5 tips on how team bonding can assist to build a solid company culture

StrategyDriven Corporate Cultures Article |Team Bonding|5 tips on how team bonding can assist to build a solid company cultureProductivity in an organization is no longer solely dependant on an individual’s technical competencies. Organizational culture is now vital to employee engagement and happiness. Happy employees contribute better than unhappy ones. The millennial workforce particularly is more inclined towards working in a positive organizational culture than their previous generation. Research also supports this as a LinkedIn survey shows that 65% of employees would work for a lesser pay and forgo a fancy job title rather than deal with a bad work environment.

Building a positive organizational culture is beyond occasional perks and monetary benefits. When people trust each other and connect with each other on a personal level, they tend to be more committed to their employers and go beyond the call of duty. Team bonding activities are one way to bring employees together on a personal level. Team bonding activities have also gained more popularity post-pandemic as employers are grappling to rebuild positive organization cultures. For example, Organizing team bonding activities in Singapore is now more than just fun. Employees and employers in Singapore have been vocal that the pandemic has taken a toll on mental health and team bonding activities can help in reinforcing a positive work culture. Therefore, team bonding activities are no doubt a highly impactful way to build a solid work culture.

Here are 5 ways in which team bonding helps in building culture:

Builds a set of values and beliefs

The set of underlying values and beliefs within an organization is the foundation of it’s culture. When teams or individuals do not align with these values, a positive organizational culture cannot be built. Team building activities not only help in building these values but also help in preserving them. While doing team activities they also evolve into supporting each other, identifying team strengths, and communicating effectively. Some examples of activities that can help in building these values are lunch or dinners, celebrating milestones, recognizing hidden talents, investing in employee’s individual growth etc.

Fosters personal interactions among team members

Culture cannot exist when people do not interact with each other. Social interactions help team members in understanding each other better and nurturing personal relationships. When teams get together to interact on a personal level, they build lasting bonds and make memorable impressions. These bonds help in building a culture that is welcoming, positive, and enduring. Some examples of activities that build personal bonds are truth or dare, a cooking session, an outdoor game day, movie nights, etc. The most important aspect for an activity to successfully build team bonds is to be as much fun as possible. When individuals build memories while interacting with each other, it leads to positive experiences.

Facilitates interactions between leadership and team members

While building a culture is the foundation, preserving it and reinforcing it as a part of organization’s operations is detrimental to the success of an organization. Leadership of the organization and their interactions with team members are pivotal to reinforcing organizational culture. These activities are an opportunity for leaders to engage with their team members and build trust and empathy. Leaders do not have to be worried about becoming vulnerable or losing authority when they interact on a personal level with team members. These activities allow leaders to build transparent and empathetic connections with team members.

Improves collaboration

A highly collaborative organizational culture is one of the strengths of a productive team. When there is a culture that encourages, supports, and promotes collaboration team members feel welcomed and engaged. Team bonding is critical to building a highly collaborative culture. When team members do not share personal bonds they do not trust each other and collaboration becomes forced. This will also lead to rigid and non-communicative teams. Team bonding activities like escape rooms, scavenger hunts etc are great for improving collaboration.

Boosts employee morale

Lastly, a good organizational culture thrives when employees are positive and motivated. Demotivated employees do not take an active part in building the organization’s culture. Organizing team bonding activities regularly helps in cultivating this positive mindset. As these activities provide an opportunity for employees to interact beyond their work desks, a sense of belonging and camaraderie is developed. Furthermore, these activities also bring together individuals to collaborate on a collective goal. Some examples of team bonding activities that are great for motivating employees are outdoor sports days, group fitness sessions, challenges, etc.

Team bonding activities if well organized can have a significant impact on an organization’s culture. They reflect the organization’s commitment to employee well-being and individual success along with the organization’s success. Building culture is also a collective effort rather than individual. Therefore, organizing team building activities regularly will not only build the company culture but also help in preserving it.

Successful Company Culture at Work: What It Really Takes

StrategyDriven Corporate Cultures Article |Company Culture|Successful Company Culture at Work: What It Really TakesThe world of work has changed dramatically in the last eighteen months, and as we head into a new year, there will be many companies who are looking to bring their employees back to the office or at least look for ways to improve their working culture.

Building a good company culture is not as easy as ordering a bunch of dim sum and drinking green tea, so companies must ensure that they take steps to understand what type of culture they want to foster, and then make sure that they build a company culture that is suitable for the company.

Build Motivation

While many people think that money will motivate you to work harder, it is not just about cash; it is also about your career, fulfillment, and purpose.

When asking the question ‘What really motivates people?’ you would think that putting money first was the answer given by most people.

However, most business researchers will say that money is not the most important motivator, the top three motivators are usually

  1. Achievement and recognition – A large percentage of people say that they would work harder if they got recognition through a raise or bonus.
  2. Liking your job – making the job worthwhile or enjoyable to be in is almost as important as money.
  3. Recognition – from bosses, colleagues, or teammates for good performance and effort done in the job.

Why Is Company Culture Important?

So what is company culture? A culture is a set of values, norms, and behaviors that are widely shared and accepted by the people within the organization.

The old adage “culture eats strategy for breakfast” is never truer than when you look at some of today’s best-known companies.

They have been able to create dominant company cultures that are so strong that they can eat up many other aspects of an organization where there may be strategies or ideas that could be great on paper but end up being poor practice in execution.

However, when you have a great company culture, it is much easier to attract top talent and get people to stay with your company. Talented employees are attracted by a sense of purpose, feeling valued, and getting the support they need to do their job well.

With a great culture, employees are more likely to be engaged in their work, they will recommend your products or services to others, and they may even do some word-of-mouth marketing for free on social media which can be great for your business.

The Three Main Parts Of Company Culture At Work

A company’s culture can be broken down into three main groups: Customer Culture, Organizational Culture, and Corporate Culture.

Customer Culture

Great customer culture is important for any business that wants to ensure that it has happy customers and can give them excellent service. Customer culture is something that a company should concentrate on from day one.

If a company first concentrates on deeper relationships with its current customers, then it is much easier to attract new ones.

A bad customer experience tells the world not just about your products, service or brand, but also about the type of company you are as a whole if customers are not given the support they need.

A few ways that companies can improve customer culture include:

  1. Customer service training: Get everyone in the organization to take part in the same training so that they know how to have good customer service.
  2. Empowered employees: Ensure employees are empowered and are able to help customers when they need it, even if this means going beyond their job description.
  3. A strong brand image: Make sure that frontline staff are empowered and know how they should deliver excellent customer service within your culture and brand image. This is something that needs to be emphasized at every level within the company and to be regularly reinforced through all media communication channels.
  4. Findability: Make it easy for customers to find your business and use your website. For this, it’s best to find an affordable SEO services to handle your search engine optimization, and keep your website on top for search rankings so customers can find you easily.

Organizational Culture

This is the part of a company culture that is aimed at the employees. Organizational cultures are based on key elements which can be generally separated into behavioral and cognitive factors

For instance, behavioral factors are things like rewards and achievements which help to motivate and give employees a sense of belonging within the organization. They can include:

  1. Rewards – both internal and external rewards are important, along with bonuses, cash prizes, and gifts for achievers, but also training opportunities and promotions can be valued as an achievement.
  2. Recognition – ensuring that everyone is valued and gets recognized for their contribution to the company is vital to having a great organizational culture.
  3. Support – everyone needs a bit of emotional support and encouragement when they are working, so having a good support network within the company is vital to ensuring that employees want to work harder.

Corporate Culture

Corporate culture refers to the company as a whole, not to individual employees. Corporate culture can be about core values, beliefs, and attitudes which are shared by all the employees in an organization. It may be about how managers work with staff or other external parties, or it may also cover things like relationships with clients and suppliers.

A good corporate culture can help you sell your products more easily because it is based on the company’s values, beliefs, and attitudes.

Should You Focus on Positivity or Creativity?

This is an interesting question, and it is something that companies and managers will have to debate long into the future.

There is no doubt about it, increased employee happiness has a positive effect on economic returns. So has creativity been given short shrift? Or should managers focus only on creativity when it comes to motivating employees? Is positivity more important or should we just stick to business as usual?

We have all seen many examples where people have demonstrated creativity at work by coming up with new ideas, new products, or new services. They know how good their products are, they are confident that they can sell them, and they can get the funding they require to start their business. However, in today’s competitive world, it is not enough for your ideas or products to be great, they also have to be profitable or you will not make any money.

Creativity can be a barometer of employee engagement, but it is not the only thing that matters. It’s easy to come up with ideas and pitch them internally, but in order for your good idea to turn into a profitable product, you need to work hard at turning it into a reality that your customers can enjoy and use every day.

This will require a lot of hard work on every level of your business from the CEO down to the junior members of staff.

Leading From The Top Down

For many companies, their brand image and culture are based around the top management. It is often those at the top who are most effective at communicating to staff how company values and policies should be acted on by everyone.

The top managers must be seen to be leading from the front so that employees are inspired to do a good job, as well as being rewarded accordingly. This will make them better at their jobs and more satisfied which will, in turn, lead to a positive corporate culture that attracts talent into your business.

When it comes down to it, the best way for a business leader to motivate people through their values is by communicating them clearly with all members of staff. For this, it must be communicated through a good culture (as mentioned above) as well as through training courses and performance evaluations.

Statistics indicate that recognition and rewards based on performance can have a positive impact on employees which will help to improve their work.

This may seem like a cliché, but your employees need to know that they are valued and have an important part to play in the company.

They will not just perform better, but they will feel good about coming to work every day because they know they are making a difference. You can build your business around them so that you get what you need from your team without much effort.

Interpersonal Aspects of Leadership

Interpersonal leadership refers to the relationship between leaders and their employees.

Relationships between leaders and the people that work for them are very important as they impact how good an employee is at their job, how much they are motivated, and how effective they are at doing their work.

A good leader understands the needs of their people and knows how to involve them in decisions that will help the business to be more productive.

Interpersonal leadership is essential to a company’s success, but it is not something that should be taken lightly. You need to see your employees as partners, as co-workers, as people who are performing a job that you need them to do.

If You’re Not Engaging With Your Community, You’re Falling Behind

StrategyDriven Corporate Cultures Article |marketing|If You're Not Engaging With Your Community, You're Falling BehindMarketing is becoming more competitive and businesses seek more advanced ways to reach out to customers and get them to part with their hard-earned cash. As such, brands are having to come up with new tactics to grab the attention of their audiences and succeed in the marketplace.

Unfortunately, achieving that is easier said than done. Most niches have already been filled. And sometimes, when you work in a company marketing department, it feels like you’re fighting over the scraps.

Smart brands, therefore, are finding new ways to engage with the community. Instead of focusing on channels or outreach, they’re working on “impact” and “being pillars of the community.”

But what does this mean in practice? Let’s take a look.

Have A Social Purpose

Companies today aren’t the capitalist behemoths of old. Instead, they’re much more concerned about the impact that their actions have on the environment according to guild.co. And it’s not just customers driving it. Companies, like everyone else, are caught up in a wider movement that sees the role of firms in society as being about more than just turning a profit. It’s also critical that organisations preserve the natural world for the future.

Having a social purpose, therefore, is becoming a centerpiece of many firms. They’re looking to make tangible changes in their communities and tackle all kinds of issues, from social problems to climate change.

Look For Networking Opportunities

Businesses can also enhance their brands by looking for networking opportunities in local communities. It’s unlikely that a company works in complete isolation from everyone else in the community. Instead, they are part of a system of relationships. And with those relationships come opportunities.

It’s critical for businesses, for instance, to get expert advice from professionals in the local area. It’s also vital to go behind the scenes and find out what customers really think about your brand. Once you start collecting information on the ground, you put yourself in a much better position to compete with your rivals.

Involve Yourself In Community Projects

Businesses love to get involved in community projects for brand-related purposes. Firms that help a community build a solar form, as choosesolar.com, or create more green space become indispensable to everyone around them. If you can establish yourself as a rock for the community, people will return to you again and again.

Improve Customer Support

Customer support is essentially a kind of community outreach. The more staff you have available to take calls, the better the support will be.

Having an active support base is a great way to build communities online. What’s amazing about these groups is that they will also contribute information to other members, taking the burden off you. Sometimes, people will write articles explaining how to do certain things which are just as good as any guide that you might write.

In summary, therefore, engaging with the local community brings all kinds of benefits. And it helps to get you out of a marketing rut. When you relate to real people, you can make your firm grow more organically.

3 Big Misconceptions About Corporate Culture

StrategyDriven Corporate Cultures Article |Corporate Culture|3 Big Misconceptions About Corporate CultureCorporate culture is a term that gets thrown around a lot and it’s often misunderstood by business leaders. Your corporate culture refers to the often unspoken set of rules and values that govern your business. The way that things are done in the company day to day and the way that all of your employees interact with one another and you all has to do with your company culture.

In most cases, businesses without a positive corporate culture will struggle to survive. Unfortunately, there are a lot of things that people get wrong about corporate culture and this leads to problems in the business. These are some of the big misconceptions about corporate culture that you need to stop listening to.

Corporate Culture Can’t Be Built

People talk about their corporate culture like it’s a vague thing that can’t be pinned down. It’s an ethos or a feeling, maybe it’s a vibe. It’s assumed that the culture of your business develops naturally on its own without direct input from you, but that isn’t the case. Business experts like Marc Spizzirri have a lot of experience helping companies build a corporate culture because it is something that you have direct control over. The policies and systems that you put in place to govern the day to day running of your business create the company culture. So, don’t make the mistake of thinking that culture can’t be built and it will sort itself out.

Good Corporate Culture Just Means A Fun Workplace

This misconception is largely down to big tech companies creating new-age offices with ping pong tables and bean bag chairs everywhere. People have this idea that a positive company culture just means a relaxed work environment where people are allowed to have fun instead of being stuck in a cubicle, but it’s so much more than that. It’s also about the direction of the business and the priorities that you have as a company. For example, sustainability is often a central part of the company culture. In some businesses, the focus is on providing opportunities for development. Whatever your company culture is, it has to be about more than fun workspaces and relaxed schedules.

Culture Is Defined By Employees

People often think of culture in terms of how employees interact with one another and work together. Things like conflict resolution, work-life balance, and perks all factor in too. But even though that is an important part of corporate culture, it is not defined by the employees and it is not built from the ground up. Your corporate culture starts with you outlining the values that are most important to your business. You then need to build a company and put processes in place to ensure that you uphold those values. The way that your employees interact with one another is part of that, but it happens as a result of the culture you have built, not the other way around.

If you keep believing these myths about corporate culture, you will struggle to get yours right and it will have a big impact on your business.

5 Reasons Why Companies Should Give Back

StrategyDriven Corporate Culture Article | 5 Reasons Why Companies Should Give Back

On the surface, running a business may seem simple. Products are created and sold to customers, expenses are paid, and profits are tallied up. However, the process is much more nuanced than that. While establishing a relationship with the community is not required, it can play an important role in determining how successful a business is. Taking the time to build a positive relationship with the community can be an excellent way to establish a good reputation and promote positive word of mouth. Giving back can also improve employee morale and encourage a positive culture in the workplace.

1. Establish a Positive Workplace Culture

Providing a safe, comfortable work environment is something that many entrepreneurs strive for. However, the management style, personality of the workers, and expectations placed onto staff members also contribute to the workplace culture. Toxic workers, impossible goals, and unfair distribution of work can all create a poor environment. Even if a company has fantastic managers and workers, employees may not feel completely fulfilled. From high-level management experts like Claire Lucas DC who are passionate about equality to entry-level workers who want to foster animals, most people want to do something to help the world.

Inviting staff members to contribute ideas about what causes they care about can help business owners figure out what is important to workers. If many of the workers are ardent environmentalists, then perhaps scheduling everyone to participate in cleaning up a beach once a month could be a big hit. While giving workers a few days off to volunteer may seem counterproductive, there are many studies that show a correlation between employee happiness and an increase in daily productivity.

2. Benefit the Community

While the people who live in a community may want or need certain things, they may be at a loss about how to get them. A company can provide some of the funding and use its large platform to advertise to a wide audience. Even though it may cost the company money to allow workers to volunteer, donate money to a charity event, or organize a fundraiser, the benefit to the community can make the effort worthwhile. Whether the company is able to make a difference on a local level or a global scale, many people will be able to benefit. A business that contributes towards the construction of a public park may not reap profits from the new space, but the employees and community members can use the area to exercise, socialize and play games.

3. Foster Feelings of Public Goodwill

Companies, especially large ones, can sometimes be perceived as uncaring by consumers. Unlike the local shop where the owner is often behind the counter, a large corporation can appear faceless to customers. Giving back is an excellent way to create feelings of warmth, admiration, and appreciation in the general public. A positive reputation can result in an increase in customer loyalty, even if prices go up in the future. A company with a positive reputation can enjoy more sales from happy customers.

4. Promote Brand Awareness

Often, if a company contributes to a cause, the name of the business is featured somewhere. Pamphlets and banners at events may feature the names of any sponsors, while charities may list their donors on a website page. Current and future customers may notice the name of the company, especially if the contribution made is notable, such as a large dollar amount or a flashy, unique prize won at a raffle. Companies that give back also enjoy good word of mouth among consumers. If people are impressed that a business supports a cause they agree with, they are more likely to not only support that company but to share that information with others.

5. Networking Opportunities

Charity events often appeal to local philanthropists, local celebrities, and business owners. Hosting or attending a notable event is an excellent way for business owners to meet other like-minded people. The opportunities for networking are limitless as long as it is done correctly. The business owners should not make it appear as if they are only present to meet people who may benefit them. However, they should be sociable and friendly with everyone they encounter, which will leave a good impression on all of the attendees. Business cards can be handed out and asked for in return in the hopes of sending an email or making a follow-up phone call after the event.

When a business gives back to the community in any way, the benefits are numerous. The charity selected should be as free from scandal as possible and provide a valuable service to the community or the world. As long as the cause and charities are carefully selected and align with the company culture and vision, then the business can provide support through donations and volunteer time while also generating goodwill.