Company culture is a growing for priority many organizations, especially as they consider how culture affects retention and engagement. According to Deloitte, some 82% of business leaders even view company culture as a potential competitive advantage. Not bad for an organizational initiative still frequently dismissed as a “soft topic” or relegated to the idea of simply adding quirky, fun perks to the workplace.

Despite well-documented trends of companies taking steps to enhance their organizational culture, many “culture”-oriented initiatives are still getting batted down – often inside the executive suite. Whether due to a misinterpretation of what company culture actually is or a lack of understanding of the tangible benefits a positive culture can deliver, many executives are still hesitant to greenlight culture-focused HR initiatives.

Luckily, TalentCulture recently outlined a three-step process to getting buy-in for new company culture initiatives. Have a look and consider these for your organization.

Define Company Culture

Odds are most executives roll their eyes at the term “company culture”. Why? Because unless the phrase is specifically related to their company, it’s likely to come off as ambiguous and buzzwordy. It’s HR’s job to qualify company culture in terms of their company’s specific employee base as well as the employee base’s values, motivators and interests.

Understand Potential ROI

The C-Suite focuses largely on the bottom line, especially when it comes to budgeting for new, “outside-the-box” programs like company culture development strategies. HR can do their executive team a favor by connecting their company culture programs to hard savings or measurable gains in areas like employee productivity, efficiency and retention.

We recommend researching other companies that have already implemented similar culture-building tactics and using these experiences to make compelling ROI and savings projections.

Build a Case

With their company culture defined, industry research done and ROI projections made, HR needs to make their pitch to execs. And it helps if the HR leader isn’t doing on his own. Leverage the insights of employees through polls and surveys. This hard data will showcase why a culture initiative is necessary and how it could be successful.

Learn more about this three-step buy-in process by reading TalentCulture’s full article.

If building or refreshing company culture through a total rewards program is on your HR plan for next quarter and you’re ready to make your case to the leadership team, download our executive presentation template to get started.