Employees have the upper hand these days. For example, in March alone, 4.5 million Americans quit their jobs and the job market depends on these workers coming back.
To attract and keep the best talent, investing in your company’s culture is a must. Taking the time to show your current and future employees that their happiness and wellbeing at work is important to you promotes retention and has additional benefits. According to the Society for HR Management’s report, The Culture Effect: Why a Positive Workplace Culture is the New Currency, 94% of people managers agree a positive workplace culture creates a resilient team of employees. You don’t have to make large investments, there are some simple, low or no cost efforts you can implement that will go a long way.
Celebrate successes
Whether big or small, take a moment to recognize the wins. This can be as simple as having a cork board in the office where you post exciting things, like thank you notes from clients or big, important media hits. At Teak we often start team meetings by sharing “good news” that is related to our work. This is another way to celebrate positive things that are happening at the company or for your clients.
Spruce up the office
The office should be a space where everyone feels comfortable to work and excited to be with their colleagues. Take the time to clean up the office, re-organize the desk layout or buy some new office décor or plants. Natural beauty has many benefits including stress reduction, stronger memory retention and higher levels of creativity. The effort to spruce things up will also make the office more appealing to both visiting clients and prospective employees who are interviewing. Current employees will find spending time in the office to be more enjoyable.
Start an office-wide club
Make the time for and find a common activity that will allow your colleagues to spend time with each other doing something unrelated to work. For us this was an easy one. In an office full of former journalists and English majors, a book club was the perfect fit. We didn’t want to make it feel like we were adding extra work to our plates, so we decided early on that it would be very low pressure, there would be plenty of time in between books, and we would try to pick a variety of different genres to keep it interesting. While reading may not be everyone’s cup of tea, we turned our meetings into a happy hour that all employees like to participate in and learn more about our colleagues. A book club is one of many easy clubs you can start with your officemates. Maybe you all watch the same TV show and block out your calendar for lunch the day after a new episode airs so you can chat about it. Maybe you have a cooking club, and someone brings in something new each month for everyone to try and pass out the recipe. The possibilities are endless.
Organize a group volunteer day
There are several places that offer the opportunity for large groups to volunteer together. Take it from this Inc. article – corporate volunteering provides connection, reinforces company values, and builds new skills. For a company that works with nonprofits, we have an endless supply of great places to spend time as a company volunteering. But you don’t need connections to do this. Maybe you have an organization that you have provided grants to in the past or a nonprofit partner that would be a good fit. You can easily look up nonprofits in your area and dig a little deeper to see if they have opportunities that fit what you are looking for.
These are only a couple of examples, but there are numerous options. Take the time to make your company a place that people want to work – your company and employees with thank you for it.
