Company Culture: 5 Best Practices for a Strong Work Environment

Company culture is an integral part of an organization. Without a strong and productive corporate culture, the organization won’t continue to support and build their workforce. Company culture is better defined as the shared emotions of an organization and the employees in it. It encompasses the company’s mission and values and defines what matters for employees and external stakeholders alike. Building a sense of community through these common values and standards for work will make your employees feel connected to the organization, supporting their productivity and relationship to the company. Here are some of the best practices when it comes to building and maintaining a great company culture for your employees. 

Culture Fit Interview 

When an interview candidate comes in for an interview, the employer wants to ensure that the potential hire fits in with the company. Employers look for a variety of personality traits in a candidate to determine whether they would be a good fit for the organization. These questions go beyond the candidate’s resume. It’s all about their personality traits. Such questions can include:  

  • What gets you excited about coming to work? 
  • What surprises people about you?  
  • How do you handle stressful and tough situations at work? 
  • What do you do for fun?  

These questions paint a picture for the employer to help them make their decision about hiring the candidate. As an employer, you want to make sure that your new hires are contributing to the overall culture and vibe of the company. Based on your stated company values, you should make sure your teams and departments work to reflect those values. As a potential candidate, you want to assure the employer that you are a strong fit for the company. During the interview process, you need to be aware of the organization’s values so that you can create your answers around them to impress the employer.  

Positive Work Environment  

Employees work better with a more engaging and encouraging work environment. According to Forbes, “an inclusive workplace is one that values individual differences in the workforce and makes them feel welcome and accepted.” Employees want to feel excited about coming to work every day. They want to feel reassured that the time given to the organization for the day was worth it. This all comes down to a positive work environment.  

A positive work environment entails practicing gratitude, making new friends, supporting one another during crunch times, and, most importantly, treating one another with respect. All these qualities combined will make the organization a wonderful place to work. Putting qualities like this into practice starts from the organizational level, and then filters down to the team and individual level. Making sure your company values align with this support for a positive work environment will help your employees see that your organization really cares.  

Learning Never Stops  

You never stop learning in the workplace. You learn more about life at work than you can learn through any educational or school experience. Bonus points for making mistakes along the way and learning from those. No one is perfect at their job. According to Indeed, “effective learning in the workplace can make your team more productive, highly motivated and give them greater satisfaction for their jobs.” By offering options for continued learning while at work, employers can give opportunities for their employees to grow, and employees can continue building their skill sets. It is a solution where everyone benefits, to have more skilled employees and have more knowledge for the job at hand. 

A manager should also serve as a mentor. Their job is to look for the opportunity for their mentorship to shine by teaching their mentee strategies and skills for their position. A company’s leadership and management teams should be prepared not just to manage people, but to also lead them to greater heights and accomplishments, while supporting their growth. 

Life Outside of Work  

Organizations want employees who have other hobbies such as cooking, drawing, music, and sports. Extracurricular activities help build personality so that employees can grow both personally outside of work and professionally inside of work. This is because recruiters want proof of skill development and potential to succeed in the future. Extracurricular activities can also include educational opportunities outside of a degree or other training and development opportunities. These give employers an idea of what candidates have signed up for in the pursuit of their professional passions. This also gives employers the confidence to hire the candidate because it reassures them that the candidate will be good at their job.  

Leadership  

Organizations expect their employees to step up in ways they do not expect. Leaders serve in many ways. They paint a picture of the legacy and future of the organization. Leaders come from a variety of positions, from CEOs all the way down to project or team leaders. At the end of the day, a leader is a mentor in the field and area a candidate strives for. Candidates aim to grow when they enter an organization. Growth can be supported by advice and constructive feedback from bosses and managers.  

Conclusion 

Are you interested in gauging whether your organization is practicing positive company culture? Use PxidaEX to help you create surveys to send to your employees to get honest and clear feedback from them.