Fostering Better Organizational Culture

Do people like working at your company?

Organizational culture is critical to HR success, and something a lot of companies struggle to define. But it’s one of the first things job seekers ask about. Especially in a time when they have a lot of choices, as a recruiter, I can attest: They’re choosy about their work environment — even if they’re working remotely.

When it comes to fostering positive organizational culture, a few things to constantly nurture:

⭐️  Trust versus micromanaging — Leaders who believe “If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself” don’t tend to bring the best out in their people.

⭐️  A balance of real-time and asynchronous communication — While real-time communication and interactions are important to culture, more and more, so is the ability for people to tune into threads when it’s convenient for them. Using cloud-based collaboration tools and apps like Slack help encourage more asynchronous work.

⭐️  Beware of proximity bias — This is a fancy way of saying that leaders have a tendency to play favorites with those they’re in closer contact with, either because you work physically close by in an office or because the nature of your roles means you spend more time in communication with certain people.

Self-awareness is key for leaders in setting organizational culture. Leaders need to set the tone for culture or someone/some event(s) will. Your company/team will have a culture either way.