INTRODUCTION
Every organization is an ecosystem where people, processes, and values come together to shape its identity. While strategy sets the direction, it’s culture that determines whether teams can truly thrive. As the saying goes, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”
Leaders who intentionally nurture workplace culture see stronger innovation, productivity, engagement, and retention. Two critical moments where culture can be actively shaped are:
- Talent acquisition
- Onboarding new hires
When these are aligned with organizational values, new employees connect faster, adapt better, and contribute sooner.
Creating a Positive Climate from Day One
Renowned psychologist Edgar Schein described culture as artifacts, values, and underlying assumptions woven into an organization’s fabric. While visible elements like policies and values are easy to communicate, underlying assumptions – the “how things really get done here” – take longer to uncover.
Leaders and managers can accelerate this process by:
- Modeling values in company-wide meetings.
- Recognizing employees who live the culture.
- Pairing new hires with culture mentors.
- Offering regular manager check-ins for coaching and support.
The sooner employees experience all layers of culture, the faster they become effective contributors.
Enhancing the Prospective Employee Experience
First impressions matter. A 2019 Glassdoor survey found that 77% of job seekers consider organizational culture before applying. This means your employee value proposition (EVP) must reflect your ethos consistently – across career pages, recruiter interactions, and even automated responses.
Practical steps:
- Partner HR, L&D, and Marketing to create a unified EVP.
- Train hiring managers to embed culture in interviews.
- Audit your applicant journey (walk employees through it to see where it feels “off-brand”).
But beware of hiring only for “culture fit.” True growth comes when new hires align with your values while also bringing fresh perspectives. Building culture with onboarding doesn’t mean creating clones – it means embracing diversity within shared values.
Onboarding Beyond the Handbook
Too often, onboarding focuses on policies and compliance. While necessary, what really matters are the rules of engagement – how people communicate, collaborate, and make decisions.
Harvard Business Review put it well: “Culture tells us what to do when the CEO isn’t in the room.”
Practical onboarding practices include:
- Explaining communication norms (protocols, channels, information sharing).
- Clarifying decision-making authority and escalation paths.
- Sharing real examples of how high-performing employees embody values in daily work.
By building culture with onboarding, new hires gain the confidence to act consistently with organizational values, rather than second-guessing expectations.
Why Emergenetics® is a Culture Accelerator
When it comes to building culture with onboarding, traditional approaches often focus on policies and values. Emergenetics® goes deeper by revealing each individual’s thinking and behavioural preferences, allowing managers to:
- Personalize onboarding experiences to match how new hires learn and adapt.
- Pair employees with culture mentors who complement their styles.
- Build psychologically safe teams from day one by normalizing cognitive and behavioural diversity.
By making culture tangible through neuroscience-backed insights, organizations accelerate belonging, engagement, and performance.
Scaling Culture as You Grow
As organizations evolve, growth can test cultural foundations. Companies that design deliberate acquisition and onboarding programs are more likely to sustain what makes them unique, even through disruption.
This is where building culture with Emergenetics® becomes a game-changer. Emergenetics helps organizations understand employee thinking and behavior preferences, creating onboarding experiences that honor individual strengths while reinforcing shared values. The result: faster integration, stronger collaboration, and resilient workplace culture.
Emergenetics® Certification: Empowering Leaders & HR
At Marg, we don’t just talk about culture – we build capacity to sustain it. Through the Emergenetics® Associate Certification, HR professionals, L&D leaders, and consultants learn how to interpret Emergenetics Profiles and facilitate team workshops. This means onboarding isn’t left to chance – leaders are equipped with the tests to reinforce culture consistently across teams and functions.
Certified practitioners can:
- Design onboarding journeys that align with culture and individual strengths.
- Conduct Meeting of the Minds workshops to help teams understand each other and collaborate effectively.
- Leverage Emergenetics insights to guide leadership coaching and performance development.
This not only strengthens workplace culture but also reduces over-reliance on external consultants by building internal expertise.
With Marg Perspective: Culture That Sticks
At Marg Business Transformation, we help organizations Nurture Workplace Culture with repeatable systems and science-backed tools. Our consultants integrate Emergenetics into onboarding and team development to make culture concrete and scalable:
- building culture with onboarding by translating values into daily choices and rituals.
- building culture with Emergenetics by turning individual preferences into team advantage.
- Coaching managers to personalize support and accelerate time-to-confidence.
- Arming HR/L&D with facilitated playbooks, workshop designs, and post-session reinforcement.
Whether you’re onboarding 10 people or 1,000, the outcome is the same: faster integration, stronger collaboration, and a culture that sustains performance.
Ready to Turn New Hires Into Culture Carriers?
If you want to make your culture unmistakable from day one – and scale it as you grow – let’s talk. Explore Emergenetics® Certification with Marg to equip your HR, L&D, and leadership teams with the skills and tools to deliver consistent, personalized, and high-impact onboarding across the organization.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
- Why is workplace culture important for new hires?
Workplace culture helps new employees understand expectations, values, and norms. A strong culture accelerates integration, reduces turnover, and boosts engagement. - How do you nurture workplace culture during onboarding?
By modeling values, assigning culture mentors, sharing success stories, and clarifying communication norms, leaders help new hires embody culture from day one. - What makes Emergenetics® unique for building culture with onboarding?
Unlike traditional onboarding that focuses on policies, Emergenetics® reveals thinking and behavioral preferences. This personalization fosters inclusion, psychological safety, and stronger team collaboration. - How can Emergenetics® support diversity and inclusion?
By highlighting cognitive and behavioral diversity, Emergenetics® ensures teams appreciate differences, avoid groupthink, and innovate more effectively. - Can culture scale as organizations grow?
Yes. With structured onboarding powered by Emergenetics®, leaders sustain cultural identity while adapting to growth and change. This keeps employees aligned and engaged.
