Toxic office culture can cause serious damage to your business because of dissatisfied employees. Productivity, creativity, and problem-solving take a hit because of the dreaded environment. People spend more time on other activities than the task assigned to them.
You can avoid all these things if you create a healthy workspace culture from the very beginning. However, many employers don’t think of culture as an essential aspect unless they experience its impacts. It takes many efforts to change the company culture as the force of psychological inertia is too strong to change people.
You can use the following tips to implement the planned changes in your office culture.
- Find the Cause
You should start by finding the problem and then its cause. A workplace can have a toxic culture for various reasons. Find out the reason employees are unable to focus or they are not staying for a long time.
Many employers take feedback from the employees to find the areas of improvement within the organisation. You can make the whole process anonymous to get the most honest opinion about the work culture. - Set the Desired Behaviour
You can use the cause and problem to find the desired behaviour required to change the work culture. The values and behaviour should be communicated with a clear and detailed description to the employees. It will help them understand the changes and their benefits for the organisation.
One easy way to do it is by setting up behavioural examples for the values in your agenda. Also, mention the actions required on an organisational level to implement the changes. These values are defined for every employee regardless of their position and department. - Align the Behaviour with Processes
Now, it is time to update the different processes of your businesses keeping in mind the newly defined values. Your hiring process, performance management, and compensation may require some major changes. It is time to update the training process for new employees as well as to introduce them to the new culture.
The benefits provided to the employees may also require some changes based on the new values. Generally, one or two benefits are added to increase the satisfaction of the employees. Some process budget may increase with the recent changes, apply for small business loans to manage them. - Promote Accountability
Accountability is a critical aspect of any healthy office culture. People need to start taking responsibilities for their action to learn their consequences. They will act fast, learn from the mistakes, and move forward with no fear of blame.
You need to set an example in front of others to make them follow. It includes accepting mistakes and failures, no blame on others, and support to the subordinates. The trust within the co-workers will increase along with the productivity. - Bring in the Leaders
The board of directors and people on the top level of the organisational hierarchy can significantly impact the workplace culture. You can use their influence to implement the changes in values. Also, they will help you with the strategy for a companywide implementation.
The board of directors, stakeholders, or partners may require a detailed analysis of work culture and its impact on performance. Then, you can propose recent changes, and they may offer some amendments to it. The CEO will give the final nod of approval with a standing performance objective on their table. - Make Investment Early
You cannot wait for some considerable profit to start working on the cultural changes. It may come in years, and the behaviour will take enormous efforts to bring even a slight change. Therefore, start as early as possible without waiting for something to happen.
Many businesses take financial support from direct lenders and banks to get the money investment. You can also apply for Installment loans for bad credit to cover the cost of changes. The increased productivity and quality of work will help you repay the loan. - Set the Definitive
Not every aspect of your current culture is supposed to be bad. You might have some values and qualities about the current environment that should remain. Highlight and list them in the non-negotiable lists.
This will save you some time and resources as a complete restructuring of workplace culture is a heavy task. You can ask HR to find the values that are not for debate. They will help during the mergers acquisitions as well. - Match the Culture with Brand
Your brand image in the marketplace should reflect the company culture. It will enhance the customer experience to create a positive brand reputation. For this, the HR and marketing team need to work together for finding and promoting the values.
The present online world spreads negative experience like wildfire. Therefore, it is critical to level up your customer satisfaction if you want to make huge profits. Your primary goal is to create a positive image of the brand across the targeted audience. - Keep Track of Progress
You will face huge troubles managing the change if you don’t have a strategy to keep track of its progress. There is no numerical indicator for the implementation of values in the workplace. However, you can get an idea of the level of satisfaction among the employees.
Ask them for feedback before and after the implementation. Their opinion will help you find the difference between expectations and the reality of the current office environment. Even a slight inline towards positive feedbacks from the employees is a huge success in the beginning. - Give it Time
There is no way to change the culture of an entire company overnight without causing mass disruptions in its operations. You need to remain patient and wait for the positive outcome of the reinforcement. It may take a few days or even years based on the organisation size and the level of changes.
You need to keep calm since employees will complain or make errors during the initial days. It is time to lead with an example to motivate them for behavioural changes. Also, it is your responsibility to make people understand the need for the changes.
Conclusion
To sum up, the company culture is closely linked to the attitude of employees towards their work. There are many benefits of adopting a positive culture, from increased customer experience to the improved performance chart. The changes will take some time to get permanent, and there is no other option than to wait for them.
By Jasmine Watson
