Workplace culture is an important part of any business or organization that affects everything that goes on from the little guy all the way up to the top. In a previous article - What is Workplace Culture and What Does it Mean? I explored the what surrounding workplace culture. Here, I present five approaches at how to create workplace culture.

1) Provide Flexible working hours

Flexible working hours is something everybody can enjoy and is surely something everybody needs from time to time. Sometimes, things just come up that require our immediate attention and there is nothing worse than having to put it on the backburner whilst you wait to free up time. Why? Sometimes this time just never becomes available (because you always revert to the backburner) or you just never get around to doing whatever it was that needed doing. Sometimes it is just too late.

Having a small amount of time to attend these sorts of things and move on is not only beneficial to the individual, but to the company they work at as well. Employees are likely to feel less stressed out, have fewer things on their mind and are probably more willing to put in extra time when things at work get hectic. This is not to say that flexible time means employees should be able to take off time whenever they want too. Rather they have the flexibility to trade when they work. Like all things however, this has constraints because sometimes it is just not practical or just not possible to give employees or an employee that half day off work. If however the company is going through quieter periods of work and an employee requests a short period off, give it to them. They are much more likely (somewhat expected) to work extra when that work is really needed; during busy work periods.

2) Keep out of the way

If, and when you have hired somebody you have hired him or her for a reason. If you did not believe they could do the job, you would not have hired them. What does this mean? Make sure you stay true to this assumption of your hiring and don’t question it.

The way to extract greatness from somebody is to simply expect it, but then get out of the way and wait for it to happen. Let it manifest. Do not continually hover around, pressuring, and guiding, forcing and influencing things. This is a recipe for disaster. If they can do the job and do it well (that’s why they were hired don’t forget) them let them do it. This frees up both managerial and employee’s time and allows both of them to go about doing what they do best; managing, not controlling the scene and delivering, not worrying about the outcome.

3) Keep regular contact

It is standard practice in agile methodologies to have all team members engage in regular, short standup meetings where issues, problems, current tasks and dates can be raised for everyones benefit. This brings issues to everyone’s attention and creates a stronger bonding and understanding of the work that is going on (in and around your own work) and the people that are doing it.
Managers typically meet once a week with every employee to discuss concerns/issues/progress etc. in a brief 15-minute style review. Brief but regular contact from superiors can be a motivating force if used correctly. Nobody likes an overtly nosey boss (see point 2; Keep out of the way) but it is still important for both employees and managers that they have the opportunity to follow things up without over or under doing it.

4) Create and promote social meeting areas

Create social meeting areas where people can meet both formally and informally. In either case, work often crops up and this gives a great environment to exploit it. A good example is creating a sitting area or lounge for drinks and biscuits. Many people enjoy a good cup of coffee, tea or something else entirely so give it to them in an environment that is conducive to work. If they don’t get it here they will get it somewhere else (the local cafe).

Another benefit of social meeting areas is that it brings people together. Depending on how big your company or oganisation is and how segregated it is, this can be quite an issue. When I was working at DSTO in the Command and Control Division (C2D) as part of a 12-month placement back in 2005 it quickly became obvious how split up the different divisions were; largely brought about by the layout and zones of the building. Nonetheless, it meant people from different divisions did not tend to mingle as much. Common places however were lunchrooms and kitchens. Everybody enjoys a good beverage and everybody has to eat. These two places brought people together across divisions.

5) Create social events

Create social events to get people talking and liven up the work relationships. It does not matter whether its book clubs, bowling, avid movie going, coffee drinking or [pick your favourite thing to do]. Humans (most of us) are social people and feel happier and at ease when we form connections with those around us. Knowing a little bit about who you work with is always interesting and avoids the

I worked next to so and so for a whole year and did not even know his name syndrome.

In summary

People work best when they are happy and motivated and have enough freedom that they feel needed, trustworthy and valuable. Furthermore, that they feel like they are gaining (or not giving up) too much carrying out their work. Much of this comes from the work environment and the culture which ensues.

So, increase social awareness for employees around the workplace through social meeting areas, and social events. The more people find they have in common, know about each other and enjoy sharing the more often they are likely to be at work. At the very least, it will minimize the reverse where people spend as little time at work as possible because they hate the work they are doing, the environment in which they work or the people with whom they work with.

Lastly, good managers manage. They don’t control and manipulate. This is important when it come to gaining trust. Trust is important when you require something extra. Instilling the right culture and trusting employees to do the right thing (should be re-enforced by the culture they live, create, breath and work) is the surest way to a happy work environment that breeds a lively workplace culture that people enjoy to be around.