“Customers will never love a company until the employees love it first” -Simon Sinek
Before your company can be adored by those buying your product, potential investors, or those looking for a new job to join the team – current employees must love where they work and believe in the brand first. Why? Because the employees set the tone for the business, they are the ones who engage with customers, establish the productivity of the business, and determine work culture. The employees are also walking billboards or ads for your company. How they talk about your company outside of work hours is essential. Businesses have found that a positive work culture motivates people to commit to the work and stay long-term with a company. Positive work culture offers employee satisfaction, increases motivation and productivity, and reduces turnover, saving the business money.
Company culture is the shared set of values, beliefs and attitudes that guide your organization.
As a leader, it is critical to understand your company culture and how it can improve.
Assess and Analyze the Current Culture
Work culture can impact several areas of your business, including but not limited to employee engagement, happiness, workplace productivity, retention rate, and positive recruitment efforts.
When you look around your current business, what type of work culture do you see?
One simple way to assess the culture in an organization is to look at how people communicate with each other. Is communication an issue, or is it easy to communicate with others? From the bulletin boards posted every month, email announcements, and every day “water cooler talk,” how engaged are people and how positive is the language being put out? Signs can be everywhere. Analyze what is working and what can be improved, then strengthen company culture using a few of the ideas listed below.
What Makes A Strong Work Culture?
A better workplace culture needs several working parts to make a functioning whole. Start with these three:
- Define your company values.
Make company values clear and easy to understand. Ensure that every team member is aware of these values and incorporates them into their daily work habits.
- Build psychological safety.
Create listening posts that will help to better understand how employees are feeling at work, then make changes when necessary. A strong sign that employees are not feeling safe at work is high turnover rates. Take the time to listen to employee feedback to get a better idea of how safe and satisfied they are in their position. Make this part of their annual review, so all parties get a chance to provide feedback and improve company culture.
- Watch trends.
Consistently tune into what is being discussed and watch for trends. Companies are not meant to become stale and should strive for continual growth. Be relentless with your communication system and strategies, and be prepared to evolve with the times.
Improve Work Culture Today
Learn the tools you need to bring back to your team and enhance your company culture. At BOAR, we work with CEOs, business owners, and C-suite executives to improve six and seven-figure businesses via mastermind rooms and educational programs. Join the BOAR community today and gain access to a wealth of knowledge and a wide network of top leaders in your community.