Having a good company culture is more important now than it ever has been. Modern workplace settings are continually evolving which allows businesses to boom. Understanding the importance of the workplace environment is crucial in allowing a company’s survival and growth, and here’s why.
What Exactly Is Company Culture?
Company culture is essentially the behaviour of people within a particular company. Matt Whiat over at Workhuman notes that this is often centred around the interaction between employees and their interactions with the organisation. This is based on the alignment of values, beliefs, and mission of the company with employees, which can affect the feeling of connection and inspiration an individual feels within the company.
Why Is It So Important?
Defines The Company
The image of a company to the public is heavily impacted by the treatment and behaviour of its employees. The significance of this is that it reflects how a company may treat and behave towards its customers. So if customers see how great your company culture is, they may be more interested in using your service or products because you have conveyed your values as a company through the treatment of your staff, and their treatment of others. So it is therefore important to consider what the identity of your corporation is or should be.
Sense of Community
Having a strong company identity can strengthen the bond between all staff which creates a great sense of community and improves teamwork. Unique individuals coming together to share their perspectives can guide decision-making and set realistic and fair expectations on how to behave within the team.
Improved Working Conditions
When a company works on improving the corporate culture, the working conditions for employees will consequently improve too. This is because when the employees’ beliefs and values are aligned with the company, desired behaviours and results are more likely to transpire, which creates a better environment for everyone. As an employer or manager, having happier employees will improve your day-to-day life as well.
Improved Wellbeing At Home
Also, even though there’s the phrase “don’t take work home”, it is natural for feelings, thoughts, and ideas from the workplace to creep into our personal lives. So having a better work-life can ease all aspects of your life and stress can be managed better, which will positively affect performance at work.
Better Results
So with an enhanced working environment, the absences of employees decrease because they are more likely to enjoy their day-to-day jobs and duties in a friendlier atmosphere. Having employees who are feeling seen and understood by the company are going to be gaining more fulfilment from their tasks, which ultimately drives them to work harder. This shows that happier employees have increased engagement and productivity levels, which contributes substantially to the company’s success.
Equal Opportunities
A great company culture means staff have the ability to thrive. This kind of culture is what drives employees to seize opportunities, and the company can elevate and encourage people of all backgrounds to succeed and grow. Inclusion and equity can be enhanced through empathetic leadership, whilst recognising imbalances and areas of improvement within the company culture.
Hiring and Keeping Great People Is Easier
A great working environment is more desirable than a miserable one, so this can increase the chances of people that are at the top of their field wanting to work for you, so hiring becomes an easier process. Having people actively seeking to work at a company, rather than someone who is simply thinking “this will do”, is going to boost your results and only contribute to your great company culture, and not drag it down. This also means it is easier for you to keep your best employees, rather than lose them to other companies, and you can help them grow and move up the company ladder.
How Is A Great Company Culture Created?
The traits of a good company culture include:
- Promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion
- Mutual respect between all
- Behaving ethically and with integrity
- Supportive managers
- Teamwork
For this to be successful, everybody has to be on the same wavelength – “a team is only as strong as its weakest member”.
Set Goals
Employees need something to work towards, otherwise, how can they know what they are aiming for or what the expectation of them is? Establishing goals allows an individual to understand what contribution they are making to the company and how their personal values are embodied by the company too. Encouraging staff using positive reinforcement methods can provide recognition to those that are working in alignment with the company’s goals.
Listen To Staff
Gaining feedback from employees is invaluable. Hosting frequent one on one sessions to speak personally with each individual is crucial to discovering how they are finding their work life. But also providing the opportunity for them to give anonymous feedback is vital to take the pressure off, to ensure they aren’t withholding anything they feel uncomfortable saying in person. They are the ones that are living day to day in the working environment and are the main ones being most affected by it, so understanding how they are feeling and taking on board their ideas is a great way to develop the company culture.
Accountability
There are always going to be occasions when things don’t go according to plan. Ensuring people feel responsible for their own actions and behaviour is a way of empowering people to make better decisions. Supporting individuals in taking accountability leads to a more trusting environment where people build each other up, rather than undermining them.
Overall, the aim of having a better organisational culture is to allow for a more positive employee experience, which ultimately affects the standard of work and can contribute to better results within the company. As well as improving employee well-being and inclusion, it can also make the company a desirable place to work. By setting goals and listening to staff, you can learn how to improve the culture at your company and become more successful in multiple ways.
