Experts who examined in detail every aspect of a standard 47 years in the working world, found the average worker will start on around £8,000 a year in their first job and will work for six different companies on their journey to job satisfaction. It’s easy to understand how creating a positive workplace culture where your employees will actually enjoy being is important.
Workplace culture resembles a company’s personality and it embraces its values, traditions and rules. Creating a positive workplace culture will make your employees identify themselves with it and comfortable doing so.
Here are some tricks that can help you create a positive workplace culture:
- An effective internal communication has a huge influence on employees. They should be encouraged to share their knowledge and express their opinions. All employees want to be heard; some of them may not feel confident to share their thoughts face to face, though. An enterprise social platform will let the employees to freely communicate, irrespective where they are.
- A flexible schedule will boost employees’ effectiveness and satisfaction. The 9-to-5 workday is dying: making life more comfortable for your employees will help recruitment, employees retention and definitively result in a happier workplace culture. Remote working is a trick that helps greatly to balance life and work. Some employees can also be more productive with no commuting hassle.
- The meeting culture often does more harm than good, leaving precious little time and focus left on actual work. An enterprise social platform would help in this case, too.
- Explicitly declare long working hours on your company’s blacklist: working until the break of dawn may be a real sign of productivity problems. In these cases, help the employees find the root of their problem.
- Be a mentor, not a boss manager, making others inspired and motivated, acting like a guide in a business jungle, showing different paths, solutions and opportunities for growth. Remember to give on-going feedback, which helps employees know their progress or weak points: according to PwC, nearly 60% of survey respondents reported that they would like feedback on a daily or weekly basis — a number that increased to 72% for employees under age 30. Also, do listen to your employees, your treasury of knowledge.
- Reduce employee stress: keeping your employees calm can help them focus, take ownership of any task and will hence boost their contributions to the company.
- Thank: Let’s put some manners back in the workplace. Not enough can be said for the simple “Thank You.” I purposely made this its own category of motivation because it’s so easy, it takes 5 seconds and its just not said enough. A kind thank you is a reward in real time and can turn a day of bad events into a happy drive home from the office. If you say “thank you,” they will notice.
- Empower: To be empowered means to tell all employees your mission, your vision and what it takes for the company to be successful. Including employees in the corporate strategy gives them a purpose. Aligning employee goals to corporate strategy gives them the power of success. If they succeed, you will succeed.
- Set Goals: Setting goals starts with clear expectations. I can’t emphasize this enough. Make sure the goals are clearly defined and attainable. If it takes a team to get it done, assign a team. By cascading goals from the strategic planning session to each department, everyone ends up working towards the same outcomes. If they achieve their goals, the company achieves its goals.
- Celebrate: To celebrate is defined as “to observe a notable occasion with festivities.” Celebrations play an important part in workplace unity. Celebrations are especially important when milestones are met, such as; a team exceeds its goals, a project is completed before the deadline, the company revenue goals exceed projections, or your latest customer satisfaction survey gets a glowing review. Everyone wants to be part of a winning team so celebrate the little and the big wins…..and do it often. If you celebrate, everyone will be energized.
Doug Conant, CEO of Campbell’s Soup, once said: “To win in the marketplace you must first win in the workplace”. By believing and constantly implementing/sharing this mantra, you could be able to really create a better workplace culture for your company in this new year!
