Why Workplace Culture Matters and the Key Strategies for Improvement
Your workplace culture is more than just your business’ personality. It’s a culmination of values, behaviours, attitudes and ways of working that shape every interaction and experience with your business. If organisational culture is clear, cohesive and, importantly, positive, it’ll naturally inspire a team of high performing, healthy and happy employees.
With 70% of employees are seeking emotional connections and empathy at work, employees are increasingly choosing and sticking with the businesses that not only have a positive workplace culture but continually nurture it. So, if you’re wondering whether culture should be a consideration in your employee engagement strategy, look no further!
In this blog, we’ll explore more reasons why organisational culture truly matters and share our top strategies for improving your culture. Keep reading to uncover these key insights!
What is workplace culture?
There are many definitions for workplace culture and, ultimately, it can mean something slightly different in every organisation. But in essence, workplace culture can be described as the shared values, connections and beliefs that underpin the way a business operates and the environment in which employees work in.
Workplace culture is something you experience when you step into a business. It shapes every interaction. It guides employees towards a common goal. As a result, organisational culture has a critical role in shaping employee morale, job satisfaction, employee retention and even talent acquisition and is therefore a key component of business performance. In fact, 94% of executives and 88% of employees believe that a distinct culture is the key to business success!
But as they say, Rome wasn’t built in a day. A strong, healthy organisational culture takes time to create, needs to be consistently nurtured and shaped as your business develops. You can get there by practicing and demonstrating clear leadership, consistent values, fair recognition and reward programmes, open communication and empathy. When you focus on uniting your team and ensuring everyone is aligned, you’ll create a brilliant workplace culture that’s not just spoken but lived.
Why is organisational culture so important?
Workplace culture is a fundamental driver of business success. Its power lies within the fact it shapes and defines pretty much all aspects of a business, from day-to-day operations and decision-making to how employees interact with one another and their perceptions of the business. A positive organisational culture will encourage employees to be innovative, collaborate better, work harder, be a brand advocate outside of work and much more. Plus, employees are more likely to remain engaged and loyal if they resonate with the culture and feel like they belong.
On the other hand, a toxic culture can damage businesses by disengaging employees and making them feel stressed or undervalued. In almost all cases, this leads to low morale, high staff turnover and poor performance. That’s why boosting your culture and maintaining it should be a priority!
Now, back to the positives and why a good culture is the key to boosting business success long-term:
- Increases employee engagement: A healthy business culture helps employees feel valued and supported which fosters stronger relationships and drives engagement.
- Makes the workforce more productive: People are more motivated when they resonate with their company’s culture, mission and values.
- Enhances employee attraction and retention: Businesses with strong, supportive cultures are more likely to attract top talent and maintain loyalty long-term.
- Improves communication and collaboration: Cultures built on a foundation of openness, trust and mutual respect benefit from better teamwork and communication.
- Leads to company growth: An inclusive and supportive culture encourages people to be more creative and share innovative ideas, which is crucial for sustainable business growth.
Our top 5 strategies to improve workplace culture
Join us as we share how to revolutionise your company’s culture. These tips and insights will help you build an environment where your team members feel valued, engaged, and aligned with your business goals. This will go a long way to helping your people and your business thrive. Hooray!
1. Clear hiring and onboarding experience
Employees get a sense of your organisational culture from their very first interactions with your business, which isn’t even day one of their employment, so it’s essential that your business’ hiring and onboarding experience clearly showcases your business’ core values and beliefs so you’re reinforcing your culture from early on. Worryingly, only 23% of employees understand their company’s mission, purpose and core values so it’s clear that more needs to be done to introduce, educate and re-educate employees! By ensuring that you clearly and honestly communicate your workplace culture in these early interactions, not only will you help new starters better understand your business, but you’ll ensure that you hire individuals that have clear expectations and truly get what type of workplace culture they’re entering. The result? Employees that understand your culture, buy into it and are therefore more likely to actively contribute long-term, helping strengthen it further!
2. Regular and transparent communication
Speaking of honesty and communication, one of the best ways to create a supportive, uplifting workplace culture is to prioritise regular and transparent communication. Well-informed team members are 2.5 times more likely to be engaged at work so knowledge is quite literally power when it comes to employee engagement! So, strive to keep lines of communication open at all levels of the business. Important information should be able to easily, freely flow from the senior level to the rest of the workforce but there should also be a regular drum beat of communications to consistently reinforce your company’s goals, strategic initiatives, values – all of which help strengthen organisational culture. Equally, it’s important that communication is two-way. Give employees regular opportunities to share their thoughts and play an active part in information-sharing in your business. Tools and events like newsletters, town hall meetings, employee engagement platforms and internal comms resources are really valuable here.
3. Engagement initiatives
Meaningful engagement initiatives encourage employees to go above and beyond in their roles and immerse themselves in their company’s culture. Initiatives like ambassador networks, peer-nominated recognition programmes and regular feedback forums empower individuals by giving them opportunities to influence decisions and feel heard. When employees feel listened to and valued for their contributions, they’re more likely to develop stronger connections and positive associations with their company, which can lead to long-term loyalty and lower turnover rates.
This is also what makes employee recognition initiatives especially powerful; they help reinforce desired behaviours while also creating a sense of belonging and shared purpose. You can also go one step further by combining recognition with other benefits like wellbeing resources and company events, to show your people a real sense of care and appreciation for the things they do and, importantly, give them opportunities to connect.
4. Leadership training
Your team leaders and managers play a pivotal role in shaping and sustaining company culture. Help them develop a positive, uplifting atmosphere by equipping them with the right mindset and tools for the job. Offer training programmes that focus on your organisational culture – what that means and looks like in day-to-day work. Beyond that, training around emotional awareness and communication skills is valuable here too, to ensure leaders can demonstrate the values and understanding needed to positively influence and inspire their team.
But although there are lots of fantastic training courses out there, leadership isn’t for everyone and the people you choose to manage people should be up for the job! Organisations with strong leadership development are 2.4 times more likely to hit performance targets! So, it’s worth taking time to carefully choose and train your managers and leaders.
5. Feedback mechanisms
Without feedback, it’s hard to measure or identify your employees’ perception of your company in a meaningful way. That understanding is a must when it comes to making changes that benefit your workplace culture and meet the needs of your team.
Instead of taking wild guesses, encourage feedback from your employees and allow them to share their experiences in a safe and supportive environment. You can do this by setting up anonymised surveys, focus groups or even more informal forums such as a peer-to-peer recognition platform. These will all give your people a voice and give you insights into areas of improvement, helping all parties feel involved in the shaping of their organisational culture – win-win!
How Boostworks can help
At Boostworks, we believe that a truly thriving workplace culture can be cultivated with the help of the right employee benefits. Your people are at the heart of what you do, and when they’re happy, that uplifting energy radiates throughout everything they do.
We can help you boost your team and develop a positive culture that leads to high engagement, loyalty, productivity and much more, with a tailored benefits platform. By partnering with us, you’ll get access to leading solutions that not only enhance your work environment but also the lives of your people. Whether it’s meaningful recognition programmes, personalised rewards, exclusive benefits or wellbeing initiatives, we’ll help you deliver a platform that can transform your culture and business performance. Want to know more? Why not see our solutions in action – book a demo with one of our experts today and let’s chat about what we can do for you and your team!
Book a DemoGet monthly engagement insights
Stay ahead of the curve with our latest blogs, news and research, sent straight to your inbox!
