Culture can be broadly defined as an organization’s shared values, behaviors, visions and perceptions. It can often be difficult to pinpoint but often depends on how policies are enforced and employees interact within it.
Companies with strong cultures typically experience greater employee retention rates and experience lower recruitment and training costs, creating more efficient workplace environments while saving money in terms of recruitment costs and recruitment expenses.
Core Values
An organization built on core values makes employee engagement much simpler, as this culture becomes ingrained in how people interact, how teams work together, and projects progress.
Key to making this happen is frequent and varied communication of your defining values – this means incorporating them into the hiring process, ongoing performance management system, criteria for promotion and dismissal policies as well.
Listening to employees regularly and acting upon their feedback can also play an integral part of improving company culture and employee engagement. Conducting surveys, suggestion boxes, or employee recognition programs regularly is one way of doing this; anecdotal and quantitative data will allow you to identify which aspects of your culture are driving employee satisfaction and which need improvement; it also allows you to prioritize which changes should be implemented so as to optimize employee engagement strategies.
Transparency
One of the cornerstones of a successful company culture is transparency. Employees need to trust leadership that what’s best for both them and the company will be done, otherwise disengagement could result.
Employees need to understand how their efforts contribute to the overall success of the company and feel like their efforts matter; so it’s vital that this message be conveyed regularly within your team.
Additionally, it’s essential for leaders to be open about their mistakes and acknowledge when they err, so as to build trust among followers and promote an environment where people feel free to express themselves openly with constructive feedback.
Front’s co-founder Mathilde Collin sends her team an email each week outlining their weekly goals and providing updates to broader roadmap plans. This practice allows everyone to stay on the same page while also giving her an opportunity to answer any queries from team members – leading them to collaborate better and solve challenges more efficiently than before.
Personal Relationships
Culture can be seen most visibly in how employees interact and collaborate, as well as the processes by which goals are set and projects completed. Make sure your company’s defining values are present throughout these aspects, starting by training new hires about your ideals.
Foster open communication among teams and departments to foster relationships that strengthen your company culture. Accounting firm Freshbooks, eyeglass retailer Warby Parker and inbound marketing company Hubspot are some companies which encourage relationship-building through blind lunch dates (inviting random pairs of employees out for lunch together), which provide employees the chance to get to know one another outside of work settings.
Employee engagement has an impactful effect on job satisfaction, productivity and customer service. Additionally, it contributes to creating a more positive workplace environment resulting in greater trust for leaders and lower turnover – all contributing to making for a stronger business overall. So invest in your organization’s culture and reap its benefits!
Appreciation
Caring leaders understand the importance of employees feeling appreciated in the workplace, so they prioritize communicating in ways which are both helpful and respectful of all individuals on their team.
Team leaders also make clear to team members how their efforts contribute to the company’s overall goals and success. Reward and recognition schemes may be put in place upon meeting milestones, while hosting brainstorm sessions can foster members’ creative thinking skills and encourage new ideas and suggestions from within their ranks.
Employee engagement increases when employees know exactly how their individual and team achievements relate to your company’s mission, creating an unifying sense of purpose that connects and engages them – helping build an enduring culture even during difficult times. Google quickly responded when faced with backlash for an employee memo supporting biological differences between women and men in tech, reinforcing its commitment to diversity and equality; its transparent culture prevented Google from becoming an embarrassment to media coverage.