How to improve office culture
If you want to get the best from your employees you need to make sure their work environment is conducive to achieving that. Office or company culture is a significant part of how your business functions and is something potential employees are likely to consider when they are applying for jobs.
This blog post will explain what office culture is, why it is important, and tips to help you improve it so that it contributes to your company’s success.
What is Office Culture?
Company culture is essentially the character and personality of your business. It includes things like your company values, attitudes to work-life balance, employee engagement, promoting positive work and a sense of belonging that creates the workplace environment for your business.
It combines your company’s ideologies and principles and creates the key elements of your office environment. These are likely to include your corporate attitudes, behaviours, interactions, traditions, values and your company’s mission.
A healthy company culture is one where policies and employee behaviours are matched to the organization’s success goals and a positive work culture that looks after the physical and mental health of its teams. A toxic work environment will do the opposite.
Why is Office Culture important?
What makes any company great is its people. Creating a working environment that values team members, listens to what employees want, and creates a good work-life balance that has a strong company culture and everyone feels connected is likely to result in business success.
So, creating a company culture that is focused on employee happiness and well-being is vital to achieving corporate success. Here are some of the reasons why:
It can create a better working environment
Having a positive workplace culture has many benefits not only for your business but for the people who work in it too. When team members feel valued and part of the decision-making process, it can help employees produce better work and a healthy corporate culture for everyone to work in.
When people have high job satisfaction and feel like what they do is noticed and valued, they are more likely to be productive and feel connected and proud of their work, which creates a better working environment for every employee. This helps new employees feel at ease and want to be part of the good company culture.
Increases staff retention
Staff who have a good work-life balance and feel like they make a positive difference to the ongoing success of their team are more likely to want to stay. Encouraging a positive work environment produces highly engaged employees who are committed to your business which then helps to create an experienced pool of staff.
When employees feel valued, they are more likely to stay in their jobs for a long period of time. Increasing employee retention therefore saves time and costs on recruitment campaigns.
Retaining your employees for a long time allows you to have an experienced pool of individuals to perform a specific task. It saves on cost and time since you don’t have to keep recruiting and training new personnel. Happy and satisfied employees can stay at their jobs for long without moving, reducing employee turnover.
Improves employee well-being
When employees feel valued they are more likely to work together with their colleagues to meet targets and help to achieve the company’s goals. Taking the time to listen to what your team members have to say and using their ideas helps to boost morale and creates an inclusive company culture.
A strong company culture creates a great employee experience where staff want to do their best and are proud of their work. This helps to improve employee well-being and mental health which in turn increases productivity and company growth.
The average person spends around one-third of their life at work so taking care of their health should be a key part of a company’s core values. Having quiet rooms, outdoor space, and natural light as well as encouraging employees to take pride in their work and being rewarded when they do are all ways to improve their physical and mental health.
How can you improve your office culture?
Every company is as unique as the individuals who work in it. There is therefore no “one size fits all” way of improving company culture. But there are some common things all businesses can do to make sure their workplace culture is in line with their core values and creates a great place to work.
Encourage transparency
Open communication is extremely important if you want to create a company culture that encourages good working practices such as innovation, efficient working, and thinking outside the box. Giving employees the opportunity to communicate with upper management easily with an open-door policy creates an inclusive culture where everyone is valued and their views are taken into account.
This helps staff know what is expected of them, how they can progress to the next level, and what the remuneration will be. Having clear policies builds trust and creates fairness as promotions and rewards are based on the same set of criteria that everyone is aware of. There are no hidden tests or unspoken rules that need to be met to progress to the next level.
Reward staff for hard work
One of the key ways to help employees take pride in their work and feel connected to the company they work for is to reward them when they do things well. This doesn’t just have to be for exceptional work. It can be for a range of things from coming up with innovative ideas to helping a colleague or mentoring a new starter.
Every employee wants to feel that their work is recognised and noticed, particularly when it’s done in challenging circumstances. Having an inclusive reward scheme will help to show your staff how appreciated they are which helps to build a positive workplace culture and forms part of the core values of working for your company.
Provide Regular Constructive Feedback
Just as employees want to know when they’re doing their job well, it’s just as important to provide feedback when things are not being done so well. However the way feedback is given can have a big impact on your workplace culture.
Providing regular, constructive feedback can encourage employees to understand what’s not working well and embrace changes. Knowing how they’re doing helps to improve job satisfaction and encourages collaboration with employees coming up with new ideas and suggesting new ways of working, knowing they’ll be listened to.
Providing feedback in a negative, confrontational way that creates feelings of failing will quickly create a toxic culture that works against company and personal values. This type of environment won’t attract or retain top talent and give a competitive edge to your company and will do little to encourage your employees to do their best.
Avoid micromanaging
Micromanagement is a style of management where all aspects of an employee’s work and decision-making are controlled to an extreme degree. This tends to create an unhealthy and toxic company culture that leaves team members feeling undervalued.
Being micromanaged can reduce an employee’s confidence and severely impact creativity which can lead to a detrimental impact on their mental health and cause stress and anxiety at work. Ultimately that may cause employees to seek work elsewhere.
Micromanagement doesn’t create a healthy, vibrant, and creative workplace culture and can have a negative impact on a company’s success. So avoiding this type of management style is key if you want to improve your company culture to create a work environment that encourages employees to achieve your company’s goals.
Provide flexibility
The way that we work has changed beyond recognition over the last few years. The effects of the global pandemic have been far-reaching and reinforced the importance of providing employees with a good work-life balance that inspires hard work and job satisfaction.
Having a flexible approach to working hours and locations, whenever that is possible, helps to create a happy workforce and a company culture that encourages positive work practices that make sure your employees feel valued and respected.
Flexible working in terms of hours and location helps to improve employee engagement because their work-life balance is improved. Flexibility in terms of when and how employees carry out their work can be of benefit to the whole team. By working around your employees’ needs and allowing them to manage things like childcare or caring for a relative, flexible working can add immeasurable value to your company and help retain talent.
Providing a flexible office space which offers a range of zones for the different regular activities your team needs to engage in can significantly boost overall business effectiveness. It creates a positive work environment that helps to enhance your company’s culture, making it a great place to work.
Do you require Office Fitting services to help improve your office culture?
At Office Options, we provide a range of different office fitting services, all of which can potentially be used to help improve your office culture. Get in touch with the team today to find out more about office fit-outs, office refurbishments and more!