7 Steps to Build a Great Culture

Building a better workplace culture is a noble effort. After all, it’s where we’ll spend 90,000 hours over a lifetime.

Needless to say, company culture has a tremendous impact on employees. Let’s make it the best experience possible.

Essentials of a Positive Work Culture

Creating a positive work culture benefits the company too. Studies show that engaging work culture:

• Increases productivity
• Increases loyalty
• Aids in employee retention
• Lowers absenteeism
• Results in fewer accidents
• Bonus! Lowers risk of cardiovascular disease

So how can we build a great culture? It takes planning, time and leadership support. Perhaps most of all, patience. Culture isn’t a fix-it-and-forget-it deal. It’s a living thing that needs constant attention. For those up to the task, here are the seven steps to build a great culture.

1. Recognition

Appreciate employees the way they want to be appreciated. For some, that’s company-wide acknowledgement. For others, a 1-on-1 compliment is best. Some employees may prefer acts of kindness over words of kindness. The list goes on. If you’re wondering which way is best, just ask!

Make sure recognition is specific and timely. Don’t wait for annual reviews to make your employees feel valued.

2. Career Pathing

A huge part of positive culture is career pathing. Employees want to know where they’re going (or have the chance to go). If you can help them visualize and plan their move upward, you’ve built loyalty.

In fact, toss annual reviews out. Replace them with semi-annual and annual career paths.  Annual reviews focus on the past, career paths focus on the future. Guess which one employees are more interested in?

3. Work/Life Balance

Employee burn-out is a real danger. Prevent this by implementing concrete work/life balance processes. Flex days ensure that if employees have to work overtime or on weekends, they’re compensated with time accrued.

A scaled PTO system give employees vacation time — even if they’re new to the company. Our team members start at three weeks and increase to four weeks at year 2.

4. Feedback

Three words: positive, constructive and continuous. One of our fundamentals is Practice Blameless Problem-Solving and it truly makes a difference.

By shifting your mindset from “Who did it wrong?” to “What’s the solution?”, not only will you fix the problem sooner, you’ll avoid wasteful finger-pointing.

Feedback should be given in encouraging terms. Try saying, “Have we thought of it this way?” versus “Your idea won’t work.” It may sound trivial, but we don’t want employees who are too scared to innovate.

5. Wellness

A healthy body makes a happy team member. Remember the cardiovascular fact? Providing wellness opportunities for employees goes a long way. We partner with PeerFit to make exercise accessible.

Don’t forget about financial and mental wellness too. Offering challenges, courses and speakers create a satisfied and healthy team.

6. Amusement

Encouraging employees to bond outside of work is a great way to build positive culture. Host activities like chili cook-offs, escape rooms and community volunteer work.

Breaking down barriers helps employees understand each other on a deeper level. This leads to better communication in the workplace.

7. Future Planning

If you want your employees to stay for the long-run, you’ve got to prepare for the long-run. A good company culture supports employees inside and outside the workplace.

Whether it’s paid maternity/paternity leave, flexible spending accounts, generous 401K matching or disability insurance coverage. It’s important to reassure employees that you value them throughout life changes.

Building a great company culture is a big task. But the rewards are even bigger. With these seven steps, you’re well on your way to creating a happy, healthy work environment.

Learn how our happy employees make happy clients. Let’s talk about it today. iVenture Solutions is an award-winning managed service provider delivering superior IT solutions to clients across Florida.

As a leading-edge IT firm for small and medium-sized businesses, we provide a diverse range of services covering the entire scope of IT including maintenance, support, hosting and more.

Through rapid response time, reduction of chaos and the right people, our expert team of IT professionals will fulfill your technology needs. At iVenture, we give you more time to do what matters most.