Company culture and employee engagement seem to be on the minds of every company. There are cottage industries and full-time consultants that assist their clients in how to engage employees and craft a company culture that fosters growth and long-term commitment. But building a good company culture and raising employee engagement isn't that easy. This article helps companies better understand how to engage their employees and stay committed to their ethics and culture.
Company Culture Challenges: Engaging Every Employee is Impossible
Here's the problem. If it were as simple as a 5-step process or even a “do this and you will get that” method, then everyone would have these issues solved. Obviously, that is not the case– even in the companies that I mentioned above, there are employees that are not engaged and are spending their work time searching for their next job. People leave the “best” companies every day. So, does that mean that they are selling everyone they hire a pipedream without a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow?
No, it doesn’t.
Top 3 Company Culture Challenges
- Employee Engagement
Employee engagement is one of the topmost company culture challenges. The hardest part of company culture and employee engagement is that you cannot be all things to all people. It’s like church and music—no matter how great the music is, there are going to be people that want contemporary and people who want hymns or people that want piano and people that want guitars. That’s human nature; we want what we want. Consequently, we are not all motivated by the same types of things. So, organizations need to implement such employee engagement strategies that increase their workforce experiences.
- Improving Employee Retention
Retaining employees is a challenge for today’s organizations and is an important factor that helps companies boost productivity and achieve their shared vision. Yes, the rate of employee retention also signifies how good the company culture was. By building a positive company culture, focusing on employee development, and setting clear goals, the best employee engagement strategies assist companies in improving employee retention rates.
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- Diversity and Inclusion
It is one of the most common company culture challenges. Companies must give highest priority to diversity and inclusion to enhance team collaboration and protect their company’s culture. Ignoring it might negatively impact on workplace culture, employee engagement, and retention. So, valuing every employee with equal priority help businesses overcome company culture issues.
Know What You Want Your Company Culture to Look Like
So, what do you do? You must first figure out your work environment and what you want your internal culture to be and look like and then work to understand your ideal hire. What type of person or personality is going to fit in your company’s culture? What can you offer that will engage and motivate diverse types of personalities? In a smaller company, you must become more specific to the type of person that would respond to what you are able to offer, and then you build a hiring profile around that person.
For example, if you have a small customer service operation and you have people making lower wages, maybe the ability to earn extra PTO hours/days is a huge motivator. Or having a compressed schedule that gives them a four-day work week with varying shifts and days to make sure customer needs are still met. Maybe it is community service events, and you figure into your hiring profile that you want people who care about the community. When you do these events, they have the bonus of adding a high degree of employee engagement and improving employee retention.
If you can get good at aligning your corporate culture and objectives and building activities with the type of people you hire, you can simply grab an opportunity for better engaging your employees.
Instead of taking a shotgun approach from an article you read, you identify your company’s culture challenges, make your hiring decisions, and implement the best employee engagement strategies for better outcomes.
You need to understand current employees' drivers and motivators, especially for people that have been there long-term and are solid team members. You need to understand why they have stayed and make sure not to flip over on any of those reasons. Ultimately you are looking for an evolution, not a revolution, and in doing that you will protect your current good employees while creating a foundation to build on with future hires.
Conclusion
Implement growth-driven and employee-satisfying employee engagement strategies to achieve business objectives and improve retentions. Expert consultants from V-Soft Consulting will help you improve your HR processes and make your employees feel valued. Talk to our consultants to get some pro tips for improving employee engagement and retention.
