In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a significant shift in business culture. It has caused more companies to shift to more hybrid and even fully remote work environments. It has allowed companies to re-evaluate their priorities and create environments that allow their employees to feel engaged and productive, whether at home or in the office.

If your small business is located in Cincinnati, consider hiring Orcutt & Co to handle your accounting, bookkeeping, payroll, and tax prep tasks. This will allow you to focus more on nurturing your small business culture.

In this article, we’ll define workplace culture, explain why it’s important and how you can understand it, and finally how you can improve workplace culture.

Defining Workplace Culture

Before we can talk about it, we need to define workplace culture. However, it’s not that easy to clearly define. Perhaps the simplest explanation is this: it’s the way things are done within a business.

No matter how you define it, workplace culture is difficult to measure in a tangible way because it’s not a set of clear rules- it’s how it feels to be at work. Every business has its own personality and atmosphere. Culture is the air you breathe and if it’s toxic, your business will feel the effects.

Why is it so Important?

For businesses that are looking to change the way people work, culture should be the highest priority. By focusing on workplace culture, companies are able to do the following:

• Improve overall well-being of employees
• Increase performance & productivity of employees
• Open up the lines of communication
• Increase transparency and trust
• Improve recruitment efforts
• Increase engagement and retention
• Encourage teamwork
• Improve the quality of services
• Improve the business’ reputation
• Boost employee morale

How to Understand Workplace Culture

In order to nurture your small business culture, you need to be honest about what is going on. The pandemic has been a difficult time for many small businesses and surviving is challenging. However, it has provided them with a chance to reset their workplace culture.

Businesses are learning that culture is about creating connections- whether working in the physical workspace or remotely. You can take the temperature of your workplace culture by:

• Observing how your employees interact and treat each other
• Sending out surveys to employees to determine how they feel about the current culture and changes they would like to see
• Using communication tools, such as polls, to gauge the overall mood of your business in real-time

Creating Culture In Your Workplace

It’s important to note that positive workplace culture won’t happen overnight. It must evolve and change as time goes on. However, you can get started by focusing on:

• The values of your business
• The identity of your business
• The leadership within your business
• The people within your business
• The workplace norms within your business
• The policies of your business
• Communication within your business
• Physical setting of your workplace
• Subcultures in your business

Improving Your Workplace Culture

Many business owners believe that workplace culture forms organically. They don’t feel like it’s something they need to define. However, this is a risky view, as it means you don’t have any control over how it develops.

As a business owner, you must evaluate and understand the current culture in your small business and determine where you need to pay more attention. This will allow you to create a more positive workplace culture that will be beneficial to everyone.

No matter how big or small your workforce is, culture should be a priority for all managers. You should make it your responsibility to create, build, and encourage a positive workplace culture within your business. Be a role model for your employees, practice what you preach.

Conclusion

Workplace culture is critical to the success of any small business. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has made it difficult to keep employees feeling engaged and productive due to the increase in remote work. By working to understand workplace culture and the present state of yours, you can shift to a more positive culture.

Consider hiring Orcutt & Co for your accounting, bookkeeping, tax prep, and payroll needs. By delegating these tasks to us, you can focus more on nurturing your small business culture.