According to research conducted by TAB, 86% of organisations surveyed believe that company culture helps their productivity – and with good reason. Environments that support collaboration, communication, creativity, and work-life balance tend to attract and retain the best employees.

To learn how you can formulate and shape the right company culture for your business – one that will harness the talents and skills of your existing workforce, and help to draw other like-minded people to your organisation, continue reading.

A shared goal

A company's purpose, mission, and values make up the cornerstone of its culture. 

Turning a profit is the obvious part, but beyond just making money, your business was created to serve a need, to offer an alternative, or to follow a dream. Understanding and then communicating the deeper reasons behind your company's "why" will help your employees to get on board with your objectives and have a shared sense of direction.   

Values make up the DNA of your company. They provide employees with clarity on what is truly important for organisational success and the behaviours that help to achieve it.  

When your company culture becomes part of your operational fabric, it steers employees towards those all-important goals. The big payoff happens when the goals of the company culture align with those that employees see as important, too. This results in greater job fulfilment and a happier experience at work.

Encouraging employees to create an emotional attachment to your vision will help to keep them committed and loyal to your company, further motivating them to offer up their highest level of performance.

Improved morale

Company culture creates your organisation's unique environment. The right company culture should lead to a positive atmosphere and comfortable workplace. 

All businesses depend on their employees. When you prioritise your people over revenue or output, you are nurturing the positive company culture you're trying to instil and, therefore, creating a motivating and supportive environment. According to Gallup, organisations with a focus on employee development report 11% greater profitability, meaning that your business can only stand to benefit from these initiatives. 

Since we spend so much of our lives at work, creating a positive feeling that surrounds our professional selves helps to keep morale high. Great company cultures inspire a sense of community and higher purpose – something we feel proud to contribute our efforts to. If the work environment is confusing, uncomfortable, or physically and emotionally draining, the willingness to do our best quickly evaporates. These types of scenarios can, at worst, manifest feelings of anxiety and depression that can have a life-long impact on your employees. 

When you make an effort to create the best possible company culture for your people, you'll have a team that thrives all year round, even in challenging situations.

Higher engagement

At Incentivesmart, we talk about engagement a lot. That's because engagement is one of the key factors for successful company culture. Employees who feel interested and invested in their work will produce better results than those who feel disengaged. Businesses that focus on boosting and maintaining high engagement levels are 21% more productive than those that don't. 

Disengaged employees aren't hard to spot; they may be suffering from low energy levels, have stopped communicating with colleagues and managers, struggle to keep up with deadlines, and may even be off ill more frequently than others. This isn't necessarily the employee's fault. Sometimes, even the best and most highly engaged employees can feel demotivated by the negative company culture that creeps up around them. Disengaged employees are likely to take approximately 6.2 days off per year, while engaged workers only take an average of 2.7.  

Ignoring the signs or pointing fingers at your people instead of trying to understand the problem will only further propel the issue. The price of an unhealthy company culture is steep – just think about the cost of absenteeism, disruption to projects and tasks, and even the way that your employee's dissatisfaction can trickle down to the service your customers receive. 

The truth is, disengaged employees are only coming in for one basic thing: their salary. While that is, in fact, the most basic exchange between an employer and an employee, if that's the only incentive bringing them into work each day, it's likely that you won't get any extraordinary input from them; they won't be invested in the betterment or success of the organisation. 

Every business will manage to be productive on some level. Some achieve this by dangling a carrot in front of their employees and settling for small gains; others believe that a basic salary is enough to keep their employees satisfied. It's the companies that tap into the needs of their people, and also create a hiring process that only attracts the individuals who align with the company's values, that enjoy exceptional output and productivity without any gimmicks. These businesses will have greater longevity, more substantial competitiveness, a desirable public image, and a team of engaged and devoted employees. 

It's never too late to revitalise your culture. The Incentivesmart team is here to offer a wealth of research-backed advice and support to businesses that are ready to make those all-important changes and improvements to their company culture. 

Start by downloading the ‘6 Step Guide to Implementing a Company Culture’ and get all the information you need to turn your workforce into a productive, co-ordinated and happy team. Alternatively, if you want some guidance on how to launch your very own employee engagement programme, get in touch with our team today.