Did you know that 46% of job seekers believe company culture is a vital factor when looking for employment?
This statistic alone shows why work culture is something you need to take seriously. However, it’s not just about attracting employees but retaining them and ensuring your workforce can operate to the highest level.
Work culture plays a massive role in all of this!
With that in mind, we’ll reveal some of the dos and don’ts when attempting to create a productive and positive work culture.
What is work culture?
Before we look at the dos and don’ts, let’s establish what work culture means. Workplace culture combines the ideologies and principles of your business. It’s the environment you create for your workers and the sum of your behaviors, values, attitudes, interactions, and traditions.
A healthy workplace culture aligns employee behaviors and business policies with your goals while also focusing on the well-being of your team.
The DOS when creating a positive and productive work culture
Now we’ve established what work culture is, we need to achieve a productive, positive workplace environment. Here are some of the things you should do:
DO implement OKR software
There’s only one place to begin, and this is by implementing OKR software. But what is OKR software? Well, OKR stands for Objective and Key Results, so OKR software is a tool that helps businesses to track and collaborate on goals across all levels. Software like this delivers transparency, accountability, and alignment across the entire business.
When everyone is on the same page, and there’s transparency, it creates a positive work culture because no one feels like they’re out of the loop. Everyone knows what’s expected of them. The environment is an honest and open one, which gives people the platform to truly thrive.
The best OKR software includes features such as analytics, goal trees, integration with other tools, engagement surveys, team meetings, feedback, performance reviews, and much more. You’ll have everything you need to ensure your team is on the right track and working toward your key objectives.
You can leave feedback and comments on goals and the progress employees are making. You can use surveys and analytics to gain powerful insights. Everything is catered toward helping your business to do better in a collaborative and effective manner.
DO tailor employee benefits to suit your workforce
One of your employees may love childcare vouchers, which enable them to take care of quality childcare for their children while they’re working. However, for other employees who don’t have children or have older kids that can look after themselves, childcare vouchers may be of no use.
Ultimately, we’re all different. We all have different lives and needs. Your benefits package should reflect this.
To retain the best talent, consider offering a flexible benefits package, which allows employees to choose benefits that best suit their needs.
You also shouldn’t forget that people’s needs change as time goes on. One of your workers may not have a need for childcare vouchers now, but this can change in the future. Therefore, it makes sense to have a system in place where employees can change their benefits going forward.
If you operate a flexible benefits package like this, your employees feel appreciated, and this enables you to hold onto your best talent. Plus, your workers will want to give their best because they know you value them and go the extra mile to make their lives better.
DO promote inclusivity and diversity
Next, it’s vital to create an inclusive workplace culture where people from all backgrounds are welcome, and their differences are celebrated.
Encourage workers to share their preferred pronouns with the rest of the team so that inclusive language is promoted.
For big businesses, it can be beneficial to establish a committee that contributes to diversity initiatives.
Ultimately, you need to make diversity a core priority for your business. When recruiting, it should be part of your strategy. Inclusion needs to be a foundational element as your business grows and develops.
DO leverage technology to make your employees’ lives easier, such as parking management software
One of the biggest mistakes that business owners make is implementing technology simply for the sake of it. Yes, tech is developing at a rapid pace. Yes, it enables businesses to unlock huge efficiencies. However, this is only going to be the case if you carefully choose technology and implement it in a seamless manner.
You need to figure out what’s going to make your employees’ lives easier. What stumbling blocks do they have at the moment? What tasks do they feel are inefficient and difficult at present?
The only way you’ll get answers to these questions is by speaking directly to your employees and finding out their opinions.
A good example here is parking management software. If you run a number of car parks around the country, modern parking management software can help to control entry and exit into car parks around the country. Smart tech like this can be much better than managing entries and exits manually.
However, you’re only going to discover what type of parking management software is best if you talk to your workforce and find out what problems they’re experiencing.
The DON’TS when creating a positive and productive work culture
You also need to make sure you don’t fall into any traps when developing a positive work culture. You shouldn’t do any of the following:
DON’T provide negative feedback to an individual in a group setting
When delivering feedback, you need to tap into your emotional intelligence. Consider how you should deliver feedback to get the best results.
There are very few incidents whereby delivering individual feedback in a group setting makes sense. When you do this, it can make your employee feel embarrassed. This can also stunt their progress because they can feel scared to bring ideas to the table for fear they’ll be ridiculed. Instead, they may simply try to hide in the background.
Instead, it makes sense to hold one-on-one sessions when you want to give an employee feedback that’s not as favorable.
Also, think about your delivery here. Rather than focusing on everything the employee has done wrong, look to the future and provide advice on how your employee can do better.
DON’T ignore the importance of team-building activities
There are lots of different team-building activities businesses can embrace, from taking an hour’s break to play a game to even booking a team-building weekend break! However, there are a lot of business owners that overlook such activities because they view them as an unnecessary expense and a waste of time. This couldn’t be further from the truth.
If you want your employees to work together in a productive and positive manner, you need to give them the chance to build their relationships.
Team-building activities give your workforce the chance to build relationships and learn how to work together effectively without the pressure of real work projects on their back.
If your employees have a good relationship, it will certainly trickle down and have a positive impact on work quality, office environment, and project deliverables.
DON’T expect employees to know your core values if you don’t define them yourself
Last but not least, how do you expect your employees to understand and respect your core values if you’ve not even defined them yourself?
Again, this is something that a lot of business owners overlook. They assume that everyone simply knows the sort of values your business has. However, you need to spell it out and give your team direction.
Your core values ultimately drive your business. If you don’t define them, this can result in subcultures, which can undermine your success.
If you haven’t defined core values yet, it’s good to get input from your team. Ask them what values or words they believe summarizes your workplace. Include positive contributions. If any negative words or phrases are spoken, you can use this as an opportunity to do better. This ultimately creates a sense of togetherness and ensures a positive, productive attitude.
Create a productive, positive work culture & watch your business soar
So there you have it: some of the different steps you can take to ensure your work culture is a positive and productive one.
If you follow the advice we’ve provided above, you’ll notice a happier workforce, which efficiently produces high-quality work. Isn’t this what every business wants?
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