Does your company culture encourage employee engagement, loyalty, productivity, and creativity?

The culture of your business is like the heartbeat, it impacts every area you operate, including what is projected out to customers, suppliers, and your competitors. It’s as much of your brand as your logo, and just think how long that took to create! 

The difference with culture is you must nurture it, you have to guide it and protect it ALL the time, not just on focus days, or when you feel like it. 

Culture is so important – I spoke about this on a previous blog but listening to one high profile business coach – culture trumps strategy! You can have the best strategy in the world but if your culture is rubbish and the people not engaged, you’ll find it so hard to succeed!

If you want to make some changes to your workplace culture here are some simple and effective ways you can boost it: 

Flexibility – This is top of the list for employee demands for their role, more so than salary for many! I’m not just referring to working from home capacity as not every business/role can offer that (retail, hospitality etc.) but considering how leave requests can be made, shift adjustment, and flexi approach to time. Perhaps, if possible, moving to an output focus rather than time in the workplace! 

Transparency – Let’s be real here, the more open we are with those around us the more understanding we create. When we resonate with things, we’re more likely to invest more, and that’s no different in the workplace. It’s not always good news to share, and that’s ok. You never know the talent in your businesses if you don’t share, I’ve seen many occasions where businesses have shared some challenging goals/ situations and employees have stood up and offered their take on solutions, pulled together as a team when it’s needed. 

Trust – Trust works both ways in business, but it really must start at the top. Great ways to demonstrate you trust in employees is to get them involved in the decision-making process, share your goals, and ask their opinion. Employees are often closer to the problems and can see what many higher up can’t. 

Reward and Recognition – Another topping the list of employee demands is a sense of purpose. Saying thanks or giving praise can have a huge impact on morale, motivation, and productivity. I’m not talking huge award ceremonies, a simple thanks for a job well done can be all it takes. Small and regular wins here over grand infrequent gestures. 

There are so many simple and effective tools to help improve a workplace culture and all can be implemented without a fan fair. It’s about what you do every day, not occasionally that will have positive impact on your workplace and the engagement of your employees. 

Do you have something to add to the list? Why not join us over in our HR and People Manager community on Facebook, we’re waiting to welcome you in!