By Maureen Considine
When done right, company culture can have a positive impact on recruitment, retention, performance and profits. Boost your bottom line in five easy ways.
Workplace culture is the top reason for the “Great Resignation,” if I were to borrow that overused and infrequently understood term meant to describe the past few years as large numbers of people leave the workplace. It’s perceived as people not wanting to work, but I haven’t always seen it this way. People want to work, sometimes too much. All of you entrepreneurs, business owners, and company executives, you probably know what I mean — it’s easy to work a lot and have little free time. It’s also easy to see a significant number of young people working two or three jobs just to make ends meet and those ends are not always pretty.
Workplace culture is the atmosphere, the leadership, and the environment that a company creates for itself and its people. It can be great, positive and healthy, allowing for those who work there to be productive, happy and incredibly satisfied with the work they do. It isn’t always easy to establish and maintain, though it is immensely beneficial to do so. It’s beneficial to performance, revenue, profits, and to top talent retention at every level.
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The impact of toxic company culture
What about when a company culture is negative, even toxic, for the people within it? This workhuman.com article reveals that employees are 10x more likely to leave a position due to toxic workplace culture than compensation, as is typically believed.
For too long toxic habits or leadership have been tolerated due to fear, lack of perceived options, and the way work and education has been projected. The overarching and long followed paradigm of power and fear in the workplace is moving toward being revamped. This is really going to be a paradigm shift for all of us.
Working in a company with a negative culture, where no one takes responsibility for themselves, their effort or results, including the lack of them — routinely pushing them outward at a circumstance or another person — breeds fear and dissatisfaction. It even breeds competition. The main focus for employees is on getting things done or meeting a deadline. It’s a difficult place to be because it leads to stress, burnout and even poor health.
This is shifting. Call it the “Great Shift” in the workplace as new employees are expressing different elements as important to them for both accepting and staying at their jobs. As younger generations enter the workplace we have seen what is important to them, and it’s not what older generations are used to.
They want to be of value, to contribute and/or to be of service rather than just receive a paycheck. They want to be recognized and to be included. This is part of what is causing the “Great Shift” in the workplace.
How to improve your company culture
We’ve identified five ways that, as a leader or business owner, you can create and improve your workplace culture.
1. Encourage development. This means as an individual, as a team and as a company — not just for the upper-level management, but for all. A company that has opportunities for growth and not just advancement up the ladder, but internally as a person, in their mindset, in their skills — and also in their faith and in their emotional intelligence. Their ability to form and maintain significant relationships and connections that last and grow are all contributors to a great place to work.
One way to go about encouraging development for your business and your team is through customized transformational retreats. Check out the information toward the end of this article about how these development opportunities can strengthen your company culture and boost your bottom line.
2. Value people as your best resource. Allow your people to be more of themselves, to serve with their strengths, with what they love to do and as a valued part of the whole. This starts at the top with leadership. That’s right, it’s how they show up and what their values are. That means valuing people, investing in people rather than an overarching focus on money. Don’t get me wrong, revenue and profit are incredibly important. Research shows that when companies create a positive, healthy, growing culture their revenue increases!
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This article states that “94% of executives and 88% of employees believe that company culture is crucial to success. Companies with a strong organizational culture have on average 400% more revenue growth in comparison to businesses with an undefined or poor organizational culture.
3. Take time off. Allow employees and even encourage them to take time off — yes, their accrued vacations, sick days and even regular lunches. Drop the pressure to work long hours. Skipping their lunch time as a measure of performance adversely affects job satisfaction and productivity, and even leads to burnout.
Employees are often afraid to take a vacation because it can be perceived as meaning they aren’t dedicated to their jobs, or that someone else will step in while they’re gone. When it actually makes them happier and more productive, which we have seen as some companies move toward a 4-day work week.
4. Disconnect from screens. Creating an environment where employees can set down their phones, or step away from their emails, can impact company culture and help to retain top talent. Having to be accessible all the time and feeling the need to respond to emails in a certain time frame including evenings and weekends, leads to burnout and a negative outlook. When it is time to be off work, letting them really be off work while still maintaining great open communication, can go a long way.
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5. Promote collaboration. Emphasizing collaboration instead of competition will propel your employees and colleagues to be more innovative, to share their ideas and to try new things. This is because in a collaborative environment, there is less fear of being judged or losing their position or even their jobs, because credit or recognition is taken when it needs to be given. Collaboration amongst and between management levels within the company, so that leadership styles can shift and be visible at other levels. This atmosphere not only allows a company to thrive, it also allows a company to grow and expand while it does the same for the people within it.
A final word
Toxic workplace culture is the noted number one reason for individuals to leave their jobs today, even above compensation and work-life balance. That includes being overworked, undermined and unappreciated.
One of the things we all know is that the last few years have brought us unprecedented experiences and situations. Companies and families had to change and adjust at a moment’s notice to work or learn from home. This change, and ones like it, can be easier and simpler with a strong and positive company culture.
If you would like assistance in creating or improving a strong, healthy company culture at your small business, we are here to help. Company culture is one of the many customizable topics we take a deep dive into at our luxury transformational retreats. These unique, specialized experiences for you or a small, hand-selected group are designed to help you with your biggest challenges. When you step out of your day-to-day environment, the results can be exponential in every area of your personal and professional life. Find out how to Work Less, Create More™ with Maureen.
Maureen Considine is the founder and CEO of Finding Your Way Coaching. She is the top Wealth Health Creation Strategist for entrepreneurs, executives and other high performers. She has over 25 years’ experience in sales and marketing and has worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs and executives in their careers and businesses. She has a B.A in Psychology, with training in mindset and the Psychology of Sales. You can reach her at: maureen@maureengharrity.com and https://www.maureengharrity.com.
