When 40 hours a week are spent with the same group of people at your job, workplace culture matters. A significant aspect of a positive workplace culture is a sense of community. Deloitte explains that a worker’s sense of belonging stems from a workplace’s ability to foster an inclusive, equitable, and diverse environment that allows everyone to feel safe and confident in who they are and the work they contribute.
In decades past, workers were often met with hostile working conditions that valued performance and money over employee security and happiness. While a business’s goal is to make money, staying afloat can’t happen if employees aren’t satisfied, especially in today’s day and age. In fact, when the best staffing agencies are seeking candidates, 80% of millennial hires today will question how they’ll fit into the culture of the business that would like to hire them, according to Capterra. With this in mind, let’s review why a sense of community is so vital in today’s workplaces.
Belonging
The best staffing agency will tell you that a sense of belonging in the workplace is more important than many people think. While workers may say they want to come to work, complete their tasks, and leave, it’s not that simple. Every work day is going to be spent meeting with coworkers or clients, tackling projects together, and communicating about various tasks and processes. If an employee doesn’t feel appreciated by or connected to who they work with, the work environment can become uncomfortable or hostile.
To create a better sense of belonging in a workplace, taking steps to nurture a diverse and inclusive environment is key. These steps may include improving communication company-wide, avoiding micromanagement, empowering employees, using inclusive language, designing workshops and training, making all employees, especially leadership, aware of changes that need to be made in the workplace, and more, according to TextHelp.
Celebration
Since many employees work so closely together, they’re bound to learn details about each other’s lives, such as birthdays, work and marriage anniversaries, children’s accomplishments, and more. If a birthday is missed, an employee can feel unrecognized, which can lead to a dip in happiness and performance. Instead, a staffing agency would recommend that a workplace celebrate its employees’ birthdays and work anniversaries as well as recognize other accomplishments in their workers’ lives. Did an employee get married? Their supervisor could send them a card. Did an employee’s child get into college? A peer could stop by their desk and say congratulations. Simple exchanges that celebrate each other go a long way in any workplace.
Psychological Safety
According to the Center for Creative Leadership, “Psychological safety is the belief that you won’t be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes.” The Center completed a study in 2.5 years that followed 300 leaders; they found that businesses with high degrees of psychological safety had lower levels of interpersonal conflict and higher levels of performance. These results are not at all surprising. Many workplaces avoid talking about making mistakes, but this is an unhealthy way to handle workplace difficulties and conflicts.
To create a psychologically safe work environment, leaders in an organization need to be proactive and make changes in how communication is handled. Instead of curating conditions where employees are afraid to speak up and make mistakes, facilitate a new environment where displaying characteristics like empathy, open-mindedness, compassion, and bravery are encouraged and rewarded. The Center for Creative Leadership shares that businesses that create this environment where a coaching culture is prioritized will lead to a safer workplace where employees will feel comfortable speaking the truth instead of hiding. When a staffing agency finds a candidate for your business, they’ll be looking for such characteristics!
Performance and Culture
WebMD Health Services reports that a sense of belonging in the workplace can lead to a 75% decrease in sick days, a 50% reduction in turnover risk, and a 56% increase in job performance. These percentages are impressive, especially since creating an excellent workplace culture is not a difficult task. Since performance and results are of the utmost importance for a business to financially profit and stay afloat, it’s important for all workplaces to take a look at how their company culture can improve. A staffing agency can find you excellent recruits, but if a candidate senses that the company doesn’t care about them, they won’t stick around.
Mental Health
Since the pandemic, more and more workplaces are recognizing the importance of mental health. Many organizations are offering more flexible schedules, remote and hybrid working options, mental health services through company health insurance, and more. While these changes are fantastic, improvements in the workplace itself can help as well.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), one of every five adults in the United States has a mental health disorder. Additionally, one of the most common mental health disorders is depression, which interferes with an individual’s ability to complete physical job tasks about 20% of the time; depression also reduces cognitive performance about 35% of the time. The CDC also reports that only about 40% of those who report severe depression and 57% of workers who report moderate depression get the treatment they need to control their symptoms.
As you can see, mental health has a bigger impact on the workplace than you think. This is why employers need to take action to create supportive and flexible work environments where employees feel advocated for. By creating a sense of community in the workplace, employees can feel about talking about their struggles, seek the help and support they need, and have a better relationship with their workplace and those within it.
A sense of community in the workplace is absolutely vital in today’s workplaces. Employees today are focused on finding jobs that give them a sense of purpose in a company that values their hard work and provides ample support. Without these attributes, a workplace will likely have a high turnover rate. When a staffing agency finds candidates for your company, those potential workers will be investigating your company culture. Therefore, improve it for the sake of your business and everyone who works for it. To learn more about using headhunters to staff your organization with excellent candidates, contact Kane Partners today. Our staffing agency looks forward to assisting you!