There are many factors to consider when it comes to managing a successful business - increasing revenue, keeping costs down, ensuring client satisfaction, paying suppliers and worker productivity, just to name a few. With so many things to juggle, it’s easy to let workplace culture slip to the bottom of the priority list – but it’s more important than you think.
Ensuring that your workplace has positive culture where workers feel valued is a vital part of a strategy to keep your current workforce and to attract the best talent going forwards. Plus, having a culture that supports worker wellbeing can also reduce rates of absenteeism, presenteeism and improve worker productivity.
The following quotes come from two Australian workers surveyed in SuperFriend’s recent 2021 Indicators of a Thriving Workplace Report.
“They are flexible in the way we work… There is a culture of trust and there is no micro management.”
“My workplace makes people feel very judged and like they are ‘in trouble’ for having mental health problems. It should be treated more similarly to when you are physically ill.”
These quotes speak volumes about the culture of the two workplaces. One workplace where there is trust, communication and leadership. Another workplace where there’s a lack of leadership and consideration and support for workers’ mental health and wellbeing.
Throughout the pandemic we have seen a clear shift. Workers are now choosing a thriving workplace culture, work-life balance and their own wellbeing over poor working conditions. If organisations don’t meet worker needs, workers will act.
With low unemployment figures [1], a high level of job vacancies – in November 2021, there was approximately 396,000 vacancies, up 18.5% from August 2021 [2] - and businesses already feeling the impacts of the Great Resignation, workers, not businesses, are in the driver’s seat.
Stay positive and lead
What can workplaces do to try and retain their workers? Leaders can start prioritising their workers. One of the best wellbeing initiatives according to Australian workers, is when leaders focus on worker wellbeing. This was mentioned by 15.2% of workers in the Indicators of a Thriving Workplace Report.
A great way for leaders to change their mindset and contribute to a workplace culture that prioritises and supports employee growth and wellbeing is to utilise the principals of positive leadership.
A positive leader isn’t solely focused on profits and the bottom line, they have a broad vision that includes supporting their team’s wellbeing and growth. By using a strengths-based approach to work, having a growth mindset, motivating each individual on their team, giving their team the freedom to take ownership on the way they work and communicating openly and frequently, positive leaders – from CEOs all the way to team leaders – aim to get the best out of their workers.
SuperFriend’s course, Positive Strategies for Success: Elevate Your Leadership provides your leaders with the knowledge and practical strategies they need to not only become a positive leader, but to start building a workplace culture that your workers flourish and thrive in.
Organisations can enrol their leaders in the entire course or pick and choose the modules that best suit their business’s needs. For more information about this course and to book your leaders into it, visit the course page today.
