Often the happiness and well-being of employees is treated as a secondary issue for HR to manage and not part of the core company strategy. Staff are here to work so as long as deadlines are met, the rest is admin and white noise.
Well here at SmartPA, we respectfully disagree. Culture is so crucial to business performance, its importance cannot be understated.
So what is culture? Culture is your work environment, the values you stand by and the ethics and principals at the core of your business. Culture drives behaviours, from your senior management down to the freshest intern. How do you expect your staff and the people integral to your business success to treat those around them and be treated in turn?
Culture is much more than a new-age buzzword, it is a performance driver. Happy employees are more productive, mentally fit and invested in their job, which in turn means a better output and a genuinely bonded team. Just as you would nurture a plant with the right environment, the right culture for your people will help them to flourish and grow. Invest in them and they will return the favour. People who are turning up for a paycheck and nothing more are not reliable and will not be the foundations of a successful enterprise.
Improving your company culture will also get you important recognition as a quality and caring employer and in turn help you attract the best talent. Brands like Glassdoor often review employer’s quality and even award the best cultures for employees, and quality employees give you a real, tangible competitive advantage. While your offering may not be equal to that of Google or Facebook in terms of free perks, an environment which rewards good behaviour, allows staff innovations or engages in weekly team bonding sessions will still foster that same dedication and positivity, without a hefty bill at the end of the month.
Eventually, this productivity and performance will reach your all-important customers. This is where the benefit becomes tangible, as employees providing better customer care and delivering better products will have real, financial benefits to your bottom line. You can physically track a ROI for investing in your staff and attracting new talent in customers retained, new customers gained and increased value per customer, all because your people believe in the product or support service they’re selling.
Suddenly these high level concepts are turning into cash in the bank.