SalesForceXP: July/Augiust 2007 Incentives&Recognition: Remember The Three C’s: Create Corporate Culture

INCENTIVESRECOGNITION

Remember The Three C’s: Create Corporate Culture

Attracting and retaining creative high achievers is a priority for every company. Corporate culture is one area that has significant impact on recruiting and retaining top performers, yet is frequently overlooked, according to Patricia Bautz, Vice President of Corporate Employee Service at Cognex Corporation, a Natick, Mass.-based supplier of machine-vision systems. Bautz emphasized the importance of developing and nurturing a positive corporate culture recently in the Web-based edition of Electronics Design, Strategy, News (www.edn.com), a resource for design engineers.

“A great corporate culture is like an invisible web that binds employees together and to the organization. It provides a guide to the company’s priorities and helps employees understand how to be successful. And it helps you improve your ability to identify candidates who will thrive and successfully contribute to your organization and those who will not,” Bautz states. Her recommendations for communicating and reinforcing corporate values to employees:

Start a tradition – Celebrations offer positive reasons to bring people together. Built around one of your values, they can help perpetuate and reinforce it.
Reinforce values through recognition – Having reward programs that are directly linked to your company’s values is an effective way to transfer those values into the hearts and minds of employees –and into daily practice.
Show some personality – Culture often emanates from the personalities of founders and senior managers. Make “getting personal” part of your identity, especially when it comes to saying “thank you.”
Have fun – Nothing creates a bond between employees like having fun. Memorable events and shared experiences help build the organization’s sense of community.