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Sep 8, 2021
Your employees play a crucial role in your business's continued success. Without the right talents, running a strong and competitive organization will be close to impossible.
So, how can you attract the right candidates and retain the best talents for your business?
As a Fort Lauderdale SEO company that won the Great Place to Work award and Inc. 500’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies in America, trust us when we say that the answer relies greatly upon your company culture.
Company or workplace culture is the set of shared values, beliefs, and attitudes in an organization. This is reflected in the way you treat your customers and employees, and how your staff treats each other.
It’s also evident in the way people feel about the work they do in your company, where they see your company going, and what they’re doing to help you get there.
Allowing toxic behaviors and negative attitudes to fester and become the foundation of your organization will result in a negative work experience and drive your best employees away.
However, by being intentional with your core values and initiatives to create a positive workplace culture, you can inspire your employees to give their best and partner with you in helping your business thrive.
So, how exactly can you build a workplace culture that works best for your employees and your company?
Read on to find out!
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To get started, identify first what your current company culture is. Invite managers, long-term employees, and HR representatives to a meeting and come up with a list of values that accurately demonstrate the kind of workplace culture you currently have.
Then, go back to your company mission and vision and compare your current company culture to the core values you originally intended your employees to possess. Are they consistent with each other?
If they aren’t, it’s a sign that changes need to be made within your organization. Identify the toxic traits or negative behaviors to eliminate and the values that should replace them.
The next step is to brainstorm the type of organizational culture you want to create and identify the areas you can improve or change in your current company culture to bridge the gap between them. Use your company's core values to help you define what your priorities are so you can better understand the kind of culture you want to build for your company.
Goals are very powerful. They provide motivation and help set your employees in the right direction. Make sure to outline the objectives of every department so each team has concrete results they can work towards.
Doing this will also help clarify each team member’s roles and responsibilities and encourage them to collaborate.
It’s also vital to provide assessment and feedback so your employees are aware of what they need to improve on, what they’re particularly good at, and what they need to keep doing. This will help keep everyone at their best and motivate them to keep moving forward.
Sometimes, work can feel routinary and boring. When this happens, you should remind your employees that what they’re doing is important and that they serve a greater purpose, which is to help you bring the company to the next level.
Remind your employees about the organization’s long-term objectives and the crucial role they play towards achieving the company’s mission. This will not only give them a sense of professional purpose, but also helps boost their morale.
Making your employees feel valued and heard, regardless of their status in the company, creates a culture where everybody is invested in the work they do.
When your employees are engaged, they tend to be more productive and produce better quality work because everything they do is filled with purpose and enthusiasm. They’re also more likely to stay in your company longer and enable the higher-ups to focus on activities that bring in more value, such as innovation and process improvement, which ultimately makes your business easier to run.
The significance of employee engagement cannot be overemphasized. It all starts with individual employees who take pride in the work they do and are committed to the company they represent.
Now, imagine if all of your employees are motivated and engaged. That would create a powerful workforce that can produce a positive impact on company results.
Remember, you never know where the next million-dollar idea will come from. It could be from an intern or a new employee, so let everyone feel comfortable to share their thoughts and ideas, and empower them by recognizing their hard work.
Fostering a diverse and inclusive work environment for your employees establishes a sense of belongingness where they feel accepted and celebrated for who they are and what they can do, instead of feeling judged and restricted based on their color, background, religion, or sexual orientation.
Additionally, employees who feel included tend to be more engaged. And, we all know what the ripple effect engagement has on a company’s profitability and retention.
According to Deloitte, companies with a diverse workforce generate 2.3 times more cash flow per employee. They also found that highly diverse workplace environments result in an increase in team performance by 30%.
A BCG study also claims that companies with highly diverse management teams experience a 19% increase in revenue compared to their less diverse match.
Empower your employees by celebrating differences and recognizing each of their special talents, unique traits, and the fresh perspectives they bring to the table. Encourage your employees to share their pronounce to promote inclusive language, and work with HR to help come up with diversity initiatives.
You should also look into making diversity a part of your recruitment strategy. This will widen your talent pool and increase your chance of finding the best candidates.
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Nobody likes working in a tense and overly controlled working environment. Allow your employees to be themselves and fool around, especially when work gets difficult. This is a great way to make a challenging situation feel more lighthearted.
Of course, they still need to resolve the problem and get work done. But, when a difficult situation arises, your team can better think of a solution if everyone has a positive outlook instead of a doom mentality.
As your go-to Fort Lauderdale SEO Company, we like hosting parties and fun games at the office, and sometimes have outings to give our employees a break from their day-to-day activities. We found this an effective way to keep them happy, motivated, and engaged.
A winning workplace culture ensures that your employees feel comfortable to speak openly about the problems they’re facing, whether it’s an incident that happened in the workplace or outside, and provide them access to the support and resource they need to cope or recover from that.
Talk with the HR and urge them to have flexibility within their schedules in case anyone wants to have a personal conversation. You should also make it a point that your employees know their rights and identity is protected within the workplace.
Coming up with ways on how your employees can report incidents anonymously and making sure they’re acted upon will also encourage them to report any wrongful act they experience in the office.
Creating an employee recognition program will motivate your employees to continue to do their best and exceed expectations. It also makes them feel valued, seeing that all their efforts are paying off.
It’s also a surefire way to motivate their peers to step up their game. However, keep in mind that a healthy workplace competition can quickly turn into a toxic race. So, you want to keep everybody in line, and as much as possible, keep competition within the workplace controlled.
Competition in the workplace is inevitable. Always make sure that it stays at a healthy level. In case things get out of hand, be prepared to step in and restore order in your company.
Feedback greatly helps identify flaws in your organization and suggests how to improve or resolve a problem.
So, aside from creating an employee recognition program, you should also do quarterly feedback and assessment that aims to bring your employees’ pain points to your attention. It’s the only way you’ll know how to better support your employees so they can perform their best, whether it’s getting new software, switching pantry snacks to something healthier, streamlining a process, or providing more training for professional growth.
Consider each of their feedback and try your best to address them. Maybe you can set up a meeting to discuss matters and gather everyone’s ideas on how to best solve each of their problems.
Sometimes, life happens and can get in the way of work. When this occurs to your employees, allow them to address things that come up unexpectedly without any consequences.
Sit down with that employee and have a talk with them. Be open-minded and find a way to solve the problem, and provide support to your employee as much as you can.
For example, if an employee is struggling to adjust to their new task, work with them to find out what you can do to help them go through the adjustment period with ease. Perhaps they just need more time or training.
When you do this, you’ll earn the respect of your employees.
Especially in an era where people value their mental health more than their positions or salary, 88% said they’re more likely to consider a low-paying job over a higher-paying job as long as it offered flexible hours. This proves that money and benefits are no longer the major factors that determine whether an employee with last or not.
Disengaged employees can get in the way of your company’s success by spreading toxicity within the organization.
If you notice a particular individual whose work quality has declined, act like they don’t care, are always exhausted, or are being difficult to worth with, pull them aside and ask them what’s wrong. Learn why they’re acting the way they do.
Disengaged employees normally feel like they’ve been doing the same old thing for too long and that there’s nothing to look forward to, and all they need is little support or pep talk to get back on track.
Breaks play an essential part in helping your employees become more productive. They allow the brain to reset, which improves focus and concentration when they resume back to work.
It can also help your employees feel more energized and avoid burnout. Remember, your team members are not robots. It’s unrealistic for you to expect them to work for eight hours straight without taking a break. This can compromise their work quality and will have a ripple effect on your company’s output.
Encourage your employees to turn off their computers for 30 minutes to an hour each day and enjoy their lunch, talk with a peer, or go out of the office for a breath of fresh air.
According to a recent study, regular breaks can help improve productivity, and 81% of employees who take lunch breaks daily experience a desire to actively contribute to their organization.
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One-on-one meetings are the best way you can keep your employees engaged. By having dedicated time to ask them what’s been going on lately in their lives and discuss career development and growth, you’re making your employees feel valued and important.
The purpose of one-on-ones are also for the following:
One-on-ones should ideally be done at least 30 minutes weekly, but assess whatever works best for you and your employees. Once you’ve set a schedule for a one-on-one, honor that meeting, even if something else comes up. This can show your employees that you respect and care about them.
Just like disengaged employees, disengaged managers can also get in the way of your company’s success.
Their negative behavior and attitude can influence individual performances and result in decreased motivation and poor-quality work, which will ultimately affect the company’s output.
So, how can you identify if one of your managers is disengaged?
Here are some signs to look out for:
If you notice one of your managers has become disengaged, talk to them and call them out for their behavior. However, you also want to check in on them to understand their situation and what you can do to help them get back on their feet.
Training and skill development are vital in creating a winning work experience. Provide your employees learning opportunities to hone their existing skills and to learn new ones.
You can also encourage them to pursue their passion, whether it has something to do with the company or not, and urge them to share their new learnings or experiences to strengthen employee relationships and promote collaboration.
The culture you build plays a major role in attracting the right candidates, retaining the best talents, and setting your business on the winning path.
Having a winning company culture is an acknowledgment that your employees are your most critical asset and that protecting them is the best way you can guarantee success.
Digital Resource is your go-to Fort Lauderdale SEO company with a heart. We care about our employees and their welfare because we recognize that they’re an organization's most valuable asset.
We hope you found this article useful in your pursuit of building a winning workplace culture for your employees. If you want to read more of our blogs, check out our insider blog!
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