By Sakshi Nautiyal
A company culture is simply the identity of a company. It involves the processes, core values, management style, dress code and many other things. However, you can describe it as the overall personality of a company. While in the past it wasn’t very important, today company culture can affect a great deal of employee satisfaction. Whatever affects employee satisfaction translates to employee productivity, customer satisfaction and eventually to business growth.
A good company culture increases productivity through raising the employee morale. A good number of employees believe that a good company culture helps them improve in their productivity according to a recent survey by Ipsos. From the survey, close to 30% of the employees mentioned that they believe company culture is extremely important for company growth. Nevertheless, there is a difference between good company culture and bad company culture.
Tech Giants in Silicon Valley pose as great examples of companies with great company culture. They invest in their employees’ comfort and experiences. These are the companies that offer their employees cutting-edge technology, free lunch, great communication, paid vacations and office showers among other perks. On the other hand, companies with poor cultures are always at the top of “the worst companies to work for” lists. It doesn’t mean that these companies don’t make profits but they obviously struggle to achieve certain metrics. Without calling anyone out, you can easily notice companies with bad cultures by just looking around. So how does the company culture affect employee experiences?
Employee happiness
There is no doubt that the company culture can affect an employee’s happiness which in turn affects their performance. A bad culture might lower the self-esteem of an employee making them less productive. On the other hand, a good company culture appreciates their employees regardless of the position. When employees are happy, they extend the happiness to the company’s clients increasing client satisfaction and retention.
Employee performance
If employees feel appreciated in the office, they are more likely to work harder and go an extra mile to achieve the company’s goals. A company culture that values its employees makes them own the projects leading to better performance. Furthermore, if you give them an opportunity to lead, they feel a sense of entitlement hence work harder to achieve the company’s goals.
Employee engagement
A good company culture leads to better employee engagement. In this regard, you get better results in regards to communication, collaboration and productivity. A good culture ensures that the whole team works together to achieve the company goals instead of employees aligning themselves in groups according to department.
How to improve company culture
Mend employee relationships
Employees who feel valued by their employers will obviously work hard to achieve the company’s goals. In this regard, ensure that the relationship between you and your employees is perfect to a point that they feel free to tell you anything. Employees who are open with their employers are more likely to share ideas and go an extra mile in regards to innovation. Open clear communication channels and assure employees of quick feedback if you want to increase trust between you and your employees.
Invest in employee perks
The big companies Google, Facebook and Microsoft have exceptional employee perks which explains why they attract only the best employees. You don’t have to put in place an inflated budget for perks in order to have your employees engaged.
Sometimes it’s just the simple things that matter like free coffee, meals, a good health care plan, work from home using an automated time tracker such as index time clock and retirement benefits. As a company owner, you should understand your employees background and tailor their perks to suit their needs instead of having one size fits all approach. For instance, employees with a family would value healthcare plan more than company parties.
Reward performing employees
I don’t think you will ever find someone who hates being rewarded. It’s human nature to have that feel-good if you are rewarded even though it’s your duty. Furthermore, human beings tend to be competitive meaning better productivity if there is a prize. However, I would approach this with caution and try as much as possible to take it to a personal level so that some employees don’t feel left out.
A good company culture goes into retaining employees, self-promotion, better customer experience and definitely growth among other benefits. In this regard, you need to find something that works for your company today.