Company culture is a key component of any workplace and plays a significant role within the organization. While many managers have good intentions, these are not always enough to support a positive and productive environment where all employees thrive. In a positive and healthy culture, employees are not the only parties that benefit, as companies can retain great talent, have healthier staff members and promote productivity. Consider how you can improve your company’s atmosphere with these tips and see your workforce thrive.
Promote Wellbeing
Your employees’ wellbeing is an influential component when it comes to creating a positive culture. Your employees will notice when the company makes a commitment to the health and wellness of their staff regardless of how you approach this. Doing what you can to ensure that everyone’s basic needs are met and where the company takes a holistic view of their team is one that people will value. Whether you incorporate the thrive experience, paid time off or wellness activities, these are ways to signal to your staff that you prioritize their wellness over progress.
Communicate Clearly
Another aspect of a healthy workplace culture comes from the communication that takes place. Whether a supervisor is speaking to a supervisee about a project, team members on a joint project are deciding how to approach a task or the senior leadership of the company is sharing an update, clear communication can allow us all the opportunity to work in a more efficient and satisfying environment. All of these interactions can go horribly wrong with a breakdown in communication. Having clear and concise information can help everyone stay on the same page and avoid conflicts due to miscommunication.
Encourage Work-Life Balance
Many employees have a way of compartmentalizing their lives in a way that can separate these two worlds. While this works for some and for a time, this only works to a certain extent. There will be moments when our two realms can go crashing into one another. When workplaces force employees to fully compartmentalize their lives into two separate boxes with little flexibility, this can lead to staff dissatisfaction and stress. As a manager, when life happens, let your team address their needs in a way that won’t tack on guilt or anger and just allows your team to be human.
Focus on Common Ground
Many issues at that workplace can spring up from a lack of transparency. Whether employees feel that they are left out of the decision-making process, lack any understanding of the business or feel that they don’t understand the core goal, then you can have a team with no captain. To avoid this type of confusion and lack of defined goals, consider focusing on a common mission and vision that offers transparently with the whole team. Not only can it unify the team around a core cause, but it can also help illuminate the importance and purpose of the work.
Retain Good Talent
For businesses that struggle with retaining good talent, the road to improvement may feel impossible; however, there are often many underlying issues. Whether it is a lack of recognition of hard work, ignored cultural issues or minimal accountability, your staff is looking to leave for one reason or another. Make sure that you understand what is standing in the way of keeping your best talent, and then take the time to remedy these issues. When you see high turnover, this is often an indicator of larger issues at hand.
For companies that are only focused on the end goal, they may miss out on some of the most important fixes and positive improvements in company culture. If you truly want to positively impact the company culture, a great deal of the information you seek is often on the supervisee level. Make sure that you invest in staff experiences to help create a more vibrant, productive and beneficial culture for all.
