Establishing a positive, engaging, and supportive work culture at the workplace has become a top priority of many evolving organizations, more specifically, after the covid pandemic. This is due to physical absence, less communication, and an isolated environment that makes employees less productive. Thus, workplace culture indirectly impacts business success. Actually, according to research by Deloitte, nearly 94% of executives and 88% of employees think a strong work culture promotes business success.
The culture in our surroundings significantly influences our thoughts, health, behavior, activities, etc. This article will solely focus on the importance of workplace culture and tips for building an engaging workplace culture. So, let’s first start with why building a strong culture is essential.
8 Reasons why Engaging Workplace Culture is Essential
Workplace culture can be important due to these major reasons. See them one by one to understand how each of the reasons is beneficial.
- Powerful brand identity
The culture of any organization shows how it functions, represents the public image, and manages its reputation in society and the market. Therefore, people who want to work with the organization will analyze their behavior and interaction from inside and outside. Based on this, they will assume if it’s right to be a partner or not.
If you have an appropriate culture or good reputation, people are more likely to become partners with you and won’t doubt doing business with the brand identity. This equally works for clients, businesses, and job seekers.
- Improved productivity
Better organizational culture has the capability to bring employees of a similar nature, skill, and thought together. This also helps them perform tasks more quickly and accurately, improving the overall productivity of the self, department, and organization.
To make this possible, you can provide better resources and systems to your employees so they can increase their performance drastically.
- Revamped engagement
A delightful and benevolent organizational culture always promotes the purpose of the organization as well as fosters clear expectations and targets. This motivates the workforce to pay undivided attention to their tasks and projects and engage with their colleagues on a daily basis.
Having such a reinforced culture allows management to attain greater engagement levels and maintain productivity. In all, it improves the bonding between people and creates a positive atmosphere that becomes helpful in the long run.
- Increased retention
One of the critical factors that culture resolves is the employee turnover ratio. People don’t stay for a longer time at a place where they are not valued or appropriately welcomed. The same happens at the workplace too.
Poor culture will make employees not engage more with their colleagues and work, reducing their interest constantly. Such employees will start looking for other jobs before you know it. A survey states that employees who feel less appreciated for their work are 2X more likely to start looking for another job. Organizations can also lose top talents due to this.
On the contrary, happy and satisfied employees often stick to the company for years. This means that the organization can improve its retention ratio by ensuring a positive culture.
- Healthy work atmosphere
Workplace culture has a better influence over the organization in terms of its workflows and processes. It improves the decision-making process as well. When people in the workplace are informed about various essential ongoing matters, they feel valued and engaged. This, in turn, makes them more focused on accomplishing their objectives early on.
A healthy atmosphere is key to being competitive in the market, and it takes the whole organization to an upper level of growth.
- Pleasant onboarding
The first impression of any organization tells a lot about the culture and atmosphere. Due to this, the importance of onboarding has increased, giving rise to modern practices to onboard and train new recruits. This not only helps the organization but also allows employees to gain access to better resources from the beginning. As a result, they can enjoy a smooth transition into their respective roles.
It becomes the best method to illustrate the core values, mission, and vision of the company. Also, with effective onboarding, organizations can gain employees’ loyalty and reduce their stress from the start.
- Better brand advocacy
With a robust and encouraging culture, companies can convert their loyal employees into brand advocates who can promote their products or services. But this can only be achieved when employees are well treated for their efforts and time given towards the company’s goals. You can recognize them publicly.
There could have been other minor benefits also, which you can notice. Though the ones mentioned can give you a sense of relief that culture holds very significant importance.
Tips to Build Engaging Workplace Culture
Now that you understand how important workplace culture is, it is time to work on improving it. Improving the culture must require proper attention and should be done in a rush. It needs analysis of the current processes, based on which sustainable change can be done in an appropriate manner. You will also need leaders who can establish communication, transparency, and accountability in the workplace.
Here’s a list of tips to build a positive workplace culture.
- Set clear department objectives
Plan the goals of each department accurately so that employees can have a better idea of their responsibilities. Then, analyze these goals in terms of KRAs and KPIs and track the performance. This will improve individual performance and team collaboration.
- Align organizational goals
Set up understandable organizational goals and keep your employees informed about them. This will make employees develop a sense of professionalism and accountability towards the organization. In addition, regularly updating these goals will ignite motivation among employees to keep working progressively.
- Ensure employee diversity and inclusion
Your culture should be inclusive and diverse, encouraging employees from various traditions to mix with each other. Ensure that it is free from any unwelcome bias. Employees will thus be able to expand their network and become friendly and supportive.
- Create an open-door policy
New employees often fear coming up and expressing their views. Creating a well-outlined open-door policy can be your solution here. You can also set an example by going around employees’ desks and asking them about their day. Tell your employees that your atmosphere is friendly and does not entertain any kind of ill behavior.
- Establish a recognition program
Set an effective recognition program where you can all come together to celebrate individual or team wins. Recognize your employees who gave their best performance so that they can remain motivated to do more. This also creates an environment of healthy competition, all while your company goals are focused.
- Get feedback
Most important of all, ask for feedback from your employees. Allow your employees to be a part of the process and provide helpful suggestions. If you care about their words, they care about the organization. You can work on their pain areas to create a safe workplace.
Apart from all these tips, be transparent, flexible, respectful, and thoughtful.
In the end…
Every organization is unique and has unique needs. Therefore, you must understand your employees’ needs and build a safe and encouraging culture. A positive culture is the base of every organization, which boosts various other activities such as engagement, onboarding, collaboration, and empowerment. Thus, as this modern world evolves, many organizations have started investing in employees, and you should too.