WTF is Culture?
I’ve popped my pen down and called on some experts in their respective field to give their insights too…
We are delighted to begin a series of Substack takeovers with contributions from across the industry. A range of experts in their fields, we hope to bring some valuable insights from our beautifully eclectic & talented community.
We begin with some thoughts from those in key people roles on typical HR vs Culture first approach. We spoke recently about the culture role taking the lead position within a people dept, leaving the traditional HR function to be outsourced as and when it is required.
First up, We hear from Prue Stamp, Head of People & Culture at Urban Leisure Group. Prue is a beacon of positivity within our industry and we know she has been a great support to others in similar roles in neighbouring businesses. We are very lucky to have her give her insight, thank you Prue for kicking us off.
What culture represents to you
Culture is one of those things that’s almost impossible to define. Many have tried and gotten close to summing it up. Two of my favourite explanations of culture are probably also the simplest you’ll find; Deal and Kennedy (a couple of culture nerds of the early 80s) summed it up as “the way we do things round here”. Simple yes, but easy to extrapolate to cover pretty much everything - how people speak to one another, the expectations that they have of each other, how they behave. Peter Drucker (legendary management guru) took it further and looked at how culture goes on to influence a business’s success or failure, wrapping it up in the now mythical line of “culture eats strategy for breakfast”. What he was saying here was that no amount of process, procedure or tactical action will get results unless the people are on board, engaged, and enjoying themselves. So, culture to me is the sum of all the parts of the business but, keeping it simple, it’s how your team act at work, and how they feel while doing it.
How your owners benefit from it
Your culture very quickly becomes your reputation. In an industry as connected as hospitality, the stink of crappy culture spreads quickly – bartenders, chefs, front of house and managers all know each other and believe me, they talk. Some of the biggest hitters in F&B have become famous for having a dodgy culture and have suffered for it – boycotts, open letters on twitter, parody social media accounts and more all lead to a business owners worst nightmare; a bad rep, a struggle to recruit and retain team, and eventually tanking sales. Conversely, it becomes obvious which businesses really put culture on the radar every day, and work to keep it solid. You team are your biggest ambassadors and when they’re feeling great at work, the benefits flow in – easy recruiting (a strong referral scheme is gold dust), excellent retention rates, and eventually an experienced team who are bought in, energized, and want to do well for themselves, their team, and for the business.
How it impacts the bottom line
The impact of culture on the bottom line is one of the harder elements to quantify. Operations, events, menu development and marketing all have pretty clear, measurable impact on sales and profit – people & culture is much more nebulous. You can, if you wish, get granular and do some serious data mining to prove the link between great culture and business success – correlation and causation between say, length of service of your team and labour efficiency or engagement scores and sales per hour can certainly be eked out. Holistically though, consider this – the way your team feels is the way your guest feels. When our teams feel relaxed, cared for, welcome, and part of something bigger, our guests feel relaxed, cared for, welcome, and part of something bigger. Guests who feel this way become loyal, return regularly, stay longer, book their parties with you, tell their mates how good you are – there’s your bottom line impact.
How can people to get into a role like yours in the future?
Working in people and culture is very, very dynamic and things move extremely fast in HR – employment law is constantly evolving, each generation of employees have different needs and ideas and, as we’re seeing more and more, team members have varied issues and stressors in their personal lives that they can’t help but bring into work. HR in hospitality is unlike HR in most other industries – the nature of the food and drink sector (late nights, early starts, alcohol, very tight teams etc) creates quite a niche set of joys and challenges. There are two main pieces of advice I would give to anyone wanted to pursue a career in People & Culture;
You have to be really curious about people.
You have to get very comfortable operating in the grey area.
Being curious means being future focused, open minded, and willing to try new things. People’s behavior can be very unpredictable so, if you’re a person who doesn’t do well with surprises, you’ll likely find yourself getting really frustrated, really fast. Being future focused means looking forward to what’s coming next, rather than ruminating on how things have been or holding onto something that might have happened in the past. Open mindedness is key – being willing to listen to understand, not just to respond is vital if you’re trying to work out what makes people tick. This is also where the grey area comes in – working in people & culture and almost never black and white. So many factors influence how people behave and ultimately, what kind of culture is encouraged at work so it is incredibly rare for any people & culture situation to be a carbon copy of something you’ve seen before. Flexibility, ability to pivot and a proper, deep interest in people will take you places in the world of people & culture.
