer questions are also leveraged so that nuances can be detected on questions such as, Do you feel that Microsoft values flexible work, or Are you productive in how you are working now?
They also conduct research on just when in-person work matters the most. They have found that mandating Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday as in-office days is not the best approach, and that a focus on the purpose for being in the office brings better results. Two findings include that in-person time is more important for employees who are new to Microsoft or new to a particular team; and that setting, where possible, an in-person gathering for a crucial project milestone can be beneficial.

Links to resources shared on the call:

Upcoming i4cp virtual events
2023 i4cp Next Practices Now Conference -- March 27-30, 2023, in Scottsdale, Arizona (and virtual). Now open for registration!
Upskilling and Reskilling Guidebook -- new resource exclusively for i4cp members