A company that has a set of shared beliefs, values, and ethos across all departments can realize more financial benefits. This company culture shapes the behavior of employees and how they perceive the company. The company culture becomes like its personality, helping the company retain employees and serve customers better. Here are eight ways to boost company culture.
Be Transparent
Transparency motivates employees. Your employees will be more engaged and will gain trust in the organization. If you want any other company culture you want to cultivate to succeed, your employees have to first trust you. Provide the best communication and collaboration tools to keep employees in touch and abreast with all company news. Share the successes of the company as much as you share challenges.
Reward Valuable Input
If you recognize talent and valuable contributions, you will likely have a lower turnover rate. If your employees do not feel recognized, they will likely quit the company. A high turnover has a significant effect on the finances of the company. To be on the safe side, identify qualities and behaviors that are aligned with the goals of your company and find a way to reward them. You also need to encourage peer-to-peer recognition, which reduces the work of managers.
Encourage Collaboration
Strong relationships at work enhance employee collaboration. The process takes time, but it can be done with a little effort. Start by providing an environment where employees can freely interact with each other. You can also engage them in dedicated team-building activities. Employees should be comfortable talking to their leader and not run to their offices when they see the leader coming. Employees can have lunch in the same space instead of eating from their desks or have other activities that bring them together.
Encourage Employee Autonomy
Employees do not love being micromanaged. Micromanaging is inefficient and does not inspire trust. You can create an environment that allows workers to work and create teams autonomously. Instead of insisting on the 40-hour week, create deadlines for projects and allow employees to work at their own pace as long as they meet the deadline. In between, you can do project reviews and assessments and give feedback. With so many remote workers today, leaders need to find a new way to check on project progress without the need to bully workers.
Improve Employee Welfare and Benefits
A healthier and happy workforce is more effective and efficient. Given that your employees spend about 40 hours at the place of work, improving their well-being is an easy way to boost their productivity and make them love being at work every day. Offering something, such as affordable health insurance that takes care of them when they are sick can boost their passion for their work, which consequently benefits the company’s bottom line. Other ways to improve employee welfare include cost-free training, parental leave, paid time off, pet-friendly offices, fitness classes, and healthy snacks at work. Offer these, and you will have a happier workforce.
Provide Workplace Flexibility
Is your workplace flexible? Flexibility can mean that employees have work-from-home opportunities, teams can collaborate on projects as they see fit, parents can step out of the office for a school event, or whatever else you make for your company. When creating a flexible work schedule, start slow and see what works. You can start with flex Fridays and stretch that to other work days. The flexible schedules have to be aligned with the company goals.
Give and Receive Feedback
Feedback helps employees get better at what they do and grow. This is important for the growth of the company. Having annual performance reviews does not help employees much. You need to have more regular reviews where you can assess the progress of projects and give feedback on the spot. You can also use employee engagement surveys through which you will understand the concerns and challenges that your employees have.
Encourage Constant Innovation
To attract new customers and grow your business, you need to create new and innovative products and services. You need to encourage creativity so that your employees can create new and exciting projects. If you pair this with autonomy and rewards, your company will benefit from the many new products that employees create.
You need to give culture building the time and effort it needs to develop. The process takes energy and resources. It should also resonate with the values, vision, and mission of the company. Bring everyone on board and then start slow and build from there.