What is your culture saying about your workplace?
Creating a culture of inclusion, innovation, and advancement requires an organization that is open to change, has leaders who are willing to listen to employees, and invokes trust in each other.
As we exit 2020 and enter 2021, we have seen our employees dodge and maneuver whatever life and work threw at them over the last year. Start this year with a commitment to invest in improving your culture and dedication to your mission.
In cultures that struggle, the lack of trust, honesty, transparency, and willingness to change is often the root cause of all issues. Knowing this, how do you start to improve your culture?
The following are the top 10 ways to improve your culture and get the results you desire if and when you are ready…
Listen to your employees. Do you conduct annual employee engagement surveys and never do any follow-up? This is a big mistake. Any concerns in the engagement surveys must be addressed and possibly improved, no matter how small. Whether it is too many Zoom calls or never feeling as if they can take a day off – as leadership, please address concerns and attempt to improve these measures. A little listening can go a long way.
Be open to change. Be willing to think about what five, ten years down the road looks like and have open conversations with your employees about it. Even looking at six months from now - is a hybrid workforce and flexible in-office/work from home workweeks the way of the future? It’s essential to understand the concerns and needs of employees. Consider hosting monthly video chats or town hall meetings that allow leadership to hear suggestions by employees. You never know where your next phenomenal idea might come from.
Invest in your employees. Encourage employees to attend classes, try new things, or cross-train with other departments. Make sure it is known that your employees are the key to the success of the organization. Employees want to feel like the work and energy they are dedicating to a company is being reciprocated. It is difficult to retain employees in a competitive market when they don’t feel valued. Offerings such as training, seminars, mentorship, clubs, and interest groups are great ways to show employee appreciation and investment. Without employee growth, how will the organization grow?
Push your leadership to be phenomenal leaders. Invest in your leadership, be willing to lose control, and overall trust your leadership team. What should happen to the organization if the C-Suite disappears – can what is left be supported by the remaining leadership? A comprehensive strategy to motivate senior leadership including salary compensation can lead companies to get the most out of their employees continuously. Investing in critical leadership skills, such as mentorship, strategic thinking, and emotional intelligence will take their capabilities and your business to the next level.
Trust your employees. Consider allowing non-traditional working hours, flexibility in remote working, and managing talent – not job descriptions. Take a step back and give your employees the freedom to showcase their creativity with new processes, deliverables, communications, and innovations.
Learn from your team. Know that you can learn something every day as leaders. You hire your employees for a reason. You know they are intelligent, creative individuals that bring unique experiences and backgrounds to their jobs. Be open to learning from employees’ experimentation successes as well as failures. Encouraging consistent sharing and brainstorming can lead to excellent results.
Step-Up. Address diversity and inclusion issues. Companies and their leadership teams are under a microscope for lack of diversity and inclusion within their workforce. It is on leadership to lead the charge for creating a more diverse, inclusive, and positive work environment for their employees. Also, highlight and promote what the company is doing for social awareness issues. This will improve customer attraction and retention, but employees will feel proud to work at a company that is working to make a positive impact.
Continually review the performance of all employees. Companies grow when employees grow. Providing consistent and constructive feedback, addressing performance issues when they arise, and implementing progress and goal measurements are essential ways to show you trust employees and support their career growth. People who receive regular, meaningful support can achieve more, with less chance of burning out or feeling detached from the job. And don’t forget to celebrate their victories, big or small.
Invest in your technology. Consider investing in tools to help optimize how employees serve clients and constituents. With teams working remotely, new tools and applications can help your employees feel they are still working as collaboratively as in-person. Providing employees with access to tools and platforms creates efficiencies allowing them to achieve more success and enhance client relationships and performance.
Be open. Transparency is key. Share with your employees the business’s current status, how on-trend you are to hitting your goals, and the roadmap for achieving said goals. Clearly communicating these details enables employees to feel like leadership trusts them, and they are a valued asset contributing to the organization’s growth and progression.
Communicate. And overall, communicate. Employees at all levels want to feel valued and connected. If information is rarely communicated directly from senior leadership, employees can feel disengaged and lose their sense of purpose and importance. Leaders who communicate consistently are valued; leaders who do this during significant changes are respected and trusted.
If you want a top-notch culture, you need to be able to look at yourself and see how you can improve. Improving culture is all about looking at every aspect of an organization and being willing to change for the good.
When’s the last time you surveyed the culture, engagement, and overall happiness of your employees?
If you need help with your team or are interested in executive coaching, HR operations support, rewards compensation consulting and strategic planning workshops tailored to your organization, contact FutureSense at info@futuresense.com.