How to Create a Unique Workplace Culture

Summary

In a World at Work interview, Anita Hildreth from McMurray discusses the company's unique workplace culture, emphasizing its core values represented by the number eight. These values guide decisions and include principles like 'do the right thing' and 'embrace change.' McMurray's innovative 'Success Plan' replaces traditional performance reviews, involving 360-degree feedback and forward-looking goals. CEO involvement and initiatives like the annual 'Best Work' survey demonstrate a commitment to staff satisfaction, making McMurray a top career choice for many.

Takeaways

• 🏆 **Best Job Experience**: Nearly 80% of McMurray's staff consider it the best job of their careers, indicating high job satisfaction.
• 🔢 **Significance of Number 8**: The number 8 represents McMurray's core values which drive all company decisions.
• 📋 **Core Values**: The core values include doing the right thing, helping one another, delivering quality service, exceeding expectations, embracing change, accepting social responsibility, and earning a reasonable profit.
• 🌐 **Channel 8**: An internal social media hub where staff access information on benefits, news, staff directory, and more.
• 🔄 **Success Plan**: A forward-looking performance management system that provides a roadmap for staff to guide their next year, incorporating core values and 360 feedback.
• 👥 **Involvement in Goals**: Staff are asked to provide feedback on goals they consider important for the coming year, aligning with McMurray's core values.
• 👩‍💼 **Management Engagement**: The CEO and business unit leaders are deeply involved in implementing the company's values and culture, driving its success.
• 🚪 **Open Door Policy**: Transparency and open communication are emphasized, with the CEO actively seeking and responding to staff feedback.
• 📊 **Annual Best Work Survey**: An initiative where staff provide feedback on the best aspects of working at McMurray and areas for improvement, directly reviewed by the CEO.
• 🛡️ **Healthcare Selection Team**: A volunteer group that gathers staff feedback on benefits, influencing the open enrollment process.
• 🌟 **Unique Enrollment Approach**: McMurray starts open enrollment with a survey to understand staff needs and make necessary adjustments before the actual process.
• 🤝 **Values-Driven Culture**: McMurray's culture is characterized by values-driven, empowerment, and collaboration.

Q & A

What is the significance of the number eight in McMurray's culture?

The number eight represents McMurray's core values, which are the driving force behind all decisions within the company.

What are the core values that McMurray emphasizes in its culture?

The core values are: do the right thing, help one another, deliver raving service, produce quality, always exceed expectations, embrace change, accept social responsibility, and earn a reasonable profit.

How does McMurray utilize Channel 8 in its internal communications?

Channel 8 is an internal website where staff can access information on benefits, news articles, staff directory, and other relevant company information.

What is unique about McMurray's performance management system?

Instead of a traditional performance review, McMurray has a 'success plan' which is a forward-thinking process that provides staff with a roadmap for the next year.

How does the success plan incorporate McMurray's core values?

The success plan ties the core values to the feedback process, with managers providing feedback and setting goals for the coming year, while also obtaining 360-degree feedback from various staff members.

What is the role of the CEO and management team in implementing McMurray's workplace values?

The CEO and business unit leaders are heavily involved in driving the initiative, ensuring the values system and culture are successfully implemented and maintained.

How does McMurray ensure transparency and open communication with its staff?

McMurray has an open door policy, and the CEO actively seeks feedback from staff through initiatives like the annual best work survey, providing individual responses to feedback.

What is the healthcare selection team at McMurray and what is its role?

The healthcare selection team is a group of volunteer staff members from various locations who gather feedback on benefits and help determine changes for the open enrollment process.

How does McMurray approach open enrollment differently from other companies?

McMurray starts with a survey several months before the open enrollment process to gather staff feedback, which is then reviewed and considered for any necessary changes.

What feedback does McMurray's CEO provide in response to the annual best work survey?

The CEO individually reviews the feedback and provides immediate responses, explaining actions that will or will not be taken and the reasons behind them.

How would Anita Hildreth summarize McMurray's culture in three words?

Values driven, empowerment, and collaboration.

Outlines

00:00

😀 Cultivating a Unique Workplace Culture at McMurray

In this segment, Marsha Rhodes from Workspan TV interviews Anita Hildreth from McMurray to discuss the company's unique workplace culture. Anita explains that the number eight is significant as it represents McMurray's core values that drive all decisions within the company. These values include doing the right thing, helping one another, delivering exceptional service, producing quality, exceeding expectations, embracing change, accepting social responsibility, and earning a reasonable profit. The company also utilizes an internal social media hub called Channel 8, which serves as a central source of information for staff on a variety of topics, including benefits, news, and staff directories. Additionally, McMurray's performance management system is described as a 'success plan,' which is a forward-looking process that provides staff with a roadmap for the coming year, incorporating feedback from various sources and aligning with the company's core values.

05:00

🤝 CEO and Management Team's Role in Implementing Workplace Values

This paragraph delves into the active involvement of McMurray's CEO and management team in the implementation of the company's values and culture. The CEO is viewed as a partner to the team, providing feedback on initiatives and seeking staff input to ensure alignment with the company's culture. Transparency is emphasized through an open-door policy and an annual 'best work' survey where the CEO personally reviews and responds to staff feedback. The company's approach to open enrollment is also highlighted, where a healthcare selection team gathers staff feedback before the process begins, ensuring that any changes made are informed by employee input. The paragraph concludes with Anita summarizing McMurray's culture in three words: values-driven, empowerment, and collaboration.

Keywords

💡Workplace Culture

Workplace culture refers to the environment and values that shape the behavior and attitudes of employees within an organization. In the video, it is the central theme as Anita Hildreth from McMurray discusses how they've cultivated a unique culture that aligns with their core values, contributing to high employee satisfaction.

💡Core Values

Core values are the fundamental beliefs that guide an organization's actions and decision-making. Anita explains that McMurray's core values, represented by the number eight, include principles like 'do the right thing' and 'embrace change,' which are integral to their workplace culture and decision-making process.

💡Channel 8

Channel 8 is an internal social media hub at McMurray, serving as a central source of information for employees. It is mentioned in the script as a platform for news articles, staff directories, and other resources, illustrating the company's commitment to open communication and information sharing.

💡Performance Management System

This system at McMurray, called a 'success plan,' is a forward-looking approach to performance reviews that differs from traditional performance reviews. It includes 360-degree feedback and aligns with McMurray's core values, aiming to provide employees with a roadmap for their professional development.

💡Success Plan

A success plan, as opposed to a performance review, is a proactive tool for setting goals and expectations for the future. In the script, it is described as a way to involve managers and staff in defining objectives and feedback, fostering a collaborative approach to performance development.

💡CEO Involvement

The CEO's active role in shaping and maintaining McMurray's culture is highlighted in the script. The CEO is portrayed as a partner to the team, engaging in feedback loops and being transparent about initiatives, which is crucial for reinforcing the company's values.

💡Open Enrollment

Open enrollment is the process by which employees select their benefits package. McMurray's approach to open enrollment is unique in that it involves gathering feedback from staff through a survey, which is then used to inform the benefits offered, demonstrating a values-driven and employee-centric strategy.

💡Healthcare Selection Team

The healthcare selection team is a group of volunteer employees from various locations within McMurray who help gather and analyze feedback on benefits. This team plays a key role in McMurray's open enrollment process, ensuring that the company's offerings are aligned with employee needs and preferences.

💡Feedback

Feedback is a critical component of McMurray's culture, as it allows for continuous improvement and employee engagement. The script mentions an annual 'best work' survey where employees provide feedback on their experience, which is then reviewed and responded to by the CEO, emphasizing the company's commitment to employee satisfaction.

💡Transparency

Transparency is a key aspect of McMurray's open door policy, where the CEO and management team are accessible and open to feedback. The script describes how transparency is practiced through immediate responses to employee feedback and a willingness to explain decisions, which helps build trust and a positive work environment.

💡Employee Satisfaction

Employee satisfaction is a measure of how content employees are with their job and workplace. The script reveals that nearly 80% of McMurray's staff consider it the best job of their careers, indicating the success of the company's efforts to create a positive and values-driven workplace culture.

Highlights

McMurray is considered the best job by nearly 80% of its staff.

Anita Hildreth from McMurray discusses creating a unique workplace culture.

The number eight is significant, representing McMurray's core values.

Core values drive all decisions at McMurray and include doing the right thing, helping one another, and more.

Channel 8 is an internal social media hub for staff information and communication.

Channel 8 features news articles, staff directories, and a platform for addressing questions.

McMurray's performance management system is called a 'success plan' for its forward-looking approach.

Success plans provide a roadmap for staff, incorporating core values and 360 feedback.

Staff are asked to set goals for the coming year as part of the success plan.

Managers give key goals for the next year as part of the performance management process.

The CEO and management team are highly involved in implementing McMurray's values and culture.

McMurray's CEO is seen as a partner to the team, providing and seeking feedback on initiatives.

Transparency and an open door policy are emphasized at McMurray.

The annual 'best work' survey allows staff to provide feedback directly to the CEO.

Feedback from the 'best work' survey is reviewed and responded to by the CEO.

McMurray's open enrollment process begins with a survey to gather staff feedback on benefits.

A healthcare selection team made up of staff volunteers reviews and acts on the feedback for open enrollment.

Anita summarizes McMurray's culture as values-driven, empowering, and collaborative.

Transcripts

just under 80% of our staff say that

McMurray is the best job of their

careers welcome to workspan TV I'm

Marsha rhs for world at work and today

we're discussing how to create a unique

workplace culture and with me is Anita

Hildreth from McMurray welcome Anita

nice to be here Anita tell us how you

create a unique work Place culture at

McMurray and specifically the role and

the importance of the number eight well

the number eight is very significant in

our culture because that stands for our

a core values our a core values are

basically what drive all of our

decisions at McMurray and they are as

follows do the right thing help one

another deliver raving service produce

quality always exceed expectations

Embrace change accept social

responsibility and earn a reasonable

profit I know 8 drives a lot of your

internal Communications including your

social media hub called Channel 8 tell

us a little bit more about Channel 8

Channel 8 is a really neat Internet site

that we rolled out about a year or so

ago and it's really where all of our

staff go to as a source for information

on anything from benefits to the most

recent news which we have news articles

on a daily basis published on Channel 8

staff directory and a variety of

different information they can go to to

access any of their questions that they

might want answered in addition to

channel 8 I know there are other ways

that you implement the um workplace

values into your culture and

specifically tell us about the

performance management system well

actually what's mainly different in our

performance management system is that

it's actually not a performance uh

review like most other companies might

call it it's called a success plan and

we called it a success plan because we

like to have a forward thinking process

in which to give staff a road map by

which to guide their next year we tie

our a core values to Our Success plan

process so a manager provides feedback

uh for the coming year but also we

obtain 360 feedback from various members

through of Staff throughout the company

and we also ask them to tie in our core

values to some of their feedback we ask

our staff member to provide

feedback on some of the goals that they

feel are important for the coming year

and finally the manager gives some key

goals that they would like to see

implemented in the next coming

year I like that you call it a success

plan because it implies that it's

forward-looking as opposed to a look in

the rearview

mirror that's right so it helps people

our staff in

particular look forward to the next year

and and really help provide them with a

path for success for the coming year and

help them achieve goals for what might

make them happy in their position and

their career path in the company an need

to how involved is the CEO and the

management team in implementing the

workplace

values the CEO and our and our business

unit leaders are extremely involved in

implementing our values system and our

culture in fact without them driving the

initiative it it wouldn't be as

successful as it is and has been and

will continue to to be our CEO we look

at him as a partner to our team he

provides us with feedback on upcoming

initiatives and to make sure that we're

on par with the culture he also asks for

feedback in any upcoming initiatives

that he might have to ensure that we're

on the same page and that we're

remaining true to our

values Chris's focus is transparency we

have an open door policy at McMurray one

thing that's really neat about something

that we do differently is our annual

best wor survey in which Chris asks for

feedback from our staff they're asked

for the three best things about working

at McMurray and which three things would

they most like to see improved and how

that feedback is then carefully and

immediately reviewed by Chris and he

provides responses individually and

immediately and if there's action that

he or the company cannot take he'll

provide a reason as to

why that's really important in

emphasizing how he cares about our staff

and their experience in the company and

making it the best job of their careers

in fact just under 80% of our staff say

that McMurray is the best job of their

careers as a lot of companies are in the

midst of open enrollment tell us again

how you do it differently at McMurray I

love how we do open enrollment at

McMurray it's different in that we start

with a survey several months before our

open enrollment process We Gather

feedback from our staff on what they

think of our benefits that survey is

collectively put together by what we

call the healthcare selection team the

healthcare selection team is a group of

volunteers throughout the company from

all different locations usually a group

of about 10 to 12 staff members who put

together the feedback determine what we

want to ask staff and then once we

obtain the feedback from staff carefully

reviewing it and determining what we're

going to do for the Open Enrollment

process if any changes are necessary and

carefully keeping in mind what the staff

feedback was on that survey Anita if you

were to summarize mcmurray's culture in

three words what would those

be values driven empowerment and

collaboration that's wonderful thank you

so much for being here thank you for

world at work I'm Marshall

rhods