If your company culture is on a road to improvement, there are thousands of things you could do to make your culture better.
But you don't have to tackle them all at once. Try these 4 suggestions first and see how your company transforms.
4 Surprising Ways to Improve Your Company Culture
1. Forget about the bottom line for a minute.
Remember that your employees are real live people with families and hobbies and aspirations. In order to be a better employee, or husband, or gardener, or parent, people need to feel supported in all areas of their lives.
There's a reason work has a reputation for being the bad guy, while vacations and weekends are the good guys.
People who have enough time for friends, family, and hobbies do better in the workplace. If that means shortening your workdays, or giving more paid days off, it just might be worth it.
If you can't afford employee perks like this just yet, make it a goal to work towards.
Related: How to Measure & Improve Employee Morale
2. Encourage employees to grow beyond your company
Supporting an employee's professional development is a no-brainer. But some companies fear it's an expense that will mean employees abandon them once they gain more skills. The thing is, that can only happen in a company that doesn't want to grow. If there is no growth in the company and no room for smarter employees, then they will leave once they gain more expertise. You can't grow your company while your employees don't grow professionally themselves. To upgrade the system, you've got to address all the moving parts -- and that includes your people.
Maybe you think you can't afford to pay for employees to take continuing education or professional development courses.
That's ok -- at the very least, allow a certain number of paid days off each year for employees to take some courses on their own dime. They'll end up better skilled to help your business grow.
Related: 9 Lunch and Learn Topics Your Employees Actually Want
3. Break down the department silos
Too often, the different departments in a corporate office tend to stick to themselves. This creates an office of silos where workers don't see eye-to-eye. How often have you seen something like this happen:
- A project misses a deadline because the design team was late
- ...because editorial didn't get them the content soon enough
- ...because marketing couldn't decide on the right target
- ...because the project manager was getting mixed messages from the client
- ...because the client's teams had their own department problems to deal with
Everything falls apart. And each department points fingers at the other.
Find ways for members of each team to group together regularly and discuss how their teams work. When everyone really understands how the other teams work and what makes their jobs easier, projects can run much more smoothly.
Related: 3 Major Signs of Employee Burnout (and How to Fix Them)
4. Get your people moving.
Supporting employees' health should be a priority for any business. Whether it's paying for a monthly gym pass, an onsite chair massage program, or providing healthy snacks in the break room, there's a lot a company can do.
"The top things our employees ask for every year are gym passes and the massage program," says Brandon Fish, VP of Human Resources at Entrata.
Since most office workers spend a lot of their hours sitting at computers or chained to desks, encouraging physical movement can make a big difference.
It's been said that sitting is the new smoking. Sedentary lifestyles are being blamed for numerous health issues.
Keeping your workers moving and stress-free is the best way to ensure their long and happy careers at your company.
Related: How Company Culture Feeds Recruitment and Retention
Disclaimer
By participating in/reading the service/website/blog/email series on this website, you acknowledge that this is a personal website/blog and is for informational purposes and should not be seen as mental health care advice. You should consult with a licensed professional before you rely on this website/blog’s information. All things written on this website should not be seen as therapy treatment and should not take the place of therapy or any other health care or mental health advice. Always seek the advice of a mental health care professional or physician. The content on this blog is not meant to and does not substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
