The culture of a company is its personality, its character, and its essence. It can be seen by how the staff interact with each other, engage with customers and connect with the community. Workplace culture effects every single part of a business! According to research by Deloitte, 94% of executives and 88% of employees believe a distinct corporate culture is important to a business’ success. It has the potential to make a company thrive or cause it to suffer. That’s why it is vital that leaders have a good understanding of the company’s current culture. It is also essential to have plans in place to continuously improve workplace culture whenever possible, ensuring that the business remains dynamic and responsive to both internal and external changes.
In this article we will discussing ways to improve workplace culture and the positive effects it can have on your business. By creating a supportive and happy work environment, companies can make employees feel better, work harder, and achieve more. We will look at things like good communication, recognizing hard work, promoting work-life balance, and being inclusive. These steps can help make your workplace a great place to be.
Establish Your Values
In a workplace it is important that everyone has aligned values. These values are what aim them towards their personal and professional goals. These values drives the work they do. If you haven’t figured out what your company vales are yet, you can ask. A good place to start is to speak to your employees! You also must speak to your customers. Speaking to both will give you an internal and external perspective of the values your company already gives off.
Once you have established this don’t just have these words hidden away! You should regularly discuss them, talk about each task you’re doing, and see if it is aligning to keep these values alive.
Another thing to think about is hiring based on values. During the hiring process it is important to think about an employees fit into the company and how they will work alongside others. They may have an impressive skill set but if your values do not align they might not be a good match. Here at Wurkplace we believe that skills can be taught but values can not. Everything we do here is in line with our values. If you click here you can read more about Wurkplace’s values.
Communication
As we all know communication is a vital tool needed for businesses to thrive, but it’s also necessary to help sustain a healthy workplace culture. An article by indeed.com states that:
“A culture of open communication fosters a healthy and accepting environment where all employees feel equal and understood”.
A powerful practice to achieve this is focused and regular one-to-ones, to allow both parties to speak openly. The outcomes can result in more motivated employees, with higher engagement and productivity.
Being an effective communicator is also about being an active listener. You can do this by asking for regular feedback from your employees and making sure you do take on board what people say so they feel heard.
Furthermore, as more and more people are working for home or adopting a hybrid model, we need to learn to adapt to this. You need to ensure that the appropriate tools and training are in place so that people can still communicate effectively from multiple offices.
Looking after you employees
Your employees are your greatest asset. We believe that looking after your employees is the most important thing in helping improve workplace culture. This can be achieved by making sure that there is enough staff to complete the jobs you are asking, so people aren’t overworking resulting in burnout. This is especially important in some sectors, such as tech, hospitality, care, and construction. When this happens people’s productivity drops and it often leads to them having to take time off work to recover. Then you are down more staff, meaning extra workload for others which in turn could lead them in the same situation. It’s a vicious cycle. This is why prevention is much better than a remedy.
Celebrate accomplishments
In addition, showing respect and kindness to everyone on your team is vital. Recognising and letting your staff know their importance from the cleaners to the directors, can help boost morale and increase their self value. You can do this by taking scheduling time to recognise people’s achievements and making conscience efforts to expressing gratitude. This can not only help with job satisfaction but employee loyalty and staff retention.
Summary…
Building a healthy working culture takes commitment and consistency, but it is worth the effort. The positive effects of improving workplace culture have been proven time and time again for not only your staff’s wellbeing but your company’s success – after all the two go hand in hand! If you want to find out more about employee wellbeing or mental health in the workplace click here to check out last months blog.
If you’re looking for further assistance, you can always contact an expert straight away – Fill our a form, or give us a call on: 0330 400 5490.
A valued member of the Wurkplace team providing administrative and coordinating skills for the HR department and also overseeing the accounts department of the business whilst carrying out key bookkeeping tasks and conducting payroll.
Georgia holds a level 3 in Business Administration and AAT level 2 whilst continuing to work towards gaining a diploma in AAT.