Building The Right Office Culture
– how to turn this into a high performing business.
Your office culture stands to define a lot about the daily operations of your organization. It has control over how your staff interact with each other, their individual work performance and the overall success of the company as a whole. HR experts appreciate its importance, and understand that it goes beyond the distribution of optimistic work/life propaganda or employee team-building events. Of course, office culture goes much deeper, and outlines the unwritten rules of office and work etiquette. Transforming poor office culture or taking steps to improve a functioning one can present many opportunities to turn your company into a high-performing business.
A Gallup study surveyed over 3,000 managers in the oil, banking, property, tourism, automotive and telecommunications industries, finding that the best leaders “create high-performance cultures by setting clear expectations, defining employee’s roles, creating a trusting environment and encouraging growth and development, while continuously raising the bar by encouraging high performance from themselves and their teams.”
So how can your team implement the above into your office culture strategy?
Setting expectations begins at the moment of acquisition, and should be outlined during the employee onboarding process to avoid bumps in the road as a candidate becomes a fully-fledged staff member. This can include everything from performance expectations, how the company culture should be exhibited in their work and what they can do to out-perform organization competitors. These expectations should also cover the details of company culture, as Barrett Values Centre states that “in the private sector, the culture of an organization is the principal source of its competitive advantage and brand differentiation.”
In the public sector, the culture of an agency is the principal source of its cost-effectiveness and the quality of services.
Defining employee roles is another great tactic to building the right office environment, and can prevent staff from feeling overwhelmed or developing resentment for other staff that are perceived to not be fulfilling their job descriptions. Establishing this clearly and successfully will also work to build trust across the workforce, and ensure every staff member is aware of their own level of responsibility.
Tracking and encouraging the growth and development of all employees’ means your workforce feels valued, and therefore more likely to connect to and flourish within the work environment. This will also provide a staff base who are motivated to influence their own career success, rapidly improving performance levels.
Bain & Company stresses the importance for conversation, as “consistent, sustained communication of the required behaviors is critical,” while assessing the current climate, as “winning cultures are best measured through the day-to-day activities of the frontline: the ownership of continuous improvement by lead operators.”
It shouldn’t be forgotten that one of the most influential factors in establishing a high-performing office culture are your company leaders, and their actions will guide those of employees who follow them. The Bain & Company study found that 68% of leaders see their culture as a competitive advantage, but 65% believe it needs changes within their organization.
HR should begin talking to its leaders, gathering their perception of the current workforce culture and where the shortfalls are.
ross-examining these responses with the opinions of staff will provide the department with a clear vision on what behaviors must be removed, or introduced, to establish a high-performing and successful office culture.
© New To HR
