It affects nearly every element of a workforce, defining the work ethic, employee rapport, and so much more. From recruiting top talent to bolstering employee happiness and retention, a positive company culture serves as the backbone of any good business. Whether you’re a small business or a corporate organization, taking the time to define, cultivate, and improve the ethos of your company is always a worthwhile investment.

According to a Deloitte poll, 94% of executives and 88% of employees believe that a well-established company culture is essential to a business’ success. That same survey also found that there is a strong direct correlation between employees who claim to feel content and valued at work and those who profess their company has a strong culture. The more invested you are in building a positive work culture, the more invested your employees.

If you’re trying to figure out how to craft a positive work environment that caters to everyone in your workforce, you’ve come to the right place. In this post, we’ll cover a few clever ways you can reshape your culture in the interest of your employees and customers.

Make a plan

Whether you’re a managing supervisor, a human resources representative, or a company culture director, assessing the current state of your company culture is an important first step in your journey toward making significant change. As you assess, be sure to ask yourself these important questions to identify the positive elements of your culture and the areas that could benefit from updating and upgrading:

• What do I love about the current culture, and what would I change?
• What would my employees say they love most about working for my company?
• What feedback have former employees offered in the past?
• How does our company culture measure up to industry competitors?
• What changes will make the most significant changes in employee happiness?

Keep in mind that the more perspectives the better—this doesn’t have to be a one-person brainstorm! Cultivate answers to these questions by opening the discussion via an anonymous employee and/or executive survey.

Screen prospective staff

Any business on a good trajectory is bound to grow in size. Part of cultivating your company culture is building a team that works well and is equal parts professional and authentic. Whether that means using a credit check for employment or doing a pre-screening survey to gauge a person’s interests and hobbies, there are a number of avenues available to you to screen prospective employees. 

Integrate flex-schedules

After several months of mandatory remote work due to the COVID-19 pandemic, working from home has likely been a dream come true for the vast majority of your workforce. In all likelihood, bringing your team back into the office is bound to cause some unwelcome frictions—and justifiably so if your business has been able to carry on as usual.

Integrating flexible scheduling is an excellent first step in creating a company culture that accounts for your employee’s needs and desires. If your staff was able to get their work done efficiently at home, why not consider introducing flex options? Rather than going directly from remote work right back into the ol’ 9 to 5 grind, give your employees some leeway that allows them a bit of breathing room and work balance.

There are a myriad of viable approaches you can take to make flex scheduling work for your business, two of the most common include:

• Telecommuting: Allowing employees between 2-3 days in-office per week
• Custom work hours: Employees can select their own work hours, with managerial approval

Recognize achievements

Taking the time to recognize your employees is an excellent way to increase employee retention and happiness. After all, your employees work hard to make your business a success, and they deserve all of the accolades and applause for doing so— even if it’s expected of them. Be careful of falling into a behavior of expecting above-and-beyond work without dishing out above-and-beyond reward.

Work with your upper management team to establish a cadence of regularly checking in with employees and staying engaged with their projects and achievements.

In need of a few unique ideas to show employees appreciation? Try these out:

• Take them out to a complimentary lunch
• Award them an extra day of PTO
• Celebrate work anniversaries
• Organize happy hours for milestone achievements

How will you begin to build out your perfect company culture? Let us know which of these tips you’re eager to try.