Five Reasons Why Your Employees Do Not Live Your Corporate Culture

 Corporate re-branding is susally a highly strategised and celebrated event in an organisation.  However, for the implementation stage, HR managers sometimes find it difficult to get the employees to live by these new values. Here are five reasons which may be responsible for this;


 1. They don’t think you mean it 
Sometimes employees see these policies as beautiful nonsense. It sure does look good on paper but to them it is no different from the “please, wash your hands” sign on the toilet wall. They simply do not think you mean them!

The responsibility falls on management to not only introduce a culture but follow through until each employee individually realizes that it is not just another company policy, it is a company way of life.




 2. They don’t see you live it 
HR managers are sometimes caught in the web of breaking their own rules. Even if this happens just once, it is often seen by employee as an excuse to do it as many times as they please.

 It is therefore important for management to make conscious efforts to internalise corporate culture, live it and then have the justification to ask other employees to copy them.


 3. The corporate culture is introduced as a direct cure for existing culture
When trying to change a particular culture at the workplace, a common error that managers make is to introduce a new culture that is the direct opposite. Often times, this approach is unsuccessful.

When trying to change an internalised attitude, dos and don’ts usually fail. Instead a systematic, strategic and gradual process is less likely to get 100% resistance


 4. Nobody really gets it 
In some cases, employees want to play mind games with management. Other times, they do not actually understand what you’re asking of them! Policies can be so verbose that they lose meaning, becoming misunderstood or totally not understood.

 When a new vision of culture is being introduced, nothing has actually been done if nobody really gets it. Employees need to understand what the text means, before they can interpret what it means to them.

 5. You’re doing it wrong 
There is a general saying that when you need a change around you, search inwards first. This also applies to management.

When you feel there is a need for your employees to change in any way, be sure that their undesirable attitude is not a symptom of your undesirable treatment or policies.

Sometimes all that needs to change is management and without new rules or policies, employees begin to act differently. Maybe you’re doing it wrong, maybe management should change its policy on changing the policy.