Julia Warrander and Russell Waite, of Affinity Private Wealth, reply:
TWO weeks ago, on one of those rare sunny days during this inclement June, Affinity held a summer party for staff. Since the acquisition of Pinnacle Trustees Ltd – a transaction completed during the first wave of the pandemic – this was the earliest opportunity for all the team to get together.
The venue was the wonderful Jersey Hockey clubhouse and we all enjoyed some outdoor games, some indoor drinks and the chance to get to know each other outside the workplace setting.
Successful businesses have long recognised social events like these, team-building days, or simply ensuring a pleasant office environment are each important components to defining the very broad
and multi-faceted concept of corporate culture. In addition to salary, benefits and opportunities to grow professionally, most employees consider company culture an important factor when looking for a new job.
It is, of course, a balance sheet ‘intangible’, so – whether you be a potential employee or a potential investor – are there common markers we can look for to help identify a company with ‘good’ culture?
Before answering this question, we should first seek to define what we mean. Corporate culture commonly refers to the set of behavioural and procedural norms that can be observed within a company. These include its policies, procedures, ethics, values, attitudes and goals; in other words, its ‘personality’. Put much more simply, it is something that influences how decisions are made, within a business, when its leaders are not present.
Back to identifying good corporate culture, researchers have found in the ‘blue chip’ listed company space, there is a high correlation between companies delivering consistent growth in shareholder value and the following four cultural traits:
1. Ownership – the most successful are able to establish an ‘emotional’ ownership for the business, across all levels of employees.
2. Recognition – yes, overall compensation levels are important, as are long-term equity incentive plans. However, recognition is not exclusively finance-based; public recognition, both internal and external, is commonly practised.
3. Trust – measured by the transparency of decision-making; the very best companies in innovative sectors have a high tolerance of failure.
4. Support – typically evidenced by individual training and development plans, which are personalised and bespoke.
We acknowledge that different people enjoy different cultures. There is no one size fits all. If you are interested in understanding our culture a little more, then check out our social-media pages and, in particular, the recent film we posted.
