Feeling undervalued was the main root cause (48.8%), while 34.8% believed it was down to poor company culture and 28.6% attributed their unhappiness to being bored in their current role. – RecruitmentGrapevine.Com
That’s right according to research by CV-Library, most of us feel that poor company culture and being undervalued is a big morale killer! It’s no surprise to be honest, social media has really highlighted how important company culture has become, no longer are we content with being tied to a desk in a plain room in return for a fat paycheck, we desire more from our working lives, we desire inclusion, we desire something more.
How To Change It!
Recently, during my times of study in an effort to increase both my skills and my knowledge, I came across a theory called Strategic Intent. For those that don’t know what this is, at its most basic it is giving your employees a unified goal that is worthy of commitment, but also it is understanding that your employees should be the ones who innovate your company.
Some companies who are fantastic at this you may have heard of, Apple, Google, Walmart…. just to name a few, not only do these guys innovate more than most, they also have a great company culture.
Gary Hamel, the pioneer behind the theory of Strategic Intent, is a big advocate that instead of building businesses based upon effective cost management, that instead we should look at building companies fit for humans and creating competitive innovation. Check out the video below to understand a bit more!
Here are 3 small things you can change to start building your company’s Strategic Intent, build your culture and get your employees on your side and innovating your company forward.
Set A Goal That Is Worth Hitting!
Most of us are competitive in some way or another, although some can be tempted by money, a goal that is beyond monetary has more weight behind it. So, if you are a start-up, what are your ambitions, where do you want to be in the marketplace, who are you trying to beat? Or are you trying to start a movement or change the world on some way? Whatever your goal is beyond the monetary, use it and instil it amongst every employee no matter what the role, and make sure everyone is aware of it, its progress and the micro goals required to reach it!
Innovate From Within!
Nobody is better than everybody! This is one of my favourite quotes and I have no idea who said it. Anyway, the point is, many employees hate their job because they feel undervalued, and many businesses struggle to innovate because they expect one person (CEO/Leader) or a department to do it, see where I’m going with this….Use your employees to innovate, have a weekly meetup for your staff to throw ideas round a table on how things can be improved, setup a Slack discussion group where employees are free to discuss new innovations or ideas they have. The simplest things can blossom into amazing things, all you need to do is understand that your employees are your best assets.
“Nobody is Smarter Than Everybody”
Make Your Workplace Environment Enjoyable!
We won’t go too much into this one as we have a ton of blogs all dedicated to developing office culture, but what we will say is that too many businesses think just having a weekly pub trip is sufficient, it really isn’t! We spend around half of our lives at work, so if you want your employees to give you their best you need to provide an environment that is the best. Enough said.
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