Is Your Company Culture Affecting Your Employee’s Productivity?
By: Affinity Access
Tags: Productivity, Work Culture, Remote Work, Management, Startup

Company culture isn’t just linked to employees’ well-being; it also impacts their productivity. By improving your company culture, you can improve employee efficiency, therefore, improving business outcomes and overall growth.

It is common for companies to have a cut-throat and high-pressured culture, as some believe this drives financial success. However, research shows that not only is a high-pressure environment harmful to productivity over time, but a positive environment actually makes employees more engaged and invested.

Before we look at how we can improve workplace culture, it is important to identify if there are issues with your current workplace culture.

Indicators of toxic workplace culture:

● Low morale.

● Employee absenteeism and tardiness.

● Lack of communication.

● Fear of failure amongst the team.

● Unfriendly competition amongst teams.

● High turnover.

● Cliques and gossip in the office.

● Employees don’t take lunches and work too late.

● No clear core values.

● Employees are disengaged and don’t participate in company events.

Often management will overlook workplace culture and choose to focus on business metrics that evaluate the financial health of your business. However, workplace culture is vital to the success of any organization as it affects how your team operates. It will impact how they interact, how they behave, and how decisions are made.

The assumption that stress and pressure push employees to perform better is false. What organizations that create a culture based around this fail to recognize is the hidden costs incurred with poor company culture. It leads to stress, causing employees to have sick days, dissatisfaction leading to disengagement. This causes more errors and lack of trying amongst employees, and finally high turnover, resulting in more significant outgoings on hiring and training more staff.

As a leader, you need to build a culture where your employees feel heard and valued, where they enjoy their day-to-day and feel like they are heading somewhere in their career.

Poor company culture can be a company’s biggest weakness; however, fortunately, there are ways that it can easily be improved. In order to create an effective company culture strategy, you need first to identify and understand the root of the problem. By conducting surveys, exit interviews, and speaking with team leaders, you can understand where there may be weaknesses in your company culture and also identify the areas in which you are excelling.

Once you have identified what can be improved and what aspects your employees enjoy, you can act on it and create a strategy that motivates your employees.

Here are some great ways to improve company culture:

● Offer incentives such as gift cards, awards, or bonuses.

● Create a benefits package that could include gym membership, discounts on childcare, or a bike-to-work program.

● Team building exercises.

● Create a list of company values.

● Create an inclusive environment.

● Hire people who will positively influence your company culture.

● Offer membership to an educational platform that lets your employees learn so they can progress in their careers.

● Don’t overwork your employees and if they do stay back late, make sure they are compensated or at least appreciated.

● Open communication, keep your employees up to date with important information and make them feel like a valued members of the team.

Every company is different, and there isn’t a one size fits all template for how company culture should be created and maintained; your workplace culture needs to be built around your values and the needs of your employees.

People excel when they are engaged and enjoy what they are doing; therefore, the greater the company culture, the more productive the team.