How to Create a Workplace Culture That Will Attract Your Ideal Employee
Is it just us, or does every business dream of their ideal employee waltzing through the door with a no-brainer ‘we love them, they’re the one’ after their first interview?
TLDR: If you can work through all these steps to create a smart workplace culture, you’ll be sure to attract your dream employee time and again. Watch out world; a strong and engaged team is in the making. And we all know, team work makes dream work.
Ok, so finding your ideal employee isn’t always (rarely) going to be that simple. But there are a few things you can do to get closer to making your dreams a reality.
17 things to be precise.
At SwipedOn we don’t claim to be perfect, but we do prioritise workplace culture as a tool to motivate and reward our employees. Because who doesn’t want a motivated and happy workforce?
It makes for all the good vibes, all of the time. And it’s a great way to do business.
So we want to share some of the secrets we’ve learned along the way. These ideas all play a unique part in creating a workplace culture that really sets your business apart from the rest to help you attract more of the people you want. Here are 17 ideas to create a workplace culture that will attract your ideal employee. Lessgo!
1. Increase transparency of departmental goals
Sharing and actively involving employees in departmental goals is a huge part of workplace culture. Being open with goals for each department allows employees to gain insight into what each department is collectively working towards, and gives them a clear view of the direction for their own department which helps to prioritise workload and keep everyone aligned.
2. Share the bigger picture
Promoting the organisations goals — numbers, to be the best at what we do, whatever the goals are, get your employees on board. Share numbers, share goals, be transparent with facts and figures. While not all employees will fully understand all of the number deets, regularly getting together to share this information keeps everyone aligned on the bigger picture purpose and sharing the success stories can keep everyone motivated. Every employee played a part in helping that graph go up and to the right, right? So why not bust out the bubbly when you’ve hit some big milestones and bring everyone together to celebrate those big wins.
3. Promote diversity and inclusivity
A diverse and inclusive workforce is the workforce of the future. Hiring a team which brings different backgrounds, culture and personalities into the mix is sure to form a creative and vibrant team resulting in a creative and vibrant business. And that’s an attractive place to work for potential employees.
Which leads us on to our next point…
4. Hire for culture add (not a culture fit)
Your ideal employee doesn’t necessarily mean a carbon copy of your other employees. In fact the more different perspectives they can offer, the better. As long as they embody your core values, hiring a culture add rather than a culture fit is sure to create an inclusive and diverse workforce.
5. Approachable and available HR department
Or as we call it, our People & Culture department (AKA, stop thinking about your staff as resources and start thinking about them as people). Establish a zero tolerance policy and make sure that employees feel comfortable to speak to someone in confidence about any concerns they may have. Creating a culture of openness and transparency is a great way to build trusting relationships and can be the make or break for employee retention.
6. Have a sense of humour
Yep, being funny is a prerequisite (in our humble opinion). Who doesn’t want to go to work and have a fun time with it? No-one, that’s who. Having a sense of humour, and the ability to put things into perspective, can help to relieve a stressful environment and diffuse tension which may arise between clashing personalities in the workplace. Making for a happier workforce and an attractive place to work for potential employees.
7. But also set boundaries
Being serious when you need to be helps to set clear boundaries for your employees and keep them motivated at crucial times when your business needs to hustle hard.
8. Have a merch budget
Did we mention how much we love merch? We go pretty hard every year on SwipedOn tees, sweats and stickers and our team loves it. And we’re not just talking about our logo rehashed on different merch. We get super playful with telling our brand story to our workforce and go wild with designs which they love (and actually wear). So much so that we’re pretty sure some potential employees just want to work here to get the t-shirt. We’re cool with that. It doesn’t have to be a big budget, spread out over the year, it’s a small amount for the sake of adding to that all-important workplace culture.
9. Promote company values
What are your company values? Get them up on the wall where your employees can see them, print them on prompt cards or stickers and throw them around like confetti. Your values form the basis of your culture and keeping your employees aligned with them will prompt them to act with purpose, and that filters through to their contribution to the business.
10. Create an engaging office space
Neon signs, wall decals, office art, coffee machine, ping pong table, values on the wall, screensavers for team use… Here at SwipedOn, we’ve got it all. And our people love it. Creating an engaging office space gives potential employees an immediate visual reference on the workplace culture you nurture in your business and can be the make or break for attracting your ideal employee. Remember it’s a two-way street; a drab office space isn’t going to be winning you that ideal culture add candidate. Get creative and playful for extra vibes.
11. Celebrate your employees 🎉
An employee recognition program is a sure-fire way to keep your employees engaged and motivated at work. Anything from recognising a weekly table tennis champion, monthly performance shout outs or a yearly bonus.
12. Listen to — and action — employee feedback
Everyone wants to feel heard, make sure you’re listening. You might not agree with everything, but either coming to a compromise or accepting the majority vote over your own personal opinion is key to creating a workplace culture that attracts your ideal employee.
13. R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Prioritise respect. This and your values form the foundation of a great workplace culture. Respecting every single employee no matter their status in the organisation promotes the same respect to be reciprocated and exchanged amongst the team. It creates the kind of environment people want to work in and is sure to attract ideal hires.
14. Be flexible
Empower your employees with trust. Life happens; kids get sick, adults get sick, the dog gets sick, parent-teacher interviews, school holidays, cars need services and pipes sometimes burst, the surf is good (finally 🤙); it’s all part of the mix. Being flexible with work hours, and the ability to work from home fosters a trusting relationship with your employees which will (hopefully) be reciprocated.
15. Be transparent
Be open and transparent about all the things and you’ll get that open and transparent communication in return. Foster an environment that enables employees to speak openly to their managers about future goals. Keeping employees informed and happy keeps everyone on the same page and keeps business momentum moving.
16. Plan social events and outings
Get the team together on site, have an off-site event like go-karting, white water rafting or golf. Even planning simple (free) things that bring everyone together like a shared lunch, bake off or morning tea can break up the working days and weeks and build relationships between employees outside of their usual workplace interactions. Need more ideas? We wrote another article jam packed full of them here.
17. Define what workplace culture means to you
And finally, creating a workplace culture to attract your ideal employee does require a little groundwork. What does workplace culture mean to you and your business?
Here at SwipedOn it’s a high priority for us, we promote work-life balance and we want our team to enjoy coming to work, to enjoy socialising with their colleagues and to feel motivated and passionate about what we’re doing with our product. To us, workplace culture is a culmination of all of the above and we’re constantly refining those different facets to keep our employees motivated at work.
🧡
