Category: Company Culture

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.

With the current talent market skewed in favor of jobseekers, company culture and employer brand are growing increasingly important to success across both recruitment and retention. Great company cultures don’t simply crop up out of nowhere though; without buy-in from the grass roots to the grass tops, efforts to boost culture can go unacknowledged, or worse, backfire. Many organizations are looking for a silver bullet, but the truth is that culture change is a slow and often difficult process, as many negative aspects become entrenched over a number of years and can take similarly long to roll back.

A company struggling with a sub-optimal culture frequently experiences its effects across the entirety of the employee lifecycle. Recruitment becomes more difficult as word spreads about the undesirable environment. Retention drops as employees leave for healthier workplaces. Engagement and productivity suffer as staff feel unappreciated and grow increasingly disengaged. Even customers may lose interest in working with the company as they learn more about the corporate climate. These are gambles that few businesses can afford to take in such competitive times.

Fortunately, one proven change that companies can make is to give employees a seat at the table. From increasing transparency around business decisions to asking for feedback (and actually acting on it!), making your employees feel included and appreciated is a solid first step. We’ve all seen examples of personal relationships where one person values the other, but it’s not reciprocated; it never ends well. The same dynamics occur in companies. If the organization doesn’t invest in their people, how can they expect their people to invest significant time and energy in the organization?

The next step beyond simply giving employees a voice is giving them the ability to actually make some of the changes they would like to see. By empowering team members to truly influence outcomes, companies can begin to transform themselves from the inside out. Employee empowerment is one of the true drivers of employee engagement. It creates an ‘all hands on deck’ environment in which every employee is working towards the goal of a healthier company culture together.

Unsurprisingly, empowered employees are more engaged and productive, contributing to the company’s bottom line. Highly engaged workforces see 67% lower turnover, 21% higher profitability, and 10% higher customer ratings. Happier employees are stronger brand ambassadors, championing the cause of recruitment and amplifying the culture strides at every turn. Staff who are truly invested in their companies even take fewer sick days. In fact, businesses with weak engagement saw employees take three times as many sick days as their more engaged peers. Investing in employees pays significant dividends; companies are leaving money on the table by not seizing this opportunity.

We know it’s not easy to deliver on the myriad employee culture needs and requests that the average company fields on a daily basis. We also know that for compliance and legal reasons, it can feel scary to share the reins with employees. Ultimately though, the combination of higher engagement, happier employees, and increased transparency will help create a self-regulating community. If employees are happy, they won’t be inclined to launch programs or initiatives that may reflect poorly upon the organization. If you build transparency around your programming, you’ll have full insight into what employees are doing, and therefore oversight with the ability to step in before anything gets off-track. With the appropriate checks and balances in place, empowering employees can successfully reduce the time burden on HR as employees not only self-serve for programming, but organize their own events taking some of the onus off of taxed People teams.

It can be difficult to empower employees, but luckily, Workrowd makes it easy! With our straightforward community management tools and activity roadmaps for employee leaders, it’s a breeze for your team to drive a healthier, more inclusive company culture. If you’re interested in leveraging these tools to achieve better business outcomes at your company, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at hello@workrowd.com.

HR professionals have a lot on their plates. We know this isn’t breaking news, but as the People function continues to evolve, it seems that more responsibilities get piled on without displacing any of the existing ones. We’ve reached out to hundreds of People professionals over the past year, and we’ve truly been astounded by what we’ve learned. Just to name a few:

1. HR professionals are awesome. The fact itself is not what surprised us, but the extent to which it’s true. This isn’t an attempt to pander; we are honestly stunned and so impressed by the number of you who have been willing to take time out of your extremely busy schedules to chat with us. Not only that, but even the most capacity-constrained HR/People leaders are constantly striving to do more for their employees. You amaze us.
2. The People function is changing in many ways all at once. From compliance to employer branding, HR is evolving quickly with no hint of slowing down any time soon. The list of responsibilities we compiled based on our conversations with People leaders grew unwieldy within our first ten calls. For better or worse, an expansive field of tools has arisen to help cater to these new needs and expectations, but they’ve popped up in silos, and often require extensive maneuvering to get them to speak to one another.
3. Company culture is a top issue for many HR departments, but it’s difficult to make progress without organization-wide buy-in. People leaders across the country are being tasked with improving all aspects of the employee experience from before a potential employee applies to after they’ve left the company and everything in between. This is a deeply unreasonable expectation to place on a department that is already juggling an excess of competing priorities. No HR department can effectively cater to the needs of a diverse workforce without direct help from that very workforce. Culture and employer brand need to be everyone’s responsibility in order to effect real change.

In short, HR is doing amazing work on an incredible number of workstreams, but additional organizational support could really supercharge their efforts. Accordingly, we set about thinking how we could mobilize entire companies behind the charge of building and bolstering culture. Workrowd is what we came up with, enabling employees to personalize their own experience, and create fun and useful experiences for their colleagues at the same time.

Another thing we heard repeatedly in our conversations with People teams is that they’re constantly being bombarded by vendors. Obviously, we can see both sides of the coin here. As professionals ourselves, we know how irritating it is to get spammed by random solicitations when your inbox is already overflowing. On the other hand, we really do want to get Workrowd into the hands of those who could benefit from it. What we’ve ultimately realized through our conversations with People leaders combined with our own desire to be both thoughtful and respectful, is that we shouldn’t be approaching this not as a vendor but instead as a partner. We should be building partnerships, rather than traditional sales relationships.

We truly don’t consider ourselves a vendor rather a true partner, to our users, who are so much more than just ‘clients’, or ‘customers’. HR tech has a long way to go before the industry is optimally serving those who need and have to use the tools every day. Accordingly, we know we have to work collaboratively, not as a vendor but as a partner to our users to anticipate shifts and respond with new technology when it’s needed, not after a 3-5 year lag. Just as Workrowd companies tap into the collective power of their employees to build better workplaces, we tap into the collective power of our users to build better HR tech. We’d love to have you as part of the krowd.