The positivity of your workplace culture can have far-reaching effects. It’s not just about those after work drinks on a Friday evening. It’s about fostering a culture that encourages staff engagement, loyalty, productivity and creativity. A healthy workplace culture can also feed into and feed on the brand image you project out to your clients and customers.
If you’ve recognized the need for improvement in your workplace culture, making changes could be easier than you think. Here are seven simple but very effective ways to give your company culture that much-needed boost:
- Be Transparent
Teams who understand their bosses and the overall objectives of their company are more likely to strive towards that common goal. You can achieve this understanding through transparency. Be honest about company goals, share information and involve your team in the decision-making process where possible.
- Embrace Flexibility
For many employees, a flexible workplace culture helps them to maintain a healthy work-life balance and come to work feeling more refreshed and motivated. Being flexible means allowing employees to work from home from time to time. You could also instigate a flexi-time approach to the working day, where employees work their required hours whenever they choose within the working week.
- Give Praise and Recognition
The simple act of praising an employee or team member for a job well done can have a huge impact on that person’s level of motivation and desire to work. Don’t wait for the end of a big project to dish out the praise. Give you team regular pats on the back for the work they do well.
- Keep the Office Clean
Unnecessary clutter around the office can have a real impact on how your employees feel about their workspace and their job in general. You should try to create an inspiring environment. Hire a reliable and thorough maintenance team to clean your office at least once a week. And, for those files that can be archived or that equipment you use once in a blue moon, look for a storage facility on a sharing community site. You could soon have a clean, tidy and motivating office space for you and your team.
- Make A Difference
Everyone likes to feel that they’re making a difference rather than just earning a monthly pay-check. Could your company adopt more ethical or environmentally friendly practices? It could be that starting a recycling initiative or enrolling your employees for a day volunteering within the community could go a long way to improving workplace culture.
- Encourage Teamwork
Some managers like to foster a sense of competition among employees, thinking that they’ll get the best out of them in this way. Unfortunately, this rarely leads to a happy workplace culture. Teams that work well together, supporting each other throughout their daily tasks, are more likely to achieve their goals and utilize skills effectively.
- Give and Get Feedback
Regularly provide feedback on your team’s work, both individually and as a whole. If you take appraisals seriously and don’t treat them as a box ticking exercise, they can be a handy tool for encouraging growth and progression in your employees. Your staff are also ideally placed to feed back to you on the workplace culture they work within. They could be able to suggest new ways of doing things or confirm which of the things currently in place aid their happiness and engagement at work.
Workplace culture plays a big part in employee engagement. This in turn impacts employee retention, happiness, motivation and productivity. As you can see from this list, simple things can have a significant impact on improving workplace culture. So, there’s no reason not to start implementing changes today.
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