A string employee culture should recognize and be an embodiment of the core goals and mission of the company. It should be based on strong standards, merits, and shared vision. More importantly, it should encourage teamwork within an organization and soak every employee in a sense of belonging. Such a culture should also be geared towards boosting individual and collective productivity while creating positive lasting impressions with the customers as well as other individuals it may interact with.
But how do you come up with such an impactful and lasting company culture:
1. Embrace transparency
Don’t just vet the performance metrics, come up with performance goals and enforce them on employees? They will work better show more commitment and even be more productive if they understand how the business operates. Creating a strong culture in your organization, therefore, starts by letting employees on the decision making process. Organize regular brainstorming sessions, either roundtable departmental meetings or anonymous online sessions, where employees are encouraged to air their views about a particular project.
2. Reduce management bureaucracy and micromanagement
In the spirit of transparency and making every employee feel like they belong, consider adopting a flat and open organization model. This starts by eliminating the numerous and unnecessary layers of management common in most companies. These not only create communication hurdles but also strangle the spirit of equality and potential collaborative efforts in an organization.
For instance, if you run storage units near me business, you don’t need an extended management hierarchy. Dismantle these unnecessary barriers and make it possible for employees to have a direct access to the business owner or manager as it makes them feel valued thus feeding their sense of belonging.
3. Empower employees through information and freedom
Most employees want to work with a brand that makes the most use of their skills. They also want to work under a management team that value and respect their dedication to self-improvement. This can be achieved by giving them time off to complete courses and putting their new skills into good use through promotions.
The surge in popularity for the remote working culture is also a testament to the fact that employees need some level of freedom . This calls for a shift from the nine-to-five mentality and requests business leaders to reconsider valuing quality and quantity of tasks accomplished by an employee as opposed to the number of hours spent in the confines of their offices.
4. Invest in your employees
Customer loyalty is gained through proper customer service skills, employee loyalty, the foundation of the strongest company cultures is on the other hand built on a brand’s investments in its employees . Just like the customers, you have to constantly show your employer that you value them and their contributions towards the company.
Note that while some investments like organizing retreats or sponsoring their holidays may take a toll on your bottom line, some need no more than time and the right words. For instance, sending an employee or their family a thank you card, a gift card, or attending their child’s graduation ceremony only takes a fraction of your time but goes a long way in proving the value you place on them.
Related: How to Create a Positive Environment in the Workplace5. Foster collaborations
Unlike management initiated culture cultivation strategies that require time to take effect, employees initiatives are fast and long-lasting. However, most of these can only be born out of collaborative efforts.
You should, therefore, take every available chance to foster such collaboration s by creating several teams within the organization. Give them the freedom to create their own rules of engagement and approaches to the tasks at hand, as these often unchartered rules soon grow into some of the most formidable company cultures.
Bottom line
A strong company culture improves productivity in all departments and makes management relatively easy. It also reduces staff turnover rates and fosters stronger relationships between employees and management that extend beyond the workplace. But it all starts with embracing transparency, empowering and investing your staff and giving them relative freedom.