building a positive workplace culture

What’s the difference between an OK place to work and a great place to work? Workplace culture! 
 
What it is
‘Workplace culture’ is a shared set of values, beliefs and attitudes that guide your organisation. It impacts the type of candidates you attract and retain, and can affect the way potential and existing clients/customers feel about doing business with you. A culture naturally forms within every organisation and this can happen either organically or deliberately. Since it’s going to affect employee morale and the way your company is perceived (which both ultimately affect the company’s bottom line!), it makes good sense to create your culture deliberately to produce the types of attitudes, behaviours and outcomes you want to encourage.
 
A rewarding work environment is very much the result of well-considered incremental changes (both from the top-down and the bottom-up), and is team effort – consultation, contribution and communication will all be key to your success (or otherwise). 
 
The benefits
There’s a raft of benefits to a strong and positive workplace culture – here’s just a few.
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• There’s little-to-no cost – it costs nothing to check in with a colleague and ask them how they are feeling; it costs nothing to encourage staff to share how they are feeling; it costs little to implement wellness plans for individuals.
• It boosts productivity, decreases turnover and improves employee engagement.
• Small acts of cultivation can translate into big investments in the bottom line.
• It boosts morale – the vast majority of workers prefer to work for a company and apply themselves if they like the company’s culture.

• Allowing poor behaviours and toxic attitudes to fester will cultivate a negative work experience (and a costly one, too).
• If you can articulate your company’s culture, then you can hire for culture fit and this will strengthen your team.

 
Getting underway

1. Know where you’re starting from - how would you describe your current culture? Would your people say the same thing? Ask them.
2. Define your core values - these should be the foundation of everything that happens at your company and guide your organisation’s evolution. Dedicate the time needed to ensure everyone is aligned. In the end, you should have a concise (relatively short) list of values that accurately reflect your company culture and long-term goals.
3. Define the type of work culture you want to create. Consider everything from the physical layout of the office to how frequently employees interact with their colleagues and management, and everything in between. 

 
Next steps
Check out these resources for ideas and inspiration to help you develop a plan.

• Building Your Workplace Culture: Where to Start 
• Workplace Culture 101 
• Building Your Workplace Culture: Ideas Pool 
• Building Your Workplace Culture: Pick and Mix
• Tips for building positive workplace relationships

Keep it up!
Be prepared to commit. Don’t go into this exercise half-heartedly and thinking the process will be ‘once and done’. Your culture will evolve over time alongside your organisational priorities and as team members come and go, so keep monitoring to ensure that what you've put in place is still fit for purpose and producing the results you want. The goal is to create momentum in a positive direction, then keep it going!
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“There’s no magic formula for great company culture. The key is just to treat your staff how you would like to be treated.”
                                                                                                                                                                                                  - Richard Branson