Build a Brand, Build Work Culture

We all know how important branding is for a business, and how it can help drive growth and profits for the company. But what many don’t know is that branding and organisational culture are two inseparable parts of a single whole, and that building the right work culture is key to building a good brand image.

A work culture is essentially the character of your organisation; it is what makes a company unique and what gives a brand that ‘special edge’. In other words, work culture is akin to a brand’s personality.

When you define culture in the workplace, you’re also defining a set of shared values and goals for everyone in your company to align themselves to. 

And it is when your employees live by these guiding principles and all business decisions are made in accordance, that the rest of the public will naturally take cue, thereby forming a public brand image based off these ways in which your company culture tangibly manifests itself.

The Different Work Cultures Across the Globe

There are fivecommon work cultures that can be found in abundance all throughout the world; they are: 

1. Hierarchy Culture

The most traditional of them all, this organisational culture prioritises leadership hierarchy, power, and processes. It is often found in more risk-adverse businesses that place heavy emphasis on not making mistakes, such as finance, healthcare, and government industries. 

2. Clan Culture

Clan culture is defined by everyone thinking and feeling the same way, and prioritises collaboration and teamwork above all else. It is often found in new, young companies and small, family-owned businesses.

3. Market Culture

As the name suggests, this work culture prioritises getting a company’s product or services to the market, and is defined by being results-oriented, fast-paced, and highly competitive. Businesses with a market culture often pay little attention to employee experience and satisfaction, but make up for that with higher compensation packages. Amazon, Apple, and Tesla fall under this category. 

4. Purpose-Driven Culture

Purpose-driven cultures are built upon a strong, defined purpose, and places with such a culture attract not only employees but also customers, partners, and investors who share those ideals. Organisations that adopt a purpose-driven work culture tend to be community-focused or charitable. 

5. Adhocracy Culture

This work culture advocates risk-taking for swift innovation and agility in adaptation. It is the prevalent workplace culture adopted by startups and tech companies that prioritise being the first-to-market.

Shifts in Singapore’s Prevalent Work Cultures

Though a traditional hierarchy culture used to be the work culture of choice for most Singaporean companies, that is quickly changing. 

Companies who do not wish to be left behind have to thus start switching up their organisational culture if they want to remain relevant in both Singapore’s local economy and the global economy today. 

As digitisation, globalisation, and the Covid-19 pandemic continues, many Singaporean companies are moving towards adopting a hybrid work culture that prioritises:

• employees’ health and wellbeing; 
• the ability to be agile and adaptive;
• internal talent development and mobility; and
• outcome measures of performances as opposed to activity measures

Now, you may be asking yourself: “But those priorities don’t fit into any one single work culture described above?” — and you’d be right. 

The Role of HR in Building Work Culture

The truth is things aren’t that simple; there is no one-size-fits-all culture that companies can simply adopt to fulfill their needs and goals. The culture types listed above merely outline what most organisations lean most toward, and would not be accurate-enough descriptions of any one organisation’s true work culture.

Each business has to design their own unique work culture that is tailored to their needs, values, and goals specifically. And though difficult in its own right, that’s just the first (and arguably simpler) step required in building a suitable organisational culture. 

Then, a robust HR team or service provider has to step in to properly implement and manage the designed workplace culture of choice, through:

• working with leaders across departments to incorporate the designed culture into the workplace;
• championing professional learning in the company to ensure adaptability and agility; 
• designing strategic HR packages with regards to employee compensation and benefits; and
• aligning recruitment with work culture goals using well-designed HR job evaluation frameworks.

Partner-Up with Singapore’s Leading HR Service Provider 

We at Liberte understand how complex an endeavor building the right work culture can be. 

That is why we have expanded our range of services to not only include third-party HR services and outsourced payroll solutions, but also HR consulting regarding job evaluation frameworks, employee compensation and benefits, comprehensive rewards systems, and more. 

You can check out our resource page here, or get in touch with us for further inquiry. 

‍