Page 100 - Successful Onboarding

Teaching Culture So That Our New Hires “Get It” • 89

This chapter makes the case for teaching culture, and it offers instruc-
tion for how to do it effectively and systemically. We do not wish to
stifle individuality or foster group-think (we abhor the word acculturate),
but merely provide hires with proper insights so that they can make
informed judgments about how to conduct themselves (acclimate works
better for us). Firms seeking to improve retention, productivity, and other
metrics as well as those seeking to transform their cultures and operat-
ing norms should work to convey an honest and deep understanding of
culture to new hires. But what exactly does that mean? We offer best-in-
class principles for transferring unspoken company norms to new hires
in efficient and meaningful ways. Instruction from the CEO, structured
mentoring encounters, simulated work experiences, hiring manager
interventions, cohort support groups, wikis on the company intranet site,
and many other tools can all serve to introduce new hires to reigning val-
ues, language, and practices. What is most important is that firms take
time to understand the unspoken ways that business gets done in their
organizations and implement a systemic approach for teaching it. Doing
so improves the learning curve and helps reduce the painful outcomes
for those who “don’t get it.”

Corporate and Organizational Cultures

Before we can appreciate the need to immerse new hires more fully in
culture, we first need to consider what culture is … and is not. United
States Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart famously noted in a 1964 cen-
sorship case that “pornography is hard to define,” but “I know it when
I see it.” The same can be said about culture. Sociologists and anthropol-
ogists have spilled much ink setting forth competing theories about what
culture is. Business scholars have applied these theories, offering an impor-
tant distinction between organizational culture and corporate culture.
Roughly speaking, corporate culture is comprised of the values and tradi-
tions that derive from the mission and vision set by a company’s leaders
and make the firm unique in the eyes of management, employees, and
the marketplace. Organizational culture includes corporate culture but is
broader, also reflecting how people in any organization actually think and
behave, perhaps unconsciously.