Employer Branding For Dummies. Richard Mosley

Drive, combined with commitment to the long-term interests of the company

      ❯❯ A.G. Lafley prioritized innovation as P&G’s primary competitive weapon and engine for growth. According to Lafley, “We had to redefine our social system to get everybody in the innovation game.” Although P&G continued to recruit for values, brains, accomplishment, and leadership, it shifted its determining factors for assessing cultural fit to curiosity and an entrepreneurial spirit.

      

Don’t assume that your organization’s existing culture is what the leadership team deems necessary to support the organization’s forward-thinking strategies. Consult the leadership team, so you’re clear about its vision and about the culture its members deem most suitable for executing that vision.

      CULTURE AT THE LEGO GROUP

      Effective leaders typically have a good sense of the organization’s culture. Asking them to describe it in their own words can be a powerful way of clarifying to potential candidates what makes the organization tick. The following example is from the CEO at the LEGO Group:

      What a strong culture is about is people know what to do without reading a little book. You have an intuitive sense of how to do things. But that doesn’t mean there is only one solution to the same problem. That would be so untrue of the basic idea of LEGO Organization where we recognize there are many solutions to the same problem and you have to put your imagination and creativity to work to make the best solution.

      One day I went off to work and my oldest son said, “Who are you going to spend time with today?” and I said, “I’m going to spend time with Kjeld, who is the owner of the LEGO Group,” and my son’s immediate reaction was, “So what are you going to build?”

      The company is still very much about playing and building. We’re constantly reminded of that wonderful quote: “We don’t stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing.”

      As you work toward developing your EVP, keep track of the employee perspective on what the corporate culture really is. This perception can shed light on changes your organization needs to make to bring the culture more in line with what leadership decides is best for the organization.

Targeting diversity

      Culture fit doesn’t imply uniformity. In addition to identifying the qualities you’d like all employees to share, also consider how you can ensure your employees represent a diversity of backgrounds and perspectives. All other qualities being equal, research suggests that a diverse workforce is superior to one lacking in diversity for several reasons: