Negosentro|8 Simple Ways To Jazz Up Corporate Culture|by Pat Owings | shared from Business2Community |Make Your Corporate Culture the Best It Can Be! 8 Ways to Improve Your Corporate Culture image ID 100184054Whether you’re a manager or an employee, you know the importance of a comfortable and engaging corporate culture and office environment. Even if your business has fewer than 10 employees, creating a corporate culture where each employee and manager feels valued, understood and comfortable is vital to the success of your company.
Building a great corporate culture is more complicated than putting in a ping pong table and a snack bar. You must build an environment for your team that encourages teamwork and collaboration, as well. If you’re interested in building a better corporate culture but don’t know where to start, take a look at our list of ideas below.
1. Hire Better Employees
If there is one aspect of corporate culture that allows all other aspects to fall into place, it’s hiring the right people. It won’t matter if you have great policies in place for encouraging open communication and comfortable collaboration; if you haven’t hired people with can-do attitudes who are willing to work with and for others on a regular basis, no practice you’ve put in place is likely to be successful.
Establishing a great interview process is one of the most important parts of hiring the right person. Remember that a candidate’s attitude is among the most important of their qualifications. Know the attitude that fits best in the corporate culture you’re trying to build, and don’t be afraid to part ways with employees who don’t fit with the needs of your corporate culture.
2. Encourage Teamwork
Putting your team in place to connect with each other, not just on a work level, but also on a friendship level, is beneficial towards more effective teamwork in the future. Team-building exercises are an easy way to get your team on the same level, familiar with one another, and better at communicating in a variety of environments. Planning out-of-office retreats and exercises for your team is also a great way to encourage better teamwork.
3. Put Great Leaders in Place
The creation of a great company culture demands the presence of good leaders, those who know how to delegate, communicate and listen. Without a great leader in place, your team can lose sight of the importance of cohesive and effective teamwork.
4. Communication is Key
You’ve probably heard this in all sorts of places, in a variety of tones. But it remains among the most important parts of creating a great corporate culture: you must establish open lines of communication for all members of your team, not just the managers and leaders in your corporate structure. If the environment of your office is not conducive to comfortable and open communication, the ideas of those who aren’t in leadership positions will likely go unheard and feelings of intimidation or discomfort might begin to surface throughout the office.
5. Learning is Important in All Corporate Cultures
Regardless of the size of your company, you must encourage constant learning among your employees, managers and leaders, including yourself. When you encourage learning on a regular basis, you can be sure that each of your employees will have something to bring to meetings and discussions.
6. Encourage Free Time
In a lot of corporate environments, an “all work and no play” mentality takes hold, creating a stressful, uncomfortable and intimidating environment for every member of your team. No downtime between projects or tasks can also lead to early burnout, one of the key components to employee turnover rates.
You must encourage your team to take breaks throughout the day and focus on something non-work related for at least a handful of minutes. Taking breaks will help them rests their minds and re-center their energies, so they can return to their work with a refreshed point of view.
7. Ask Questions
Encourage your managers and leaders to communicate with their team with questions, not commands. Asking employees for their opinions, and opening the doors for a respectful discourse among the team and its leaders encourages a healthy company culture where everyone feels respected and listened to.
8. Don’t Skimp on the Celebrations
If you encourage employees to plan holiday parties and celebrate important milestones in the company’s development, as well as personal successes, employees will feel recognized and celebrated, whatever their role may be within your company. Let them enjoy their successes, and you’ll enjoy employee longevity and happiness and continue attracting great candidates throughout your company’s lifetime.
Building a solid corporate culture is an important part of company longevity and finding and keeping great employees. Continually searching for ways to improve your company’s culture can pay serious dividends towards the health of your inner-office environment and your employees’ relationships to their supervisors and each other.
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