How to build a healthy workplace culture that breeds quality and productivity

Many things are important to run a successful company. Among these, a positive workplace culture lays a fertile ground which nurtures productivity, talent, skills, and morale. It is critically important for businesses to develop a value system that tells what their mission is and how they are going to represent themselves. 

Furthermore, a workplace culture shapes how things get done. It also determines how employees engage and interact with each other, and which direction the company will head. So a viable corporate culture has long-term ramifications that are achievable by cultivating good people and good values.

If you want your workplace as a hotbed for success, you must view your workspace as a driver of performance rather than just in terms of cost. Recognizing the space as a way to support productivity will define your organizational culture. When you align this culture with your aims and objectives, it will surely make a big difference.

Here are a few tips that create right conditions for right culture to flourish in your workplace:

Encourage transparency and set realistic expectations

Transparency in a workplace engenders an atmosphere of trust and openness between leaders and their employees. It won’t take too much time for your workplace to grow toxic if transparency is lacking. If you lead by example and try to be fair and transparent in different situations, your employees will perennially follow this legacy.

Your ability to exemplify what the company stands for will pave a perfect way to preserving the culture you originally envisioned. You should articulate the vision for what you hope to accomplish along with what attitudes and behaviors your company will value. Since your team may not instinctively understand this, try to explicitly describe your expectations and rule out any deviations.

Choose right people that fit your culture

Committed employees are the assets of any organization. An employee engagement research shows that companies with low employee engagement suffer from a 32 percent decrease in operating income. Passion and commitment of your employees should be incentivized more than their previous laurels. As a matter of fact, at the heart of employee motivation resides the company culture.

Therefore, you need to identify the individuals whose values are consistent with yours during the recruitment process itself. Asking right questions could be extremely helpful for you at this point in time. For example, what do you love about your chosen career? What inspires you? There is no need to be a stepping stone for someone’s personal gains; however, even if it happens, just make sure such employee generated a substantial value for your organization. 

Communication is part of a healthy workplace. (Source)

Communication is the key

Effective communication is an essential tool for creating an environment that motivates people and creates an open line of suggestions and criticisms. It engages workers and allows them to innovate, collaborate and work efficiently. Moreover, your personal communication with your employees increases their self-confidence and trust.

If you sit down with them regularly, discuss things with them and iron out difficulties or hurdles, you will more likely to bring best out of them. When this level of communication and culture prevails in any organization, it is destined to succeed and inspire others as well. As a leader, your own communication and truthfulness must never flicker. 

Recognize and reward valuable contributions

Your appreciation and recognition of efforts mean a lot to your employees. It is important to encourage more of the actions that are fruitful for your company. People who feel appreciated are more positive about themselves. Their ability to contribute gets bolstered. Moreover, a recognition-rich culture tends to have higher retention rate.

So what can do to entice your employees? They need occasional refreshments and celebrations. You can throw a cool party and give them thank you cards, gift bags or wine bottles by wrapping attractive wine labels around them. This way of recognizing your employees’ works sends an extremely powerful message to them. It is, therefore, a potent communication technique in essence.

Tell your employees they are a team not a bunch of individuals

The power of working in a team is so great that any seemingly impossible task even appears doable. Teamwork is basically a convergence of sense of unity, enthusiasm for common interests and a dedication to performing better. You need to instill a value system in your staff that working in a team is vital to the success of the company. Teach them that working in isolation while part of a common project will essentially limit one’s capability to compete and learn.

Tell your employees to work together on all work-related projects and help where necessary. A simple analogy of soccer (football) is easy to understand what teamwork is capable of. Before scoring a goal, there is a series of passes and assists among the players of the same team, who also encourage each other. Therefore, teamwork is the most efficient way to get things done.

Company culture is a bedrock for integrating human knowledge, belief, and behavior that percolates down the succeeding generations. So, your workplace culture is the everyday life of your organization that should be lived by each of your employees.

—

DISCLAIMER: This article expresses my own ideas and opinions. Any information I have shared are from sources that I believe to be reliable and accurate. I did not receive any financial compensation in writing this post, nor do I own any shares in any company I’ve mentioned. I encourage any reader to do their own diligent research first before making any investment decisions.