Dead Simple Ways to Improve Your Company Culture part -2
1. Communicate purpose and passion
Do your employees see work as a way to make an impact? Are they passionate about the work that they do?
Imperative's "State of HR: Why You Should Fill Your Payroll with Purpose-Driven People" explains how purpose-driven employees find the act of work inherently meaningful and rich in purpose.
It's possible to find purpose in any type of work.
We met with Arthur Woods recently, who shared an excellent explanation:
We find that purpose
is derived from your relationships, your sense of impact, and your sense of
personal growth,” he said. “If you think about it, those three things are
possible in any job. Anyone can build deep, nourishing relationships; anyone
can feel like their work matters, and anyone can push themselves to develop in
any setting.
-Arthur Woods
There are no "purpose professions." You may need to find out what's important to your employees, and that goes back to forging relationships.
The better you understand their goals and aspirations, the better you can help your team to see the purpose in their work.
If you aren't already, it's time to think of your employees and your coworkers
not as simply a group of other people you work with, but as integral members of
your team.
In his post "The 4 Elements that Make a Great Culture" on the KISSmetrics blog, Zach Bulygo makes a great point about using the word "team" rather than employees:
The difference
between being a team and just a bunch of individuals is that the individuals
see themselves as separate from each other. Helping others is forced because
you normally operate on your own projects, or your own part in a larger
project.
Teams work together on all work related projects and help where necessary. It
doesn't matter who gets credit for what because you accomplish everything
together. You're knit together, not separated.
-Zach Bulygo
This shift in mentality from people (or siloed groups of people) working toward individual goals to a unified team, all pulling in one direction can make an enormous difference in the results of your work.
3. Give and solicit regular feedback
OfficeVibe's Employee Feedback: The Complete Guide is a great
resource on getting the most out of this precious commodity.
In short, employees don't get enough feedback, and when they do it's often vague or perceived as inauthentic. You may be thinking, "We do annual performance reviews. Feedback: covered."
I've got news for you. Once-a-year feedback doesn't come close to providing an employee with the tools they need to improve and grow.
Once-a-year feedback doesn't come close to providing an employee with the tools they need to improve and grow.
At the recent HR Innovators summit, timely feedback and its impact on performance management was a recurring theme across companies of all sizes.
Giving helpful, timely feedback is a benefit to everyone. You can reward good behaviors and results as they occur, encouraging more of the same.
If an employee is consistently having trouble meeting management's expectations, that crucial feedback shouldn't come as a surprise at the end of the year. They need feedback and most importantly support when it's easy to make a correction.
The best managers and leaders are listeners and facilitators.
It's vital to give employees the tools they need to understand when and why they're doing well, and how to fix it when they're not.
4. Stay true to your core values
Real core values are much more than a list of bullet points on a company's About Us page. Core values are a company's guiding light. They're the inseparable principals at the heart of an organization.
Real core values are much more than a list of bullet points on a company's 'About Us' page.
As such, they're not fleeting thoughts brainstormed during a heavily caffeinated group meeting with your web designer. They're not something you pick because they sound good.
Lolly Daskal wrote a great article for Huffington Post about this. In it, she described the concept perfectly:
Your values determine
what is important and meaningful to you. They align with your purpose, and
speak loudly and passionately to others—and to yourself—about who you are and
what you're called to do in this world.
-Lolly Daskal
If your culture is going to stick, you need to develop genuine core values and stay true to them.
5. Give culture building the effort it deserves
Few things will have a greater impact on your organization than its culture.
Building a company culture takes time and energy. It doesn't just happen. Your culture should align with your mission and values—and it should resonate with everyone in the organization.
Failing to allocate the necessary time and effort into building a company culture you can be proud of will leave you with a company culture you simply accept, or worse, dislike.
Failing to allocate the necessary time and effort into building a company culture you can be proud of will leave you with a company culture you simply accept, or worse, dislike.
There's no finish line. A truly amazing company culture is a constant work in progress, because as a company evolves, so do its constituents.
Devote time to nurturing your company culture. Exemplify it in every way you can so that your team will be able to recognize and emulate it.
Which of these steps are you going to take first?
A truly amazing company culture will always be a work in progress, evolving in tandem with your organization and your people, which is why it’s up to you to decide where to steer that evolution and which of these steps to take first!
If you want something that’s influential and easy to measure, consider step 2, Recognize and reward valuable contributions, since employee recognition can help you embrace transparency (step 1), build stronger coworker relationships (step 3), communicate purpose and passion (step 6), promote a team atmosphere (step 7), and help everyone stay true to your core values (step 9).
To see how easy it is to build a recognition-rich company culture, check out our Guide to Modern Employee Recognition, which details different types of recognition and rewards and features 12 unique examples of recognition in action at companies like Chobani, SnackNation, Typeform, Dribbble: