Every business, to be successful, must work like a symphony where each “instrument” (function/department) plays its part in time and in tune with the other parts. The thing that brings “harmony” to the work is office culture. Yet, it would be a mistake for business leaders to let office culture define itself without a deliberate effort to craft it wisely.
What is Office Culture and Why is it Important?
Office culture refers to the personality and character of an organization. It is the totality of the goals, shared values, attitudes, and practices, all of which help define the organization. It is also the beliefs, traditions, and attitudes of the organization. It is established and strongly influenced by organizational leadership, especially how they communicate and interact with employees. It is a product of management, including its structure, hierarchy, controls, procedures, and systems. It is influenced by the people, all of whom bring their own skills, experiences, values, philosophies, and personalities to the organization. And it is a product of the work environment.
A good office culture attracts talent, drives engagement, boosts retention, increases worker happiness and job satisfaction, and impacts productivity.
What is Office Productivity and Why is it Important?
Productivity is a term that describes the output of a business relative to its inputs. It essentially measures how efficiently an organization produces results and it is key to winning in today’s competitive marketplace.
Increased productivity (or higher efficiency) can result in higher customer satisfaction if it enables you to produce and deliver goods or services faster, better, or cheaper. It can result in better terms from suppliers due to increased production and output levels. It can enable a company to pay higher wages, and thus attract more and better employees. It can result in increased access to capital to fuel further growth due to higher profit levels.
5 Ways Office Culture Impacts Productivity
- Good office culture helps each employee view performance differently. A high-performance culture can help each employee see himself/herself as a part of a high-performance team and thus perform more productively.
- A culture that encourages employees to be committed, connected, and enthused about their work and their team members will generate greater engagement which will drive greater productivity.
- A culture that fosters collaboration versus competition will more effectively work with and “feed” each other, and that will lead to greater productivity. Lower-performance workers will be lifted by the example and assistance of others.
- A culture that institutes principle-based practices rather than rule-based practices will more effectively protect a business, empower employees to think for themselves and reduce the need for company “policy police” work.
- Good office culture provides clear goals and transparent policies which leads to greater employee motivation.
An important note: outsourcing non-mission-critical functions can help the rest of the team function more productively.
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