Building the brand starts within: 5 Ways to rekindle your office culture

5 ways feature

Your employees are the missing piece of the puzzle; the real key to success; the most important factor when it comes to building a thriving brand… which is why you really want to be getting the most value from your staff.

So how can you ensure your employees are ready to help you to grow and develop?

When it comes to employee satisfaction and, ultimately, to productivity, company culture is a priority. This is especially true when you consider that a poor company culture costs the UK economy £23.6 billion a year due to the high turnover rates across many different industries and sectors. The question is: how can you create a great office culture that not only motivates your staff, but also inspires them, too?

Free sweets? A pool table? Showing the match on the office’s very own big screen TV? Maybe. But there’s more to creating a good workplace culture and a strong brand than just the fun stuff.

Here are 5 ways to rekindle your office culture and help your staff stay productive in their role:

Focus on the Bigger Picture

The Office for National Statistics shows that 59,000 UK businesses have multiple sites, operating 523,000 units in total. This can make the organisation feel a little disjointed, especially if premises are categorised by specific job role; the core business in one building, and the technical team in another, for example. The problem is that the efforts of one team may not be especially noticeable at the end of the line.

Source: https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/business/activitysizeandlocation/bulletins/ukbusinessactivitysizeandlocation/2018

That’s why it’s important to focus on the bigger picture; rather than looking only at the task in hand, ensure staff knowwhy they’re doing it, and how it will benefit the end product or service. Regular meetings between teams can be beneficial, as can corporate workwear – to show people they really are part of something bigger. Keep those costs down with Simon Jersey discount codes at PlusVoucherCode.

 

Communicate

It’s no secret that work can sometimes feel a little lonely, which is why encouraging and promoting communications between employees can be beneficial in creating a welcoming and friendly company culture. Research even shows that those who enjoy high energy interactions with their colleagues are more likely to stick around in their position, minimisingstaff turnover and helping to build a strong team.

There are many ways to encourage high energy interactions in the workplace. Try to offer a dedicated space (away from work desks if possible) to allow for animated discussions and meetings, schedule time for shared learning opportunities, and don’t be afraid to promote healthy debate. While ‘high energy’ may not be possible for remote workers, make sure they have reliable ways to communicate with others.

Maintain Structure

The concept of organisationalculture is one that is dying out. Especially with the rise of the entrepreneur and the small business, having ‘all hands on deck’ is often key to initial growth. However, when it comes to company culture, there is something to be said for maintaining some degree of structure, with PwC research showing the biggest obstacle standing in the way of happiness is doing someone else’s work.

While it may always be necessary for employees to wear various hats, to help out where and when needed, and to show support for their colleagues, it is also important to ensure that staff haveclear objectives that are specific to their individual position within the company. Schedule regular one-to-one meetings to ensure these objectives remain up to date and that staff are always clear on their position.

Stay Business Oriented

Imagine is one of your primary and well-promoted business objectives is to save money. Now imagine you’re trying to build a company culture based around free snacks and first-class travel tickets to meetings. It’s confusing and it shows your employees that the business is not entirely clear on what it wants to achieve and how it wants to achieve it. Your culture should be connected to your business.

When trying to rekindle your company culture, take some time to consider what’s important to your company and really push these behaviours. Organisational strategy company The Katzenbach Center calls these the ‘critical few’ behaviours; just a small selection of actions that can be taken from the business objectives and incorporated seamlessly into workplace culture. So, what’s important to your business?

Offer Training & Promote Education

The reason behind why people choose their professions, and the company they work for, is changing. Once, money was a primary motivator, but today things are a little different. In fact, research by Deloitte shows that there are now roughly twice as many employees working for passion as there are those working for ambition. Employees love what they do, and they want to be able to develop their skills.

Source: https://www.deloitte.com/insights/us/en/focus/human-capital-trends/2015/employee-engagement-culture-human-capital-trends-2015.html

At this time, it is perhaps less important to be looking at ways to promote people and develop their path up through the organisation, and more important to be looking at how employees can hone their skills and develop their talents within their current position. Providing peer-to-peer learning opportunities can be beneficial, as well as considering online training, training courses, or even welcoming guest speakers.

Culture is Key

Studies have found that culture really is everything. Businesses with a strong company culture not only earn more,but have actually been shown to outperform the competition. Happy employees are productive employees, and productive employees build brands. It doesn’t get much simpler than that!