Companies who fail to keep a pulse on their culture risk having their own employees expose them ... [+]
Employers are grappling to address their current workplace situations before potentially being exposed by their own employees. Recently, companies such as the New York Times
Ubisoft, a leading video game company, is currently under scrutiny after recent sexual misconduct and toxic culture allegations that caused three executives, one of which was the global head of HR, step down from their roles. In a recent statement by Ubisoft’s CEO and cofounder, Yves Guillemot, stated “Ubisoft has fallen short in its obligation to guarantee a safe and inclusive workplace environment for its employees.”
Here are five actionable steps you can take to repair your toxic workplace and cultivate one that thrives.
Acknowledge And Own Up To Shortcomings
Most companies will do anything they can to avoid admitting they’ve failed when it comes to their culture. It’s not until a lawsuit or social media outcry has exposed them that they try to quickly backtrack and fix the damage. Instead of waiting for the ball to drop, HR professionals and leadership should be proactive in auditing their culture on a regular basis. Here are some things they should be address during the audit:
- What’s already in place
- What’s working and what isn’t
- What behaviors are present (cliques, gossip, etc...)
- What’s bringing the culture down
- Gaps in leadership
- Are trainings effective or just to check a box
- Does everyone have a fair chance at advancing and developing
Actively Communicate And Reinforce Goals, Vision And Progress
Effective communication is critical to the success of any organization, regardless of size. Actively communicating goals, shortcomings, progress and the company vision keeps employees engaged and makes them feel like a part of the process. Smarp, an employee communication and knowledge sharing platform, shared some interesting stats about the connection between employee engagement and communication in the workplace
- 74% of employees feel they are missing out on company news
- only 13% of employees use their intranet on a daily basis
- 75% of employees are more likely to watch a video than read text
- organizations with effective communication strategies are 3.5 times more likely to outperform their peers
As per the stats above, employees consume information differently. For this reason, companies should identify the most effective channels to deliver their message to ensure every employee is reached.
It’s worth noting, if you’re going to deliver an employee survey, make sure you have a clear plan of what you intend to do with the results. Don’t skip out on an employee survey because you don’t want to hear their feedback and don’t deliver a survey if you don’t intend on doing anything with the responses.
Utilize Different Mediums For Training And Educational Materials
When it comes to educating employees, many companies do the bare minimum. Consequently, employees lose focus and the content becomes meaningless. The goal of trainings are to provide actionable steps employees can implement right away. Furthermore, each negative behavior and habit should be countered with a positive one. Educational materials should provide plenty of examples of toxic behaviors, comments and situations.
Trainings should target specific issues such as discrimination, bullying, harassment, etc... For maximum results, lengthy trainings can be broken up into bite sized chunks. Employees are known to check out when trainings are long and lack an interactive element.
Content can be broken up and shared through different mediums such as:
- Videos
- Podcasts
- Emails
- Training
- Team building exercises
- Open discussions
Commit To Holding Everyone To The Same Standard
Letting one incident slide turns into letting others slide. This is how toxic cultures breed. Leaders typically look to HR departments for guidance and it’s their responsibility to bring attention to and discourage unhealthy behaviors. HR and leadership need to work together and commit to enforcing a standard. This means
- holding every individual accountable to attending training sessions
- remaining consistent for violators regardless of rank or title
- taking every report seriously and investigating appropriately
- holding leadership and management to the highest standard
- creating a safe space for employees to speak up
This requires active participation from everyone. All it takes is one person to overlook one incident for a culture to erode and employees to then lose all trust and loyalty in their employer.
Generate Frequent And Ongoing Communication
Communication is a critical piece to resolving a toxic work environment. It’s crucial that everyone feels heard. Not to mention, employees need to feel comfortable voicing their concerns. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) shared a study that found “that 75% of employees who spoke out against workplace mistreatment faced some form of retaliation.”
OC Tanner conducted a study and found 38% of employees do not trust senior leaders at their organization. Team Blind revealed 70% of tech employees don’t trust their HR department. When employees don’t trust the leadership or HR within an organization, they’re less likely to trust what is communicated to them. For this reason, they don’t feel comfortable reporting mistreatment.
It’s up to management and senior leadership to build trust and create a safe space for their employees to report incidents without fear of retaliation. To do this, companies should be actively reiterating zero tolerance policies, what’s acceptable and what won’t be tolerated as well as reminding employees the process in making a report. This can be done through various channels such as one-on-one’s, team meetings and company-wide discussions such as town hall events.
