10 Ways To Create An Awesome Company Culture

Want to Build an Awesome Company Culture? Follow these 10 Easy Steps

Building a company requires more than economics – it relies on a team that sees the business’s vision as a part of their own. Earning your team’s trust and confidence should be a top priority. As an employer, you can ask for nothing more than knowing your employees want to wake up and come to work.

Healthy company culture must be evident for this to happen. Something easier said than done.

At Advesa; we believe a strong company culture is one of our biggest strengths. We’d love to share what makes our office and bond notable and how to implement it in yours. It takes work, but in turn, it makes work fun and puts a smile on everybody’s face.

Here are 10 tips for creating an excellent company culture.

10 Ways to Create An awesome Company Culture

Make Training a Priority
Collaboration and Communication
Respect
Working in Comfort
Flexibility
Fed Employees
Create a “Chill-out Zone”
Rewards and Perks
Ambiance

1. Get to Know the Employees Personally

If you speak to any of our managers or even the CEO, you can see there’s a desire for them to learn about the staff. They’re always asking questions about our lives, how we’re feeling, physically and emotionally, as well as wanting to know if there’s anything they can do to make our life outside work better.

The most considerable part is it that it isn’t a formality, it’s a sincere connection between all parties.

The chain of command is not a hierarchy of status, but merely for office roles. The devil is in the details. Learning to appreciate and act with generosity as well as kindness to employees is key.

2. Make Training a Priority

Empowering staff with the knowledge and training they require creates confidence. Training shouldn’t end after the first week; it’s an ongoing process. A healthy company encourages growth at every step of the way.

Our human resources department is always on the hunt for the latest training programs. Not only do they search for training, but they’ve also created a budget for each employee to seek out additional training on their own.

Sites like HubSpot and Udemy offer free courses that your team can sign up for and learn. From inbound marketing strategy to website design, these sites are great knowledge hubs to encourage personal development and growth from your team. If your staff takes to these courses well, then offer them the opportunity to continue further by subsidizing some or all of the cost for a personal development course

You can’t go wrong with investing in your own people. Knowledge breeds confidence. As a result, confident employees blossom into a positive work environment.

3. Collaboration and Communication

Not every task or project will involve a large group but encouraging employees to collaborate more often than not improves productivity and communication. Sometimes an issue requires an abstract answer – one that requires input from a member of a different department.

Collaboration isn’t always in person either. Thanks to apps like Asana and Slack, communication has never been more accessible. Creating groups and projects with these programs can involve a wide range of staff helps the wheel move.

Aside from productivity, staff members must build friendships. A study by FutureWorkplace shows the necessity of these friendships. Up to 70 percent of happiness at work comes from having solid work relationships.

Team diversity can improve your office’s communication as well as their productivity

4. Respect

What is a workplace without respect? Not only respect by employees but their employers as well. It doesn’t make sense to require people to work hard if you don’t respect them or what they bring to the table. Respect comes from learning everyone has a different battle to fight, and how they live is just as important as anything that you or I do.

Being respectful is more than just a friendly ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’ at the end of the day. It means appreciating the input they have daily, even if it might not be what you’re currently looking for.

It also means sincerely caring about the well being of others. Dismissing their feelings and opinions will only dissuade them from speaking up in the future.

Having a little heart goes a long way.

5. Working in Comfort

Ergonomics is the study of how people interact with their physical and organizational environments. The goal of office ergonomics is establishing your work environment in such a way that it’s comfortable for you and conductive to the tasks that you’re doing

The goal of office ergonomics is to set up your office workspace so that it fits you and the job you are doing.

Ergonomic office equipment has exploded recently. As studies continue to stipulate that sitting at a desk all day may not be the best for our health, companies are doing their best to ensure their employees are comfortable.

The following are fantastic ways to make the office more ergonomic.

Use headsets
Standing desks
Adjust computer monitor height to face level
Ergonomic keyboards and mice
Knee chairs
Adjustable laptop stands
Foot stands
Balancing yoga ball chair
Tilted knee chairs

The list goes on, but improving the working posture and physical health of staff is vital to a happy workforce.

6. Flexibility

Having set rules is always going to be a part of a corporate structure, but allowing for some flexibility can reduce anxiety and relieve some of the tension workers may have while at the office.

That doesn’t mean the office will devolve into anarchy – respect plays a large part in flexibility, and you have to trust that your employees will do their jobs no matter what. Allow some freedom to explore ideas and structures that may be a little different for each employee.

Having a flexible start time is one way to create some freedom. Another one is to include “wellness days.”

Wellness days are similar to paid time off. But, instead of planned dates booked weeks or months in advance, they are a spur of the moment for emergencies, mental and medical reasons. Exploring the option of allowing employees to work remotely is also worth diving into.

Allow your team to have flexibility in regards to their work-life-balance can actually serve to prevent negative spillover from their personal lives into work, allowing for increased engagement and productivity.

7. Fed Employees are Happy Employees

Creating a lunch program is a great way to ensure that there are full bellies and bigger smiles while gathering everyone around for a family style meal. Gathering everyone a table to eat lunch and decompress from work for 20 minutes is refreshing. It ups morale and is one less burden that the staff needs to worry about. It doesn’t need to be fancy – anything will go a long way in showing your team that you care about their wellbeing.

For technology giant Google, the value of fed employees does not go unnoticed. Free, fresh, gourmet food is prepared by a team of company chefs every day along with a dessert menu. According to Laszlo Bock, past Senior VP of People Operations of Google, a company lunch program encourages collaboration and communication between teams that might otherwise not meet.

Gourmet food and company chefs aren’t an option for every workplace, but loading the cupboards with some healthy snacks, nuts or beverages will more than suffice. Just having the pantry stocked enough to tie people over until they can go for a break and grab a bite is a good start.Your team will be happy, fed, and possibly even more productive.

8. Create a “chill-out zone.”

It’s easy to get overloaded from work when attacking a task or project for hours at a time. We get locked into the job and begin to mentally fatigue. Without an area or space for your team to mentally “clock out” for a break, the risk of burning out becomes very real.

A 5 or a 10 minute break every couple of hours allows time for your team to step away from their work, gather their thoughts and refresh themselves. Short breaks away from work can actually improve team productivity and well-being and allow your staff to approach a problem or task from a different perspective or angle.

If the office space permits so, allocating an area with comfy chairs, books and snacks give employees the chance to refine their focus.

9. Rewards and Perks

The devil is in the details, and having small perks included on top of wages can act to build your staff’s trust towards the management team and the company as a whole. It shows you care about their lives outside of work as much as the office. Just like a lunch program, it’s one less stress to worry about.

American corporations spend more than $77 billion per year on workplace incentive programs, but that doesn’t mean you need to spend nearly as much to make your team feel cared for.

Everybody appreciates validation from their hard work. As humans, we always look for outward recognition to keep going. Offering rewards shows appreciation and motivates staff to do the very best they can. Don’t make the work about the reward, but as a spontaneous bonus.

British Columbia’s provincial Public Service employees are presented with the Long Service Award for the 25, 30, 35, 40, 45 and 50 years of employment. Each year, award recipients are honoured with a special ceremony in Victoria’s Government House.

Awards such as the one above are an easy and accessible way to let your team know you care. Featuring an employee of the month is another method to give credit where credit is due. You don’t need to give away shares of the company, but a little recognition goes a long way.

10. Ambiance

Whether you want to call it feng shui, a vibe or ambiance – the aesthetic of the office is a subtle yet essential element of fostering a great company culture.

Staring at white walls all day gets boring quick. It doesn’t inspire any creativity and puts people to sleep. Instead of leaving those walls bare, try setting up some paintings and decor. Decorating your workplace is an excellent way to breathe life into the office.

Here are a couple of tips and tricks to build a perfect workplace ambiance.

Plants and flowers
Art installations
Colourful decor
Paint the walls
Having an office pet, or allowing staff to bring theirs
Playing soothing music
Encourage social activity

Key Takeaways To Create An Awesome Company culture

Every office requires a different level of organization, skill and communication. Every workplace is different, and working together with your team to find out what works best for them can improve your team’s confidence, creativity and productivity. It’s what keeps employees coming back every day without regret.

Here’s our collection of 3 key takeaways on how you can cultivate an awesome company culture

Respect your team: Trust that they’ll be able to do their job competently and offer them the flexibility to invest time in their personal lives as well as the office. Personally developing an amicable relationship with your team will allow for improved communication and less tension around your office. Allowing for some quick breaks and allowing them to work from home is a good start.

Create a comfortable office environment: From standing desks to ergonomic chairs to office succulents; a comfortable office environment will do more for morale and culture than they let on. Work with your team to see how you can accommodate their requests and they’ll be more productive in turn.

Keep a stocked pantry: You don’t need to hire a company chef to keep your team happy and satisfied. Keeping some snacks available for your team as well as offering a company lunch where you can all sit together and eat as a work family will invigorate your team and make them feel like they truly belong.

Our company culture at Advesa is always evolving, so we’d love to hear why your office is unique. Write to us about why you think so, and we’ll feature it in the next revision!