Reduce ‘Culture Gap’ To Retain Talent, Says Report

<p><em>The Catalyst study showed that narrowing down culture gap would help in talent retention, especially women, reports <strong>Simar Singh</strong></em><br><br>The narrower the gap is between employees’ desired workplace culture and the reality, the more likely are they to stay with the organisation, indicates a survey of both male and female MBA graduates. This revelation made by the report, ‘Mind Your Culture Gap’, is important as hiring and retaining talent is increasingly becoming one of the biggest challenges employers are facing<br><br>Undertaken by the research organisation, Catalyst, the study showed that narrowing down this gap would particularly incentivise women to stick on with only 3 per cent of the respondents reporting that they would be likely to leave if this happened. This is a significant decrease from the 44 per cent who were likely to leave if the culture gap was wide.<br><br>46 per cent of the male respondents claimed that they were likely to leave if the culture gap was wide and only half of them reported to be likely to stay if the gap was significantly narrowed down.<br><br>“This is important news for company leaders who are increasingly concerned about finding and keeping top talent and driving organizational performance,” said Deborah Gillis, President and CEO, Catalyst. “Women and men will seek out and stay at companies that demonstrate the behaviours that previous Catalyst research has linked to inclusion and innovation: empowerment, accountability, courage, and humility.”<br><br>According to the researchers, the closer the work place culture was to employees’ expectations the more satisfied they would be with their pay, work and advancement, supervisors and the organization’s commitments to work-life quality and diversity.<br><br><strong>More On Talent Retention</strong><br>The study also explores how companies can move away from their tendency to overlook the “people side” of change, as a second report titled, ‘Think People, Not Just Programmes, to Build Inclusive Workplaces’, indicates. Suggestions include connecting employees to the company’s core values, promoting transparency portraying a socially responsible image by sharing philanthropic and volunteer efforts and how they benefit customers and the broader community and creating pathways for dialogue by encouraging communication and feedback.<br><br>All the suggestions have been backed by statistical indicators of their effectiveness. For example, more than 62 per cent of employees who strongly felt that their company was making a meaningful impact also felt included.<br><br>A preference for constructive organisational behaviour which encompassed an emphasis on integrity, collaboration and support was reported as opposed to aggressive behaviour which emphasised on perfectionism, power, competition, and opposition. There was largely a consensus among both the male and female respondents that the biggest gap in their workplace cultures was that they were not constructive enough and creating such an environment was key to retaining top talent.</p>