- Friday, April 26, 2024
By: Admin Super
Company culture can impact every aspect of your business – from staff turnover to sales revenue. You need a strong team to run your company and bring your business idea to life. A team needs to build respect and trust so they can work well together. Healthy company culture should nurture professional relationships and encourage collaboration.
Unfortunately, some office environments are far from healthy, and employees notice. Big corporations can use fear to motivate their employees. For example, 60 ex-employees of BrewDog wrote an open letter to address the unhealthy business culture. The chain faced accusations of building a “culture of fear” where “being treated like a human being was sadly not a given”.
With lockdown restrictions having been lifted, many workers are reassessing their position, job satisfaction, and working practices. Some are looking for a fully remote role so they can spend more time at home, while others are keen to switch industries altogether. It has never been more important for companies to take a hard look at their office environment and address some of its issues.
What makes a toxic workplace?
Roller banner specialist instantprint surveyed 1,000 UK workers to learn more about what the most toxic traits in the workplace are.
Almost 70% of respondents said they had worked in a toxic workplace at some point in their careers. Over half said such an environment was enough to make them move jobs, with women being deemed more likely to be targeted by unhealthy behaviours or notice the signs.
Nearly half (46%) of those surveyed judged bullying to be the most toxic trait in the workplace – closely followed by passive-aggressive communication, cliques, and favouritism. You should watch out for these red flags in your workplace, as well as gossiping, rumours, poor work-life balance and out-of-hours communication.
How does it happen?
Poor communication appears to be at the heart of unhealthy work environments.
However, the PR, advertising and marketing industry was described as the most toxic industry. If an industry centred on communication can’t master it within their own offices, there seems to be a much bigger problem going on.
How to avoid it
Good company culture can transform your business and make it a better place to work every day.
You can make your staff feel valued and satisfied with their role by offering training opportunities. They can progress through their career in your company and learn new skills to better themselves.
Hold monthly one-to-one sessions with your team members and ask them about their roles. They might have some insight on training the team desperately needs or how you could build a stronger relationship between colleagues.
Your employees should feel like they are part of a community at work. The people in an office can make or break a job. Strong workplace culture can make your company more attractive to potential employees and help you access the best talent available.
To create a sense of community, you need to look outside the office. Hold inclusive events, like a volunteer day or company retreat for your employees. They can build relationships and get to know each other outside the professional setting.
It takes time to develop a healthy company culture. Identify any problems that exist in your workplace and take steps to improve the environment.
