Organizational Culture: A Sneak Peek into Alibaba’s Employee Engagement and Retention Strategy

The organisational culture of a company determines employee retention, the quality of the talent intake, and the employee engagement strategy levels of the workforce.

Importance of Having an Organisational Culture

Organisational culture defines a company from the top down. It is the structure within which all organisation, management, and optimisation of talent takes place.

The organisational culture is something that defines both the management style and the employee experience of every company. This means, that building a strong organisational culture is something that HR leaders place importance on.

There are different types of organisational culture. Good organisational culture examples include Google, which strives to create a quality employee experience to maximise creativity, growth, and productivity.

Understanding and Developing Organisational Culture

To define organisational culture is the first step. The next step in the process is to understand the needs of the employees and develop a nurturing atmosphere.

The types of organisational culture that your company can head into are numerous. Care must be taken to evaluate the organisational culture every few months and optimise strategy accordingly.

An Amazing Example of Organisational Culture

Work at Alibaba, and you will love the strong, amicable and fun family environment that the company is known in the industry for!

Founded in 1999 by Jack Ma, Alibaba is one of the leading and renowned B2B eCommerce marketplaces in the world. The company has been on a strong pedestal of growth since its inception, and one of the key reasons for this victory is its strong focus on people and their effective management.

Boasting a wide and diverse workforce, the company is known for having built and maintained a strong organisational culture. This culture is strongly imbibed in all its employees, which pushes them towards continuous growth, and also aligns them with the company’s vision and mission. 

With its strong focus on employee engagement, Alibaba has become one of the successful organisational culture examples of the contemporary era. Needless to say, keeping the employees happy and engaged is of paramount importance in this age and time. Alibaba has been at the forefront of creating a strong, positive environment, which has enabled its people to thrive over the period.

Some of the principles that define organisational culture at Alibaba are listed below.

Working with Fun – Work should never seem like a burden. Therefore, Alibaba encourages all its employees to follow their passion and embrace a sense of enjoyment during work. All workers are allowed to find a suitable role or position within the organisation, one that matches their abilities and interests. 

Moreover, all employees, including the top management, are required to choose their nicknames, which could even be drawn from a movie or a comedy show. All employees are addressed with these nicknames, and this initiative eliminates the sense of superiority in the organisation. Apart from this, continuous moments of fun are always ensured, if you are a part of the Alibaba family. The organisational culture promotes fun to keep employees engaged and thriving.

Mentoring & Continuous Learning – At Alibaba, a strong focus is placed on self-improvement through mentoring and learning. New employees are constantly supported by mentors, who actively guide them in their new roles and provide direction to them for achieving excellence. 

Moreover, the company has developed a comprehensive training system for employees at all levels to foster an organisational culture of continuous learning. It also strongly believes in ‘action learning’, wherein learning while working is greatly encouraged. In addition to this, the company analyses the strengths and weaknesses of its people from time to time and develops advanced programs for them to improve accordingly. 

Communication – Strong communication can open the doors to a company’s success. This holds in the case of Alibaba, where employees are urged to talk, participate, learn and share. The company has created an open space, where workers can openly express their opinions and share their ideas and plans with their peers and managers. Weekly meetings are conducted, wherein employees are encouraged to come forward and share their experiences, stories, funny encounters and other key highlights with each other. As a result of this, employees feel more connected to each other. This also instils team spirit in them, which is what Alibaba stands by. Strong and open communication are what define organisational culture at Alibaba.

Moreover, the company’s innovative program, ‘Open Box’ allows the company’s lower-level staff to express their opinions and ideas to senior employees

Rewards & Recognition – The company strongly feels that rewarding employees for their achievements is critical for motivating them and keeping them happy and content with their jobs. The company runs various programs to reward high-performing employees from time to time. These rewards could be in the form of perks, incentives, bonuses, offers, and more.

Takeaway

Recruiting and retaining talent has emerged as a key challenge in the industry over the last few years. To keep up the spirits of employees, organisations all across the globe are resorting to innovative ways of creating a dynamic organisational culture. Thriving and clearly defined organisational cultures produce an engaged workforce. The teams are productive and lead the organisation to advancement.