For the month of April, RCS Professional Services chose to focus their event on company culture in the workplace. They wanted to share how core values play a part in an organization and how it is continuing to help them thrive. They were joined by industry experts:
-David Russell. He is a global, hiring expert; leadership, employee engagement, and company culture problem solver; author, and inspirational speaker at Manage2Win.
-Laura Berman Fortgang. She is a Career Reinvention Analyst who wrote the book on how to successfully transition to deeply meaningful work. Featured on the Oprah Show and a TEDx Talk with nearly 1.5 million views.
-Bruce Eckfeldt. He is a consultant, coach, author, and speaker on organizational development and performance management. He often uses his experiences to help high-growth companies scale quickly and efficiently.
-Adam Goller. Works with Cross River Bank, where he is responsible for the Bank’s primary revenue-generating activities. Adam is a member of the Bank’s executive team and oversees much of the Bank’s revenue generation.
These speakers dove deep into what it means for a company to have a strong culture, how to continue that culture in a remote work environment, and what challenges you may be facing right now with regard to managing your remote workforce. Here is a recap:
Adam explained how his company has adapted to working from home. His company has about 450 employees and he explained that right from the beginning, they made sure they had the proper technology to accommodate working from home. Proper technology is step 1 and without it, you are doomed to have a failing culture. Currently, Adam and his team are working partially from home and partially in the office and he advocates for that way of working. He says that if it is possible then your business should consider it. In order for a company to be successful, there needs to be a balance between doing what works well for the employees and what works well for the business. Working in that hybrid stage can accomplish that.
The panelists were asked how do you enforce the core values while your employees are working from home. One recommended a daily short zoom meeting that will encourage employees to keep their collaboration going. If they cannot meet in person then many of them recommend virtual happy hours or fun Kahoot games over video. It is important, however, to make sure that you know what your employees need. Do you have a lot of parents on your staff? Will a zoom happy hour, while fun, just be a burden on your employees who would rather be making dinner for their kids? It is important to know these things about your staff. A good way to get that information is by sending out monthly surveys. Here you can get more information about how people are feeling while working from home. Is their apartment too small? Do they not have a separate office space where they can do work that makes it more difficult for them to be productive? Knowing this information is extremely powerful. If it is more conducive to your staff, maybe send them a care package instead of hosting a zoom happy hour, or allow more leeway when it comes to deadlines if your staff does not have an adequate at-home office space. These small gestures will make for a much happier staff which will, in turn, increase your productivity and decrease turnover.
Another way to promote your company’s values and increase your staff’s overall satisfaction is to help them best position themselves to do what they love. How can they adjust their job description so that they are doing more of what they love? You can do this by having a culture of transparency in the workplace. Encourage your employees to speak with their supervisors and be honest about what they like and what they don’t like about their job. Sally’s favorite part of her job could be Sarah’s least favorite part. So why not allow Sally to do more of what she loves and alleviate some of what makes Sarah not want to come to work in the morning. This is a win-win for everyone.
If you start incorporating these principles into your corporate culture right from the beginning of interviewing and hiring new employees, you will have a very strong and happy staff. You can do this by encouraging interviewees to interview your company as well. Let them sit in on a zoom meeting to allow them to see your company firsthand. If they see something they do not like then you will know early when you still have a chance to hire someone else. This will save you lots of time and money.
Overall culture plays a huge role in a company’s success. Click here to watch the entire recording
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If you want to learn more about how RCS Professional Services can help you get back to doing what you do the best contact us at info@rcsprofessional.com or visit our website www.rcsprofessional.com. To connect with any of the panelists and learn more about their services, please reach out to us here: info@rcsprofessional.com.