Yum Restaurants International (Thailand)

By Sudawan Ariyasap

HR strategies revolve around attracting and retaining the right talent. When reviewing people strategies from different angles, I find Total Rewards strategy always relevant to all generations of talent for it addresses human needs identified in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Shown here is my adapted version of the Total Rewards framework. I refer to this when designing HR strategies.

Among all elements in this adapted Total Rewards framework, what creates a key competitive advantage and differentiates the company from others is the company culture. 

“46 percent of job seekers cite company culture as very important when choosing to apply to a company.”

Questions that come to mind when an employee considers joining a company include cultural questions, such as: What is it like working there? How are the people?  What is the leadership style, way of working, etc. It is undeniably one of the very top considerations when talent selects a company to work for. People want to work in a place where they feel satisfied, where they can be effective and contribute in meaningful ways.

But what does company culture really mean?  When we speak of culture, we usually think of company values. Culture, however, goes beyond that. Company culture is the expression of collective behaviors of people in the company or how people within a company interact and work with each other based on a shared set of beliefs, purpose, values and standards they adopt which collectively shape the company’s work environment. As such, company culture or work environment always develops even without official guidance. Actual company culture is greatly influenced by leaders and directly reflects the company’s leadership. Thus, leaders have a crucial role in defining and shaping the company culture as part of the company’s strategic agenda.

The desired company culture should mirror the company’s social purpose, core values and employee value proposition, which guide collective behaviors of people in the company and deliver distinctive employee experience as a result.

Start with “why” or “Social Purpose” – the reason a company exists, which is beyond product or service. It is the company’s strategy on delivering value and meaning for key stakeholders whether it be customers, employees, society or others. Social purpose is aspirational and inspirational and attracts not only customers but also talent who share this purpose. “People want to be part of something bigger than themselves.”

Company values are clearly stated principles or philosophies that guide business and employees’ behaviors and decision making.

Employee value proposition (EVP) is the value employees can expect from the company and the value they are expected to contribute, which links to what they value and can make them feel fulfilled, motivated, and proud to work there. It is the unique and distinctive employee experience that a company offers and serves as employer branding to attract and retain talent.

Below is an example of how social purpose, company values, and employee value proposition come together as KFC culture.Social purpose, company value and employee value proposition, once defined, are translated into a set of focused behaviors to be shared by leaders and employees. Cultivating company culture is about fostering these focused behaviors in the workplace which requires three enablers: mindset, skillset, and way of working.

It is crucial to communicate to everyone in the organization regarding the company culture and what it is comprised of (social purpose, company values, employee value proposition) and, importantly, focused behaviors to act upon. Leaders need to reinforce this by regularly talking about company culture and expected behaviors and to walk the talk by role modeling expected behaviors and recognizing people who demonstrate such behaviors. All elements of culture and focused behaviors need to be integrated into business and people management practice.  It’s especially important that people are rewarded not only for their performance but also for demonstrating expected behaviors.

Skillset and way of working enable employees to demonstrate expected behaviors. For example, a company that fosters a people-first culture needs to equip its employees, especially line managers, with people skills. Tools must be put in place to assess and develop people skills as well as ways of working which put priority on people. A company which aspires to an innovative culture should design required competencies and people development around creativity and innovation, while way of working enables freedom for people to think out of the box. Capability building alone is not enough. Way of working and working processes need to be defined to remove barriers and enable people to demonstrate expected behaviors.

The secret behind the success of a company in which people truly live the stated culture is the commitment of all levels of leaders, especially top leaders, in defining, aligning, demonstrating, and rewarding the expected behaviors. As earlier mentioned, company culture develops regardless, even without guidance, and the actual culture comes from leadership styles and behaviors which can be different from the stated culture.  The role of the HR strategic thought partner is to spot the gap between desired or stated culture and the actual culture, facilitate and hold leaders accountable for defining, aligning, role modeling and rewarding the expected behaviors. Once employees see consistency in the day-to-day reality of working for the company and truly achieve the employee experience that reflects the stated culture, they will become the unofficial spokesperson and the real brand ambassador for the company, and this is what Inside-Out Employer Branding is all about.