Times have changed immensely since the days of silent, dull, workplaces. Now, company culture is an extremely important asset to have and can be the difference between a successful business and a declining one. Having a great company culture provides many benefits, including shaping positive morale and boosting productivity.
Here at Bulldog, our culture is extremely important, and with tried and tested methods, we certainly know how to get a commendable one. Take a look at some of our Bulldog benefits, for example:
As you can see, these are just some of the many ways that you can create a thriving company culture. With a shocking 64% of employees claiming to have a weak culture, it’s no surprise that so many companies are suffering from high employee turnovers. Unhappy employees equal to low productivity levels; which leads to poor performance. Your culture has a direct influence on how others see your company, which in turn, attracts both job applicants and new business.
If you’re looking to boost your company culture, take a look at the following important feelers.
Hold off micromanagement
Gone are the days of running a workforce like a dictatorship. If you want employees to feel comfortable and productive while they work, then treating them like they’re under surveillance is the wrong way to go about it. More and more companies, especially agencies, are steering clear from peering over their employee’s shoulder, expecting them to go wrong.
“Assume people are good. Let workers self-organize. Have team-oriented environments. Give people opportunities to learn and grow. If you think people are good…you let them figure it out,” said Laszlo Bock, best-selling author.
Trusting your employees to do good has proven to boost performance, increase trust, and drive large-scale change. All of these factors benefit your company, so next time you give your employee a hard time for no reason, think about the negative impact it’ll have on your business in the long run.
Build a community
Building a social community is particularly important if your company operates in an office. Employees need to spend time away from their desks to avoid the monotonous feeling of staring at a screen all day. As well as this, having a break away from the desk diminishes the risk of eye problems and headaches.
Giving employees breaks is all fine and well; but where do they go? Should they be expected to leave the building whenever they want to take a step back? Simply put, ensure that your office has a ‘social space’ which allows employees to sit down and socialise with one another. This not only helps to build co-worker relationships but also helps to break up the day, once again, giving employee’s their freedom.
Here at Bulldog, we have our social space in the kitchen, equipped with sofas and a book corner. As well as this, our meeting room has bean bags and games consoles for when it’s free!
Make time for team building
Following from our point about creating a good community, team-building activities help to strengthen this. We don’t mean the school team-building activity where you have to awkwardly introduce yourself and proceed to build a spaghetti tower, don’t worry. Taking time out of work schedules every now and then to get the whole team together, creates memories which will last a lifetime, is the ultimate de-stressor. Happiness at work should be a top priority for all companies, and creating a fun company culture contributes to this.
If you’re looking for some team-building inspiration, here are some of the tried and tested methods we’ve carried out:
🐵 Go-Ape outdoors adventure
🚗 Go-karting
🍽️ Team meals
🔥 Beach BBQs
🏆 Award events
🆘 Fundraisers
🐯 Helping out at wildlife parks – we recently volunteered at Shepreth Wildlife Park:
Encourage growth
A stagnant team equates to a stagnant business; this fact alone should persuade you to encourage growth amongst employees. Encouraging your employees to grow and learn new skills will not only make them feel valued, but it will also have a direct impact on the progress of your business. There are over 50,000 professional skills out there to learn – just imagine how strong your company would be if you had an army of people filled to the brim with knowledge.
It's important to build a workforce with skills that'll help your company excel. But – which skills should you be focusing on? Read all about it in our latest blog 💡 #skills #skilledworkforcehttps://t.co/nCmUdLaAjW
— Bulldog Digital Media (@BulldogAgency) January 29, 2019
Share the same goals and listen to others
Company culture thrives when every employee is working towards the same goal. Sure, different departments might have their own individual goals, but when everyone has a clear idea of what the business wants to achieve, everyone can work in unison and share the same vision. To make this clear amongst everyone, hold regular meetings to discuss targets, setbacks, current workloads, and so on. These meetings allow all employees to be heard and interact with co-workers they may not have interacted with before.
Say yes to pets
Studies have shown that having a dog companion helps to reduce levels of stress and/or anxiety. What better way to unwind on a Friday afternoon than having one in the office? If your building allows pets, and all employees are comfortable being around a dog, why not bring one in for a few hours. Providing that they don’t need constant attention and are happy to chill, you’ll be deemed the coolest office in town once word gets out. We frequently have dogs in our office and can confirm that everyone smiles from ear to ear while they’re around – and still get work done.
Enjoy your new perspective
If you can’t tell, culture is something that everyone looks out for. A job applicant is far more likely to work with a company who will respect them and reward them over one which will drop them for making the slightest mistake. An uplifting and supportive environment is a positive one; one which you should strive for.