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August 23, 2024
If you’re operating in the services sector, there is a good chance that your employees will be your largest company expense. Finding, hiring and retaining the best staff should therefore be one of your top objectives as a company owner. This is why creating a positive work culture can be so vital for success.
When employees are content in their place of work, they’re more likely to give it their all every day. They won’t suffer from burnout, which means fewer sick days due to stress. And they’ll also stick around for longer. This means that you can confidently invest in their development without worrying that they will be looking for opportunities elsewhere.
All of this can be achieved by simply taking the time to cultivate a positive work culture, but how exactly do you go about doing this? Company owners often think that this is something that will happen naturally, but it actually takes care and attention to ensure the working environment is supportive and productive.
Read on to learn why a positive work environment is essential and how you can take proactive steps to stamp out negativity and toxicity.
There are numerous benefits to enjoying high employee retention, including lower recruitment costs, improved staff morale and retained expertise and knowledge. In the long-term, this can translate to higher revenue due to an increase in productivity.
Low staff turnover can sometimes be seen as a bad thing, particularly when this leads to low engagement and a decrease in productivity. This can happen when employees are able to “cruise” in their roles, with nothing challenging them to advance but nothing prompting them to leave.
In recent times, this has been referred to as “quiet quitting”, where employees do the bare minimum in response to a lack of engagement. This kind of sentiment can quickly spread through employees, so once one employee has checked out, this could quickly have a negative impact on those around them.
So while employee retention might be important, it should also be accompanied by a positive work culture, opportunities for progression and continued engagement. Here are some expert tips on how to cultivate a more positive work culture.
It is hard to uphold any semblance of work culture without understanding the core values of the organisation. If you want to get the support of your employees, you need to show your cards and let them know what exactly they are supporting. When new hires join the company, let them know all about your core values and how you work. By establishing expectations early on, you allow your workers to nurture the company culture in line with your vision.
If employees don’t have any opportunities for progression, you can expect them to become disengaged and a drop in productivity will follow. Training and development should be at the heart of your company culture, encouraging everyone to push themselves forward and achieve to the maximum of their ability.
There is often the fear among employers that they will invest in workers and then they’ll leave. But employers should be more afraid of not investing in their workers and having them stick around.
Everyone wants to know that their effort is recognised. It’s a great idea to implement a system for rewarding and recognising achievement within the team. This could be in the form of an employee of the month competition, or through sharing and congratulating individuals for their accomplishments. It’s important for individuals to feel like their contribution is recognised and appreciated in order to cultivate a positive work culture.
Creating a positive work environment doesn’t have to mean you cannot set expectations for how employees should behave and perform. But it’s vital to ensure that any rules that are implemented are implemented evenly and fairly. It can be frustrating for workers to see inconsistency in the way rules and expectations are implemented. So, if you are going to set guidelines and expectations, make sure you’re willing to uphold these.
Trust that your workers know the job better than you do, so if they have recommendations on how to improve productivity, they will appreciate the opportunity to be heard. There is a great example of a manufacturing company in Brazil that allows workers to decide how to get things done. At a time when rival companies were going bankrupt, Semco has managed to thrive. This has been attributed to the radical approach to listening to the employees and allowing them to decide what is best for productivity.
If you’re forever following the trends and trying to shake up your company culture, you can expect employees to be frustrated and confused by your approach. During the interview process, you can expect employees to make a decision about whether to join your company based on how you articulate your company culture. If this is changing every few months, this wouldn’t be fair to your employees. Once you have settled on how you want your company to operate, what you value, and how you define success, you can’t keep changing the goalposts.
Employee engagement can make or break your business. When engagement is waning, you need to bring everyone back together and get them back on the same page. Team building exercises and fun activities can help to break everyone out of their routine and get them back on the same page. It can also be a much-needed source of relief during times of high stress.
Your company work culture won’t happen by accident, so you need to be prepared to put in the time and effort to define your company culture and then enforce it. The benefits of this can be seen in a lot of different ways, including improved employee retention and increased productivity. You’ll also find it much easier to attract employees when you have a clearly defined company culture that rewards individuals for their contribution and accomplishments.
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