You might believe that if you pay your employees just enough, they will work on their maximum potential but statistics and experience prove something else. A strong and friendly company culture not only gives happier employees but it also ensures more productive, efficient and committed employees. This means that people will be serving the company goals to their utmost potential an this will impact the company in a huge way.
A research conducted at the University of Warwick concluded that happy employees led to a 12% increase in productivity, whereas unhappy workers proved 10% less productive. Another study showed that companies that had a strong culture had a turnover rate of approximately only 13.9 %, compared to much higher turnover at companies with a flimsy culture. Another statistic shows that companies with good employee engagement remain 22 percent more profitable than companies with weak engagement.
If your business is a startup, establishing a culture at this time is easier to develop. The convenience and luxury of defining a culture in a company at its initial stages can help you set it on a positive route from the beginning. Once your company has grown up it can become unmanageable and much more difficult to have everything under control. So even if you can’t fully control a complicated thing like culture, you can do your part to shape it.
Here are 5 things you can do to shape your company’s culture:
Set Clear Goals
As obvious as it may sound, a lot of companies actually fail to convey their motives and priorities to their employees effectively. Whatever your company’s mission is, letting your team know the importance of their work gives them self-worth and makes them more committed and passionate to their work. Setting clear goals for the company and at the individual level invigorates hard work as it instills a sense of purpose.
There are many ways in which you can set goals for your employees like having simple goal checklists in a spreadsheet or hierarchical objectives and key results (OKR) models that track in a performance management system. You can also rundown specific metrics to check the success of your efforts in your company.
Ensure Collaborative Environment
People define culture, and the way they collaborate and interact with each other, has a huge impact on the company’s productivity. Inefficient collaboration can prove to be disastrous for the company’s successful future.
When you work as a team, each member works for the common goal or set of objectives. The whole process involves shared responsibilities making it less time consuming and a lot more efficient. Even if problems occur, there is diverse expertise and a lot more ‘hands on deck’ to solve the issue.
Teamwork activities also improve communication between the employees. Coming together to discuss an idea or sharing information to contribute to a project helps in developing both verbal and written communication skills. Creating this environment helps your employees improve their communication skills and facilitates open discussions. Hence, everyone is on the same page, ensuring the project is successful.
An environment that promotes collaboration, requires people to work together and inspires employees not only generates creativity but also increases productivity as well. Encourage and promote teamwork in your company as this will let you take on additional work and produce more revenue without having to hire more staff.
Keep your Employees happy
Your employees have made your company what it is and nothing can happen without them. Treat your employees keeping in mind that they deserve respect and appreciation. One of the most important things that can change your company’s culture is recognition and appreciation of your employees.
The acknowledgment has to go far beyond the occasional compliment that you may give when passing the hall. You simply cannot ignore the importance of employee engagement, recognition and advocacy. If you want to create a productive culture atmosphere, understand these concepts and embrace them with your team.
Recent survey by Accenture shows that 43% of employees quit their jobs due to a lack of recognition and appreciation. When you encourage or appreciate an employee you cultivate in them a sense of loyalty to you, their team and the company, which goes a long way. To appreciate you employees, don’t just look for big victories. Instead, acknowledge even small occurrences. This will ensure that your team goes above and beyond to meet deadlines and keep its commitments.
If you see an employee stayed late on Wednesday and Thursday nights to make sure they met a deadline that Friday, don’t forget to publicly applaud and thank them for it. This is how you can build a culture of hardwork and dedication. Go an extra mile and celebrate work anniversaries with team lunches, initiate employee awards and let your team enjoy after finishing big projects.
Celebrate victories and Have fun
Many CEOs view victory celebrations as an unnecessary expense. It’s tempting to think that closing deals and moving the business forward is the job of every person working and not something done out of the way by them. But the reality is that the recognition of a job well done, or showing empathy after a long battle is what keeps the employees going. Logic says that people need constant reinforcement and recognition. Empathy allows leaders to recognize what drives people to work more productively.
Come up with fun ways to get together and celebrate outside the workplace. Some companies get creative and plan going out to movies together whenever celebration calls. Such trips can go a long way in strengthening your team's bond, boosting morale and securing your corporate culture. It brings a sense of personal involvement and positivity to a major business victory.
You can instill a fun environment by incorporating a culture that may include:
- Make sure there’s always something (like an event) to look forward to.
- Send random employees to lunch together to get to know each other.
- Twitter claims to hold meetings on rooftops to make them interesting. Their employees also get meals delivered to the office sometimes to surprise them.
Keep it Casual
Nobody likes rules or guidelines if they get in your way of doing things. Always remember to never force whatever culture you have, on people. Its best to let it come naturally to them with everyone involved. Don’t impose on people to participate in everything you’ve envisioned. Everyone has a different personality and the idea of fun and creativity is also different for each one of them. Be aware of your team’s opinion. Act like a leader, be vocal and you follow the path to your goals. Your attitude also generates a positive vibe that passes down to other employees quickly.
Another thing to stay away from is micromanaging. Never insist on micromanaging everyone and everything. When you try to control everything by stepping over boundaries, it may spoil the workflow and increase frustration in the work environment. Try to create a balance between attending to small details and giving authority to employees to feel empowered.
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- 5 Things You Can Do To Shape Your Company’s Culture - April 15, 2018
