How to build strong company culture with engaged employees

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A company’s culture is what makes your company unique and sets you apart from other organizations. It is the widely shared beliefs, values, traditions, and attitudes established by a company’s leaders that are reinforced and imparted through various means to positively shape its employees’ behaviors, perceptions, and values. Successful companies are known for having a strong work culture that can be manifested in their performance, leadership behavior, and communication styles but more importantly, strong work culture can be reflected in a company’s employees.

A survey by Deloitte found that over 80% of employees from companies with a distinct workplace culture are happier at work and feel valued by their company. Employees who are happier, more engaged, and feel valued by their company are more productive, perform better, more likely to remain working with the same company, and contribute to a company’s success. Here are some ways to keep your employees engaged and build a strong company culture.

Effective hiring practices

Hiring the right people can help your company build a strong work culture and ensure that you not only get the people with the right skills but also make sure that an applicant’s personality is suited to your company’s culture. When hiring employees, besides looking at a candidate’s qualifications, you can also look at your company’s vision-mission and values and tailor your interview questions to complement these. Once you’ve hired the right people, your onboarding program can also teach new hires about your company’s norms and expected behavior, and also reinforce the culture you have in the organization.

Rewards, recognition, and incentives

People feel valued when they are recognized for their hard work and effort. They not only feel a sense of achievement and purpose but also see the importance of their involvement in their respective teams and the company as well. Rewarding and recognizing employee efforts can encourage employees to keep up their effort and motivate them to go above and beyond what is expected of them, improving their performance and that of the company too. Incentives for achieving or exceeding goals gives employees something to look forward to and are also a means for your company to show appreciation for their efforts.

Clear and open communication lines

Employees may find it difficult to meet company expectations and standards if these aren’t communicated clearly from the start. Inconsistencies in communication can leave employees feeling discouraged and also affect their performance. Managing your employees well involves being able to communicate with them openly and effectively but also hearing them out and actively listening to what they have to say as well. People leaders can keep an open-door policy to make themselves available to anyone or schedule regular group meetings to bridge the gap between management and employees and build a mutual sense of confidence and assurance.

Know your employees

Each employee is different and there isn’t a one size fits all template to manage everyone. Some people may excel while working with a small team while others may excel with a larger group involved, or some employees might perform better with direct supervision, while others perform better working individually. Get to know your team members-the ways they work and communicate best, their strengths, weaknesses. Find out what motivates them, their goals, growth plans, what incentives work for them, and customize your approach to fit each one.

Check-in on your employees

Unengaged employees may find a job too repetitive, lose interest in work and eventually, start searching for other jobs. They can also feel unappreciated or burnout which can impact not only their performance but the company’s as well. Before this happens, be sure to check in on your employees.

Take the time to ask them how they’re doing, find out what got them excited about working with the company and how that has changed over time, how their goals have changed, or what could keep them motivated and stay with the company. These check-ins don’t necessarily have to be formal and work-related; you can check in with employees over a chat in person or overcome the challenges of virtual meetings and do so over a quick call just to see how they’re doing.

Encourage feedback

Giving feedback is a means to let employees know they’re doing a good job or if there are areas they need to improve on; at the same time, being receptive to employees’ feedback and acting on their comments or suggestions gives importance to their opinions making them heard and feel valued as well.

Final thoughts: Company Culture

In the same way that business strategies are important to companies’ success, its culture also plays a significant role. Having a strong company culture attracts talent, positively impacts company performance, and contributes not only to a company’s growth but to its success as well.

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