There’s no one-size-fits-all solution for creating a strong workplace culture. The “right” culture for your business depends on the people in your team, your beliefs as a leader, the scale and ambition of what you’re trying to achieve, and a host of other factors.
You can’t pick up an amazing environment from another company and layer it over what you have. And even if you find the right solution, people change, priorities evolve, and it’ll slip through your fingers. It’s ephemeral and erodes fast.
As if that’s not enough, your perspective as a leader is different from that of the people on your team. You don’t experience life at the company in the same way they do. That could be down to differences in financial circumstances (it’s always fun trying to explain to wealthy CEOs that, “I need a job to pay my bills” is a valid motivator to candidates for entry-level positions), level of experience and context, or just that you’re doing different work than they are. The things that are important to those you lead will not always be the same as the things that are important to you, so if you make decisions through your own lens, you’re risking missing the mark.
The importance of listening
Because of these two factors, it’s common to see companies spend vast amounts of time, money, and energy introducing “perks,” benefits, and initiatives that their employees just don’t care about. The intention’s usually good, but research by Gallup shows that billions of pounds are wasted every year on things that aren’t rooted in employee feedback, so they fail to have the desired effect.
Gathering feedback — really listening to your team — is essential to creating a brilliant culture. The actions you take as a result matter, of course, but even the act of listening itself can lead to greater engagement and increased morale. A Salesforce study identified that people who feel that their voice has been heard are 4.6 times more likely to feel highly engaged in their work. If you then act on the input you receive, it sends a powerful message to the people in your business that they matter to you.
Building trust within your Biotech
Biotech is a high-pressure industry, with drug discovery once described to me as “long periods of desperate despair punctured by brief moments of incredible insight.” Considering how challenging the science can be, and how tight deadlines and resources often are, the opportunity to voice frustrations and let off steam is invaluable. Listening to these gripes and groans, while sometimes tedious, builds trust and psychological safety, which in turn creates an environment more likely to foster innovation.
In 2012, Google kicked off their now-famous “Project Aristotle” in an attempt to discover what made some teams more successful and productive than others. The result was clear — in place of the expected outcome (strong individual performers, an experienced manager, and greater resources), the project team found that the top differentiating factor in driving performance was the level of psychological safety the members of a group felt. This study considered 180 teams in a highly innovative, research-driven environment, so holds significant relevance to Biotech companies.
So, with all this in mind, how can companies listen better?
1. Surveys
Surveys are the most common route to gathering feedback, and there’s clear value in them. A well-designed survey can give you more than suggestions — it can provide measurable quantitative feedback that you can monitor over time to see how your efforts at engaging your team are landing. Tools like Culture Amp and Qualtrics have excellent functions for this, or you can design a Google or Microsoft Form and collect the responses yourself.
2. Open forums
It’s important to create regular open forums for issues to be raised to the company as a whole, as these will give you a greater sense of which challenges are individual and which are felt across your organisation. Initially, these sessions can be a little painful as attendees wait for someone else to raise their hand first, but over time, if questions and feedback are handled well, town halls and similar meetings become lively, interactive, and empowering encounters.
3. One-to-ones
Simply talking to people, one-to-one, is a powerful, if time-consuming, way to collect detailed feedback — if you want to add a little more structure, turning these conversations into “stay interviews” can be enlightening. These stay interviews focus on both areas for improvement and on identifying the things that employees appreciate about the company. As an added bonus, the Society for Human Resource Management has discovered that 79% of employees who have had stay interviews feel more valued as a result.
Sometimes, frustration in the moment fades over time, only to be reignited when the same situation arises again. There are often small fixes to these recurring issues that reduce the friction for employees, so pay attention for in-the-moment outbursts of feedback that reveal underlying problems.
Managers in every company should hold regular one-to-ones with each of their team. It’s basic, but unfortunately, these one-to-ones often get dropped from the agenda when things get busy, never to reappear. If you’ve fallen out of the habit, get back to it ASAP — people who have regular one-to-one meetings with their manager are three times more engaged than those who don’t!
Nurturing a strong workplace culture
So, if you want to improve your culture, improve your listening. Get feedback and act on it. And to be clear, this isn’t about giving people everything they ask for — of course, you can say no. But listen, give people what they want, and watch your culture flourish.
How we can help
Building and retaining a strong workplace culture requires investment in time, energy and money; but hiring a Chief People Officer can be prohibitively expensive for many Biotech companies.
We help Biotech companies like yours to engage, develop and retain your team by developing and delivering bespoke People & Culture Strategies, leaving you to focus on developing drugs to treat patients and save lives.
