According to a 2019 study by Achievers, a corporate success platform, 64% of employees already said they were planning on leaving their jobs in 2020 because their employers failed to engage them. Even now, as the economy opens back up again and begins to recover, many employers are finding it hard to fill open positions. If the corporate world truly hopes to recover, just opening up jobs may not be enough. It might be time for a global makeover of corporate culture. Here are 5 tips to improving corporate culture.
- Don’t just pay lip service to social causes
It’s easy to send out mass emails saying that companies stand for the latest cause du jour but today’s workers want more. Even consumers are demanding to know what the brands they support stand for and what they don’t. Workers want to work for companies that have missions they can be proud of.
- Give workers a real stake
During the pandemic, billionaires gained almost an additional $1 trillion in wealth, while frontline workers died in droves. America’s workers are tired of the rich getting obscenely richer while workers just get poorer. When the tide rises, employees want to rise with it.
- Live your values
It’s all too easy to post a glorious sounding mission, vision and values statement on your website, but considerably more difficult to actually live up to it. Much like a family, your workers are keenly aware of the difference between your public persona and what actually happens behind closed doors.
- Genuinely listen to and respond to feedback
Too often, businesses either simply don’t listen to employees or they try to minimize, negate or outright dismiss any negative feedback they might get. In a world where ghosting is becoming increasingly the norm, you may never even hear from disgruntled employees, they may simply vanish into the night. If employees are making an effort to communicate their displeasure, it is wise to listen.
- Create real transparency
Transparency is sometimes just one more corporate buzzword that many companies talk about but don’t really do the work of creating. Too many companies do the equivalent of simply wearing yoga pants or workout clothes, rather than doing the real work of actual exercise.