It’s been a comedy staple for as long as office sit-coms have been on television, but the trust fall as a team building exercise was a revolutionary idea in its time. Thankfully, though, team building and workplace culture development has come a long way since then. You might think that workplace culture is just the newest fad going around to give managers a headache, but it turns out that happier and more comfortable employees are more productive, efficient, and engaged (especially when it comes to absenteeism).
But what IS workplace culture and how do you go about creating or improving it?
Why Improve Workplace Culture?
While getting your team to get along might seem like a lot of extra effort for some relaxed after work socialisation there are a lot of additional benefits you might not even think of.
Increased Productivity
When a team gets along, everyone feels like they’re contributing to a common goal, and they feel valued – the results show up in their productivity.
Improved Health and Wellbeing
Stress in high levels and left unchecked can account for a huge impact on a person’s health – including higher rates of raised blood pressure, risk of heart disease, higher factors of obesity, and development of diabetes and pre-diabetic symptoms. That’s not even approaching the sedentary nature of most office jobs, that’s just the stress!
Helping your employees feel less stressed and improve their mental wellbeing you’re creating a healthier and happier workforce – which means higher job satisfaction and fewer chronically or even critically ill staff members.
Reduced Absenteeism and Turnover Rates
When people dislike coming to work, dread the morning chitchat, and count the minutes until lunch – they call in “sick” and quit more often. With a stellar workplace culture on your side, you can help improve your team’s attendance and retain the top quality talent you’ve worked so hard to onboard.
Increased Communication
Breaking down siloed information and encouraging complementary teams to work together is nearly impossible if those teams don’t want to talk to each other. When any workplace has two or more focusses, a ‘them and us’ mentality can take hold – and there is very little worse for productivity than information hoarding. When you have a positive workplace culture, it breaks down these perceived team loyalties and allows your whole staff to connect with each other.
Creative Innovation
By encouraging interpersonal professional relationships, discussion, and trust between workers you are creating the perfect environment for creative solutions to be formed.
Fewer Incidents
With a good team environment and positive workplace culture, misunderstandings are less likely to be catastrophic and even when they do occur they’re more likely to be solved through conversation and appropriate mediation. Moreover if a serious incident does happen, it’s more likely to be raised early (before it can escalate) when your employees are comfortable talking to your management structure.
3 Top Ways To Improve Your Workplace Culture
Build Up Teams with Genuine Opportunities
We’re not talking just about jungle retreats and company beach days – though if that would suit your team then don’t let us stop you! The opportunities you give your staff for professional development can help them in a huge variety of ways – whether you’re putting on database training, leadership workshops, or networking events. These training and development opportunities can be as casual or formal as you like, and by offering them to all staff rather than a select few you will attract a broader range of people and help them find common ground in their goals and experiences.
Be Transparent
When your employees trust you – and trust their coworkers – they open up and allow those professional relationships to grow. This could manifest in weekly stand-ups, where management keeps all sectors of the company informed of developments so they understand why that procedure is changing rather than just having a new Quick Reference Guide to memorise. It could also show up as staffing updates. When everyone knows who is managing who, who is filling what role, and why that one area manager is sometimes the state manager, there’s less confusion and more cohesion.
Give and Ask for Feedback – Then Act On It!
The best way to make your team feel valued and listened to is to, well, ask them their opinions and listen to them. Talk to your team and find out what they actually want, what they like about the company, what they could do with scrapping – and then take those suggestions and work them into a solution. Even the simple act of acknowledging your team’s concerns and showing that you’re looking for ways to improve them can go a long way to helping create a collaborative and positive team atmosphere.
How To Apply It To Your Team
Maybe your staff have a genuine interest in a corporate retreat, have expressed interest in a knitting circle or recipe swap, or maybe there’s a dedicated few who really want to go for morning runs but just don’t have the gumption to go alone.
You get the picture.
There is no One Size Fits All when it comes to team culture – you have to take general concepts and apply them as best you can to your individual circumstances.
