No matter what industry it is, workers in modern times are setting their expectations higher and higher, and for good reason. In fact, 80% of millennials consider how they’ll fit into the culture of a company recruiting them. In addition, 60% of recruiters value how a potential employee might fit in with a company’s culture above other prerequisites, according to Capterra. Employers should be making a conscious effort to create a fantastic company culture, and the best staffing agencies should look for employees that match.
If you’re trying to grow your engineering, manufacturing, or IT company, first consider the following key characteristics of a great company culture. With this knowledge, you can focus on establishing a culture that both current employees and new hires will love.
Sense of Community
Most jobs involve employees working five days a week. So much time is spent with coworkers, but still, many employees don’t feel a sense of connection to anyone they work with. Because of this, employees may feel like company accomplishments aren’t such a big deal.
To combat this, the best staffing agencies would suggest creating a sense of community in your workplace by:
- Celebrating special events such as birthdays, work anniversaries, employee milestones, engagements, weddings, and promotions
- Setting up regular company-wide and team-led meetings and huddles
- Giving everyone in the company a voice
- Sharing gratitudes and appreciations
- Hosting holiday parties
When employees feel heard and appreciated, a stronger sense of community will be established within your company. From here, celebrations and events will be welcoming events everyone will want to attend!
Equity and Fairness
According to Gallup, less than 28% of employees strongly agree that their organization is fair to everyone. Concerning, right? You don’t want your employees to view your business as an unfair one. With this in mind, it’s important to create a company culture where equity and fairness are highly valued.
Equity is the “E” in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), which is a set of expectations companies nationwide are expected to adhere to. Gallup defines equity as fair treatment, advancement, and access among employees within an organization. If you promote your favorite employee instead of the one who deserves the promotion, that’s considered unfair, and there are many more workplace examples, too. In essence, the best staffing agencies know how incredibly important it is to gauge how workers in your business view fairness in their workplace. From there, you can make changes and ensure that everyone knows just how important equity is within your company, as it’s a key characteristic of fantastic company culture.
Trust
According to a 2021 study by Forbes, about 50% of employees have neglected to report something at work due to a fear of retaliation, and 74% of remote workers are concerned about their employer monitoring how much and when they work. Many statistics like these demonstrate a lack of trust between employees and employers. Because of this, employees don’t feel confident, believed in, or safe.
Furthermore, without trust, work can’t get done effectively or efficiently. In fact, recruiting and staffing agencies report that productivity, motivation, engagement, and overall job satisfaction also become sabotaged. Employees may feel so unhappy that they quit. Therefore, it’s important to gain an understanding of what trust looks and feels like in your workplace. How are employees engaging with one another? Do employees trust each other and their colleagues? Is there a lack of trust among managers? Consider how this characteristic of great company culture can be improved within your business.
Communication
A lack of communication causes problems in all aspects of life. The best staffing agencies know that a workplace lacking proper communication can make employees feel unheard, misinformed, uncomfortable, stressed, frustrated, and more. This negatively affects many aspects of the job.
Here are a few key reasons to improve communication in your workplace:
- Enhance employee engagement
- Improve workplace productivity
- Reduce employee turnover
- Increase company morale
- Improve employee loyalty
- Enhance collaboration among all employees
- Reduce the number of workplace conflict
- Improve employee motivation
These reasons are further proven by a Zippia study. Teams with effective communication have seen their productivity increase by up to 25%; 86% of employees see poor communication as the reason for company failures; only about 7% of employees feel that communication is open, timely, and accurate within the workplace; and approximately 95% of employees don’t have a good understanding of their employer’s communication strategy. These findings demonstrate just how important effective communication is in the workplace!
Employee Development
According to Lorman, 87% of millennial employees believe that learning and development are important in the workplace. In addition, only about 29% of employees are very satisfied with available career advancement opportunities within their organization. So what does this mean, exactly? These statistics point to the fact that many employees want to continue to work and grow within their current organization, but many feel they lack both development and promotion opportunities. This is bad news for employers because they’re missing out on retaining employees who care about their position and organization.
Since 61% of employees seek career development opportunities when considering job opportunities, according to Lorman, the best staffing agencies will recruit such workers for companies that also value career development. Between this fact and knowing that 70% of employees would leave their current job to work for an organization known for investing in employee learning and development, according to Lorman, your company needs to get on top of employee development opportunities.
Employee development isn’t all about promotions, either. This key characteristic of an outstanding company culture also involves consistent training sessions, post-training training, and opportunities to attend conferences and networking events, run meetings, train others, and lead projects.
The best staffing agencies work hard to match the best new hires with a variety of companies. However, it’s up to the organization and its leaders to create an environment where current and future employees want to work. A sense of community, equity and fairness, trust, communication, and employee development are all important characteristics of a fantastic company culture, but there are surely other aspects to consider as well. To gauge what your employees need, you must ask. Consistently surveying your employees about how they view your company’s culture is key! To learn more about finding the best new hires for your organization, contact Kane Partners today.
