Creating your Workplace Culture
The words ‘workplace culture’ are thrown around often, but what does this actually mean? We like to define workplace culture as the character and personality of your business. It is the combination of your business values, beliefs, attitudes, the bones of what makes your business unique.
HR professionals and the like, love to talk about why your workplace culture is so important, done well, there are a magnitude of flow on benefits to your business, including:
Increased performance and productivity;
Better employment engagement and retention rates;
Attract new and high performing talent;
Create job satisfaction and happiness.
So, you ask, how do I create a positive workplace culture that works for our business? Well, every business is different, however there are some key things that predominantly are consistent amongst our clients and even ourselves at People Passion, that we believe are the key backbones to creating a positive workplace culture.
Communication
Yes, something as simple as communication can have a huge impact on your businesses culture. The manner in which you communicate with your team is key, along with transparency in sharing information and decision making. When you don’t communicate with your team, or only communicate with some of your team, a toxic culture of secret chatter, and then a game of ‘telephone’ can follow. People start to wonder why they haven’t been told something and others have, and more often than not when you are not the controller of the message, things escalate into something they are not.
What works for us? We use Workplace the Facebook workplace app to communicate with our team. We have separate groups on workplace, including our HR and Recruitment hub, our culture and social functions hub and even a hub for celebrating successes. We are all active on workplace, sharing important messaging, and even tagging and recognising one another in celebration posts. We find utilising workplace, as an easy way to keep open, transparent and fun communication happening daily amongst our team.
Leadership
The way your business leaders communicate and engage with the team is another factor which is key to developing a positive workplace culture. Your leaders need to communicate their vision, mission and values. Without a vision or purpose, employees are often left disengaged, especially the millennial generation who like many other generations need to be working towards a bigger picture and purpose.
Your leaders need to celebrate and recognise success, a yearly performance review where you tell your staff they are doing great, and even a pay rise, does not cut the mustard. Employees want to feel recognised daily, not just once a year.
What works for us? We are currently using Weekly10 a performance and engagement software, a simple check in of 10 minutes every week. We could write a whole article about how much we are loving Weekly10, and the benefits we are already reaping. Weekly10 enables you to check in every week with your team and provide feedback and recognition. It is a powerful tool, empowering managers to provide regular and consistent feedback to help grow your employees. Weekly10 also has various other capabilities, including 360 reviews, a recognition feed to recognise other colleagues, and the ability to set and track goals.
Work Environment and Policies
Your work environment and the policies and procedures you have in place, will all impact on your culture. Something as simple as the office always being cold, or your workspace not being set up correctly can negatively impact your culture.
Creating clear and visible policies and procedures to ensure everyone is on the same page is key. We are often known as the Handbook gurus, if you don’t have one of our customised and designed Handbook’s then talk to us. These are an awesome tool, enabling all your policies to be found in one space, in a cool and easy to read booklet.
What works for us? We have one of our very own People Passion handbooks which contains all of our policies in a clear and easy to read format, everyone is on the same page, having read this book. We create a fun workplace environment, and create various themes each day, including Friday notoriously known as Burger Day. Not everything consists of bad food though, we are currently getting fruit boxes delivered every week to keep the spirits high over the winter and recommend for those in Auckland the awesome team at 5+ 2go.
People
Hire the right people – sounds easy, but far too many businesses get this wrong. Yes, someone’s experience is important, but their fit within your team is more so. Hire people based on their personalities, values, beliefs, along with their experience.
Once you have the right people on board, look after them – as Sir Richard Branson quite famously said, “Train people well enough so they can leave, but treat them well enough so they don’t want to”.
We are passionate about creating a workplace culture that works for each of our clients, and their own business personalities. If you need our help building your workplace culture, contact us on 0800 HR FOR U.
Paige Hellier
ER & Legal Consultant