The term “workplace culture” refers to the behavior, values and attitudes followed by employees working within an organization. In simple terms, the workplace culture is the personality of the company. If you own or run a business and you want to know how to improve workplace culture within the organization, then here are some tips to help you:
1. Transparency is Important
Transparency can have a positive impact on all areas of an organization. For example, employees who are trusted with sensitive or important information about a business are much more likely to feel valued and respected.
If you like the idea of making your business more transparent and open, then you will need to make sure that your employees have the correct collaboration and communication tools to do so. Once you have the correct tools in place, you will need to insist on weekly or monthly meetings with your employees. In these meetings you should:
- Talk about the successes – start your meetings by sharing and recognizing the successes of the business and the employees who work there.
- Talk about any challenges – once you’ve discussed the challenges your business is facing, you will be able to work with your employees to come up with solutions to overcome the challenges.
2. Be Flexible
Workplace flexibility might mean allowing your employees to work from home, or it could mean allowing an employee to have some time off for a special or important occasion e.g. their child’s graduation day.
There are a number of benefits to providing your employees with more flexibility in their work. Not only can it reduce employee turnover, but it can also increase staff morale. Also, when your staff are able to maintain a good work/life balance, it builds trust and commitment, which in turn can boost productivity levels.
3. Prevent Workplace Harassment
If you own a business then it becomes your responsibility to keep check on the unethical activities at the workplace. Your business should have zero tolerance policy to sexual harassment. You should mandate workplace harassment prevention training for all the employees who become part of your organization. This is how sexual harassment can be prevented to happen at the first place. HR compliant procedures should help with this.
It will also give your employees a sense of safety and build self-confidence to tackle such situations. This way employees feel supported and it leads to growth and success of your business.
4. Appreciate Your Employees
Showing your employees that you appreciate them and that you value their hard work can help to improve the culture of the workplace. Simply congratulating your employees for meeting a production target or thanking them for their hard work dealing with customer complaints can make a huge difference.
You could also think about introducing a reward scheme into your company. You could consider giving your employees an appreciation letter, a small cash gift or a material gift when they achieve a goal or when they work particularly hard. All of this can help to improve employee morale in the workplace.
5. Give Regular Feedback
Business owners should ideally be providing their employees with feedback on a regular basis. During these meetings, your employees should also be able to raise any concerns or ask any questions they may have. If employees receive positive feedback, they tend to feel more motivated and appreciated at the same time. If they feel comfortable enough to discuss what they feel could be improved with their line manager, and feel that their opinions are taken on board, it contributes to their personal growth and improves workplace relationships.
Culture is the personality and character of your business. It’s what makes you stand out from your competition and is the sum of its beliefs, traditions, values, attitudes and behaviors. Positive workplace culture drives engagement, attracts new talent, impacts employee and customer happiness and satisfaction, and can have an impact on employee performance too. This is why it’s so important to have a positive workplace culture in your business. If you want to make some improvements to the workplace culture in your business, then follow some of our advice above. Let us know if you notice the difference it makes.
