If you don’t think your business has culture, you’re wrong. Regardless of how many nights out you have with your team, your workplace has some sort of culture. This culture defines how happy your employees are. Everyone wants to work at Google – over 2 million people apply to work there each year. They may have a difficult time scanning through those resumes; however they’ve also proved to the world that their workplace culture is on that top notch. Google has created a community within their workplace where their employees are, get this, happy. Can you really say the same about your employees?
But what is workplace culture? Does your workplace have a business plan? This is something the owners created before the business ever got off the ground. Here they were forced to come up with values, goals, objectives, and policies – everything their business stood for. Culture is the aggravation of all those and more – it’s what gives the workplace personality. It’s what defines whether or not your employees want to come to work – and ultimately become the reason those employees stay for years or just days.
How can you begin creating a strong community like Google’s at your business? First, give everyone who works at your business an equal voice. I’m not saying give them equal responsibility or equal pay, just a voice. If your employees feel like they can speak up when they have a concern or need a little extra clarification, they will be happier and more productive members of the team .Happiness equals productivity! Second, stay open for development. Don’t let your employees do the same tedious task for a decade before acknowledging that they’re even doing it. Constantly keep development, training, and movement within your business. Offering a training program that creates relationships within the workplace as well.
Third, don’t discourage conversation and friendships in the workplace. Keep that water cooler where it is! Unless you’re replacing it with a margarita cooler, then dive right in. Allowing employees to build bonds and share a few personal stories will lead to bouncing of work ideas of each other, giving new perspectives and a place to grow ideas.
Take a look at your employees and even ask them for their ideas of how you can build the culture of your workplace. Trust me, it will pay off. And, don’t forget to show the culture within your job postings. New recruits want to know that they’ll be happy where they work – sometimes it’s actually more important than the money.