The benefits of a positive team culture are far-reaching. Employees who share the same values as their organisation feel part of something bigger than themselves. This in turn results in higher levels of commitment to their role and generally better collaboration and engagement.
Organisations with positive cultures often rank better in performance, satisfaction, productivity, and engagement. Consequently, focusing on culture is essential when growing a highly profitable company.
However, a global talent report recorded that over a third of talent professionals were unhappy with their company's culture and thought it wasn't getting the investment it deserved.
That being said, it's not all bad news. Many companies are now prioritising culture in their strategic planning and are improving crucial elements such as employee experience.
Many companies use culture as a buzzword to attract talent. They also claim to have a great culture because they offer perks and benefits, such as ping-pong tables or coffee break rooms.
However, what truly makes a company culture remarkable is its people. In short, focusing on the employees' values, beliefs, and behaviours is the best way to identify the team’s culture.
The most obvious example of a positive team culture is a workplace where employees are happy and motivated. Employees often don't care about material things, such as those seemingly popular ping-pong tables. Instead, they value leaders and managers who shape the employee experience according to their needs. They want to feel welcome regardless of how long they've been employed, it doesn't matter if it's their first day or their very last.
Moreover, maintaining a truly healthy culture has never been more important, especially as global companies are experiencing a surge in resignations and high turnover.
Building a positive team culture is not always simple. But fortunately, there are some actions most organisations can implement right away.
We all understand that the work environment has significantly changed over the last 10 or even 5 years. Everyone is connected 24/7, so it's obvious that mental health conditions such as anxiety, stress, and burnout are on the rise. Coupled with the ever-increasing cost of living, everyone is under more pressure than ever before. But how can organisations support their employees' health and wellbeing both in and out of office hours?
First, balancing workloads is key to avoiding stress and related conditions. However, focussing on employee experience can also help — bearing in mind that employee experience doesn't just begin and end in the office of course. One effective way to support your teams is by offering them support through wellbeing benefits or resources. Perkbox, for example, is an all-in-one employee experience solution that can make life a little easier every day. It's also a cost-effective option, as everything they need is in one app.
Perkbox includes an ever-expanding library of wellbeing content that your teams can access whenever they want. There are HIIT workouts and soothing yoga flows for different moods and energy levels — and there are even nutrition and finance webinars. Plus, there are savings on essential and luxury purchases with thousands of discounts and deals on groceries, athleisure wear, days out, and much more.
When teams communicate effectively, everyone understands their responsibilities and how their actions impact business success. Moreover, in times of need, people know who to turn to, be it a manager or another senior colleague.
It's no secret that successful teams continuously work on improving their communication skills. In fact, McKinsey found that teams with high communication skills can increase their performance by 25%.
When managing a global or even local team, you could improve your communication in the following ways:
Managers should ask their employees to agree on what values and behaviours they want to nurture as a team and should revise this every 5 years or so.
Remember that every employee, including shift workers, needs a say, so hold several meetings to ensure everyone is included.
To begin, you could ask them:
Company values should guide decisions at every level to keep the culture alive. For example, if a company prides itself on its green credentials, it would choose bio-degradable packaging even when it is more expensive.
This is why Perkbox allows employees to tag company values to each recognition they send, so that everyone knows how their behaviour aligns with the company's goal and mission. Examples, of popular values include teamwork and honesty.
Did you know employees who are friends tend to be more engaged and successful when working together?
So, what can you do as a manager to build deeper connections between your teams? One way is to organise regular team-building activities. These can strengthen the bonds between employees, allowing them to get to know each other more personally in a relaxed environment.
The same goes for remote teams too, and there are plenty of remote team-building activities you can do online in addition to in-person catch-ups.
When employees have gone above and beyond, tell them. This can be as simple as a thank you — and sometimes, a small gift would be appropriate. However, buying a gift can be a bit of a minefield, especially when working with a new team. This is where having a reward and recognition platform is very useful — even more so if you want to boost engagement among your remote teams.
With Perkbox, managers can attach points to each recognition they send, and the more points an employee has, the bigger the reward they can claim. Plus, because Perkbox has retail partners worldwide, employees can choose from over 8,500 rewards from the biggest and best brands — so there really is something for everyone. In addition to all of this, the Perkbox platform offers custom rewards that managers and HR teams can add. This means all of your rewards are helpfully on one app.
Rewarding employees is an important part of the employee experience, as it is a highly effective motivator and encourages your teams to strive for the best.
Maintaining a positive company culture takes work. However, managers can take small daily actions to keep their culture alive and well.
Some companies that have great team cultures include:
What they all have in common is that they act on data and invest in systems that support the employee experience. Now, depending on your organisation's size and budget, we recommend starting small and gradually building from there.
All-in-one solutions, such as Perkbox, are very cost-effective and have sophisticated reporting functionality, so it's easy to see who receives recognition regularly and what perks your employees value most.
Leaders need to prioritise the happiness and wellbeing of their employees. Only when people feel their best can they put 100% into their work.
Building a healthy culture isn't easy, and if it were, we wouldn't be experiencing the Great Resignation. However, it's not impossible, and investing in employee experience is one of the best ways to go about it.
At Perkbox, we believe that a holistic approach is essential to building a great experience. This is why our app contains wellbeing, perks, and reward and recognition functionality.
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