Having a good company culture can help attract and retain good talent, and can have a positive impact on your bottom line. Find out how to improve the culture at your small business.
By Tim Dimoff
Even a small business establishes a company culture. Having a positive company culture is important whether you have many employees or only a few employees. With the pandemic “great resignation” going on, a positive company culture can help you to retain your employees. It boosts employee morale and leads to increased productivity and efficiency in your workplace, as well as motivates employees to do better and makes them want to come to work. This helps your bottom line in many ways including being able to attract and keep the best employees, which in turn, helps you to reduce costs as training new hires can be expensive. It also helps cut down on absenteeism, workplace accidents and more.
There are many reasons a company culture can be negative including lack of growth opportunities, lack of clarity and expectations for job responsibilities and performance, problems with leadership or problems with your company’s morale. These are all things that you should take a hard, honest look at. If you find you have a morale problem, you should take action as soon as possible to correct the problem.
There are many things you can do to boost company morale, whether your employees work in-person or remotely. Check out the following ideas.
• Recognize good employees for their efforts. This can be thru recognition in various ways such as a bonus, an award, a mention to other employees when there is a successful outcome, etc.
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• Listen to your employees. They can offer many excellent ideas whether at meetings, thru a suggestion box or by any other means of communication. They are often on the front lines and hear things that you may not be aware of.
• Offer your employees growth opportunities. No one wants to be in a dead-end job with no way to grow or improve. This also helps when recruiting new employees.
• Offer your employees training opportunities. This can include in school or in company training programs.
• Offer other benefits. Consider offering your employees assistance with higher education, or personal assistance for health or personal issues. This will help them feel valued and important to your company.
• Organize team building activities. These can be beneficial to both in-person employees, as well as to employees who work remotely. These can foster communication, increase productivity and creativity.
• Encourage frequent breaks. A coffee break can do wonders to re-incentivize employees. Discourage employees from working thru lunch or eating at their desks. If you can, have a breakroom that is nice and comfortable so they can unwind for a few minutes. This also fosters communication between employees.
• Encourage diversity. Bring in different talents, experiences and various skill sets. This can bring your employees together as a team and promote fresh ideas.
• Let go of any bullies or negative employees. This type of employee can completely hinder a positive company culture, as well as open you up to potential lawsuits.
The best thing you can do for your company and your team is to embrace changes that positively benefit all before low morale takes hold. And if you already have good morale and a positive company culture, these steps will help you to keep good talent.
Timothy A. Dimoff, CPP, president of SACS Consulting & Investigative Services, Inc., is a speaker, trainer and author and a leading authority in high-risk workplace and human resource security and crime issues. He is a Certified Protection Professional; a certified legal expert in corporate security procedures and training; a member of the Ohio and International Narcotic Associations; the Ohio and National Societies for Human Resource Managers; and the American Society for Industrial Security. He holds a B.S. in Sociology, with an emphasis in criminology, from Dennison University. Contact him at info@sacsconsulting.com.
