本文收录在《企业家之声公司文化》一书中，该书包含了20多位贡献者，企业家和思想领袖的见解。
Company culture has become more and more important in the workplace, but when VitalSmarts surveyed 1,200 employees in July, it found that many employers were missing the mark.
While leaders want to believe they’ve created environments filled with innovation and teamwork, there's a good chance their employees see the workplace as one of obedience, competition and predictability.
Here’s what the ideal culture looks like, what employees really thinkand how to close this communication gap at your company:
The ideal culture
As you climb the corporate ladder, the comments about a company's culture become more and more positive. These leaders dream of a workplace full of innovation; theybelieve they've provided thenecessary tools for employees to move successfully forward. They makesure that new methods are always being created to better the work process for employees.
These visions of an ideal work culture will also include a culture of teamwork where employees are on the same page and working together in a productive manner. In this world, there'll beno such thing as generational gaps because a company's employees will all have the same training and correct amount of knowledge to complete their daily tasks.
Employee reality
Unfortunately, the happiness that employers believe their employees are finding, with innovation and teamwork, isn’t employees' reality. 58003
So, maybe employers should consider a reality check: Their employees are dealing with the reality of generational gaps, technology advancements and challengesand the ever-changing nature of work. All of these issues, combined with the overwhelming feeling of leaders not actively trying to better the work culture, createfrustration and decreased productivity.
Generational gaps also create tension within the ideal teamwork vision. Employees from different age segmentsview the nature of work differently and place different values on various workplace benefits. Unify surveyed 9,000 knowledge workers in January and found that 16- to 24-year-olds described the ideal workplace as creative, successful and exciting.
In contrast, 35- to 44-year-olds wantedto be part of a workplace that is creative, successful and supportive.
With one generation looking for excitement in the workplace and another seeking support, the lines can get blurred in terms of employees understanding one other when they work together. This type of miscommunication can damper employee happiness and production.
Feeling thatthe proper tools aren’t being delivered or updated can push a company's culture into a frustrating, unproductive standstill. Companies with outdated technology, and those with newer technology but no ongoing education, are hurting themselves and their employees. Innovation growth can’t happen if employees are dealing with hindering technological issues.
How to close the gap
Understanding how employees view company culture is pertinent to keeping current employees happy and productive. Giving them specific goals, assuring them that their frustrations are being heard andaddressedand instituting employee reviews are a few ways to get on the same page.
In this context, performance-management tools like Reflektive enable real-time feedback, performance reviewsand goal alignment. Listening and really hearing any feedback employees have gives employers a view of reality that they may not have otherwise. This new online vantage point helps employers draw a new roadmap for workplace culture.
performance reviews in particularhelp employees stay connected with employers about their progress. Innovation will increase when employees are in complete understanding of what needs improving. Separate reviews for each employee are important because everyone feels his or her performance is being reviewed off of a range of job responsibilities.
Aligning goals in weekly meetings is another step. 58003 Encouraging goal-setting thatincludes all generations' point of view willbring the team closer together. So, create guidelines that will make a task "exciting" for the younger generation, and line up tools to help everyone show "support" for the older generation.
The Unify survey described above also found that, for most, the ideal workplace is an informal one. 58003
With this statistic in mind, perhaps the most important goal you can set and achievein order to createa cohesive company cultureis discovering what matters most to your employees, and then taking steps to deliver it.