As the leader of a company, what do you think is more important? Is it achieving business goals or keeping employees engaged and satisfied in their jobs? The answer is both. Each of these impacts the other.
Work culture and employee engagement are two terms thrown around a lot. In this blog, you will understand what these mean and how they are related.
What is Work Culture?
Work culture is an organizational construct that reflects the workplace’s behaviors, environment, and values. It gives a picture of the company’s functioning. Work culture can also help predict the company’s performance in terms of growth, quality, profitability, and customer experience.
High-Performance Work Culture
It is not possible for all companies to have a similar work culture. Some might be unsupportive in their policies and regulations, while others might have a high-performance work culture.
High-performance work culture is when the policies and regulations of a company are conducive for the business and employees to grow. The superior performance of a company can be ensured by establishing the company’s goals and outlining employees’ responsibilities within the organization.
Additionally, creating a positive environment where employees are motivated to grow and improve their skills also generates superior performance. These work cultures create a supportive environment that encourages employees to be more proactive in their daily work.
Good work culture is guaranteed to make the company a leader in its industry. Their unique culture makes them a competitive employer.
What is Employee Engagement?
Employee engagement is the measure of engagement levels of each employee of the company have with their job within the company. It can be measured by an individual employee’s behavior and satisfaction with the job.
The company’s management should look at the extent of the level of employee engagement in the workplace. They should not focus only on whether there is positive employee engagement.
Employee engagement is very critical to a company’s overall growth and improvement.
The better the company’s work culture, the better its employees work towards what is expected. Employees with a high level of engagement are likely to be better motivated, happy, and loyal to the business.
An engaged employee will be:
- Motivated to meet and exceed goals
- Proactive to build new skills and take ownership of more projects
- Connect and genuinely understand the mission of the company
- Approach work positively
- Find solutions to problems actively
- Stay loyal to the organization
It is evident that engaged employees are beneficial for the organization. Their high productivity will influence the business’s operations, retain customers, and the employee turnover rate will also be low.
Employee engagement is simply an outcome of high-quality work culture.
How Does Work Culture Affect Employee Engagement?
Work culture and employee engagement are interdependent. That is because a high-quality work culture outlines those norms conducive to employee growth.
It clearly lays down what is expected of the employees and helps them get involved and feel connected to the organization. It gives them a sense of engagement and support within the organization.
That is how work culture and employee engagement are closely dependent. So, to improve engagement, the company must begin with improving its work culture.
How to Improve Work Culture?
While some organizations believe that to build a work culture in the organization, adding games like foosball and table tennis is an option.
However, besides fun and games, another critical method is treating employees well and adding meaning to their work.
Here’s a list of effective methods to drive employee engagement by first improving the work culture.
- Clearly define your goals and set the target dates based on it
- Curate the implementation plan and appoint a capable team to overlook the same
- Provide adequate training to the group of professionals who will manage the payroll management system
- Make sure that all your existing employee and salary data is transferred and integrated into the new system
- Ensure accurate management of payroll tax compliance
- Put the plan into motion and combine it with company processes
- Implement newer ideas based on feedback received from employees.
- Appreciate the employees’ hard work and good work to boost their self-esteem. It can truly motivate them.
- Reward employees for their exceptional work. Employee recognition can go a long way in building loyalty.
- The organization should be flexible in its proceedings. This way, employees will not have to compromise much to perform better.
- Provide employees with development opportunities.
- Carry our regular employee reviews.
- Offer employees training options. The opportunity to learn and grow within the organization in different ways is a great perk.
- Assist your employees with the right technologies that they require for maximum productivity.
- Take your organization digital. It includes being 360 degrees digital from an HR portal to chat tools, workflow tools, document management systems, and more.
- Help your employees see the purpose of their contribution to the organization.
- Finally, if need be, get that table tennis table.
Challenges
Most HR departments agree that creating a good work culture and improving employee engagement is challenging.
Employees are quite like customers. Many job opportunities surround them. Employers need to know how to attract them to their companies and keep them loyal to the company while they work with them. Employees do not prefer staying in the same job for their entire working life.
So, to hold on to them, their jobs should be exciting and offer them scope for growth and advancement.
This is where work culture and employee engagement play a significant role.
Regular surveys can help the management understand the employees’ pulse. This understanding can be used in regularly upgrading the work culture to add more value.
Offering training, the latest technological advancements, and support are necessary to engage employees. The company should be abreast with the expectations of employees.
Wrapping Up
Maintaining a good work culture and employee engagement is constant work. Organizations need to bring some value to the table for employees to get the best performances.
Employee engagement is only possible when it is considered within the context of the organization’s work culture. A healthy combination of both can show excellent results in the organization’s performance.
