Let’s Talk Workplace Culture

Culture is a strong buzz word in recruitment this year, with many candidates making the jump because of negative and toxic working environments.

Culture is a term that seems to be thrown about quite often, but what does it actually mean? At the very core, workplace culture is the characteristics, personalities and values that set the overall atmosphere of a business.

It is the mix of leadership, beliefs, interactions, behaviours and attitudes that contribute to the emotional and environmental feel of your workplace. Company culture is now equally as important as your business strategy, it determines whether your employees are engaged and going to work towards your objectives positively… or completely undermine them.

Let’s explore why workplace culture is so important.

• Attraction. Candidates are on the hunt for positive working environments. A strong clearly defined and communicated culture will help you match with the right candidates and their values.
• Retention. Culture impacts how employees interact with their work, their colleagues and ultimately your business. Positive company culture helps to engage your workforce, promote healthy team morale and create a collaborative working environment.
• Mental Wellness. Workplaces with low team morale and high turnover tend to have negative and toxic work culture with out of date ideals, leadership and values. Refreshing and refining your workplace culture impacts on happiness of employees, increases job satisfaction and can help reduce stress.
• Performance. An engaged workforce means a motivated workforce. Positive culture in the workplace can help with achieving targets and business objectives.

Where are companies going so wrong?

The biggest mistake businesses can make is taking the lazy road and letting their workplace culture form naturally without first defining what they want it to be. For example, is your company ‘family run’? Or does your company run like ‘one big family’? Mindset and perspective are so important when shaping your workplace culture and attitude.

Top mistakes businesses make when looking at workplace culture:

• Creating policies based on what other employers do versus whether they fit their work environment. Staying competitive is key but being relevant and unique to their workforce is vital.
• Hiring employees who don’t align with their values, because the company has not refined them.
• Tolerating management styles that threaten employee engagement and retention.
• They don’t create and communicate a clear and inspiring mission, vision, and set of values.
• The work environments are dull and draining.
• We don’t consider how our everyday actions as leaders are affecting the team morale and formation of our culture – positivity is contagious!

How do you begin to reshape your workplace culture?

1. Take a step back and evaluate. How is it now, and where you want it to be in the future? What are you doing well and what isn’t working? Distinguish what factors take away from your ideal workplace culture and how they can be tackled.
2. Establish clear ethos and values. Consider individual nurturing, learning and development, social activity, inclusiveness and cultural factors. Leadership and direction also have a massive influence on workplace culture.
3. Plan how you can demonstrate actions that are taken regularly so that the employees feel responsibility towards these values. It’s not enough to just include these values on your website and marketing collateral. Practice what you preach.
4. Consider rewards and clear goals for employees. For example, having a transparent policy for progression offers the staff an opportunity to measure their performance. Or explore incentives and fun benefits.
5. Keep in mind that culture is always a work in progress. It can and will change as your business evolves.

Let’s recap.

Workplace culture determines how pleasant or toxic your work environment is. A positive culture in the workplace is essential for encouraging a sense of pride and ownership amongst employees. The personality of your business is influenced by everything. Leadership, management, workplace practices, policies, and people.

Positive workplace culture attracts talent, drives engagement, impacts happiness, satisfaction, and affects performance.

Shaping it is one of the most important responsibilities as an employer. It’s too significant to ignore.

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Are you ready to look for new opportunities and join a workplace with better culture? Contact the Abacus Team for a confidential chat on 028 9031 3157 | [email protected] or check out our website for our latest job opportunities: https://5691xkx.testsiterestore.com/all-jobs/

If you are a client who has job vacancy that you need help with please contact us on on 028 9031 3157 | [email protected]. The team in Abacus manage a range of permanent, contract and temporary appointments throughout UK and Ireland and are eager to assist in your search for talent.