Great workplace cultures are no accident. Whether employees are working at home or at work or anywhere else, great places to work build positive work cultures. Here are just a few ways to improve yours.
Hire People who put the “Life” into Work/Life
Yes, it’s important to evaluate people based on the criteria within your job postings. But that’s not enough to ensure a positive culture. In fact, these days we are looking beyond culture-fit to culture-add. But even so, while there has been a lot of attention to hiring for soft skills (ie emotional intelligence, dependability, flexibility) high-performing companies are hiring people who are passionate about things beyond work.
Build a Family Game Night.
With hiring up and more people working remote, gone are the days where we’re making new friends in the cafeteria or having team bowling parties on Wednesday nights. Devote time and thought into building new ways that encourage and incentivize employees to become familiar with each other. With the emergence of online games, and other technologies and apps like Donut, there have never been more choices to consider. (I have a favorite, and I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours.)
Explore the Benefits of Sleep
Everyone needs time to recharge, and the benefits of a good night’s sleep have been documented by such well-known personalities as Arianna Huffington and admired organizations like the Mayo Clinic. But do your employees know? How about holding a virtual sleep symposium and demonstrating the art and science of getting the appropriate amount of sleep and proven ways to do so? Want to go one step further? Consider taking another, more progressive approach. In Japan, where workers get less sleep on work nights than those in other countries, more and more companies are encouraging employees to sleep on the job, convinced that it leads to better work performance.
Japanese firms encourage their dozy workers to sleep on the job
Poll finds that japanese workers sleep for just six hours 22 minutes on work nights – less than those in any other country
Talents Should Be Showcased
Just as a proud parent supports and displays their child’s talent to motivate them and build confidence, your organization should look for creative ways to boost the morale of employees through showcasing the talents of their talent. These kind of employee-centric gestures go a long way in –
- Building a positive work culture
- Increase employee engagement
- Improving retention
- Building your employer brand
The Bottom Line.
Positive cultures encourage employees to perform better so level-up yours. Don’t know how to begin? Touch base with Brandemix, the best employee engagement and employer branding agency based out of New York.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jody Ordioni is the author of “The Talent Brand.” In her role as Founder and Chief Brand Officer of Brandemix, she leads the firm in creating brand-aligned talent communications that connect employees to cultures, companies, and business goals. She engages with HR professionals and corporate teams on how to build and promote talent brands, and implement best-practice talent acquisition and engagement strategies across all media and platforms. She has been named a "recruitment thought leader to follow" and her mission is to integrate marketing, human resources, internal communications, and social media to foster a seamless brand experience through the employee lifecycle.
