With a positive company culture, you get employees who are more productive, engaged, and loyal. Positive office culture is more than just the perks and gaming rooms. Rather, it’s the attitude and environment that management creates and fosters.

Work Culture: What It Is

Work culture is a collection of attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors in a work environment. The key to a healthy workplace culture is aligning behavior with the organization’s goals and considering employee well-being. In a new workplace, work culture affects how well someone can fit in and form professional relationships with their colleagues. 

Why Is a Healthy Work Culture Important?

By creating a positive culture, employees are more satisfied and able to adapt their work styles to their strengths and preferences.

For the Companies

A company’s culture affects how an organization works, performs, and succeeds. Here are some reasons why a positive work culture is important to an organization:

• Reduced turnover rate. A positive workplace culture means engaging in meaningful work, communicating openly, and upholding core values. Employees tend to stay in a workplace with a healthy working environment. 
• Saves time and money. A positive culture fosters teamwork, collaboration, and open communication. This increases productivity as employees are motivated to work harder.
• Increased profits. Employees are engaged and more productive in an organization with a positive culture. An increase in productivity directly translates into increased revenue.
• Business growth. Innovating and improving processes can happen when employees are unafraid to experiment and share their ideas, leading to business growth.

For the Employees

• Greater involvement. A positive work culture motivates and inspires employees to be more collaborative with others at work. 
• Motivation. Work cultures that support, value, and provide employees with a trusting, psychologically safe environment will likely motivate them.
• Improved mental health. Stress levels and burnout are reduced in workplaces where work-life balance and mental health support are prioritized.
• High-quality performance and productivity. Productivity and performance levels are higher in organizations with healthy work environments.

How to Create a Positive Work Culture

Most employees can tell quickly if a company’s culture is a good fit for them or not. Here are some elements to focus on when creating a positive work culture:

Values

Your company’s values shape its culture, and everything your organization does should be based on them. Identify the values you want your company to embrace and discuss them with your leadership team. 

Safe Workplace

Workplace safety is essential to any organization. In addition to protecting your employees from potential hazards, implementing effective health and safety protocols contributes to their well-being, job satisfaction, and productivity.

Open Communication

Healthy workplace cultures are built on open, transparent communication. Communication between employees and management fosters trust, reduces misunderstandings, and improves employee engagement.

Working Times and Flexibility

When employees take time to deal with personal emergencies or responsibilities outside of work, they should not worry about repercussions. A flexible environment that understands the importance of time off contributes to a healthier work environment.

Leadership

Workplace culture is heavily influenced by leadership. Leadership sets the tone, leads by example, and positively influences the organization’s values and behaviors.

Digital Transformation

Embracing workflow automation can help companies simplify the work environment and free employees to innovate, learn new skills, take a break, pursue a side hustle, or pursue other meaningful activities.

Professional Growth

Work culture includes employee development and growth. Enhance growth opportunities through in-the-moment learning, mentorship, fiscal rewards, challenging jobs/projects, and more.

7 Types of Organizational Culture

Culture in the workplace comes in all shapes and sizes, and it never remains the same. Companies may have one or more types of organizational culture, which includes the following:

1. Clan culture. A common feature of clan cultures is horizontal, close-knit relationships between employees. This type is common in smaller, family-owned businesses.
2. Adhocratic culture. Tech companies that must continuously adapt to changing trends and push out new ideas benefit most from an adhocratic culture. 
3. Market culture. In market culture, the processes are results-driven. This type focuses on the competition and how to stay ahead of the curve.
4. Hierarchy culture. Structures and levels of authority define this type. This is common in larger organizations where the roles, responsibilities, and goals are clear and established. 
5. Customer-focused culture. Businesses foster an environment dedicated to building strong customer relationships and enhancing customer satisfaction. 
6. Culture of purpose. This is common in non-profit organizations where leaders and employees share altruistic values. The goal is to change the world and share all resources with people with marginal living conditions. 
7. Creative culture. Businesses with this type of culture focus on developing new ideas and driving growth.

How to Improve the Work Culture

Implementing a positive work culture is more than formulating a code or envisioning a strategy. Here are some best practices to follow:

• Always promote your values. Ensure that your people leaders embody your company values. These values must also be reflected in your organizational culture.
• Hiring the right talents. You should tailor interview questions around the company’s core values to gain a better understanding of candidates and anticipate how they will contribute to the company.
• Transparency regarding promotions. You can improve company culture by providing industry-standard benefits packages and being transparent about employee promotions.
• Be active in onboarding processes. As new hires transition into their roles, teams, and organizations, it’s crucial that they feel connected.
• Publicly recognize the team’s successes. Employee recognition is key to motivating employees, reinforcing positive habits, retaining the best talent, and driving engagement.
• Pay attention to diversity and inclusion. Embrace diversity and create a positive work culture that welcomes individuals from all backgrounds.

In Conclusion

Building a workplace with the right culture is a big responsibility. But you can always rely on companies like Kilpatrick Executive to help you strategize and implement important changes like this.