It Starts at the Top: Establish a Positive and Successful Office Culture

Monitoring your business’s office culture should be on the top of your business’s to-do list this year. Although there are plenty of other important issues in the office that you’d rather spend your time on such as finances, customer service, or sales, office culture has a direct correlation with all of these seemingly “more important” focuses. How your employees view the culture in the office is shown through their work, which uncontrollably may differ from the culture your business wants to present to its customers.

Office culture should be clear and concise, embodying the vision and mission your business strives for in the marketplace. If your business fails to create a defined office culture, it will still be formed regardless, but out of your hands. Doing this is basically throwing the control and status of your community up in the air.

All of your employees should be well-informed on the office culture in the workplace. That includes keywords that represent your brand, recruitment, management, policies, communication, and values.

The environment in which your employees work together should be constructed using a mindset that encompasses focus, openness, respect, and motivation. To establish a successful office culture, break it down into a simple acronym - FORM:

Focus. Not only should your culture have a clear focus, but your employees should as well. Employees should know how their position fits in with the business, why their job is important, and what their work directly affects. In other words, employees should have a purpose to focus on.

Open. A productive and successful workplace environment is an open one. Keep communication between employees and employers open at all times as to limit conflict and confusion. Some work communities like to check in with their employees for reviews on individual performances every few months or so. These check-ins should be informative and include positive feedback as well as constructive feedback to motivate your employees to continue to grow. Depending on the kind of office culture your business wants to promote, monitor communications routinely.

Respect. There should always be clear leadership in the workplace, and respect for its direction shouldn’t be a problem. Respect in the workplace should be a two-way street; to earn respect, you must show respect. Every employee should feel as if their contribution to the community is respected and that they are appreciated for their dedication. If you are in a leadership position, it is your responsibility to make sure everyone, including yourself, in the workplace is respected and heard.

Employees should be mindful as to how they treat each other, no matter their position in the business. Encourage politeness and direct communication. Harassment of any sort should not go without disciplinary action as to ensure that that kind of behavior will not be tolerated in your business’s workplace. If you are in a leadership position, make sure the entire office is included in events, training, and business news whenever applicable to promote community and culture.

Motivation. Employees that work hard believe in their business’s vision and mission, feel as if they are respected and treated fairly, and know that they will be acknowledged for their hard work. Their motivation directly correlates with how they view the business and their employment. If your employees know that they will be rewarded for working hard, that in itself generates motivation that will show in their work.

If you own a small business that can’t afford giving raises out to every deserving employee, you can still acknowledge their effort in other ways. If applicable, give them the option to work from home one day a week or an extra paid day off.

Another way to promote motivation throughout your workforce is to award an “employee of the month” with a small token of gratitude like a $5 gift card to a local coffee shop. That way every employee has a clean slate and an equal chance of winning each month based on how much effort he or she is willing to put in.

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