You’re proud of your company culture. You frequently plan events for employees, pay for lunch one day a week, promote collaboration through open office seating, and encourage the team to connect as often as possible. It might sound great, but something feels off.One thing that is the most important in any company is employee culture. As long as employees are happy and well taken care of, they give double of their ability to the company

 

This kind of culture caters to some employees: the ones who can focus in a loud room, enjoy frequent chats with co-workers, and aren’t afraid to share ideas in front of a crowd. However, it may not be conducive to others, and the opposite might be true for a workplace ruled by cubicles and private offices.

Why does a balanced workplace matter?

Having an unbalanced workplace culture prohibits employees from playing to their strengths. For example, in the earlier scenario, individuals who don’t like speaking up in meetings or need a quiet space to focus would be placed squarely outside the dominant coalition.

In this kind of unbalanced culture, employees may feel like they can’t be themselves, meaning they won’t feel psychologically safe. They may be afraid to ask for what they want—less group time, more individual time—or worry about sharing their ideas for fear of judgement.

When this happens, your employees can struggle to connect and become burnt out. Some of them may be confident in this kind of environment, while others may be nervous or decrease in productivity because the environment isn’t supporting their needs.

How can you foster a balanced culture?

With a balanced culture, every employee can feel psychologically safe, meaning they feel comfortable being themselves, sharing ideas, and feeling part of the culture. “Practically speaking, this might look like a team where members are more likely to discuss mistakes, share ideas, ask for and receive feedback and experiment,”  That’s the kind of culture you want, right?

Allow flexible working schedules

Some employees do their best work when they’re alone, and a flexible working schedule is a simple way to create a more balanced culture. A flexible working schedule could allow employees to come in late and leave late, work from home one day a week, or pick and choose when they want to be in the office.

There are a few ways to facilitate a schedule like this, depending on how your company functions. Consider the following ideas:

WFH one day each week

Each week, the office (or individual team) has the option to work from home. Many companies do this mid-week, giving employees some productive time at home between the beginning and end of the week.

Flexible office hours

Instead of requiring employees to be in the office from 9-5, offer flexible office hours, where all employees must be present at the same time, from 10am-12pm for example, but can come in early and leave early or come in late and leave late.

Total flexibility

In this case, all employees can choose when they want to come into the office and when they don’t. For more information on the same you can check out corporate culture platform

Hope you found this interesting. Before you leave, don’t forget to checkout my latest blog here