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Workplace Culture change
How to Grow Your Business
7 Cultural Elements You Need to Know
Creating a workplace culture fostering stability and growth is tougher than ever. Employees’ priorities, work ethic, and capabilities have shifted, leaving many business owners unable to motivate their workforce and grow the business.
These seven elements are what you need to know to regain control of your company’s future.
Unprepared for Adulthood
The family, the church, and the school do not prepare Americans for adulthood as they once did.
Ill-Equipped for the Workforce
Younger employees are arriving ill-equipped to the workplace. Texas Child Protective Services teaches new foster parents that many children, especially foster children, are growing up out of synch emotionally, mentally, and physically. A young employee may join the workplace at age 25; emotionally, he may be 16, yet in “life experiences,” he could be the equivalent of age 35 because he has seen so much more in his childhood than is developmentally appropriate.
Workplace is the New Hub for Shaping Lives
Most adults between the ages of 20 and 65 will spend the majority of their waking hours in the workplace. Because of elements 1 through 3 above, the workplace is the new hub for shaping American lives, educating people, and helping them grow up.
Create a Workplace Culture
You can address the first three elements by creating a workplace culture that:
- Cares
- Cultivates
- Competes
Put Your Employees First
Create a culture that cares for your people. In 2017, Southwest Airlines completed its 45th year of making a profit. How? Early on, they cultivated this philosophy, “You put your employees first. If your employees are treated right, they will treat your customers right, your customers will come back, and that’s what makes your shareholders happy.”
Nurture and Enhance
Create a culture that cultivates your people. Business guru Tom Peters has written for decades about management and leadership. Walk into any Walmart, and there is a good chance you will find one of his most famous quotes regarding the importance of cultivating your people as human beings on a poster: “Management is about arranging and telling. Leadership is about nurturing and enhancing.”
Compete Well in the Free Market
Thousands of dollars are lost every time you replace an employee. But by creating a workplace culture that cares for your people and cultivates your people, you will create a culture that competes well in our free market world. As business scholar Freek Vermeulen put it, “… employee satisfaction really works, as having happy employees eventually culminates into hard stock returns …. To conclude: there is money to be made from employee satisfaction.”
The 3 C’s of Workedge
Creating a Workplace Culture
Care
Demonstrate care by focusing on the needs of your people.
Cultivate
Provide training, education, and intellectual stimulation.
Compete
Establish stability and create growth opportunities.
The 3 C’s of Workedge
Digging a Little Deeper
Programs aimed at assisting employees have traditionally “concentrated on the recovery of the individuals”[1] in the workforce. By coming on-site and getting to know your people, members of the WorkEdge seek to address problems, both professional and personal, as they surface. Of course, we stand ready to assist an employee with any problem that has grown clinical.
As the CEO or owner of a business, you are our boss. You tell us the degree to which we can serve your personnel. You empower us to address the physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual needs of an employee—or all four facets of the human experience.
Another way of looking at our services is what we call the three Cs-Caring, Counseling, and Cultivating. Let’s look at each one.
Caring
When we talk about caring, we are talking about building relationships with your personnel.
- Per the employer’s wishes, WorkEdge will make brief, weekly, worksite visits in order to get to know employees and offer encouragement. If an employee has something he/she wants to discuss, it may be mentioned at that time. “83% of Americans say they are stressed out by at least one thing at work (up from 73% in 2012)” [Source: TIME 4/22/13.]
- Depending on the nature and urgency of the employee need, our liaison can coordinate a place and time for a follow-up meeting.
- At the employee’s invitation, WorkEdge will make hospital, family home, nursing home, funeral home, hospice, jail, prison, and other visits.
- WorkEdge care for employees and their immediate family members includes marriage enrichment, divorce and remarriage, blended families, serious illness, death, grief recovery, and child rearing. Other personal issues that may be discussed could include the effects of illness, drug, and alcohol dependency, addictions, financial and budgeting matters, spousal and child abuse, and stress management.
- WorkEdge workers are available 24/7 for crisis intervention and emergency situations. Our goal is to respond by phone within thirty minutes.
Counseling
Sometimes a person’s problems need care from a clinical perspective. An analysis of numerous studies on the impact of counseling on employees found that counseling “represents an effective means of assisting employees to cope with psychological, emotional and behavioural problems, and that the successful resolution of these issues can have a constructive impact on work behaviour, in terms of reduced sickness absence and enhanced work functioning.”[2] Moreover, those who underwent counseling found more satisfaction in their jobs and committed themselves more fully to the goals of their company. [3]
We provide a licensed professional counselor (LPC) off-site to supply confidential counseling to your employee for serious mental and emotional health challenges.
Cultivating
We want to enrich the professionalism of your working culture. WorkEdge can assist supervisors in facing employee challenges such as conflict resolution, and we are also available to assist with the smooth transition of laid off or terminated employees. As stated in the previous section, we can offer professional enrichment services through speeches, workshops, and constructive, uplifting daily, weekly, or monthly communication.
Finally, please note that WorkEdge services are voluntary, confidential, and neutral from company operations.
[1] “The Organization as Client: Broadening the Concept of Employee Assistance Programs,” Googins, Bradley and Davidson, Bruce N. Social Work, Vol. 38, Num. 4, July 1993, 478.
[2] “The Effectiveness of Workplace Counselling: A Systematic Review,” McLeod, John. Counselling and Psychotherapy Research, December 2010; 10(4): 238-248.
[3] Ibid.
From Our Founder
Reasons a Culture of Trust is Good for an Organization
2. The trust culture takes a deep interest in the lives of its employees.
3. The trust culture holds employees accountable for performing their jobs.