4 things HR managers can do right now to change company culture
Tuesday October 1st, 2019
Estimated time to read: 1 minute, 45 seconds
Company culture is everything. It’s the No. 1 reason why employees leave.
But fundamentally transforming company culture can be a Herculean task with no guarantee that any changes you implement will take root or be effective. As such, it’s easy to be discouraged from large-scale changes in HR policy, employee engagement efforts or benefits administration.
Luckily, there are shorter-term, more immediate fixes to company culture that HR managers and department supervisors can make. These solutions may seem superficial, but if they correctly address employee concerns, they can be incredibly powerful.
Here are four things to try right now:
1. Sponsor impromptu events
As technology like artificial intelligence and machine learning disrupts industry after industry, 96% of companies say they plan to reorganize how they tackle and allocate work.
This level of technological disruption necessitates a transformation in human capital as well.
One way to integrate new tech and change company culture in the process is to re-energize employees through very human-centric programs. Make them unplanned, though.
Happy hours, office contests, ice cream socials, off-site events, charitable giving and other collaborative, relaxing ventures provide outlets for employees to destress and get to know each other better.
2. Open up transparency
Ask any employee what the company 401(k) policy looks like or how much paid time off workers at different levels receive and you’ll probably hear varying answers. Too often, businesses are cautious to advertise the fine print of backend benefits administration, either because they don’t want to answer more questions or they don’t want to pay a vendor to come on site and help explain the particulars.
Simply being transparent creates more trust and visibility into how the company operates with respect to vital employee benefits. Post frequent updates about benefits around the office or on your HCM platform.
3. Provide leadership training (not just for current managers)
As a matter of business succession planning, having the next generation of team leads, managers and supervisors already identified and trained allows your company to evolve over time without missing a beat.
Leadership training can provide new pathways for promotions, new motivation for top performers and new systems for rewarding productivity. It’s easy for staff to become bored with their current crop of work, either because they’ve done the same thing for so long or because the work itself is tedious.
Giving them an hour each week to focus on different projects and to learn valuable leadership skills is beneficial to workers and companies alike. Throw in a free lunch for good measure.
4. Empower workers to create their own culture via software
Whether it’s a project management solution that allows for seamless, real-time chats and task updates or a proprietary tool to publish company announcements, you need automated, collaborative tech on your side.
An HCM platform, for instance, incorporates elements of Facebook newsfeeds and peer-to-peer collaboration that empower staff to interact with each other regardless of device or department. They can also recognize and reward stellar work through likes, shares and comments, while creating personalized communication channels to dive deeper into joint projects.
Culture starts with employees, so let them remake it in their own image.
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