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10 Easy Ways to Improve Your Office Culture

10 Easy Ways to Improve Your Office Culture

by | Dec 26, 2017 | Blog

You can usually tell during the interview process whether or not a candidate will be a “good fit” for your team and office culture. But building a positive office culture is about more than just hiring people with a certain je ne se quois. Your company culture is made up of the values, beliefs and behaviors of everyone in your office – both management and employee – and is also reflective of your company’s overall goals. Culture defines both how employees see themselves as contributors as well as how outsiders perceive your business. Pinpointing exactly what you want your office culture to be will help you to hire the best possible applicant while also showcasing what makes your office an enriching and enticing place to work.

These ten tips will help you identify and improve your company’s culture.

1. Align your office culture with your company’s goals.
Before you can make improvements to your company’s existing culture, it’s a good idea to identify the kind of environment you hope to encourage at work. Do you need your employees to wear a suit and tie into the office all week, or is every day “casual Friday?” Does your business require a small, tight-knit staff working toward expansion or some friendly competition to boost sales? Make sure that the culture you’re building actively benefits the overall goals of your business. Be transparent with your team about what the company is trying to accomplish – and how.

2. Help your team get on the same page.
Are your company goals as clear to your employees as they are to you? If you don’t have one already, create a list of core-values ranging anywhere from the day-to-day mission of your business to the more lofty, long-term goals of your company. Employees who see their own beliefs mirrored in the company’s mission will feel more motivated and satisfied in their role than those who don’t enjoy their work or believe in the organization they work for.

3. Embrace transparency.
Culture is made up of things that are hard to see, but that doesn’t mean the way your employees feel in the office should be invisible to management. Providing space for employees to share their personalities, stories and inspirations is crucial to developing a tight-knit and communicative team. Similarly, employees should be provided with an avenue to interact with management and privately air concerns. Overall, general employees have a different day-to-day experience at work than middle or senior management, providing unique and insightful perspectives that management doesn’t always see. Promoting an office culture that values sharing and encourages problem solving is crucial to building trust, balance and productivity among your team.

4. Create a collaborative environment.
The benefits of a collaborative workplace are well known, but building that environment doesn’t happen overnight. Collaboration requires trust from the top down, from the bottom up and laterally, at all levels. Your team should feel comfortable taking risks and confident that their mistakes will not be held against them indefinitely. Creating mentorship opportunities for new employees can help build that trust from day one. But, developing these relationships over the long term requires that employees are not treated like numbers – they need to feel appreciation, support, and a sense of belonging from their colleagues as well as from their higher-ups.

5. Learn to say “thank you” (and teach your employees to do the same).
Actively showing gratitude isn’t just a trend, it’s incredibly beneficial. Studies show that a simple “thank you” goes a long way in making people feel listened to, respected and valued. Sending a thank you note to an employee who has gone above-and-beyond or successfully finished a particularly challenging project is an easy way to make your employees know that their work matters and is valuable to you.

6. Be flexible.
Flexible hours and schedules are one of the most sought-after employee benefits. Providing flex hours helps employees know they will be able to be more present in their lives outside of work. Flex time tells your employees that you see them as individuals and not only do you value the work they do for you, but you respect their personal lives as well. Identify when it’s crucial for employees to be in the office, what kind of work can be done from home and which employees would benefit most from flexible schedules.

7. Acknowledge that your employees have lives outside the office.
The employees who are most successful at work also feel that they can maintain a fulfilling, separate home life. Encourage employees to have a positive work-life balance by promoting personal and family time, encouraging the development of interests outside of the office and offering wellness activities and continuing education. This will show your employees that you care for their wellbeing but will also actively prevent burnout and promote creative thinking – which, in the long run, is beneficial to everyone involved.

8. Invest in financial wellness.
Seven out of ten employees suffer from financial stress. That means, whether you know it or not, nearly three quarters of your staff is stressed about their finances. Financial stress leads to lower productivity due to distracted employees, high levels of absenteeism and higher healthcare costs. Offering services that help employees reduce stress by tackling debt, learning how to balance finances and reorganizing their financial lives is a great way to improve employee morale, thus, employee productivity and your company’s bottom line.

9. Seek out employee feedback.
An important part of understanding and improving office culture is listening to how your employees feel about their interpersonal relationships at work, learning their individual capacities to take on new projects and asking about their overall work experience. Having quarterly interviews (check-ins) not only makes employees feel that their input matters, but it will also help you gauge what changes to the office environment could be made.

10. Don’t be shy about treating your staff.
Work shouldn’t be a place where a person loses their individuality. Celebrate your employees’ unique accomplishments, milestones and personal achievements. Regular acknowledgements and personalized birthday gifts can let employees know their work is noticed and appreciated. Impromptu staff lunches and catered breakfasts are great ways to show your entire staff that you appreciate their hard work and loyalty. People want to be employed in an environment where their efforts are acknowledged and rewarded. It’s never a bad time say thank you to your employees that work hard in order to make your company the best it can be.

Learn more about company culture:

How Do You Improve Employee Retention?

How to Improve Gender Diversity in the Workplace

What Value Does Rehiring Employees Bring to the Workplace?

What Benefits Do Employees Want in the New Year?

5 Reasons Your Employees Ignore their Benefits

5 Reasons Your Employees Ignore their Benefits

by | Dec 21, 2017 | Blog

According to a 2017 report by Chestnut Global Partners, an international provider of Employee Assistance Programs, less than 7 percent of employees in North America fully utilize the benefits offered by their employer. Underutilized benefits don’t just affect the employee. Many benefits are designed to help employees deal with stress, family conflicts, financial planning and general health – when employees ignore these resources, it can lead to time at work spent dealing with personal issues. Make sure your employees aren’t missing out on their benefits because of these five simple and avoidable reasons.

1. Your employees don’t know what benefits are available to them.

Companies design their benefits packages in order to attract the best talent available while keeping employees happy, loyal and productive. In some cases, those benefits are equal to more than 30 percent of the employee’s overall compensation. But employees can’t utilize their benefits if they don’t know what’s available to them. If you don’t educate your employees about their benefits options, not only are you wasting an opportunity to strengthen employee-employer relations, you’re also wasting money. Reach out to your employees by sending regular emails, posting informative bulletins and providing quarterly workshops that expose your team to benefits information and access points.

2. Your employees don’t understand how their benefits work.

Benefits packages vary from company to company and employees may not be aware of the subtle differences in enrollment requirements between their old program and their new one. They may not understand how to access their benefits or who to speak with in order to do so. The list of misunderstandings is infinite.

A recent study by the International Foundation of Employee Benefits found that 80 percent of employees do not open benefits information materials and of those who do, 49 percent don’t understand the information available to them. It was found that overly-lengthy and jargon-heavy emails were the most commonly ignored. The IFEB study found that the most effective communication strategies included personalized informational materials, benefits information directly related to the employee’s life stage, year-round contact with access to benefits representatives, materials provided in multiple languages and employee benefits information that engages spouses and family members.

3. The benefits aren’t easy for your employees to use.

Offering multiple and varying sign-on deadlines between benefits and multi-factor enrollment options cause confusion and are all deterrents to employee enrollment. While these inconveniences may be unavoidable, clear deadlines and offered assistance can help employees feel less stressed about making benefits decisions. Similarly, there may be stigma around utilizing certain benefits – such as mental health services – that can deter employees from signing up for them. It’s important to foster an environment that de-stigmatizes essential benefits by making them an accessible, confidential, secure and established part of the company’s culture.

4. Cost-sharing on benefits is stressing out your employees.

Most employees will sign up for benefits shortly after the onboarding process and rarely change or update plans throughout their entire course of employment. This is partly due to how confusing cost-sharing benefits can be. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by high deductibles and variations on health plan choices. In a recent study, employees were switched from a plan having no cost-sharing (no deductible), to one that required a high deductible (a standard cost-sharing structure). The company’s overall healthcare spending was dramatically reduced by 12-14%percent. But, this wasn’t a savings in the best sense of the word. When the employees were on a non cost-sharing program, they accessed medical care more frequently; when the plan was switched and high deductibles were introduced, employees were more stringent on how they spent their deductible funds, thus, reducing wellness visits and other important healthcare needs. Employees were more likely to alter their access to healthcare than to alter their benefits package.

5. You aren’t giving your employees the benefits they want

Staying on top of the benefits your workforce actually needs is crucial to keeping a well-functioning, productive company. Try to regularly distribute surveys asking employees what they would like to see more or less of and help your HR department tailor the company’s benefits plan to those requests. Show your investment in the needs of the workforce and you’ll start to attract and retain the first-class talent your company needs.

How to Make it Through the Holidays, Financially Stress-Free

How to Make it Through the Holidays, Financially Stress-Free

by | Dec 6, 2017 | Blog

The weeks and months leading up to the winter holidays are stressful enough with employees making travel plans, shopping for gifts and cramming to meet deadlines before the holidays arrive. But when financial concerns enter the mix, it’s hard to imagine that your employees are thinking about anything else during their work day. Here are five ways to keep your employees motivated, focused and engaged during the holiday season.

  • Think about your office’s holiday traditions in advance.
    Has your company had particularly successful celebrations in the past? Such as a gag-gift exchange, a lunch at a well-loved restaurant or a bake-off? The winter holiday season is in large part about celebrating traditions. By sending out invitations for the office holiday party ahead of time and making plans for events early on, you create an exciting buzz within an atmosphere of community. Make this a special occasion for your employees to look forward to throughout the upcoming month.
  • Lead by example.
    Money can’t buy happiness but it does buy gifts. Employees might feel the pressure to spend lavishly on coworkers and supervisors, but you can head off this extra financial stress before it starts. Make it clear that holiday celebrations in the office are about celebrating the accomplishments achieved throughout the year – not about how much money was spent on that novelty desk calendar.
  • A little office cheer can go a long way.
    The winter months can leave employees feeling antsy, restless, and unfocused. By decorating and bringing in office treats, employees can shake off the malaise and make a final push before any upcoming time out of the office. Holding desk-decorating contests, cookie tasting events or ugly-sweater days can be a fun way to break up the day and channel some of that extra holiday excitement.
  • Be flexible.
    Realistically, you will have employees who are either planning to travel, receive guests or both during the holiday season. Either way, they will have preparations to make in order to ready themselves and their families. Be flexible with employees’ time off. Encourage your team to communicate their plans well in advance so that you have a clear picture of everyone’s availability, to ensure that work is accounted for and projects continue as needed, even when your office is at half capacity.
  • Get your employees a gift that keeps on giving.
    Rather than giving employees another company mug, think of increasing employee benefits packages – specifically ones that include financial wellness services – this can help your employees combat debt, increase savings, and make sound financial decisions for their futures. Financial health is integral to employee well-being and by investing in your employees, you will be investing in your company. Strength in financial security affects employee productivity and overall company retention, year-round. That gift that keeps on giving will not only surprise your employees, but the long- term rewards just may surprise you as well.