Communication is key
In the world of company culture it is all about Communication, Communication, Communication.
Culture is developed in the little things. One important key to creating a thriving culture is to ensure the communication channels between upper leadership and their teams is clear and open so concerns can be raised effectively.
To feel comfortable at work, people of all position levels should feel as if they can easily make their voice heard without repercussions.
Celebrate more!
If you have a reason (any is good) you can celebrate together. This alone builds a sense of home for employees.
If your company has a large calendar, digital or otherwise, be sure to acknowledge and mark calendar holidays from all religions and cultures, regardless of whether or not the day is observed. Consider observing holidays that support activism and inclusion such as Juneteenth, which was just recently deemed a federal holiday in the US.
Get to know different cultural customs around celebrations of birthdays, weddings, and bereavement so that you can appropriately offer congratulations or condolences to your teammates.
Get linguistic
Get translating! Today there are a ton of tools ready to help you communicate in all languages.
It’s easy to default to jargon and acronyms when you get comfortable in your industry and around the people you work with, especially when you share the same native tongue. However, this can be challenging for those who have a first language other than English.
It’s a good practice to make sure that your language is clear, and concise, and there isn’t any room open for interpretation where something could get misconstrued. It’s also not a bad idea to make company-wide efforts to deepen language learning practices to include different cultural backgrounds of team members or those you may often work with who live overseas and speak different languages.
Hire the best!
Hiring the best people takes work but it creates a culture that thrives.
Training any employees is costly, but training attitudes and work ethic will break any budget and culture. Hire the right folks and from day one they add value rather than create “potential”.
To reiterate, thriving culture is in the small stuff that happens day-to-day. It might not seem like it directly contributes to the company’s bottom line, but when you have a workforce who feels at home at their job and they feel valued as individuals, you will see the positive results all around.
There is no better time than now to Communicate, Celebrate, Speak their Language and Choose wisely!
