Empowering Employees Starts with Building a Strong Culture

Now more than ever, people are seeking out employment at organizations that offer more than just standard benefits. They are looking to join a culture where they can learn from peers, grow in their preferred industry, and have a little fun along the way. Everyone wants to be part of a strong work culture, but how does your organization get there?

It all starts with empowering your employees. Giving your employees a sense of empowerment will positively impact your organization’s culture, and they will feel a higher satisfaction in their job because of it. Employees will have stronger job performance, and they will consistently deliver high quality work and have a stronger commitment to your organization and their team.

Culture is important here at Advarra-Forte, and we’ve worked hard to create a highly engaging and constructive workplace. Below are a few tips we’d like to share when it comes to building a strong culture in your organization.

Adopt Key Behaviors

Empowering your employees doesn’t happen overnight – it requires leadership support and adoption on all levels.

Encourage direct and open communication between managers and employees. By doing so, this will ensure that team members have a communication outlet for regular input and feedback.

Create an open-door policy where employees are welcome and feel safe sharing ideas and having conversations with all levels of leadership, not just their manager. Having executive staff host office hours throughout the week shows they are dedicating specific time to being available to their teams.

Support employee-led groups and initiatives. Are there causes in your community that your employees care about? Look at embracing causes such as reducing carbon footprint, health and wellness initiatives, and various community advocacy groups. These initiatives can take the form of structured employee resource groups, or grassroot causes with company support.

Offer Training Opportunities

Consider implementing training programs fostering a “two-way street” method of communication. Crucial Conversations, for example, is a training that “teaches skills for communicating when the stakes are high, opinions vary, and emotions run strong.” What started initially as a management-focused training at Advarra-Forte quickly turned into an all-team member training.

While there are many other internal offerings available, it’s also beneficial to encourage external opportunities, such as sending employees to appropriate industry conferences. Attending conferences proves to be valuable in more ways than one. Industry conferences give employees the chance to connect with peers from different institutions, allowing them to network, share ideas, and potentially form mentor-mentee relationships. Learning about best practices and industry knowledge empowers team members to bring back new and innovative ideas to your organization – creating a win-win scenario for everyone.

Create a Set of Core Values

Core values in action are often attributed to employee engagement and a constructive work culture. Does your organization have core values that reflect the culture? If your organization doesn’t have core values, how can you leverage culture concepts to create actionable steps to empowering team members?

Whether or not your organization has a set of core values to work from, they should reflect your team members’ ability to work together to solve problems, share ideas and innovate to identify roadblocks and challenges, and do their job effectively with as few barriers as possible. Keeping concepts such as these at the forefront of enabling team members to do their job as effectively as possible will go a long way in terms of job satisfaction, as well as staying loyal to your organization.

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