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Reimagine your Company Culture
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Freida Staten V.P. of Marketing, Communications & Membership
INTERNAL GROOVE
In the latest issue of the Premier Flooring Retailer magazine, Scott Humphrey challenged us to consider and apply three words to our year — Reset, Reconnect, and Renew. There’s another word that I’d like you to consider — Reimagine.
The pandemic has undoubtedly had a profound impact on people and businesses, with many now considering what they want from work and life. We are all rethinking everything.
This pandemic has fueled the “Great Reshuffle,” or the “Great Resignation,” as some call it, as people rethink where they work, how they work, and, importantly, why they work.
It has created an environment where people are looking for opportunities that give them more purpose, more flexibility, and more empathy. And this tightening labor market will continue to put employees in the driver’s seat.
The past two years have presented new challenges for business leaders, but they have also presented opportunities.
LinkedIn’s 10th annual Global Talent Trends Report identified culture as one of the essential elements’ organizations should embrace to attract, retain, and grow talent in the upcoming year.
While the pandemic is playing a big part in the reinvention of company culture, the rise of millennials and Gen Z is also reshaping the workplace.
Culture is the heartbeat and personality of a company. A good company culture leads to higher productivity, better morale, higher sales and creativity, and low turnover.
Culture is not a new idea, but companies have to fine-tune — or reimagine — their culture in this tight, competitive job market to meet the expectations of professionals to be seen as human beings first.
And the good news is that it doesn’t require a large budget, just a shift in mindset.
Employee Engagement and the Changing Workplace
For the first time in more than a decade, Gallup’s annual workplace engagement study found that the overall engagement rate in the U.S. fell in 2021. This is because the demands and desires of today’s employees have changed. People are looking for more than just a paycheck.
They want purpose and meaning from their work. They want to be known for what makes them unique. And they want relationships, particularly with a manager who can coach them to the next level.
Reimagining Company Culture
Want a better culture? Design great employee experiences. Great employee experiences lead to engaged employees, which ultimately leads to happier customers. Virgin Airlines’ CEO Richard Branson believes that employees, not customers, should be the company’s top priority, that happy employees equal happy customers.
As he says, it really comes down to that simple philosophy:
“There is no magic formula for creating great company culture. The key is just to treat your staff how you would like to be treated. If you treat your staff well, they will be happy. Happy staff are proud staff, and proud staff delivers excellent customer service, which drives business success.”
So, how do companies create an employee-centric culture? According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the second greatest motivator for any human is the need to feel respected and valued by others.
It’s one of our most fundamental requirements for happiness. And considering how much time your employees spend working, it’s crucial that you create an environment where employees know the management team truly respects and values them and is dedicated to offering a positive employee experience.
The first step in creating an employee-centric culture is simple — listen to your employees. By listening to employees’ feedback, leaders will be much better informed on how to keep employees happy and engaged.
Their answers may not be what you expected to hear, but that feedback will entirely affect how you approach benefits and employee management - often, employees don’t want rewards as much as you would think — they want to be heard and valued.
Co-create a company culture that engages, rewards, and, most of all, inspires. Let the reimaging begin. ■
