By | DTIB Editor
Are you someone keen to create a winning company culture that will attract the right people, help retain the best talent, and steer your business on the path to long-term success? Your company’s workplace culture refers to the set of shared values, beliefs, assumptions, and attitudes that directly or indirectly impact your organization.
Workplace culture is reflected in the way your employees treat customers, the kind of impact you want to have on their lives, and how your organization becomes a vehicle of socio-economic change. A great workplace culture boosts productivity, reduces turnover costs, enhances employee engagement, and improves the bottom line of an organization.
Here in this post, we will discuss what makes a great workplace culture. If you are a business leader, HR manager, or someone responsible for managing a business, this post is for you. Read on.
- Clear Ethos & Values
First things first, a company should draft and finalize a clear set of organizational core values. Think of these organizational values as your company’s DNA. These values should essentially reflect your organization’s business beliefs, principles & decisions.
Regardless of the nature of business, the core organizational values should be short, to-the-point and unique; these core values should address both internal & external goals and guide decision-making at all levels.
Consider Google, for instance. Their core work philosophy succinctly outlines values that the company wants its employees to follow. The company wants its employees to “focus on the user,” exhorts them to “do one thing really, really well,” and underlines the importance of speed by including “Fast is better than slow’ in its core work philosophy.
- Open & Transparent Communication
Open and transparent communication is vital to encourage teamwork in the workplace. When such communication systems are in place, it is also possible to carry out routine audits to evaluate how workers, vendors, customers, etc. are interacting with each other.
Based on feedback gathered, specific decisions can be taken to further improve communication among teams, divisions, and stakeholders who participate or work together in a process.
Depending upon the nature of business and the situation at hand, companies may also need to create communication protocols for different scenarios and teams. Work-from-home teams, for instance, can benefit from a set of standard guidelines of effective communication amongst remote teams.
To foster a positive work culture, many companies organize family weekends, team getaways, coffee meetings, etc. so that their employees may communicate better and let go of implicit or unconscious biases.
- Strong Sense of Belonging
Employees at companies that nurture a great workplace culture express a strong sense of winning and achieving major milestones together. In such a work culture, workers look at each other as members of one community. They celebrate special events, work in unison to achieve major company goals, and together contribute to the society at large. Such a sense of belonging fosters better employee cooperation.
- Clear Team Goals
Supervisors or managers should clearly outline the objectives for each team or department. This way, all employees have tangible objectives they can strive to achieve. Various teams in the workplace shouldn’t be in the dark about what’s expected of them. Clarity in individual team objectives helps encourage inter-team collaboration.
- Clarity on Organizational Goals
Does your company need to increase profitability? Do you want more positive customer reviews on the web? Do you want to maximize the no. of customers to perceive your employees as punctual, professional, and friendly? Do you need your staff to wear a uniform on all occasions when they are out on site visits? All such objectives can be achieved by encouraging employees to strive to achieve a set of well-defined organizational goals.
Like core organizational values, employees should also be made aware of key organizational goals. Such goals help cultivate a strong sense of purpose among employees. When they understand what the company is trying to achieve beyond monthly or quarterly targets, they can align themselves better to key organizational goals.
So, workers shouldn’t think of ‘wear your uniform, always’ as an unnecessary company policy but a part of organizational goal to look professional on all occasions.
- Promote Diversity & Inclusivity
In a great workplace, people want to work together and put in their best efforts to achieve set goals. A great workplace is essentially an “inclusive” workplace where workers celebrate their differences. There should be no room for discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender, or sexual orientation. For some companies, it may also be a legal requirement to create and implement a policy to discourage and deal with workplace discrimination. It is a good idea to consult an employment law attorney while drafting such policies.
Final Words
In a positive workplace where every individual feels valued, workers can get on with their jobs without having to think about what’s wrong with a team member, manager, or the company. Workers are proud to work for organizations that encourage such workplace culture. People are excited to come to work and go home satisfied; they are more committed to the organizational goals.
Besides higher productivity, happier employees, and enhanced ability to retain top talent, good workplace culture also leads to greater customer satisfaction, revenue gains, better decision-making, and steady growth. The extra time, effort, and resources you invest in fostering a positive workplace culture will pay off rich dividends and set your organization for success.
