As a company executive, you’ve probably wondered about the things you can do to boost the productivity and performance of your organization, which includes the state of your workplace culture. While nothing can change how your employees feel about their duties and responsibilities or who they work for, organizational culture can boost engagement levels and improve the day-to-day experience of your employees.
Workplace culture is defined as the collective mind and heart of an organization. There are a lot of things that affect the attitudes of your employees about their duties and responsibilities and who they work for. When most managers conduct culture assessments, they find that most mechanisms, activities, and processes connected to the experience of employees affect their attitude toward their work and organization. The biggest influence on the experience of an employee is their managers. Let’s discuss how managers can create the right workplace culture to foster high performance.
How to Create a High-Performing Workplace Culture
1. Create meaningful values and communicate them
Organizational values are not philosophical principles. Values help in guiding employees on how they should interact with customers, the community, and with each other. Your organization should have no more than five values to make it easier for employees to understand and remember what’s important to the organization.
Leaders should communicate the values and the expected behavior linked to each value. This will help employees to know what’s expected of them thus reducing uncertainty and ensuring that everyone’s behavior is aligned with the values of the organization. The best way for managers to communicate values to their employees is by setting a good example. Values do not just apply to frontline staff but the entire organization including senior management. For organizational values to have meaning, leaders should adhere to them every day.
2. Proper selection is key for improved workplace culture
Most of the time, managers rush to fill a vacant position in the organization without asking the right questions. And this leads to poor hiring decisions. Most managers look at the experience of a candidate to determine their employability. On the other hand, successful leaders look at how well the individual will work with others. It’s important to ensure that the candidate fits with the values and culture of the organization.
Human resource managers should consider using questions that have been tailored around the core values of the organization to know their candidates and make the right hiring decision. Another great way to conduct proper selection is by using a behavioral-interview approach. This method ensures that candidates engage in an activity during the interview process. This activity will help in pushing candidates out of their comfort zone and provide an opportunity to assess behaviors instead of asking a lot of questions.
3. Enhance the onboarding and orientation process
Research studies have shown that close to thirty percent of new hires quit within the first three months of working. To prevent this from happening to you, you should ensure that new hires receive an engaging and effective orientation during the first few days on the job together with an excellent onboarding process. It is important to set up success for new hires during this period to ensure that they feel connected to their team, job, and organization.
You can do this by establishing the right priorities from the first day. Ensure that all employees are happy and feel welcomed from the first day. By creating an organized training program and testing the comprehension of new hires, you will reduce turnover and boost the productivity and performance of your organization.
4. Communicate with all employees
The one thing that leads to poor engagement levels, low productivity, and an increased turnover rate in most organizations is poor communication. Most managers are usually surprised when employees or teams report that there is ineffective communication because they think they communicate with their employees regularly. The key issue is not the quantity but the quality of communication transmitted within an organization.
Business leaders can improve communication in the organization by keeping their words short and simple, using their tone and body language effectively, and communicating in a timely fashion. Using the right channels to communicate and reinforce a message is also important. Keep in mind that communication is a two-way process. Checking on your employees regularly to ensure that they understood your message is important.
5. Recognize your employees for better workplace culture
Recognition is a great way to reinforce good habits, make employees feel appreciated, boost engagement and retain the best talent. However, most employees don’t feel appreciated in the workplace. A research study found that 63 percent of employees don’t feel like they get praised enough in the workplace. Every employee learns and processes information differently. Therefore, managers should ensure that they recognize their employees effectively.
Managers should use different methods to recognize their employees. And they should be based around writing, saying, or doing something. The best ways to recognize your employees include writing thank you cards or emails, mentioning their achievements in meetings, or coming up with a fun recognition program. Employees are different. Therefore, recognition should be tailored to meet the needs of every person.
6. Coach your employees
Informal feedback is one of the best ways to help your employees understand how their behaviors measure up to your expectations. Research studies have shown that 32 percent of employees wait for at least three months to get feedback from their managers. This makes it harder for employees to measure their performance and link it to the expected results. Informal feedback can be effective by ensuring that it is timely, fair, and balanced. You should explain why specific behaviors are important and include a gesture of appreciation.
7. Show employees that you care about the organization’s culture
Showing your employees that you care about them individually and you’ll do whatever it takes to improve the culture of your organization. You can do this by listening to their needs and supporting them as much as you can. As you listen, make sure that you listen attentively and try to understand the perspective of your employees.
Conclusion on the importance of workplace culture
Successful leaders are always on the lookout for areas that need adjustments or improvements. While organizational culture is complex, the tips that we’ve shared here will help you foster high performance in the organization.
Author Bio:
Leon Collier is a blogger and academic writer from the UK who works with professional writing services and BrillAssignment. He likes trying new subjects and is always focused on proving his worth as a writer in new and challenging writing areas. His hobbies are reading books and playing tabletop games with his friends. You can reach him via Twitter @LeonCollier12.
