Earlier this week we reviewed the reasons why your company’s culture molds your brand. A healthy company culture can have a very positive impact on your daily operations and the way the average person views your company. Gauging the cultural health of your company is one thing, but where do you go from there. Below we’ll look at some ideas to improve or give your organization a cultural makeover.

If you have established that the culture of your company could use some tweaking or refreshing, there are a few questions you should ask yourself first:

• What qualities do you value that you would like to show up in your company’s culture? Respect, acceptance, originality, fun, etc.?
• How can you mirror you company values in its culture?
• How is information distributed to employees? Are they left in the dark often?
• Do you reward employees and how? 
• Does everybody in the company feel listened to? If not, how might you improve this?

These might lead you to more questions. Consider having a brainstorming session with your employees to determine the right answers for your company. Here are several ideas we came up with:

Suggestion/Thought box – This is an easy way to allow individuals to share opinions regarding the current events within the company. The employee could decide to make the suggestion anonymous or not, and any ideas or concerns could be addressed in monthly company meetings.

Empower employees – Treat employees like peers; let them have ownership over their jobs. Don’t micromanage! Transparency can encourage empowerment as well. Don’t just tell your employees when there are successes, inform them when things aren’t going so well too. Their support may help you overcome the hard times.

Flexible hours – You hired your staff because you trust them to do their job. Allowing them to have relatively flexible hours shows you trust them to get their work done well and on time. The respect you give them will be reflected in the respect they give you.

Dress code – Nowadays it is unusual that people are required to dress in suits and ties regularly.  Allowing workers freedom to express themselves using their wardrobe is a simple technique to make them feel accepted for who they are. To take this one step further, consider themed days: silly hat day, bright clothing day, 80’s day, etc. It’s remarkable how beneficial self-expression can be.

Celebrate – A company is comprised of the people in it, so celebrate together. A monthly movie day, a catered lunch, or lunchtime board game days are only a few ways you can get your employees together to celebrate.

Below is a variety of things that real companies do to add some fun to their culture:

• Spontaneous Nerf gun wars
• Painting inspirational quotes on the walls
• Hitting a loud gong when there is a success to let the whole company know
• Foosball tournaments
• Lunchtime Yoga
• Lunchtime Crafting Club
• Monday Mad Libs, whoever wishes to contribute, does, and then the completed Mad Lib is emailed to the company