In today’s global (Re)Insurance market, workplace culture is vital to the success of an organisation. With diversity and inclusion central to industry conversations around growth and competitiveness, there is an impetus to develop a culture that draws in and retains talent with varied experiences and perspectives. At the same time, the values and ambitions of new employees need to align with those of the organisation they are entering. Countless job adverts, role profiles, person specifications, and CVs refer to this as cultural fit.
Understanding Organisational Culture
In discerning a new hire’s cultural fit, an organisation must understand what they should embody. First, how accurate, and how widely shared, is the understanding of current organisational culture? To ascertain this, honest, open dialogue within the business is crucial. Every organisation has a set of values that support its goals and actions, but a strong culture only emerges when employees feel these values are reflected in their daily work. Ask: how are decisions made and communicated? What kind of behaviour do you reward? How is/is conflict dealt with and resolved?
It is essential to engage with people at all organisational levels to get a full view of culture, and, more importantly, ensure employees are comfortable sharing their insights. There are many ways to conduct such culture assessments: anonymous surveys, confidential chats with a trusted peer/manager, or more structured feedback sessions and roundtables. To ensure truthful feedback, these should not be one-off exercises but part of an ongoing, meaningful dialogue. Indeed, such openness becomes even more critical as hybrid and remote working models shift the dynamic of organisational culture.
A Forward-Facing Approach
There is, however, the suggestion that focusing solely on cultural fit, though useful to understand how successfully individuals could operate in a workplace, inadvertently limits diversity of thought and stifles innovation. Enter the argument for culture add. This means acknowledging that culture may not be perfect or even fully formed, and therefore seeking individuals who represent progress towards an ideal culture through certain traits, skills, and fresh perspectives.
Culture add is about broadening the cultural framework, not just reinforcing it by hiring in a pre-existing image. Though this represents the right intentions, a more risk-averse candidate may need some convincing to join an organisation in transition. In these instances transparency is key – be open about your culture’s current state and share a clear vision for the future, ensuring candidates understand their role in that evolution.
Futureproofing Culture
In a business environment striving toward a shared goal, whether this is improved performance, hitting growth targets, or a certain deadline, the risk of too-strict norms and working practices can arise. Organisations built around the varied strengths of their individuals while maintaining a core set of values will allow employees to be themselves within a cohesive cultural framework, fostering adaptability and combatting a homogenous culture.
By allowing cultural fit and culture add to coexist, an organisation will better understand when to prize stability and encourage innovation, thus becoming more reactive to changing market cycles and customer needs, new technology, evolving regulatory environments, and the manifold other challenges facing modern (re)insurers.
Stephens Rickard could help your business to plan for and implement a positive workplace culture. Visit Our Services to understand more about strategic hiring, executive coaching and consultation, or download our brochure here.
