Focusing on the People

The Be Human Project strives to embolden business leaders to focus not just on markets, products or margins but on the people that make an institution possible.

This comes through as organizational culture — how employees, management and even C-suite executives relate to each other. Just this month alone Forbes has published ten articles (see below) pertaining the company culture — how to improve, where you’re going wrong, its importance in recruiting, how it relates to innovation & creativity…. Harvard Business Journal (see below) has more, with insights into positive work environments, trickledown effects of leadership, and the intersection between culture and employee engagement.

What does all this information point to?

That employees are really beginning to take center stage and the way they relate to their work, each other and management matters. In one study, companies with engaged employees make 2.5 times the revenue that companies with unengaged employees and 87% of employees will continue at a workplace for culture alone. Additionally, a case study of Taco Bell franchises found that those with low turnover rates had a 55% increase in profits.

Check out these fantastic articles about company culture and all the good it does.

• Quantifying Your Company’s Emotional Health
  Sigal Barsad and Olivia A. O’Neill
  Harvard Business Journal
• The Secrete to Creating a Great Company Culture and Winning the Talent War
  John Hall
  Forbes Entrepreneurs
• What was Volkswagen Thinking?
  Jerry Useem
  The Atlantic