The 21st-century workplace is all about positive vibes. People want a work environment where their skills hold value and their personal lives are respected.
It’s understandable if your company culture hasn’t caught up to the societal changes sweeping the nation. It’s almost as if workplace culture evolved overnight, and we woke up in a different reality. However, if your company doesn’t catch up with the times, your employees could leave and take a lot of your business with them. So continue reading to get some tips that will help your company adapt to the new world of business.
1. Create a workplace wellness program.
Do you know what kind of people miss a lot of work? People for whom their health is a problem. You can improve employee health and morale by instituting a workplace wellness program.
One of the benefits of wellness programs is they encourage employees to think about wellness differently. It’s easy to develop health problems when wellness isn’t a priority. People are so busy they often don’t have time to count calories, steps, or how many potato chips constitute a single serving.
An employee wellness program will help your team be more mindful about how their choices affect their health. You can even use incentives like bonuses and tickets to events to encourage them to take the wellness program seriously.
2. Prioritize building maintenance.
The comfort of your building has a significant impact on how well your team members perform. If they’re sweating profusely or shivering so hard their teeth are chattering, good luck getting any production from them. Your HVAC system is one of the most important features of your building. It affects airflow and air quality as well as comfort.
What you can do to improve HVAC efficiency is schedule regular maintenance with an HVAC technician to ensure your ductwork, thermostat, and air compressor are ready at the start of each season. Keeping your air conditioner blowing cool air in the summer and warm air in the winter will also help keep your employees comfortable and productive.
3. Plan team-building exercises and events.
Employees must have good working relationships to foster teamwork and high morale. The better they get along, the better they’ll work together.
A great way to improve your company culture and employee relationships is to plan team-building exercises and events. The key to making your team-building efforts effective is to make them fun and pressure-free. You could even bring in team-building consultants to take over team-building operations and get even better results.
4. Encourage employee engagement in company strategy.
Small business owners and execs at large corporations often implement sweeping changes without consulting the people who will be most affected. It can create an “us and them” mentality among team members when they have no say in decisions that could make their work easier or more difficult.
Believe it or not, suggestion boxes work when employees know that the company’s top brass actually reads and considers their suggestions. You could even hold focus groups to get team members involved in decisions. You’ll be amazed by what they have to bring to the table outside of their labor.
5. Give employees even more reason to look forward to Friday.
Absenteeism is a problem for many companies across the United States. However, many businesses have found out that shortening the workweek to four days increases productivity throughout the week and reduces absenteeism. Your team members will likely be more than willing to put in two extra hours for four days a week if they know the trade-off is an extra day of rest. Who knows, maybe four-day workweeks will become the norm.
Millennials now make up the bulk of the workforce, and they have higher expectations of their employers than previous generations. Creating a positive company culture is a great way to encourage buy-in from your team members and bring out their best efforts.
Our country’s culture is changing, and workplace culture is evolving along with it. Your company should implement the necessary changes to improve its culture now than learn the hard way that employee satisfaction significantly impacts customer satisfaction.