Culture.
We know it’s important to you. You devour our collection of posts on establishing and/or improving company culture. These are some of your (and our) favorites:
Top Talent for Top Dollar? Not if You’re Creative.
Screening for Personality: Finding the Right Fit for Your Culture
Company Culture: It Takes More Than Incentives
The blogosphere is stuffed with creative, fresh and innovative ways to make and keep your employees happy. It can be overwhelming. There’s ideas for the big boys. Clues for small business. And out-of-the-box thinking for the renegades (did someone say, ‘free food’? I’m in!!!).
We combed through countless blogs and curated what we feel are some of the best ways to boost your culture. Read through ‘em and then tell us what you think. That’s part of our culture at Active Screening. We believe in ENGAGING with you and LISTENING to what you have to say. We look forward to seeing your comments in the box below!
1.) Support Their Growth and Dreams
“Corey Blake, President at Round Table Companies says: “We have a motto as a publisher: “Don’t expect your reader to change through reading your book if you haven’t changed through writing it.” That motto defines our core belief that continual growth is necessary for the human spirit to regularly experience joy in the workplace. As a result, our executive team strives to help our staff remove aspects of their work that do not bring them joy so that they can focus on what they love doing. By intentionally making room for them to focus on what they enjoy, they are able to grow out aspects of the business that bring them deep personal satisfaction while also serving our clients. We’ve developed entire new lines of business this way, as well as new positions within the company. Support their dreams, and they will grow your business.”
Excerpted from Tech Cocktail’s 9 Ideas to Improve Your Company Culture
Why we like this: Doing the job you like that actually allows you to do the tasks you love? Imagine the productivity factor these folks are churning out!
2.) Show your employees you care (really).
“If you want to build loyalty among your employees, make sure to show you care about them in the totality of their lives, Spiegelman says. When they start working for you, find out their kids’ birthdays and their wedding-anniversary date, to commemorate those events with a card or a call. Ask about their hobbies and interests, so you can talk about those things, or reward them in ways they’ll actually enjoy.”
Excerpted from – Inc.com’s 10 Steps to a Remarkable Company Culture
Why we like this: Your employee isn’t a number, a face, or a cubicle. They are a person, with a name, with likes and dislikes, with a spouse or partner or lots of friends, with children of the two-legged and four-legged variety, with interests beyond answering emails and attending meetings. Celebrating what makes them special will make them feel valued and they’ll want to treat other employees and customers the same way. Winner winner chicken dinner.
3.) THE GONG
“Last year we installed a massive gong in our offices in Trenton. People who accomplish something awesome are encouraged to hit the gong as loudly as they can. Then they send out an e-mail to the entire company with the subject line “GONG HIT: Closed a major deal!” or “GONG HIT: New company logo available!” The effect is that whenever the gong tolls in the office or everyone receives a gong-hit e-mail (even from a distant office), positive energy is released. We all smile and feel great to be part of the team and send a congratulatory e-mail. While I prefer to reserve this kind of tool for positive events, there has long been a standing joke in the office that we should create a “Toilet Flush” for less-than-awesome news.” – Tom Szaky, Chief Executive of TerraCycle
Excerpted from – The New York Times’ You’re the Boss Blog
Why we like this: Celebrating a win is a simple, inexpensive thing that makes so many people feel good. The question regarding something fun like this should be, ‘why aren’t you doing this already?’
4.) Embrace Failure
“This is a tough one to do, but employees need to be able to feel comfortable at work, and know that if they make a mistake, it’s not the end of the world. There was a survey done not too long ago about how much fear employees have, and the results were pretty bad. Most employees live in fear. The 2 biggest things employees feared were getting fired, or making mistakes. Naturally, this lowers productivity and morale because employees spend so much time stressing and worrying. As a manager, you need to remove that element of fear.”
Excerpted from – Switch and Shift’s 8 Simple Ways to Improve Workplace Morale. Have You Tried This?
Why we like this: Working for a place where you don’t worry about getting canned for spilling the milk or jamming the printer or forgetting to send out an invoice? That sounds like Heaven Is A Place On Earth. Innovation often includes risk taking, but if you make you’re employees too scared to make a leap of faith, then you’ll be stuck in a rut and limit your growth potential. That’s a bum deal for everyone.
5.) Get started.
“Yes, I have listed the first five suggestions in a chronological order. But that doesn’t mean you can’t so something today, as soon as you finish reading this article or right now. You already know some things that need to change in your culture, so role model one of them starting immediately. Maybe your first step is to invite a couple people to lunch that you think might want to be on your team. Whatever your first step is – do it.” – Kevin Eikenberry – Chief Potential Officer, The Kevin Eikenberry Group
Excerpted from – Inside Indiana Business’s Seven Ways to Enhance Organizational Culture
Why we like this: Suggestions are all fine and good but at the end of the day you have to shut off the computer and start doing something. Why not now?