We can grow our businesses by doing more marketing, targeting new clientele, improving customer service, or expanding locations, among other things. However, you’re never likely to achieve the results you’re after if you don’t have a happy, productive, committed team of people working for and with you.
You want to create a positive company culture to ensure your employees are engaged and as efficient as possible. When your firm’s culture is supportive, you’ll attract the top talent in your field, and you’re much more likely to retain your employees, too.
Plus, people will be happier and come up with better ideas, work faster, and support each other more to complete projects. Here are some crucial steps you should take to improve your firm’s company culture today.
Give Employees Way to Grow and Learn
While employees focused on what they earned in their jobs years ago and stayed with one company for years, things are different today. Workers move around firms a lot more often and are typically just as interested in learning, growing, and developing themselves as they are in what their wage is.
As such, to create a company culture that works, you need to look for ways to challenge your team members and help them expand their knowledge and skillset. For example, consider paying for all or some of the costs for employees to complete courses, workshops, or other further education opportunities. If financing this is out of the question, you can also support them by giving them time off to attend some educational classes or complete online learning.
Also, bring in knowledgeable and inspirational speakers to talk to your team on relevant topics and pair people with mentors. Mentoring is a great way to help workers develop and start training people up today to take on leadership or other higher roles. If you’re unsure how to proceed in this area, you might like to outsource the task to a specialist firm such as Workhuman.
It’s wise, too, to put your employees into challenging situations where they can test themselves and see what they still need to work on. Keep pushing people to try new things. You might move people around the business, giving them a chance to test out different roles or different locations for a period, or get them out of their comfort zone by asking them to speak at events, lead more team meetings, or otherwise step up.
Acknowledge and Reward Workers
Next, remember that workers want to feel that their efforts are seen and valued. To create a positive company culture, make acknowledging, thanking, and rewarding your staff members a regular part of your management process. Take the time to give people heartfelt thanks in person when they achieve something great or when you know they have been going out of their way to put in extra effort.
Acknowledge top team members via public shoutouts or by setting up awards programs. Be sure to celebrate the successes, both large and small, to help keep morale and motivation high. People like rewards, too, so you might compensate those who excel with gift baskets, bottles of wine, gift cards, flowers, chocolate, trips away, or simply with cash bonuses.
Or, you can use perks to show you see and value your employees. For instance, provide workers with free meals in the office, or free massages or exercise classes. You could make daycare free or discounted for your team members or provide them with an extra day off per month or quarter.
Offer More Flexibility
Something else that everyone is keen on these days is increased flexibility. People are looking for opportunities to work at home or in other locations rather than always having to commute to an office. They also like to have the opportunity to set their own hours. Even if this flexibility is only for a couple of days per week, enabling such versatility in where and when your team gets their job done should boost company culture and improve results.
Many businesses also find that giving people flexibility regarding the tasks they complete and how they go about them has an excellent flow-on effect. For example, you might give people one day or a half-day per week to concentrate on projects they want to explore or to test out new ideas.
Other steps to improve your company’s culture include enabling volunteering and other giving-back opportunities within the workplace so people feel a sense of purpose and focus on ensuring you and other leaders in the firm communicate effectively at all times. Be open, clear, and transparent wherever possible and try to make people feel included and part of the team.
You can also encourage creativity, avoid micromanaging your staff, and regularly ask your team for feedback on areas where they want to see improvements.
You don’t have to try to do everything at once to boost company culture, but small, consistent steps will make a big difference.
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