Culture Club: The Pitfalls of Workplace Culture

In our first ‘Culture Club’ article, we explored the idea of workplace culture and tried to debunk what it actually means. If you haven’t read it yet, we recommend reading it before this one, especially if you are confused by the concept of an office culture (you can read it here). In this article, we wanted to move on from the ‘what’ and the ‘why’ and discuss the ‘how’. It’s all very well understanding what workplace culture is and the factors which contribute to it, but how do you actually go about creating or developing one in your own office?

Let’s start by saying that there’s no right or wrong way to ‘do’ culture. It would be impossible to reel off a list of instructions on ‘how to create a culture’ which would work for all workplaces. Every office has its own unique personality and business needs and a ‘one size fits all’ approach just doesn’t work.

The Pitfalls of Workplace Culture

You may be aware of some common ideas which are frequently used to give the guise of a great working culture. These are the kind of things you might see on LinkedIn or Twitter and think ‘wow, that’s cool’ or ‘that office looks really fun’. However, if you dig a little deeper you’ll realise that in reality these things offer little value to employees or the working environment. We have aptly named these ‘The Pitfalls of Workplace Culture’, see if you recognise any of them.

Gimmicks

A gimmick is a device which is used to attract attention. In the context of a workplace this could be slides, bean bags, fish tanks, an office dog etc. Yes they look cool, can provide a modicum of fun and definitely garner attention. But in reality they offer little value to your employees. Bean bags have terrible back support and an office dog can be distracting. To be clear, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with having fun things like this in your office but be aware that these things alone will have little effect on improving your culture.

Forced Social Interaction

Regular social activities are a great way to engage employees and give them an opportunity to bond in an informal setting. If you’re looking to connect with your employees then social or ‘team-building’ activities are a great way to do so. However, what is important to remember is that not everyone will want to take part. Whatever the activity there will always be people who don’t want to get involved. It could be because they have a young family, live far away or simply because they don’t want to. There’s nothing wrong with this and it’s always a good idea to make activities optional so nobody feels forced to take part.

The Benefits Paradox

Offering staff benefits is a great way to improve the culture in your office. These can often improve employee happiness and productivity, but try to avoid an environment where employees are wary of actually using them. For example, offering a flexible working policy which no one dare take advantage of as they receive dirty looks for walking into the office at 10am or having a games console in the break area that staff feel judged for using.

Your employees should be able to utilise any benefits you offer and there should be no exclusivity so that only certain people are able to enjoy them. If doing so will be disruptive to the work that you do, just don’t offer them. It’s as simple as that. There are so many things you can offer your staff to improve engagement, productivity or enjoyment at work that you’ll always be able to find something that will work for you both.

Skewed Priorities

Following on from the theme of benefits, before offering any additional things to staff ensure you have all the ‘essentials’ covered. There are basic things in an office (such as the quality of equipment, training / progression opportunities, an onboarding programme and even decent tea and coffee) which are arguably the most valued. These things tend to affect everyone and make people’s working day much easier. They’re not necessarily glamorous and don’t always make for ‘good content’ but these are the kind of things which will be noticed if unavailable.

Having a budget to spend on benefits is great and there are a lot of things you can offer which will improve engagement and productivity. We are not saying that you shouldn’t offer additional extras like team lunches or on-site yoga. However before you start exploring the ‘non-essentials’ ensure that you are covering the basics. Employees will notice where you are spending your money and time, especially if there are more important areas which may need it more.

Two Simple Steps to Culture

So now we’ve covered the things to avoid, let’s look at what you can do to shape your workplace culture. As we mentioned before, there’s no right or wrong way. An office’s culture is unique and will be heavily influenced by your company values, the work that you do and the personalities in the office.

Whether intentional or not, every workplace has a culture. It might be a formal, laidback, positive or stressful, but it will have one. It’s worth noting that culture is completely subjective and what one person deems a good culture will not be the same for another. The important thing to focus on is that your culture is positive for your employees and conducive to a productive working environment. The goal should always be happy, purposeful staff who have the support they need to do their job to the best of their abilities. Here are two steps we would recommend to reach this goal…

Plan, Plan, Plan

So if you hadn’t guessed, the first step is to plan. Identifying what your ideal culture will look like is essential. To an extent culture will be organic and should definitely be influenced by the needs and opinions of your staff, but you should have an idea of what shape you want it to take. If you don’t have a clear vision of your goal it will be impossible to know what steps are needed to reach it.

Things you will need to consider are your business needs, the type of work you do, the personalities of your staff and the environment you want to create. There are many things which can contribute to your office culture, read our first article for some examples.

Listen to Your Employees

Open up a dialogue and listen to what your employees have to say. You will need to be more specific than ‘what would you like our culture to be like?’, it’s not their job to decide this but what they can help with is how you achieve it. Your staff will be able to offer a fresh perspective on the things in your office that work or don’t work, the things that are blocking them from being productive and what would make them enjoy their jobs more. Obviously, your business needs are important and your culture needs to line up with these. But your employees are at the heart of what you do. Don’t just presume what they need or want, ask them!

You don’t have to (and shouldn’t) change everything at once and not everything you do will work. It’s equally important to listen to feedback you get on any changes you make. Developing a culture is a slow process and as with anything in life, the best things take time and won’t happen overnight. It’s a learning curve and you will always be developing and improving. It’s worth noting that your staff will not always be forthcoming with ideas and feedback, be open about the fact that you want to hear from them and offer a variety of avenues for them to do so. Not everyone will be comfortable speaking to you directly about something they don’t like, a suggestion box or Slack channel are a great way to open up communication.

Hopefully now you feel better equipped to start developing your own workplace culture. Remember, the main goal should always be a positive and productive working environment. Your staff should be happy and enjoy their work, be able to perform their duties and have the support from you to develop and improve.