Case Study: How culture drives a 100-year old company

by Sep 28, 2016

Many organizations do not focus on a culture of engagement because they believe there will be no tangible benefits – despite the thousands of research articles that show otherwise.

I recently ran into an old friend who managed the culture at the Hard Rock Hotel in San Diego, and who is now the Director of Human Resources (AKA “Employee Lifestyle”) at HG Fenton, so I asked her for a quick informative interview because I know her organization’s culture rocks.

Below is a snippet of the conversation. The entire conversation is here on my blog if you want to learn more!

I know that employee engagement comes from employees finding meaning in their work. How do you help employees find meaning in property management?

Our purpose is to create opportunities for our employees to flourish, our residents to live well, and for businesses to succeed. So we focus on those three things all day, every day, and that’s how we find meaning in our work.

How does your organization communicate the culture?

We have a set of values and we live by them. I have never seen a company intertwine culture into the day-to-day the way we do here. We don’t need posters on all the walls; everyone knows the values and we honestly live them each and every day as they are incorporated into our conversations, decisions, and business goals.

Do you outperform your competitors? You said your culture works, so what does that mean for the company’s performance?

We’ve had 110 years of success and our goal is to have another 110 years of it. Financially and from a service perspective (as measured in the industry customer satisfaction surveys) we outperform our competitors. Our employee retention rate far exceeds within and outside our industry. Our employees are flourishing, our residents/tenants are living and working well, and our shareholders are happy. Win-win-win all around!

Check out the rest of this conversation to learn more about how HG Fenton’s culture drives them.

If you’re interested in building a culture that gets you results like HG Fenton’s does, I’m doing a webinar on Oct 5, 2016. I’m going to give you the seven facets of employee engagement, and exactly 52 easy-to-implement action items for creating it.

Get your spot before it’s gone.

Catherine

P.S. 99% of the tips I provide on the webinar are no or low cost… so you’ll be able to implement some engagement-building activities immediately after the webinar is over! Claim your seat.

Do you know how much money chronically bad behavior costs your company? Spoiler alert – it’s a LOT higher than you want it to be. Download our data and worksheet to see how it’s costing your organization and what you can do to fix it.

 

Catherine

About Catherine Mattice

Catherine Mattice, MA, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, is the founder/CEO of Civility Partners, an organizational development firm focused on helping organizations create respectful workplace cultures and specializing in turning around toxic cultures. Civility Partners’ clients range from Fortune 500’s to small businesses across many industries. Catherine is a TEDx speaker and an HR thought-leader who has appeared in such venues as USA Today, Bloomberg, CNN, NPR, and many other national news outlets as an expert. She’s an award-winning speaker, author and blogger, and has 50+ courses reaching global audiences on LinkedIn Learning. Catherine’s award-winning book, BACK OFF! Your Kick-Ass Guide to Ending Bullying at Work, was hailed by international leadership-guru, Ken Blanchard, as, “the most comprehensive and valuable handbook on the topic.” Her latest book is Navigating Toxic Work Environments For Dummies (Wiley).

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