A company's culture is essentially its core values, traditions, attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs shared within its workforce. One of the biggest pros of a great company culture is that it will attract the best employees. Companies want the best talent and having a great company culture will help to hold onto these employees for a long time. From hiring the best talented people, to improving employee’s happiness, it’s the foundation of a happy workplace. When people are happy and fulfilled at their jobs, they work harder and are more willing to stay at a job long-term. Improving a company's culture will not only help you see positive results right off the bat, but you’ll attract talented professionals who can help take your company even further.
 
To start, revisiting your company’s core values is a great start toward improving company culture. A strong corporate culture stems from a thoughtfully determined set of values that guide everything from behavior to business decisions.
 
Secondly, addressing and evaluating the company's current culture is important. There are a ton of creative ways to evaluate this but taking a look at your employees and how they are working together is a good start. This means checking for low employee engagement, gossip, high turnover rates, and poor teamwork. When looking into turnover, it’s important to really look for trends. Examples of trends can be losing first year employees vs. more tenured employees, losing a certain demographic, etc. One notable way that our company implements this is by conducting an anonymous employee survey. These surveys really help to gain a sense of how the employees feel about the company, the culture, leadership, and overall work experience. These surveys are an eminent strategy for companies to find out what is working well and what needs to be improved especially when working to improve their organizational culture.
 
From this step, be prepared to make improvements and then track your progress.
 
Overall, a good company culture involves trust, respect, and the opportunity for employees to participate in shared values and love what they do. It truly sets the foundations for actual business growth. Start envisioning a celebrated workplace supported by active and continuous growth now. 

Author: Jani DiNapoli
​HIHR Intern

Happy World Health Day! World Health Day is a great opportunity to discuss and engage your employees with health-oriented activities and tips. Workplace wellness promotes health promotion activities and or organizational practices or policies designed to support healthy behavior in the workplace. Whether you are working in the office, or working from home, here are some helpful tips to help keep your mind and body healthy while working.

• Follow a Routine
  • Plan ahead for the tasks you need done for the week, take lunch at the same time every day, and eat a healthy balanced lunch.
• Outdoor Activity
  • Soak in some sunlight and breathe in some refreshing air daily. Taking a morning walk before work, during your lunch break, or an afternoon walk around the neighborhood. This is an easy way to boost your mood and overall mental health.
• Eat a well-balanced lunch
  • Eating a well-balanced lunch along with drinking a lot of water not only provides your body with the fuel it needs to finish off the day, but it feeds our mental health too.
• Get enough sleep
  • Sleep and quality job performance go hand in hand. When you get sufficient sleep, your health, well-being, and work improve.
  • Sleep also helps improve your mental health, mood, and brain function. When you have appropriate quantity and quality sleep, you awake feeling refreshed and energized.
• Keep your workplace area clean and organized
  • An organized environment can reduce stress by removing clutter, being more efficient, and staying on top of tasks.
  • A clean environment can improve health issues. It’s not uncommon for physical health to have an impact on mental health. By removing allergens and other debris and contaminants from surfaces and the work environment, workers can feel physically better, and be in a healthier state to take care of themselves.
• Exercise 3-5 times per week
  • People who are physically active for about 150 minutes a week have a 33% lower risk of all-cause mortality than those who are physically inactive.
  • Physical exercise stimulates the development of new mitochondria within your cells, meaning that your body will be able to produce more ATP over time. So not only does this give you more energy to exert yourself physically, but it also means more energy for your brain, boosting your mental output for each workday.

When people are healthy, they feel better, their quality-of-life increases, and they live longer. This is why workplace wellness is so important and should always be a priority.

Author: Jani DiNapoli
​HIHR Intern