Employee happiness often depends on the work environment in each company. A workplace with a strong and supportive culture usually has highly motivated and productive team members. Conversely, companies that do not have a healthy work environment, either because they do not encourage work-life balance or do not listen to employees’ opinions, will not achieve such good results.
For leaders interested in increasing employee engagement, there are several ways you can rethink your company culture to further support your team. To this end, a panel of ukbusinessupdates.com Business Council members share their recommended approaches and why each is so helpful.
Members of the ukbusinessupdates.com Business Council share how leaders can navigate change in their company’s culture.
Photos courtesy of individual members.
1. Bond with your employees
It is essential to create a greater bond with employees. Active use of emotional engagement is becoming increasingly important in today’s world. Plus, use that emotional connection to help employees understand clearly stated goals that are measurable, achievable, relevant and traceable so that your goals determine your company’s revenue and profits. – Lere Baale, Business School Netherlands International
2. Organize team building activities
Team building and events increase employee productivity. The best way is to plan a few different types of activities that cover all interests. My employees usually bond after an escape room event because it brings them together to solve problems as a team. The next day is always a surge of energy, so I highly recommend it! – Elliot Ashkenazi, Merchants Cash Partners
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3. Have a great line manager
What is a “healthy work culture?” When it comes to creating a more flexible, mature work environment where people feel they belong and can thrive, you need to focus on the skills of line managers. A line manager must have time to manage people, and that is often not the case. Helping them with their communication skills will change the way you work. – Jenni Field, Redefining Communication
4. Allow employee input
Involve your employees in decision-making so they feel valued and part of the company’s growth. Take input on the current challenges they face and involve them in the troubleshooting and troubleshooting process. – Abhinav Girdhar, Appy Pie LLC
5. Maintain your principles as a leader
Faithfulness to principles is paramount to building trust, and trust is the root of employee imagination and impact. Leaders must fairly assess the extent to which their principles apply to every facet of the employee’s life cycle. Inconsistencies and worse, tolerating violations will erode trust and negate any opportunity to seize the power of imagination and impact. – Barry Marshall, P5 Collaborative Consulting, LLC
6. Stick to your values
If you have strong values, stick to them and be passionate enough to explain them clearly to get support. Only those who share those values will stay and work with that in mind. You can’t talk people into it, and you better not change your own values, because you lose integrity, as well as the reason people wanted to work with you. – Jean Paul De Silva Clauwaert, Web Content Development
7. Be the last to speak
Leaders who bring teams together to ask for opinions, but give their own before the team speaks, subconsciously influence what people have to say at best. At worst, they pressure people to agree with them. Trust and culture flourish when you speak last, giving your team an open playing field unhampered by what they think you want to hear. – TJ Tham, TJUFOOO
8. Stick to your core values
Core values are the critical foundation on which leaders can create and deliver a sustainable culture where their team wants to be. The key to success with core values is to make sure that you as a leader fully align with them and that you follow them in your daily life. In this way you become the example for your team. – Matthew Davis, GDI Insurance Agency, Inc.
9. Consider a Decentralized Autonomous Organizational Structure (DAO)
Ten years ago, option plans would have been the solution. Now everyone gets it anyway (unless we’re talking about the newborn startup that could become a unicorn). Today, I believe that DAOs can become the best way to incentivize creators and developers as the structure of decentralized autonomous organizations assumes that everyone is a true partner and is compensated accordingly. – Valeriy Makovetskiy, Everything
10. Give employees freedom of choice
It is mandatory that my employees come to their manager when they experience a challenge in their work that occurs regularly and is not addressed by our processes. I listen to their pain point and we discuss their suggested remedy or brainstorm options for solving it. It propels our company forward and gives them a sense of pride and ownership. Give them the chance to make you better. – Natasha Miller, Whole productions
11. Host a weekly meeting
For us it starts with weekly meetings with all employees. We have an open forum where we ask them how we can make their job easier so they can be more productive and let them tell us things we need to improve. They need a voice, and this is the most beneficial aspect of our business. – Tammy Sons, Tn Nursery
12. Celebrate PTO and give your team flexibility
Time is our most finite and valuable resource, so create a culture that treats it that way. Share PTO highlights (yes, leadership too) at monthly meetings to model PTO taking being celebrated. Educate managers to make sure they spend their time checking in with people and making sure they are okay. Finally, give your team what they want most of their time – flexibility – and let them work from anywhere. – Tyler Christiansen, Cooker
13. Give Anonymous Surveys
I’ve found that anonymous surveys that ask specific questions and prompt employees to respond are the first step in rethinking company culture. As a leader, you need to understand how employees feel and experience organizational culture before you can make meaningful changes. – Stephanie Schwartz, Little Bean group
14. Emphasize the importance of every employee
To encourage employees to move forward in their role, it is important for them to know how their role plays out in the bigger picture of the company. Each team member is an essential piece of the puzzle. Emphasizing their importance within the company can help these employees feel valued and more involved in achieving shared goals. – Johan Hajjic, Top Key
