Building a Better Workplace Culture: Tips for Success

Work culture is something that has always been there but has only fairly recently been taken notice of. It used to be that people just ‘had to get on with it’ or deal with the inconveniences or issues that a mismanaged or toxic workplace culture creates.

Now, a healthy workplace culture is recognized as essential for employees, and many will search for jobs based on what this culture is like.

If you think your workplace culture could use a little improvement, or you are curious as to whether you are doing everything you can for it, then take a read of this piece to find out more!

Build Strong Employee Relationships

Getting to know your employees and treating them as you would treat everyone else is essential to a healthy and happy work culture. Too often, there is a divide between roles, management, and leadership ranks, and this can mean that many employees feel undervalued or not as important as others.

This should not be the case. It takes everyone in their roles working to their best capability and playing up their strengths for a business to run smoothly, and everyone should be treated as an individual person with recognition of their contributions for a more cohesive and uplifted workplace culture.

To do this, it is important to know how your employees feel about their role, workplace, and their workload. Use an employee engagement survey to determine your employees’ productivity and well-being.

Make Employee Recognition a Priority

Nothing prevents or dismantles a workplace’s positive culture like not recognizing what your employees bring to the table. It can be pretty hard to stay focused, in good spirits, and productive if an employee feels like they do not even exist.

Making sure all of your employees get recognized for what they contribute to your company and ensuring this is a priority can make a significant difference in how a company culture forms and what kind of atmosphere it creates. This will feed into itself and breed a supportive environment for everyone.

Give More Autonomy

Being micromanaged can be the equivalent of hell for some people. And, to add insult to injury, it can also prevent work from being done and create a very negative space to work in. Not many people want someone breathing down their neck at the best of times, but this can also cause people to feel infantized, unmotivated, and trapped, all of which do not contribute to a strong and beneficial work culture.

Make sure you or other management members of the company are giving employees room to breathe and have thoughts of their own. Remove given goals (especially the micro ones!) and instead instill company values, ethos, and expectations for them to abide by.

It will always be important for you to be there to listen and give guidance, but trusting and respecting your team to get on with it will usually be the much better option when it comes to improving workplace culture.