You spend the majority of your week at work, which is why we believe it is so important to be in a positive work environment.
Environment and organizational culture are crucial to employee satisfaction and can have detrimental effects on the workplace no matter what industry you are in. Here at Guardian Computer, we pride ourselves in maintaining our healthy work environment and culture.
Why Is Organizational Culture Important?
A work environment is the location where employees are completing their tasks, and the benefits of working at a company. The culture is the personality of the company itself.
The main reasons we believe work culture is so important are:
- Maintaining retention, and reducing employee turnover.
- Encouraging happier employees, which results in positive client relationships.
- Showing appreciation to employees, which shows that their work is not done in vain.
- Open communication and transparency, which builds trust with the staff.
For example, Southwest is one of our key role models for the ideal company culture. They value their employees above all else, and they ensure they work in a fun and casual environment. They also commit themselves to provide excellent salaries and benefits along with empowering and appreciating their employees.
Maintaining Retention
In a negative work environment, employee turnover rates can be high. But it’s not always because the employees don’t like the job they are doing. Usually, it’s because they don’t enjoy the work environment or organizational culture they are in.
Having unhappy employees on your hands isn’t great, and having a high employee turnover rate is bad for business! There can be costs when the employee leaves, the costs of hiring new employees, and the cost of training those new hires.
We are proud to say that in over 20 years of business, we haven’t had one single employee quit at Guardian Computer. We don’t believe in the old mantra of “leave your problems at home”. Our office is our employees’ home away from home. Coming to work in our pajamas, bringing our children, and even bringing a puppy to the office are all a-okay!
Encouraging Happy Employees
Happy employees lead to having great pride in their company. When our employees come to work, we want them to come to work feeling good about themselves and their families. Work should be a place where employees feel safe and comfortable rather than stressed or upset. No one wants to miss their child’s afternoon soccer game or not be able to take their elderly parent to a doctor’s appointment.
“We started Guardian Computer in our home because we were having trouble with daycare, and balancing our work and family life. That set the tone for our company culture of making our employees’ personal lives a priority” says our president, Jean Prejean. Employees can concentrate better at the office when they know their family comes first.
We firmly believe that if we take care of our employees, they’ll take care of our clients. Our clients are a part of our work family too, so we strive to have our organizational culture spill over into our interactions with them! We can make the client experience more pleasant with a simple explanation in plain English and a brief chat about our client’s kids. That makes a big difference.
Showing Appreciation
Recognition and appreciation motivates employees and shows them that their work is valued. According to Glassdoor, more than 80 percent of employees say they are motivated to work harder when their boss shows appreciation for their work.
Some ways to show appreciation and recognition are bonuses, raises, and promotions. Our employees appreciate knowing that everyone receives an annual raise due to their personal work performance and the company’s performance. “We never want anyone to think we haven’t noticed their performance or haven’t bothered to review their pay,” says Jean.
Building Trust
Honesty, sincerity, and transparency are the key elements to building trust within your work environment. From celebrating accomplishments to providing support during rough times, we make sure to show our employees our sincerity and commitment to them. It can be something as simple as giving someone the afternoon off if their child kept them up all night or giving a gift card for someone to take their spouse to dinner on their anniversary.
We go out of our way to be as transparent as possible. Open and honest communication helps to solve many difficulties in a positive light. For example, every six months at our team meeting we review the financials, the trends, and goals. This makes sure our employees know what’s going on within the company. Having open communication can also encourage employee feedback. Employee feedback is important because it can be valuable information that in turn helps to make the company better.
Some companies let their organizational culture define itself and it takes a backseat to balance sheets and productivity metrics. At Guardian Computer, we intentionally put our company culture and a positive work environment at the top of our priority list. We are constantly looking for ways to improve the quality of life of our people, both in and out of the office.
Want to join our work family – as an employee or a client? Let’s chat.
