Workplace culture is one of those terms you would’ve heard other professionals throw into business conversations, but how often have you felt unclear about what the term actually means? Culture is tricky to define because it can mean different things to different people and it’s a hard concept to measure. Essentially, culture is your organisation’s character and personality– it’s what makes your workplace unique. Some of the key elements that influence your culture include your traditions, behaviours, values, attitudes and expectations.
All these elements are universally important in cultivating a workplace culture that’ll encourage your staff to be their best and drive your company’s ability to achieve its goals. Evidence suggests that your organisational culture can increase employee productivity and engagement, strengthen your brand reputation, and help grow your bottom line. Here we provide four benefits that prove workplace culture and business success go hand in hand.
1. A positive culture attracts and retains top talent
In this survey, one-third of workers said they would pass on a good job if the corporate culture was not a good fit. Finding and recruiting high-quality talent isn’t easy, so you’re going to have to offer more than just an excellent salary – a happy working environment, flexible working hours, and genuine recognition are just some ways employers can quickly boost culture and a company’s success.
2. A positive culture boosts productivity
It’s a fact that when your employees are happy and enjoy their work environment, productivity increases. In this extensive study into happiness and productivity, happy workers were 13 per cent more productive! Having a positive workplace culture inspires and motivates your people to be their best to achieve and succeed!
3. A positive culture makes your brand look good – to everyone!
Not only does your workplace culture define the internal interactions that happen behind the scenes, but also, the attitudes and behaviours of your people are on display in front of your customers, prospects, suppliers, business partners, investors. You’ll want the people who are discovering, considering or already supporting your business to have a positive experience with your brand – a crucial step to developing a good reputation which contributes to success.
4. A positive culture reduces workplace risk
How your people behave in the workplace or at a work function can affect your liability as an employer; it just takes one bad egg to cause an issue – sexual harassment allegations, unfair dismissals are just some issues that come to mind.
Unfortunately, when a company has neglected to build good workplace culture, it’s difficult to enforce high standards of behaviour that employers expect from staff.
Tips to strengthen your workplace culture
Communicating to your employees how they’re expected to behave while in the workplace is not only crucial to developing a strong culture, but it’s also fundamental to workplace compliance. Having an employee handbook which contains your company policies is one thing but getting your employees to read and acknowledge the policy regularly is important recordkeeping that could support any future decisions such as dismissing an employee for misconduct.
While creating a strong workplace culture takes time to develop, it’s too important to ignore; for it to be successful, it requires strong leadership from the top down. HR Assured is the people management platform that helps businesses reduce the time they spend on HR admin (by up to 70 per cent) so leaders and managers can focus on more meaningful HR initiatives such as growing culture!
Your people are your most valuable asset. Building a positive workplace culture will clearly communicate your company’s expectations, values and behaviours, which will draw the right people to your business, encourage employees to perform at their best and ultimately lead to greater success for your company.
For more information on creating and maintaining a strong workplace culture, contact the HR Assured team.
Annette Micallef is a Content Marketing Manager and works for FCB Group (HR Assured’s parent company). Annette is an incredibly passionate and enthusiastic marketing communications professional and she is responsible for creating interesting and meaningful content across FCB Group’s businesses. When Annette isn’t creating e-Books, email campaigns and blogs, you can find her in the great outdoors; she loves being surrounded by nature and considers this to be her happy place where she finds inspiration and ideas.