Surprisingly, in a recent TINYPulse study only 7 percent of the 200,000 employees surveyed across 500 organizations worldwide said money and benefits. The top five categories were:
- camaraderie and peer motivation (20 percent)
- an intrinsic desire to a good job (17 percent)
- feeling encouraged and recognized (13 percent)
- having a real impact (10 percent)
- growing professionally (8 percent).
So what is the common thread between these categories? They all describe the level of positive feelings employees have about working in a particular environment—that is, their attitude toward their organization’s culture. This means that the secret to motivating and empowering your employees could lie in building a strong and supportive corporate culture.
Think of the culture in your organization. Is it encouraging and supportive? Does it foster growth? Do employees believe they can make a difference? Regardless of where your organization is right now, there are three main ways you can strengthen your culture to empower your people to bring their “A” game.
Provide Leadership Training
Managers and leaders play a crucial role in shaping organizational culture. These are the people responsible for modeling the standards for behavior and work ethics, so it’s critical that they are setting the best examples. Providing training to leaders and managers will ensure that they are using the most effective and appropriate leadership and communication styles to empower employees.
Ensure a Cultural Fit
You won’t go wrong with building a positive, collaborative culture and selecting people who will work well within it. However, it’s not always possible to determine at the recruitment stage if a candidate is a great cultural fit. The good news is that you can develop employees into the team players you need by offering structured training on key culture aspects such as:
- engaging in open communication
- working in a collaborative environment
- handling stress and pressure.
Build Engagement
Engaged employees definitely add to a positive corporate culture. Disengaged employees are not emotionally invested or committed to their role or the organization. You can turn this around by increasing employees’ sense of value:
- Offer constructive feedback and rewards.
- Encourage peer-to-peer feedback.
- Provide opportunities for growth and development.
There are many ways to create a positive corporate culture; however, training and development at all levels is the foundation on which culture is built.
