Healthy Digital Business Culture Factors

8 Features Of A Healthy Digital Business Culture

Healthy business culture is essential to having happy employees who are willing and excited to put in their best work to see the company succeed. Healthy business culture is also key to attracting and retaining the best employees possible. In today’s world, as digital businesses continue to grow in popularity, you could have an entire team that is all based out of separate locations. So, how can you foster a healthy business culture even when your company is digital?

Focus On Happiness

As the leader of the pack, you must lead by example. If you are grumpy every day and complaining, it’s likely your employees will soon pick up on that vibe and you will have a company of 20 angry employees just trying to make it through the day. Lead with happiness, pep in your step and a positive attitude and watch your team follow that example. In order for you to be your happiest, you should focus on the parts of your job that you love and hire people to do the ones you don’t. This is a luxury that you get as the CEO. But, when you are able to focus on the parts that you love, your attitude will reflect it and you will have happy, positive employees.

Focus On The Family

One of the best characteristics you can have as a boss is to understand that family comes above all else. When Jane in HR has to leave early because her child is sick at school, let her go without scoffing, without questioning it and without attitude. You want to create a culture where you and all employees understand that family issues come up and that there is no problem leaving to address them. This will make employees very thankful to work in an environment that has a focus on the family. Maybe one of your employees is a new mom and is requesting to work from home part-time, if it’s plausible with the type of work you do, let her go for it. That way, you will have a happy mom and a happy employee who is likely to stick around and continue producing quality work for years to come. The alternative is a tired mom who wishes she could be at home and is instead putting in the bare minimum at work and watching the clock until it’s time for her to go home to her babies.

A Culture Of Innovation

In order to create a healthy and happy business culture, encourage innovation. Just because the company has been doing things a certain way for X amount of years, don’t discourage employees from trying new ways. You’ll find that these out-of-the-box ways may be more effective and less time-consuming. Plus, who doesn’t love working in an environment where their boss loves, appreciates and encourages their crazy ideas?

Routine Times To Touch Base

While working in a digital company, it’s very important to set up routine times that you will touch base with other members of management. You could set a quarterly or monthly meeting between management to talk about your company’s growth, goals, and expectations for the future. Its also a good idea to bring the entire company together once in a while so that co-workers can bond with one another and get some work done in person. Even weekly phone meetings or video chats are imperative. The more you can get your team communicating, working together, brainstorming, and asking questions, the stronger their bond will be and the healthier the culture will become. You want your employees to feel supported and like they can lean on one another, even if they are not working from the same location

Stick To Core Values

You’ll want to develop and stick to some core values and policies at your company. This will make some things and decisions easier on employees because they know the core values of the company are black and white and they can use those as a guide in the decision-making process. You want your staff to be working together and to be honest with one another, among other things. If you publish those core values and the culture has steered away from them, it will be easy for employees to realize they have veered off course and they will get back on course. The beauty of core values is that once employees know them, they won’t have to come to you with every decision or issue they will know what the expectations are.

Choose Systems For Convenience

Remote employees are typically required to track their own time and they may start to manage other staff members and have more administrative tasks to do. In order to make sure your employees are not buried under hours of administrative work each day, try a systematic approach. You can use software that can do the billing and time-tracking for your employees, among other things. This will allow them to focus more on their projects and work that they were hired to do and not get frustrated that their job has become mostly administrative.

Intervening When Necessary

In order to keep healthy business culture, you may need to intervene when necessary. Say for example, an employee is exhibiting behavior that is not serving the company, the clients, or even themselves. It’s time for an intervention. Come to the intervention out of a place of caring. Instead of immediately raising your voice and asking them what the heck has been going on, approach them with care and compassion. Ask if everything is okay at home or if something has been bothering them because you’ve noticed some behavior or performance that you know is just not them. If the issue is especially tough, offer counseling or therapy and offer to either pay for it or split the cost with them. Make sure they understand that you are there for them and they are not in trouble. These kinds of love-approached interventions will lead to a strong bond and company loyalty as well as employees respecting you for your approach.

A few tweaks to your leadership style and the shift to leading from a place of great care and compassion for your employees are all you need to foster a healthy culture in the digital workplace. Try these adjustments and see your employees’ productivity and happiness at work surge and watch your employees stick around for years and years.

Testing For Impressing

In order to make sure that you are hiring the best candidates, instead of immediately bringing people on board, start with some tests. A small project is a good starting point. This allows you to see with what skill they accomplish the task, how fast, and how they meet and exceed expectations. If you are not immediately impressed with their work, move on to the next candidate.