Category: Company Culture

Employees have gone through a lot in the last year. As companies begin to get back into the office, you might have a culture problem. Transitions back to life as usual can’t happen overnight. We must give our employees ample time to get used to the commute, water cooler conversation, and dressing up for the office again. If your employees are struggling with office life, there are several things you can do to improve your office culture. 

What Impact Did The Pandemic Have on Office Culture?

So, what impact did the pandemic have on office culture?

When we think about traditional workplace culture, a lot of our memories start with the office. From general water cooler conversations to lunch with our colleagues, we spent a lot of time in the office pre-pandemic.

In early 2020, many companies shifted their work completely. Companies pivoted to working from home, and more silos formed as we went to virtual communication like Slack and Zoom meetings.

Companies had to learn to restructure communication and benefits that were tied to the office (e.g. free lunches.) The pandemic truly changed the way that we worked. Some companies plan to stay remote forever.

With all the rapid changes we had to make, it’s no wonder the pandemic impacted office culture.

5 Ways to Help Your Office Culture Rebound After the Pandemic

It’s easy to understand why the pandemic has changed office culture in the last year. Knowing this, how do we deal with the fallout of the pandemic when it comes to office culture? Well, you can start with these five activities:

Set Proper Expectations About Office Culture as Employees Return to Work

Before anyone steps foot back in the office, you have to start by setting proper expectations about what office life will look like as employees return to work.

Set expectations about:

• Mask guidelines
• Social distancing protocols
• Cleaning frequency
• Testing
• Office gatherings and events

Write all of these policies down and put them in a place where every employee can see them. As employees go back to the office, ask them to acknowledge your office guidelines before returning to work.

Ease Back Into Office Life

Many employees have been working from home for more than a year. Getting back into the grind of daily office life isn’t going to be easy for people.

In fact, some people are choosing to quit their job instead of going back to work. The thought of a mass exodus of employees is pretty scary, especially because filling empty positions is so difficult right now.

Don’t ask employees to flip the switch automatically. Come up with a plan that slowly gets people back in the office.

For example, you might choose to create a hybrid work plan where employees can choose to come in the number of days they want. Many employers have even decided to utilize a desk sharing model where employees reserve a desk if they are in the office.

We have to understand how badly we need employees in a physical office. Is it worth the commute and upset employees to require their physical presence? Or is there another option where we give employees the ability to work from an office if it works for them (e.g. downsizing the office or using coworking spaces)?

Consider Ways to Bring Back Pre-Pandemic Traditions Safely

What did the office look like pre-pandemic? Did you offer free lunch or workout Wednesdays? For many employees, the best part of office life was the perks they got for being there.

Are you bringing employees back to the office without thinking about the benefits of returning? If so, it’s time to plan this part of office life.

To make things safer, you’ll likely need to change some aspects of those pre-pandemic traditions. For example, lunches might need to be individually packaged, and workout Wednesdays will need to be socially distanced.

Going back to the office after the pandemic doesn’t mean you need to start from scratch on office traditions. Ease back into holding these traditions regularly to rebound office culture quickly.

Set Up Employees With Weekly Office Buddies

If your company is like most with turnover and hiring new employees, it’s likely that many team members haven’t had the chance to get to know one another.

If you are looking for a way to rebound office culture, start small by assigning weekly office buddies. Encourage office buddies to connect over a meal or a joint project one day during the week. You can even set weekly ice breakers to get the conversation flowing.

Here are some ice breaker questions to get you started:

• What was the last thing that made you smile/laugh/feel excited?
• Where do you want to be in life or your career five years from now?
• What is your favorite thing to do outside of work? How did you get started with that hobby?
• What’s the next destination on your travel bucket list? Why do you want to go there?
• If you could change one thing about your favorite book/movie/television show, what would it be and why?
• What is your favorite place in the city? How did you find out about the place?
• If you could create a super job featuring all of your favorite work activities, what would that job be?

Ask For and Utilize Employee Feedback

Last but not least, one of the best ways to rebound office culture is to talk to your staff and get their opinion. Gathering and utilizing employee feedback is one of the best ways to understand what your team needs from you.

Create a confidential survey using a tool like Google Forms or SurveyMonkey. Ask all your burning office culture questions and request that employees fill out the survey.

After receiving all your responses, synthesize the information for employees and tell them what you will do about it. Employees can get tired of surveys quickly, especially if they don’t feel that managers are hearing them. Ensure that you close the feedback loop and make any necessary adjustments.

Conclusion

Getting back into the office is going to be challenging for even the most seasoned employees. As an organization leader, it’s your duty to guide employees to speak up for what they need and advocate for your organization at the same time. It’s a tricky balancing act, but it can be done when you make sure to keep active listening top of mind.

If you are looking for more information on hybrid workforces, check out our free hybrid workforce engagement guide. Reach out to us at hello@workrowd.com to see if building employee communities with Workrowd is the best way to engage your employees in and out of the office.

Corporate social impact has been a topic of discussion for decades now, but as with diversity, equity, and inclusion, there’s been a lot more talk than action in many circles. As we remain at crisis levels across climate change, nuclear weapons, and COVID-19, and with the wealth gap widening for 70% of the global population, there is certainly no lack of work to be done. It’s time that companies stop simply paying lip service and instead empower their teams to drive real change around corporate social impact and environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG).

Developing an effective corporate social impact program isn’t just good for the world at large, though. Increasing your company’s work in this area can greatly improve your bottom line through attracting and retaining top talent, driving positive employee outcomes such as higher engagement and productivity, and boosting sales by establishing a compelling and socially-oriented brand. Your corporate social impact strategy can also be integrated with your diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, helping accelerate your progress on these two crucial initiatives. Read on to learn why corporate social impact is more important than ever and what you can do about it.

Why corporate social impact is more important today than ever before

Corporate social impact has long been considered a ‘nice to have’ rather than a ‘need to have’. In today’s world though, as both consumers and job seekers become increasingly concerned with what companies do and what they stand for, failing to prioritize important societal issues can be costly. In business, the axiom of ‘nice guys finish last’ no longer applies. Take a company like Patagonia, for instance. Patagonia has a strong environmental focus, and encourages employees to pursue their passions and work towards a cleaner, greener planet. As a result, they have just a 4% turnover rate as compared to the average in their sector of 12-13%. Similarly, when they took a strong stance discouraging people from buying Patagonia clothing they don’t need and being transparent about the true environmental cost of their products, they saw sales increase by 30%.

Consumers and employees both want to support companies that mirror their ideals. In fact, more than 70% of buyers overall and more than 80% of younger generations prefer to purchase from companies that align with their values. The key takeaway here is that if you and your competitor offer a similar product but your competitor speaks out about causes that matter to consumers while you remain silent, your bottom line will suffer the consequences. If you’re concerned that taking steps to make your company more socially and environmentally responsible will be costly and not worth the investment, consider that younger generations increasingly support companies raising prices in order to prioritize people and planet, and their buying power will only expand in the coming years and decades.

Similarly, your organization’s corporate social impact is important to employees as well. Two-thirds of jobseekers consider a company’s stance and work on social and environmental issues when researching potential employers. Moreover, 55% would take a pay cut if it meant working for a more socially responsible company. Younger generations are even more concerned with the corporate social impact of the companies they affiliate themselves with, so as the workforce continues to shift, this issue will only become more crucial as part of your talent recruitment and retention strategy.

What steps to take in 2021 to increase your corporate social impact

Now that you’ve read a bit about why corporate social impact is so important, what can you do about it? Luckily, there are some relatively straightforward ways to boost your efforts without breaking the bank. We’ve outlined a few high-level strategies below, but as we always say, your first step should be to consult your employees. We can pretty much guarantee they’ll have some great ideas for you, but if you need some tips, check out this list:

1. Take a look at your supply chain. A crucial first step in examining your company’s impact on the world beyond the people you directly employ and the revenue you generate is to check out what you’re endorsing across the entirety of your supply chain. If you say that you want to be an upstanding global citizen, you need to determine where you’re actually doing more harm than good. Are your products derived from sustainable sources? Are you working with vendors who align with your values and goals? At every point in your supply chain, seek to minimize your carbon footprint, engage with underrepresented sellers, purchase sustainable and local supplies, and whatever else makes sense with your values and broader ESG goals.
2. Empower your employees to advocate for what they believe in. Those monolithic days of service most companies run aren’t serving anyone. One-off engagements are rarely worthwhile for resource-strapped nonprofits, many employees won’t be passionate about the chosen cause, and often all it does is generate a few forced photos for the Careers page. Instead, consider enabling employees to drive smaller impact efforts around the causes that are actually important to them. Equip them with tools to be able to organize volunteer shifts with their colleagues, launch fundraising challenges, and consider offering matching funds to ensure employees know you support them. You’ll be able to do more good through these smaller scale campaigns, and you’ll reap vastly more benefit from this tailored approach to employee programming.
3. Form community partnerships that align with your values. That said, it is also important to have some sense of company-wide identity and investment. Consult your core product or services as well as your values to determine what causes are most relevant for your company. Next, research organizations that target these issues. Forming strategic partnerships with nonprofits and NGOs will boost your employer and customer brands, give you additional publicity, and support important work that’s aligned with your offerings. For instance, if you’re a financial institution, it might make sense to partner with a financial literacy organization. If you’re focused on transportation, you can connect with entities working to reduce carbon emissions, or to increase mobility for underserved communities. Bring employees to the table for these conversations, and you’ll be bound to come up with some great potential partnerships to pursue. Reach out to the identified organizations, and make sure that however you decide to collaborate is truly mutually beneficial. If the partnership is only helpful for your company, current and prospective employees and consumers will see through it quickly, greatly reducing the business benefits of your efforts.

Corporate social impact is a crucial topic in today’s world, with increasing effects on companies’ bottom lines. Make sure that your company comes out on top by prioritizing your corporate social responsibility and environmental, social, and governance efforts. Feel free to make use of the high-level tips above, and don’t forget to empower your employees to get involved early and often. If you’re looking for an easy way to equip employees with the tools to make a difference, and which also provides analytics and oversight for you, come check out Workrowd or drop us a line at hello@workrowd.com. We’d love to learn more about you and help you do the most good for your business, your community, and the planet.

As the U.S. begins to discuss reopening offices, it’s time to take stock of how your company culture has fared over the course of the pandemic so far. The culture of a company sets the tone for virtually everything that occurs both inside the organization with the employee experience, and outside the company with customer and employer brands. From the way that employees treat each other to the level of customer care that’s provided, company culture can be a make or break issue.

If your company wasn’t quite where it wanted to be on the culture front before and/or during the pandemic, returning to the office offers an exciting opportunity to reimagine how you approach culture building. The culture of a company is not something that can simply be decreed from the top down; your culture stems from your values, which need to be practiced every day, in every interaction. We know this may sound daunting, which is why we’ve assembled some quick tips to help you make the most of this moment to transform the culture of your company into one that everyone loves.

What is company culture and how does it impact business outcomes

The culture of a company powers a number of significant business outcomes including recruitment and retention, engagement, and productivity. Since company culture impacts employees’ experiences every single day, it’s absolutely crucial that organizations dedicate sufficient attention towards ensuring that it thrives. Ultimately though, unlike sales or marketing, it can be difficult to know just how to build a positive and productive company culture, or even what comprises it.

Company culture starts with your organization’s values. What do you, as an organization, believe in and why? Now that we’re entering a new phase of the pandemic, it may be time to reassess your values and determine whether they’re still aligned with how your company operates. For instance, if your organization has historically placed a high value on face-time, but you’re going to be transitioning to a hybrid model of working, it might be time to shift how you’re communicating that.

Similarly, your interaction norms should stem directly from your company values, and provide a structure for how employees should treat one another. As an example, one of your company’s values may relate to respect. As part of this, your interaction norms should place respect on the highest pillar, and encourage everyone to treat all others with dignity regardless of their role, background, or any other factor. 

Beyond values and interaction norms, the culture of a company stems from a wide variety of different components related to how employees and customers are treated including benefits and perks, team structures, learning and promotion opportunities, client support, and more. Due to the fact that it intertwines through so many different elements, approximately half of job seekers list company culture as being very important when considering potential employers, and nearly 90% say it’s at least somewhat important. Perhaps more worrisome is the fact that nearly half of job seekers also noted that company culture was the reason they were looking to leave their current employer. Employees who are unhappy with their company’s culture are 24% more likely to quit. Perhaps that’s why more than 90% of managers say that a candidate’s alignment with the culture of the company is more important that their skills or experience.

How you can leverage company culture to supercharge your employee experience

Based on the data above, it’s unsurprising that 88% of employees and 94% of executives believe that a strong company culture is key to business success. Accordingly, how can you take advantage of this crucial moment to elevate your company’s culture and ensure a world-class employee experience? We’ve collected some quick tips below, but as noted above, it really comes down to how you treat your employees. At this point in the COVID-19 crisis, people want to know they have job security, to feel like they have the autonomy to get their work done on their own terms, and to know they have the ability to take care of themselves and their families, financially, health-wise, time-wise, and beyond.

Ensuring you’re supporting employees from the organizational level, and training and equipping managers to support their teams at the individual level, is a guaranteed way to start your culture revamp on the right foot. From that point, the following strategies can also help enhance the culture of a company:

• Communicate clearly and consistently. Transparency and consistency in all your communications provides a strong foundation for your company culture. Employees who don’t have to worry about what something meant or what they’re not being told are inherently happier and more productive by virtue of having these distractions eliminated. By ensuring everyone feels included and in the loop around what’s happening with the company, you’ll foster more openness and collaboration between employees, and more loyalty to your organization as well because team members know they’re valued.
• Prioritize deeper needs over superficial perks. Among the mainstays of the old approaches to company culture and employee engagement are superficial office perks such as foosball tables and free beer. While these were never particularly effective to begin with, the rise of remote working combined with the level of burnout brought on by the pandemic has rendered them wholly obsolete. Employees want to know that their companies see them as whole people with needs both in and outside of the office, so things like expanding your paid family leave policy, offering coverage for more mental health services, and mandating time off for team members to recharge will do a lot more for your culture than keeping the communal trail mix well stocked.
• Double down on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Nothing is more toxic to the culture of a company than enabling exclusion and microaggressions to flourish unchecked. The overwhelming majority of people are part of an underrepresented group in some aspect of their life whether it’s their gender, race, sexual orientation, caregiving role, veteran status, etc. This means that when you create or allow environments that are unwelcoming for some people, you’re making the overall culture unwelcoming for many knowing that they too might be made to feel less than simply for their background or circumstances. Make sure you’ve got an effective, long-term diversity, equity, and inclusion strategy in place, and infuse this work throughout all areas of your company’s operations.

Your company culture essentially dictates whether the employee experience will be positive or negative. While it’s important to streamline systems and processes and otherwise make employees’ day-to-day easier, if the culture of a company is poor, employees will inevitably have a poor experience working there. If you’re looking for ways to improve your company’s culture at this crucial time as more and more people are getting vaccinated, consider checking out Workrowd’s platform. We offer an all-in-one solution for managing employee engagement and company culture across both on-site and remote workers. You’ll gain access to a central hub for all your employee initiatives, best practice resources to support employee culture leaders, analytics, and much more.

If you’re specifically looking to ramp up your diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, Workrowd also powers the Global ERG Network. We’re working to build a comprehensive ecosystem to support company culture and employee engagement in order to meet the needs of today’s organizations. Drop us a note at hello@workrowd.com if you’d like to be part of the movement.

The importance of having a positive company culture has only grown over the past year as businesses have been thrust into one of the most challenging economic eras in history and forced to adapt on the fly. While there has long been evidence that companies with better cultures are more successful, the overnight transition to work from home further exposed the disparity between those that had succeeded in cultivating thriving employee connections, and those that had not. While being remote has presented a challenge for those looking to build up their culture right now, there’s a straightforward solution that many companies overlook.

Employee communities can provide crucial support infrastructure in a way that the company cannot sustainably offer from the top down. By enabling employees to self-organize around demographics and other important needs or interests, employers empower culture champions to thrive in all departments and at all levels of the organization rather than having it be the sole responsibility of HR or executives. Employee communities can be an all-around win for the organization, for employees, for the budget, for the employer brand, and beyond, so investing in them is simply the smart move if you want to cultivate a positive company culture.

Key aspects of a positive company culture

There are a number of crucial components of a positive company culture that will drive engagement, productivity, retention, and employee happiness. We’ve listed some of the most important ones below, but there may be others that are important to foster in your company or industry.

1. Inclusion. Building an inclusive workplace is an essential step towards ensuring success for your organization. Experiencing exclusion causes the brain to release an enzyme that attacks the hippocampus leading to an array of negative outcomes from reduced ability to problem solve and innovate, to a lack of motivation to connect with people. Subjecting employees to episodes of exclusion on a regular basis contributes directly to creating a toxic culture, so fostering inclusion is imperative.
2. Recognition. Employees need to know that their efforts are valued and appreciated. In the absence of that, there’s little incentive to put in extra, or really any effort for an organization that doesn’t recognize their contributions. Ensure that you’re noting how your team has helped the company reach its goals, or risk a negative culture filled with unmotivated employees.
3. Transparency. If you truly respect your team members, you’ll be open and honest with them. Clear and transparent communication across all levels of the organization is a hallmark of a positive company culture, as no one has to wonder and worry about what they’re not being told. Particularly during this era of frequent layoffs, do your team and your culture a favor and foster an environment of open communication.
4. Growth opportunities. From learning and development to promotion ladders, employees want to know that they’ll have the chance to expand their skillset and progress in their careers. Having a number of people in positions that they feel are dead-end will only lead to unhappiness and negativity, so make it clear that your company not only wants employees to stay, but has allocated resources towards ensuring that they do.

How to make employee communities work for you

While this list may initially seem overwhelming, this is exactly where employee communities can come into play. By connecting employees to their peers, these groups can build inclusion for each and every team member to feel that they have a place to belong within the company. Employee communities also provide a space for team members to break out of their assigned roles and showcase alternative skillsets and talents, giving them the chance to be recognized for more than just their core job performance. Additionally, employee communities offer a way for people to find out about what may be happening in departments outside their own, and are great channels for spreading news and collecting employee feedback. Last but certainly not least, employee communities can provide ample opportunities for learning and development, as well as to design and lead new initiatives and efforts.

Starting employee communities doesn’t have to be difficult, either. Identify your internal culture champions who are already making a difference for their colleagues and offer them more formal support. Brainstorm some key ideas these groups could center around and send out a company-wide survey to gauge interest. While it’s always helpful to provide a budget, it’s not absolutely necessary, which means that employee communities can be launched at very little cost. Obviously, it’s always better to allocate resources to something if you want it to succeed, but we know that budgets can be tight nowadays.

While which employee communities you launch will ultimately depend on your individual company, there are some tried and true strategies for getting them off the ground. If you’re interested in learning more and especially if you’re looking to start employee resource groups, give us a shout at hello@workrowd.com. Between our engagement and culture software solution designed around employee groups, to the Global ERG Network, we’ve got tools and resources to help you get going and sustain your momentum. Happy community building!

Unlike most years, 2020 has left many people wary of making predictions or setting out resolutions for the upcoming months. The innumerable bouts of upheaval combined with the ongoing anxiety and uncertainty have left even those in best-case scenarios hesitant to venture any expectations about what the new year will bring. Most of us have had our sense of security irrevocably shaken by the events of 2020, between the health and financial threats, the ongoing scourge of racism and social injustice, and the fact that all of our lives changed completely, virtually overnight. We’re not without cause for hope though,  as we welcome the first days of 2021.

As we mentioned last week, we’ll hopefully see a large swath of the developed world get vaccinated before the end of the year, and ideally we’ll expand that access to countries not currently at the front of the line as well. Within a few weeks, the U.S. will have confirmation on who will control the Senate for the next term, and we’ll finally put the presidential election to rest by welcoming a new president to the White House. We’ll hopefully see economies around the world bounce back as well, with the vaccine giving us the ability to work, travel, and socialize in a way we haven’t been safely able to since early in 2020. With all this potential positivity on the horizon, let’s focus on building more of what we missed into our work lives this year, by making 2021 the year of colleague connection and collaboration.

The importance of connection & collaboration in business & in life

If we learned nothing else from the pandemic, it’s that the fabric of our lives is woven from social connections. Everything from our schools to our economy to how we eat depends on our ability to connect and interact with each other, which made it all the more painful when COVID-19 robbed us of that ability. The overwhelming majority of leisure providers are struggling today because so much of what we like to do is predicated upon being able to gather and move around freely. Being isolated takes a heavy toll on people’s mental and physical health. A review of 148 studies with a total of more than 300,000 participants found that individuals with stronger social relationships had a 50% increased likelihood of survival. In fact, loneliness is as damaging to a person’s health as smoking a whole pack of cigarettes every day.

Successful, sustained team collaboration is similarly crucial to success. A study by UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School found that highly collaborative organizations saw significant bottom line benefits including more engaged employees, attracting more top talent and retaining them longer, increased velocity, and higher profitability. That’s a lot of benefits. Harvard Business Review also reports that a culture driven by team collaboration and professionalism is at the root of improving employee wellness. Researchers at Stanford found that even participants who simply believed that they were working collaboratively with a peer performed vastly better on an assigned task than those who believed they were working alone. Another recent study also found that companies that promote collaboration are five times more likely to be high-performing.

How you can encourage your company towards connection & collaboration in 2021

Both connection and collaboration suffered hits in 2020 as a significant subset of businesses shifted to work from home without robust supports in place. While we all suffered through more than our fair share of video calls in efforts to stay in touch, no one can deny that the Zoom fatigue is real. Accordingly, as we dive head first into 2021, here’s a shortlist of recommendations for ensuring your team can capitalize on the full benefits of collaboration and connection:

• Make use of specialized tools. You can’t leave the water cooler in charge of company culture any more. You need to invest in software that can help your team stay in sync and in touch no matter where they’re based, in-office or at home. There is an array of tools available to you, from chat apps, to Slack bots, to our personal favorite, full engagement and culture management suites like Workrowd. This is no longer an area where can afford to cut corners, so do your due diligence and select a solution that will support your team to do their best work.
• Set aside dedicated time for supporting your colleagues. Burnout is on the rise amidst the myriad struggles of the last year, so don’t underestimate the power of listening. Set a strong example of how to champion connection and collaboration for every team member by making time for non-work discussions and truly asking how people are doing rather than immediately diving into action items at the start of every meeting. You may be surprised by what a difference authenticity can make.
• Connect your team to outside resources. Don’t limit your thinking to the boundaries of your company. There are plenty of resources available through outside networks that will connect your team members to crucial learning and development opportunities beyond the scope of what you can provide in-house. The Global ERG Network is one example where you can leverage the knowledge and experience of other companies to supercharge your diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts and accelerate your progress. Be open to sharing, rather than cagey and concerned about competitors, and you’ll reap the benefits.

If nothing else, the year ahead of us promises to be an eventful one. We can only hope it will be less devastating than the one that preceded it, but regardless of what happens, the odds are strong that your team will need as much support as they can get. There is already talk of a ‘tsunami’ of mental health needs as we begin to ascend from the depths of the pandemic, so plan your time and efforts accordingly. If you’re interested in learning more about one or both of the solutions we mentioned above, either our in-house employee engagement and company culture management system, or the Global ERG Network to help you take your DEI work to the next level, give us a shout at hello@workrowd.com. Happy new year, all; we look forward to connecting and collaborating with you in 2021.

It’s that time of year again: the beginning of the winter holidays in the U.S. Thanksgiving will kick us off in just a couple of days, but for many, it won’t remotely resemble the Thanksgivings of years past. As a result of COVID-19, many won’t be visiting family to share a meal, and more tragically, the more than a quarter of a million Americans whom we’ve lost won’t get to celebrate Thanksgiving ever again. During this dark year when it can so often be difficult to suss out the bright spots, finding reasons and ways to keep practicing gratitude is more important than ever. This is true of both our personal and professional lives.

Many have lost jobs this year, giving those who have remained employed an obvious reason to be thankful. Among those employed however, the anxiety and grief of watching friends and colleagues get laid off, along with increased workloads and personal responsibilities have made it difficult to focus on that point. Similarly, the daily drain of a 24-hour news cycle that promotes negativity and scandal over stories of hope and uplift has done little to help people towards a mindset of gratitude. Ultimately though, practicing gratitude is one of the few ways to get through the multiple, compounded crises of the present with our mental health intact.

The health and financial benefits of gratitude

While many of us know that it’s important to be grateful, few are aware of the far-reaching health and wellness benefits. According to an article in Psychology Today, grateful people experience fewer aches and pains and report feeling healthier than their peers. Gratitude also leads to a reduction in toxic emotions resulting in increased happiness and lower risk of depression. In addition, grateful people sleep better, and we all know that the duration and quality of one’s sleep has major health implications.

On the financial front, practicing gratitude can improve your employees’ performance, making you more money and demonstrating a clear ROI on strategic culture change. Grateful people are better at building relationships with others, which is a critical skill in most business roles. In addition, gratitude increases empathy and reduces aggression, making it more likely that your team members will collaborate productively rather than falling victim to pettiness and infighting. Lastly, practicing gratitude boosts self-esteem and increases mental strength and resilience, all of which we’ve seen become crucial traits in the workplace this year. Grateful employees are better to themselves, better to each other, and better to customers, leading to higher revenues.

Ways you can infuse more gratitude into your organization

Companies spend a great deal of time crafting and attempting to live their values, but gratitude rarely makes the list. As is the case with virtually all values though, gratefulness must be practiced every day and in every interaction in order to deliver on its full benefit. With the upcoming holiday in mind, we’ve assembled a short list of ways to infuse your organization with more gratitude this week and in the months ahead, as we continue to wade through all the ups and downs of 2020 and beyond.

Some important strategies to consider when working towards a more grateful company culture include:

• Model gratitude from the top down. In order for gratitude to make inroads at your organization, it has to be modeled by leaders. Consider offering a training to help leaders learn ways to infuse gratefulness into their day-to-day interactions, or provide them with reading materials that include strategies for giving thanks more regularly.
• Implement processes to encourage reframing. When a project goes awry or a deal is lost, help employees look for the silver lining rather than fixating on their disappointment or frustration. By acknowledging that this represents an opportunity to pursue bigger or better efforts, and/or discussing what everyone has learned from the experience and how it will support them to do better in the future, companies can help their teams bounce back faster and more productively.
• Reevaluate your rewards and recognition programs. While it may not seem to be the best time to work on your rewards and recognition efforts when budgets are being slashed, it’s actually the perfect time to ensure your programs are meeting employees’ needs. Show your team that you’re grateful for them and all of their work by doing what you can to improve their quality of life during this difficult time, and give them ample opportunities to show their appreciation for each other as well.
• Consider going analog. Handwritten thank you notes are a rarity in the age of digital communication, but they can really show the recipient just how much you care. It may not be the right fit for you, but if you think a handwritten note and potentially a small gift might make a difference for your employees staring down the black hole of burnout, don’t hesitate to seize the opportunity.
• Give back. Volunteering is a surefire way to help your employees recognize and appreciate the positives in their lives. It also helps those in need, making it essentially a no-lose situation. There are many opportunities for remote volunteering available right now, but even giving your employees an easy way to make donations, and matching them if you have the budget, can help spread gratitude and do good at the same time.

Gratitude is an underutilized word in today’s workplaces. If you haven’t thanked your team for all their work recently, do so. It could make a significant difference for employees during a very anxious and uncertain time. If you’re looking for an easier way to centralize your employee initiatives, show gratitude, and build community no matter where your employees work, consider dropping by workrowd.com. We work really hard to cultivate gratitude in our organization, and we’d love to learn about how we can help you do the same. Happy Thanksgiving, all. Stay safe and healthy.

There is a frequently quoted phrase that says that, ‘your employees are your greatest asset.’ Unfortunately though, while most companies will agree with this claim on its face, there are relatively few that actually walk the walk when it comes down to it. This ultimately comes at a great and often unforeseen cost. In the U.S. alone, unhappy employees cost their organizations upwards of $550 billion per year.

We write a lot about the cost of disengagement, lack of diversity, and other metrics here on this blog, many of which intersect and interact with employee happiness. Ultimately, creating happy, healthy environments for employees that prioritize both physical and psychological safety, that include opportunities for training and growth, and which offer space for community, can drive business outcomes in ways that many executives overlook.

Great time and care is put towards nailing down buyer personas, learning everything possible about them, and seeking to impress and delight those prototypical customers at every turn. These are the hallmarks of a customer focused organization. Workers are rarely given the same treatment. At the end of the day though, if your employees are your greatest asset, shouldn’t you know them as well as you know your customers?

The benefits of shifting focus from customers to employees

The quote in the first sentence of this post is often attributed to Richard Branson, who also said “I have always believed that the way you treat your employees is the way they will treat your customers.” By that logic, if you’re an entirely customer focused organization intent on making your buyers happy while neglecting your employees’ needs, your goal of happy customers will always remain out of reach. If your employees are treated poorly, that will translate into the level and quality of service your customers receive. Starting out at the employee level ensures that your workers will be prepared and committed to performing in a way that leads to success with customers.

Writing for Harvard Business Review, researchers note that the benefits of positive cultures far outweigh those of “cut-throat, high-pressure, take-no-prisoners” workplaces focused purely on client outcomes. They furthermore state that the costs of negative cultures come in many forms including adverse health outcomes, disengagement, lack of loyalty, and more. Conversely, employees at organizations with positive cultures experience wellbeing at levels that boost engagement and productivity. Both the costs and benefits are clear, making it a no-brainer to orient your company goals around employees, rather than customers.

How you can become employee-focused

For many companies, this will not be an easy shift. Some version of ‘the customer is always right’ or ‘our customers come first’ is embedded into the value system of a large swath of organizations. In and of itself, this isn’t a problem, but very few say the same, or even anything, about employees. Accordingly, becoming employee-focused will require a significant reframing of how the company operates in pursuing its core business functions.

While there may have previously been an expectation that employees would work an unhealthy number of hours in order to meet and exceed every customer demand, the focus instead should be on empowering employees with the tools and support they need to fulfill their duties in a reasonable timeframe. This may include pushing back on customers where needed and appropriate. We have included a few concrete ideas of how to begin the transition below:

1. Inform your employees of your plan, and solicit their input. It’s important to evaluate where your culture stands currently before you can decide how to proceed. Start by asking your employees. Making them feel involved and valued is the first step towards becoming more employee-focused.
2. Revise your values and systems to prioritize employee wellbeing. As mentioned above, your employees’ happiness and wellbeing must be bumped up to the top of the priority list. This means that many of your policies will likely need an overhaul. Rather than fixating on presenteeism and/or hours worked, develop new performance evaluation criteria based on quality of work completed. Invest in your employees’ development. Give them opportunities to connect and build community with their colleagues rather than pitting them against one another or discouraging socializing as a productivity drain.
3. Lead with transparency and empathy. While some aspects of culture change can rise up from the grassroots, change of this sort needs to be modeled at the top in order to succeed. Strive to infuse your interactions and communications with empathy, and be open and transparent with employees at every opportunity. When done well, you’ll see a ripple effect throughout your entire organization, as people mimic and repeat the positive behaviors they’ve seen within and among their own teams.

The singular focus on customer happiness is an outdated notion that needs to go the way of the telegram. It’s time to do away with the customer focused organization and usher in a new era of employee focused organizations. Workrowd’s platform empowers employees to build workplaces they love, and equips executive and people teams with the data they need to manage and measure employee wellbeing. If you’re ready to become an employee-focused workplace, come check us out at workrowd.com.

As the pandemic continues to drag on, many companies are facing difficult choices when it comes to their workforces. While some businesses have been able to maintain their pre-pandemic staffing levels, and others are even hiring, many have been forced to make cuts. Whether through furloughing or completely laying workers off, the trauma surrounding these separations for both those leaving and the ones staying can manifest in negative outcomes for your company culture. It’s critical that you put strategies and processes in place to minimize the impact of layoffs and bolster morale in the lead-up to one of these events, as well as in the immediate and sometimes extended aftermath. In this post we’ll outline some ideas for respecting and supporting employees, whether they’re remaining on your payrolls or not.

Prior to the layoffs

While separation decisions are typically made through a confidential process, and for good reason, it’s still possible to be upfront with your employees rather than leaving them wondering. Odds are they’ll know the business is at risk, so keeping them in the dark as to your efforts and intentions only serves to ratchet up the collective anxiety. This anxiety then ripples through meetings, project work, and even casual banter, putting your business in an even worse position as employees are unable to focus on their tasks.

Establish a reputation for transparency and trust by sharing what you can when you can. If your employees know that you’re doing everything you can to prevent furloughs and layoffs, and what the process looks like for deciding, they will feel respected and valued even while they may be concerned for their jobs. Let them know your timeline for deciding, and what would need to happen to prevent a situation where you have to initiate separations. Don’t put them in a position where they’re panicking and trying to ferret out clues. Tell them what’s happening, why, and when so they can start to prepare themselves accordingly. The impact of layoffs can be devastating to single and even dual income households, so having a bit of advance notice that layoffs may be necessary can help families start to plan.

The layoff process

If possible, it’s best to execute the separations all in one go. Otherwise, you leave employees wondering when the other shoe is going to drop. Explain that the senior leadership team is doing everything possible to make this a one-time event, and be respectful in your individual conversations with people. Understand that they’re likely to be upset, and don’t try to make light of the situation. Be honest that this is not something the company is doing by choice, but out of necessity, and let them speak their minds. How their colleagues were treated during the separation process will filter back to the employees who are staying on, as well as to future candidates, so it is in your best interests to be both human and humane in your interactions. Explain to them their benefits, any severance they may receive, as well as their healthcare entitlements. If you can provide additional supports, do so.

After the layoffs

Those employees who remain with the company will likely feel shaken by the loss of their colleagues and the threat of another round of separations. They will need your support to help minimize the impact of the layoffs. Where possible, provide access to mental health professionals to help team members parse through their emotions and fears. Schedule opportunities for employees to voice their concerns and ideas for moving forward to management so they know that they have a say in what happens next. Don’t harp on how much needs to get accomplished in the near-term to save the company; give employees time to deal with their trauma.

Ask managers to check in with their team members individually to see if they need anything. Be thoughtful about reallocating assignments rather than further overloading employees who are already burned out. Treating your employees as human beings rather than ‘human capital’ will go a long way towards helping your company emerge from this crisis without insurmountable culture debt.

Ultimately, there’s really no good way to handle furloughs and layoffs, but there are ways to make it less damaging for your employees. Maintaining a healthy company culture is a critical component to ensuring business success, so while it may be easy to overlook during a crisis when so many things need attention, that decision (or oversight) will come back to bite you down the line. If you’re looking for an automated way to manage and measure company culture in the aftermath of a separation event, Workrowd can help. Give us a shout at hello@workrowd.com and learn more about how we can help you rebuild or bolster your company culture from the bottom up.

As we begin making plans to resume some of our ‘normal’ behaviors, it’s time to think more seriously about whether what we knew to be normal was really a good way of doing things in the first place. For many of us, a lot of our habits may have simply been picked up subconsciously, or perhaps we were forced to do things a certain way when we joined an organization. Now that everything has been turned upside-down, we have the chance to not just go back to business as usual, but to make thoughtful decisions about what processes and systems are best suited for the workplace and work day of the future.

One of the most significant opportunities we have before us is the chance to reframe the way we structure our organizations. Historically, the units of a company have been single employees, or rolling up to a higher level, departments focused on one specific function (e.g. sales, marketing, HR). As many industries continue to see increased complexity year-over-year though, and as technology fundamentally changes the mechanics of many jobs, we have to change our approach. In order to succeed in the world of tomorrow, including rebounding effectively from this crisis, we should begin thinking of our companies in terms of shifting, cross-functional teams.

At least since the time of the Industrial Revolution, the ideal worker was the one who would put in the most hours at the highest productivity level for the lowest pay. Without commenting on the workers’ rights concerns related to this model, this generally made sense for roles like manufacturing and some service jobs. With more than half of U.S. employees now qualifying as knowledge workers however, it’s time to reevaluate towards a team mindset. When your employee’s role requires mental alertness and creative thinking, evaluating them based on number of hours worked doesn’t really make sense. Similarly, given the risk and expense of turnover in this sector of the economy, trying to minimize salaries isn’t logical either. When 43% of workers would switch jobs for just a 10% salary increase, companies must provide more incentive to stay.

Instead, adaptability, collaboration, innovation, and a team mindset should be among the key traits of the new ideal worker, at least in knowledge-based industries. Business demands can shift extremely rapidly, and unless the team is ready to change formations and work across departments with new colleagues and requirements at a moment’s notice, it will be difficult to stay ahead of the competition. Companies should now aim to become ecosystems of dynamic, cross-functional teams, with employees building up collective knowledge and developing new skills as they recombine into new groupings. By empowering staff to work across departments and deliverables, communication will improve, productivity will increase, and employees will feel happier and more engaged in their jobs.

In order to achieve this however, it’s not just a mindset shift that is needed; toolsets must change as well. We can’t continue to rely on the same old programs and structures that were designed decades ago to maximize individual employee productivity. We have to begin thinking of our workforces as a series of circuits that we can connect together to generate light, and our physical and digital spaces must reflect this as well. Such a transformation and the shift to a team mindset won’t happen overnight, but it is essential to ensure the continued growth of our organizations and to restructure our work environments to align with the new world of work.

Workrowd is designed to enable you to quickly set up and break down digital teamwork spaces for shifting groups of employees. While we have a strong focus on culture and engagement, krowds can be put in place for project teams as well, giving everyone a place to centralize documents, chat, plan meetings and events, connect with other members, and more, all in one place. If you’d like to learn more about how our lightweight software can help you transition to a more flexible, team-based structure, don’t hesitate to get in touch at hello@workrowd.com.

While the pandemic’s impacts are undeniably negative across the board, it may be possible to salvage a couple sips of lemonade from these deeply sour lemons. For those companies able to retain their staff and transition to remote working, there is a clear opportunity to transform the way we work to better align with people’s lives, including whatever new accommodations may be necessary as we emerge from this crisis. From remote and flexible work options, to allowing people to bring more of themselves to their roles, we essentially have the chance to build a new employee experience from scratch.

As of 2019, 80% of employees reported wanting to work from home at least some of the time. Similarly, 78% of workers believe that flexible schedules and telecommuting are the most effective nonmonetary incentives a company can provide to retain employees. This is an 11% increase from just the year prior. While the pandemic has obviously forced a number of compromises outside of normal operations, having seen that remote work is possible will make it difficult to convince employees to resume business as usual.

Instead, once we’ve weathered this crisis, People teams can engage employees around what the way forward might look like. Perhaps employees are allowed to work from home as they choose a couple of times per month, or once per week. Maybe managers can move more towards truly performance-based evaluations, rather than counting people in seats as a measure of productivity. Possibly, some companies will see the value in becoming completely remote, slashing their overhead and forging an entirely new path forward.

The potential here is not limited to just remote work, but can expand to include other benefits as well.  Many of us have learned more about our colleagues’ lives than ever before as we see them in their home environments with all of the distractions and disruptions that accompany it. This presents an opportunity to improve company culture by building stronger bonds and tailor employee policies to foster more work-life integration. From increased flexibility and support for those with caregiving responsibilities, to perks for pet parents and more, these glimpses of employees’ lives can be used to inform People teams’ work. Throwing away this critical data would be adding insult to the deep injury this pandemic has caused to all of us.

Similarly, if your company has successfully cultivated more openness between team members as a result of these new working circumstances, this is your chance to capitalize on it to drive inclusion and belonging. As the lines blur even further between home and work, employers can move towards the ideal of enabling employees to bring more of themselves to meetings and projects, and thereby increase engagement. Consider this an opportunity to improve company culture by really tailoring it and the employee experience to your employees. HR can emerge from this panic with a focus on employee needs and innovative responses, rather than trying to claw back all of the privileges allowed during the pandemic and destroying employee trust in the process.

The impacts of this crisis will doubtless be felt for a very long time, but we can take steps to ensure that at least the progress made on workplace flexibility is not lost along with so much else. Companies will need to assemble a new toolkit to ensure their success in the post-office workplace, from communication tools to engagement platforms. If we can be of any help at this challenging time, don’t hesitate to reach out. We’re now offering free trials of our streamlined communication and employee empowerment software, and we’re happy to serve as a resource to those struggling to find the way forward. You can get in touch with us at hello@workrowd.com. Take care, everyone.