Cultivating a positive culture in a global market

In the face of challenges in creating a collegiate workforce across the globe, there are numerous steps that HR professionals must take to ensure that a positive culture can emerge and thrive.

In conversation with HR Leader, Amrita Das, the head of HR (APAC growth markets) at HCLTech, stressed that company culture encompasses the shared values, goals, beliefs, and work practices that shape an organisation.

This, in turn, “influences employee engagement and productivity”, she noted.

“Building a strong organisational culture has always been a challenge, but hybrid models have created a new set of challenges. This also presents an opportunity as leaders [can] reshape their culture and redefine the future of work,” Das said.

To improve workplace culture, Das went on, HR teams should regularly check in with their employees to understand their experiences, general engagement, and overall wellbeing.

“Regularly seeking feedback from employees about the culture and being open to making adjustments demonstrates that the organisation values employees’ contributions and allows them to play an important role in building the culture,” she said.

To this end, there are certain questions that HR professionals and the business must ask of employees, including:

• What aspects of our workplace culture do you value the most?
• Do you feel that your contributions are recognised and valued?
• How do you feel about the current communication from leadership?
• Do you feel connected to the work you do?
• Do you feel motivated and engaged in your work?
• Are you happy in your current role?

HCLTech, she explained, engages Gallup every two years to survey its workforce, which helps the company understand what its employees are looking for.

“In addition to this, we do an annual passion survey, which helps us understand how our people are feeling about HCLTech’s culture and what we can do to build on this,” Das said.

From here, and while it varies significantly from organisation to organisation, Das continued, HCLTech’s HR programs all follow five core pillars: recognition, care, progression, development, and learning.

“These programs are implemented globally with flexibility for individual markets to tailor to their teams, which creates consistency across our business while accommodating for each market’s needs,” she said.

When asked what buy-in must HR demand from other business stakeholders and executives to successfully improve work culture, Das responded that buy-in is “more about than agreeing to words on a page”.

“It’s about our team believing in the vision, understanding it, and actively contributing to its achievement,” she said.

“This starts at the top as we need our senior leaders to embody the company culture that the organisation is trying to create. This then has a flow-on effect to the teams they lead regardless of their role, background, or location.”

“We acknowledge that building culture is not a one-day job. We try to embody our company values, like Ideapreneurship, and bring this thinking to every client or initiative.”

Das added: “In all of my conversations with senior leaders across HCLTech, improving culture and employee experience is always a key topic of discussion.”

“This conversation doesn’t just extend to senior leadership, but all the way through the entire team.”

“While ensuring buy-in from senior leadership is critical, I’ve always found that a consultative approach with the wider team has always been the most effective way to improve work culture.”