What does workplace culture really mean?

A ‘positive workplace culture’ doesn’t mean fun and funky office decor, unlimited holidays, or epic parties. You can have all of those and still not have employees who are happy, productive and keen to stay, or new talent lining up to join you. 

The real key to workplace culture is putting employee engagement and wellbeing at the heart of your organisation. These are the 4 ingredients you’ll need:

MISSION, VISION AND VALUES

What does your organisation stand for? What’s it trying to achieve? Your company's mission, vision and values should guide everything it does. Make people feel these values are important to them and their role, and like they’re actively contributing to them. Let them see the organisation actively living up to them. Get this right and you’ll have a united and inspired team.

LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT

Leaders create culture by setting a good example. That means you need to live up to the values more than anyone else - never have double standards. You put a human face on the organisation by supporting your employees, being accessible to them, and mentoring them.

PRACTICES AND POLICIES

Relaxing the rules can help create a positive culture, but it isn’t the whole story. You need to keep enough discipline to enable everyone to do their best work, and you also need to simplify procedures - tangles of red tape can be really demotivating. 

COMMUNICATION

Communication is vital. It has to be honest, transparent, and more than a one-way street. Keep your employees in the loop and give them the opportunity to talk to the people above them when they need to. People are much happier and more productive when they’re clear on what’s expected of them.

Get these fundamentals right, and you’ll have the beginnings of a truly positive workplace culture. Funky decor is optional.