GREAT PLACE TO WORK CULTURE AUDIT

Looking at it from a manager's viewpoint then, a great workplace is where the organization
achieves its objectives with employees who give their personal best and work together as a team
all in an environment of trust. In our research, we found, that organizations that are successful
at creating and sustaining a great workplace culture follow specific practices in 9 key areas.

Do your people practices help you create a great workplace? This question involves study of people
related management practices of the organization. According to our research, viewed from
managements perspective, a great workplace is where you achieve organizational objectives with
employees who give their personal best and work together as a team all in an environment of
trust. This definition of a great workplace outlines the key leverage areas the nine practice areas
that have the most impact on the employees experience, and therefore a direct opportunity to
create a great workplace culture. Answer to this question, helps an organization assess the strength
and impact of its existing people related management practices on employees perceptions of the
workplace culture. These inputs provide the basis for bringing about specific improvements in
people related management practices within the organization.

Culture Audit tool is a series of 15 open-ended essay questions designed to help us understand
what is distinctive about a organizations workplace culture. It helps us assess an organizations
practices and programs, and how they affect the lives of employees. Simply stated, based on our
research, we rate various people related practices followed at your organization in areas like
inspiring, speaking, listening, developing, caring, thanking, hiring, sharing and celebrating. We get
this information by getting your organizations human resources function to fill a detailed Culture
Audit questionnaire

Great Place to Work studies people related management practices of more than 7000
organizations every year. Over years, we discovered that managers at great workplaces point to
three ways in which they are better able to do their work as managers:

First, their teams can focus all of their energy on achieving business objectives. People
don't have the various distractions that come from a low-trust environment, such as
internal politics, poor communications, or lack of clarity about goals.

Second, people are more willing to give their personal best. When people feel they are safe
and secure, they are more willing to offer creative ideas. So innovation thrives in a great
workplace.

And finally, these managers say that people cooperate better. That's because people view
each other as more than merely coworkers when they trust each other. They often use the
term team, or even family, to describe this feeling of belonging to something bigger
than themselves.

In the process of developing the manager definition of a great place to work, we also identified
the key leverage areas where management can build trust, pride and camaraderie. These nine
leverage areas the Nine Practice Areas represent where companies have the most impact on
the employee experience, and therefore a direct opportunity to create a great workplace culture.
The Nine Practice Areas also map directly to the manager definition of a great place to work. The
practice areas are thematically linked into groups of three, each of which represents a different area
of the managers experience of a great workplace.

Inspiring: Inspire the employees, through sharing the vision and goals of the company,
reinforcing companys values and relating their work to the companys higher purpose as well
as to its business success.

Speaking: Speak, share information fully and frequently in various ways and personally delivering
news in informal and friendly ways.

Listening: Listening to the employees to create an environment of consultation upward

communication) and collaboration; the management make themselves accessible in a variety of
ways to encourage people to ask questions, express concerns and make comments and they
proactively solicit suggestions, create systems or processes to enable employees to have an input
on decisions that impact their jobs and also offer an appeal process that handles grievances fairly.

Developing: Management fosters a learning environment where employees can discover and
nurture their talents and interests and provide avenues for employees to grow professionally and
personally.
Caring: Management demonstrates care and concern, they respond to peoples need to balance
their personal lives and help them cope with family or personal crisis.

Thanking: It enables employees to give their personal best by cultivating a climate of

appreciation by sincerely recognizing good work and extra effort frequently and in distinctive and
unexpected ways.

Hiring: Hiring culturally fit people with gifts/talents who can grow in the organization and share
the same values and once they join, welcome them and help them get integrated into the companys
culture well.

Sharing: The fruits of peoples mutual efforts are shared with all generously and fairly and
employees are involved in efforts of company to contribute to the community.

Celebrating: To build a culture of camaraderie, organizational and team achievements are

celebrated in distinctive ways along with various other unique and fun events.
OVERVIEW OF THE NINE PRACTICE AREAS