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Patrick Ibarra, co-founder and partner at the Mejorando Group, discusses building a healthy workplace culture during the Massachusetts Municipal Human Resources annual virtual spring meeting on April 25.
Building a healthy workplace culture was the focus of the Massachusetts Municipal Human Resources annual virtual spring meeting on April 25.
Patrick Ibarra, co-founder and partner at the Mejorando Group, led the workshop “A Healthy Workplace Culture is the ‘Secret Sauce’ to Success.” He opened by discussing the “new employer-employee contract” emerging as employees return to the office post-pandemic and younger generations enter the workforce.
“People shop culture,” he said. “Those [younger] generations … to them it’s life-work balance, not work-life balance. They want to enjoy not only the work they do, but also the people with whom they work.”
Given this new and growing interest in workplace culture, Ibarra urged participants to reflect on the prevailing cultures in their own municipalities and departments.
“Are you, your community, and your workforce changing as fast as the world around us?” he asked.
Participants broke into small discussion groups to identify and share the aspects of their workplace cultures that both drive and hinder success.
In the second half of the workshop, Ibarra outlined a framework of 10 dimensions that comprise workplace culture, including employee wellness, teamwork, and performance management. He also shared strategies for transitioning workplace cultures from the norm to the preferred.
One of the strategies he recommended was conducting a “pulse check” with employees to understand a municipality’s baseline workplace culture and identify areas for improvement.
First, employees answer anonymous questions to help determine what is already helping them succeed and what should change to improve their success. Then, they identify common answers and organize them as a group.
The pulse check exercise not only helps to identify opportunities for improvement, Ibarra said, it also includes employees in the process of positive cultural change.
“If you want to redesign, reset, reformat a culture, it’s helpful and productive to get a sense of where the strong points are, and where are the brittle points,” Ibarra said. “It’s no different than what a doctor does. Look at the symptoms. Describe your condition. Then prescribe the solution.”