Work Culture and Office Environment in America
Culture is the character of your organization. It’s what defines it and makes it unique in the eyes of prospective employees. And it is something that is comprised of values, beliefs, traditions, behaviors, and interactions. Needless to say that positive culture is crucial especially for attracting talent, helping keep employees engaged and satisfied as well as keeping work efficiency on high levels.
We have used TruePublic stats to find out what work culture and office environment look like in the USA. So, here we go:
1. Most respondents view volunteering as a great thing to do.
76% of TruePublic voters believe that employers should allow employees to take time off for volunteer work. If you take a closer look at the stats, you will see that Democrats are the most enthusiastic about this idea.
In fact, some companies are committed to helping employees to volunteer. For example, Adobe will match any and all donations and volunteer time up to $10,000 per year.
2. Most people believe that having a “best friend” at work is important for their job satisfaction.
In fact, having your best friend next to you in the workplace can make a huge difference for you not only as an individual but also as an employee. For a number of reasons, it can make all the usual challenges, day to day ups and downs easier to deal with. Besides, Gallup has found a strong link between having a best friend at work and overall employee engagement. It turns out that those who have a best friend at work are seven times as likely to be engaged in their jobs and produce higher quality work.
3. Most people believe that an employee should be hard-working above all else.
In fact, when asked what trait they would value most in an employee when hiring them for their employer, most respondents (63%) said “hard-working.”
4. 84% of the respondents said it is OK to fall in love with someone in the workplace.
But wait, do you want to see some shocking generation gap stats? It turns out that 85% of Generation Z thinks it is OK to fall in love with someone in the workplace while only 55% of Baby Boomers think so.
Many companies have an employee dating policy in place to provide a framework for acceptable behavior. This will protect the company and its employees against problems and should form a part of the company culture.
An employee dating policy is also known as “employee fraternization policy” which basically serves for providing clarity, guidance, and boundaries for dating among colleagues. Also, a policy like this will ensure that the relationships if any won’t have a negative impact either on the participants or the company itself.
5. Most people believe that racism is still common in the American workplace.
Note that female respondents agree on this more than the males do. Also, Hispanic, Black, and Asian respondents agree with this statement more than the White respondents do.
Additionally, 34% and 32% of the respondents believe that political correctness and sexism respectively are most prevalent in today’s workplace. Note that for most male respondents, political correctness is the biggest issue while for the females, sexism is in the first place.
Speaking of sexism, most respondents (52%) believe that in the workplace, it’s appropriate for a man to compliment a woman’s outfit. However, around 33% of the respondents believe that “it’s fine if it’s rare.”
6. Unlimited vacation is the number one workplace perk that would make people the happiest.
Next come “work from home” and “student loan help.” Find more detailed insights based on respondents’ age, gender, race and state in the infographic.
As a matter of fact, a lot of US companies offer the most exciting perks to their employees. Just to name a few:
- Discounted devices
- Maternity and Paternity leave
- Pet Insurance
- Services like hair-cut or car wash
7. When considering a prospective employer, people look for “great salary” first.
However, “great culture” comes next and is followed by “great boss” and “great location.” Interestingly, Baby Boomers and Generation Xers mostly look for “great culture” rather than “great salary,” while most of the Generation Z and Millennials look for “great salary” first.
Summing up
A positive company culture depends on a variety of things including employee perks, anti-discrimination policies, office dating policies and more. Now that you have got these stats, maybe you can think about changing something at your workplace already. A great corporate culture will make your employees happier and more productive. And it’s always good to have happy employees around the office, isn’t it?
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Sample size: 500–1,500 respondents
Originally published at blog.truepublic.com on April 11, 2019.
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