Within any great organization, leaders play a pivotal role in keeping workplace culture strong and employees engaged. Essentially, the health of your company’s leadership culture will correlate directly with the well-being of its wider corporate culture. This makes driving excellent leadership practices a powerful lever to pull when striving for enhanced success.
So, why are leaders so critical when it comes to steering workplace culture? Intrinsically armed not only with authority but also influence, your trusted leaders actively set the tone for the wider team in their attitudes, practices, behaviors, and values.
Ultimately, every tactical decision and interaction counts, and their status quo approach will likely be emulated down the chain of command. This raises the poignant question: is your leadership team setting a high bar for corporate culture, or is there room for improvement?
How Your Chosen Leaders Shape All Aspects of Company Culture
Thanks to a growing understanding of how engagement and productivity are manifested, modern leadership models place emphasis on constructively coaching and mentoring employees, ensuring effective communication and collaboration, setting clear expectations, and supporting work-life balance.
Acknowledgment of effort also plays a powerful part in energizing teams, with 69% of employees expressing that they would work harder if they felt their efforts were better recognized. However, the shaping of corporate culture begins long before the process of guiding developing employees begins.
It is vital to note how influential your leadership’s recruitment practices are for the long-standing status of workplace culture. Poor hiring choices can introduce negative influences within teams, eroding trust, productivity, and even safety at work. With roughly 55% of job applicants lying on their resumes or application forms, the importance of comprehensive employee background checks cannot be overlooked.
Addressing Workplace Culture and Setting New Leadership Standards
Serving as a challenge for business owners, CEOs, and entrepreneurs alike, the art of establishing high leadership standards is far easier from a blank slate than it is within a system already in motion. When a large or even small-to-medium-sized enterprise is already infused with rigid attitudes and detrimental practices, it can be tricky to trigger effective change.
However, with adequate oversight and understanding, the transformation of both leadership culture and workplace culture at large is entirely achievable. This process begins with developing a clear understanding of what’s happening now, which is best achieved with a corporate culture audit.
At Lauth Investigations International, our seasoned corporate investigators take immense pride in turning our understanding of the many factors that can make or break a business toward helping their leaders mitigate risk and forge cultural and procedural strength from within. Learn more about how we can help you correct detrimental practices and instill excellence throughout every layer of your organization with a corporate culture audit. Alternatively, connect with our corporate team today to discuss how we can best address your concerns and support your ambitions.
Most modern employers with a finger on the pulse understand the immense value of attracting and retaining the highest caliber of employees—and leverage the lure of tempting benefits packages to do so. However, did you know that implementing awesome employee benefits can provide a far greater array of rewards to your enterprise?
When it comes to forging superhero-level corporate culture, there may be few greater secret weapons in your company’s arsenal than a well-thought-out benefits strategy. As tech industry titan Julie Bevacqua expressed so eloquently, “In order to build a rewarding employee experience, you need to understand what matters most to your people.”
Essentially, when alignment is achieved between company mission and employee values, your brand’s potential for cape-wearing success can really begin to take flight. Read on as we explore how to maximize your employee benefits return on investment.
How Employee Benefits Steer and Shape Corporate Culture
A strategic employee benefits package can do so much more than seal the deal for recruited talent or reduce team turnover. Crucially, your company’s benefits reflect your brand’s values and mission, as well as its understanding of the people that keep it alive every day.
Benefits should be practical for employees, supporting the way that they work and live. For example, travel support will be relevant to commuters, but useless to those working from home. Meanwhile, eco-conscious employers should consider how to make their benefits align with their brand values, for example partnering with local green businesses.
Perks relating to mental health or fitness, such as gym memberships, are going to be relevant to everyone—because everyone wins when employees are happy and healthy. In fact, a recent analysis identified that employers can attain a potential return of $1.50 for every dollar invested in employee wellness programs. This makes sense when we consider the impact on employee engagement and absenteeism that a healthier lifestyle is likely to yield.
Tailoring Employee Benefits to Support a Stronger Corporate Culture
When organizations take the time to understand the unique needs of their employees, team members will inevitably feel more seen, heard, and valued. This makes it essential to avoid a one-size-fits-all mindset and tailor benefits to reflect your current workforce, evolving that package as necessary over time.
An essential puzzle piece for the successful deployment of awesome employee benefits is communicating what’s available to employees and then measuring results. Metrics such as productivity, employee turnover, and absenteeism can provide critical insights into the health of your corporate culture, while regular reviews of employee benefits as they fit into your larger employee retention and development programs will offer long-term value. Would you like further expert guidance on the nuances of cultivating superhero corporate culture and elevated employee performance? Lauth Investigations can assist with specialist corporate culture audits and more. For a no-obligation chat about the specifics of your brand’s future ambitions, contact our dedicated corporate team today.
Run any business long enough, and eventually, you are bound to encounter the challenges that come with incidents of employment violations. Unlike many cases of criminal activity in the workplace, this kind of employee misconduct may not lead to litigation. However, it could still represent a significant threat to the financial and functional stability of your enterprise, making it vital to remain alert and take action at the first sign of trouble. When you first suspect a significant threat to your business, it’s crucial to consult a workplace investigator.
So, how might employers measure this threat? Well, an employment violation can be described as any action or behavior that defies the policies, rules, and standards set by the company in question or the laws to which it is bound.
This type of employee misconduct can range from malingering and time theft through to harassment and discrimination, non-compete violations, company asset misuse, and more. Essentially, the scale and scope of employment violations can vary substantially, but when appropriate workplace investigations are launched, an employer is well positioned to protect themselves.
It’s easy to imagine kick-starting a swift and effective investigation after a possible employment violation has been reported, but a concrete complaint or witness testimony isn’t always a necessary trigger.
If as an employer, you are concerned that your workplace has become a home to shady comings and goings, disingenuous attitudes, or dishonest conduct, waiting can be a risky gamble. However, setting a proactive workplace investigator on the trail of potential violations might just save your enterprise from a perilous storm in the making.
How a Corporate Investigator Reveals Employment Violations
Before action can be taken against the perpetrators of any employment violations, evidence must first be gathered. While in-house HR investigations can carry you so far in this regard, collaborating with a professional workplace investigator will mean gaining access to a far wider and more efficient array of skills, means, and expertise.
For example, a corporate investigator from Lauth Investigations International will be able to perform comprehensive background checks on suspects, delving into many of the same databases used by law enforcement. They will be able to legally and safely carry out surveillance operations, with all the necessary equipment, and utilize digital forensics techniques whenever necessary.
In certain cases, a licensed workplace investigator may go undercover within a company to uncover employment violations in action. On the other side of the same coin, when operating with acknowledged presence, they will be able to draw from specialist training when conducting interviews with both victims and suspects. Meticulous documentation, utmost discretion, and procedural excellence are all par for the course. Together, these factors offer outstanding peace of mind to employers as their worries are meticulously and efficiently addressed.
If you are concerned about employment violations taking place within your business or team, a corporate investigator from Lauth Investigations is only a call or message away. Discover more about our extensive corporate investigations and human resources services or get in touch today to discuss your needs in detail.
Take a moment to imagine the kind of workplace where productivity stalls, employees become resentful, and misconduct runs amok. What do you see? As Scottish-American industrialist Andrew Carnegie famously said, “There is little success where there is little laughter.”
As seasoned corporate investigators, we know that the kinds of professional environments where such negative symptoms have taken hold are usually not much fun to be in. When corporate culture has gone sideways, the atmosphere is likely to be strained at best. At it’s worst, it’s potentially downright toxic. So, how might leaders and CEOs shape a healthier alternative?
As counter-intuitive as it may seem to those who have long prayed at the altar of strict and formal productivity, encouraging fun in the workplace can work wonders for nourishing employee happiness, fuelling purpose, and inspiring greater engagement. However, fun at work should be balanced and constructive if its value is to be maximized. Read on as we discuss the power of fun in the workplace and its role in improving corporate culture.
The Advantages of Encouraging Fun at Work
If you feel unsure about whether your employees perceive their working environment as a fun and friendly space, a corporate culture audit can be an ideal starting point for ensuring future camaraderie. However, before we look at the structural foundation required for effectively harnessing employee enjoyment, let’s look at the advantages that it can provide for ambitious businesses on the move.
Reduces Absenteeism and Turnover
When employees don’t enjoy their time at work, they are more likely to seek opportunities to avoid it. So much so, that studies show workers who have fun at work take notably fewer sick days than their counterparts. What’s more, when fun becomes an organic part of the working day, it has also been found to reduce turnover.
Improves Teamwork and Collaboration
Encouraging employees to collaborate in play allows them to flex the synergistic muscles that will also allow them to work together on behalf of your business. In this regard, creating shared fun goals offers greater value than encouraging competition. When intra-office rivalry gets out of hand, it can prevent teams from thinking and functioning as one. Meanwhile, effective team building can improve work ethic and innovation by as much as ten times.
Keeps Workplace Stress in Check
While pressure is bound to ebb and flow in most working environments, stress levels don’t need to follow in its footsteps. In fact, facilitating employee enjoyment can help keep elevated stress and tension at bay, supporting a healthier corporate culture over time. When we consider that 55% of Americans feel stressed each day, it becomes clear that introducing a little fun in the workplace is an excellent way to ward off burnout.
Making the Most of Fun in the Workplace
There is a delicate balance to strike when it comes to achieving optimal employee enjoyment at work. Fun activities should be structured, inclusive, and delineated from work duties. They must also accommodate the option to opt-out for those who might feel uncomfortable.
Complementing this, a supportive, friendly, and communicative atmosphere should be forged around professional duties. This makes unity, optimism, and proactive problem-solving core features of all collaboration. Would you like to understand employee enjoyment, engagement, and corporate culture more fully? Consider a corporate culture audit for your team and allow our expert advisors to set your team on track for success.
Everyone wants to feel safe and secure at work, and there are plenty of reasons for employers to prioritize workplace safety and culture. For employees, fewer peripheral worries make it easier to fully enter a flow state and productively engage, which means happier teams and boosted profits, to name just a couple of the potential rewards on the table.
Meanwhile, serving as food for thought for leadership, forging an ironclad safety culture at work will also help with retaining the best talent and reducing workplace risks. One recent worker survey found that 97% of respondents considered safety culture a major factor in choosing where to work, while another identified that workers who feel psychologically safe are less likely to be injured during their workday.
Perhaps counter-intuitively, the nuances of corporate culture play an essential role in shaping a sense of safety at work. Why might that be? Well, strong, impassioned, engaged, and emotionally invested teams are not only more productive, but also more mutually supportive and attentive to procedures and the well-being of others.
As corporate investigators here at Lauth Investigations HQ, our work extends beyond aiding businesses experiencing the challenges arising after a negative incident in the workplace. It also includes proactively helping them to reduce risk while increasing every metric of corporate success—from the bottom line to team-wide morale and ultimate employee safety.
Workplace Safety Culture Checklist
To foster a stronger safety culture at work and boost those vital and welcome business-heath metrics, we provide corporate culture audits to a spectrum of American businesses. But first, what does a safety culture at work look like? Here’s a safety culture checklist to help get you started.
1. Strong Hiring Practices
As corporate investigators know all too well, ensuring workplace culture and safety begins with careful recruitment. It’s important that employers enjoy confidence that their latest recruits have a glowing professional track record and no skeletons in the closet. Employee background checks are an excellent tool when striving to better safeguard your team and brand. 2. Shared Mission and Values
Encouraging the kind of employee engagement that allows teams to work mindfully and safely begins with creating a shared sense of not only mission and purpose, but also the whys and values driving employees’ daily actions.
3. Clear Policies and Procedures
Implementing best practices when it comes to procedural safety and behavioral policies is an absolute must for employees aiming to encourage employee confidence. Among these should be communication channels, allowing employees to raise concerns whenever they arise.
4. Critical Risk Assessments
Working environments can be complicated places, with many moving parts, teams, and factors in play. An expert workplace risk assessment can help to reveal potential safety vulnerabilities, for greater peace of mind among both teams and leadership.
5. Ongoing Training and Awareness
Company values and policies, mission statements, and procedures are all but useless if they remain in an employee handbook that nobody takes the time to read. It is crucial that leadership revisit these touchpoints in regular training and showcase them daily in order to keep team awareness high.
6. Unbeatable Corporate Culture
When corporate culture is thriving, it’s easy to see it in the dynamism of a workforce, energetic productivity, positive working relationships, and well-oiled efficiency. But what creates great workplace culture? It is the sum of many parts, including on-point safety practices, free-flowing communication, team alignment on objectives and values, and more factors besides.
Many companies don’t realize that their company culture has declined until a worrying pattern of dipping profits and employee misconduct have manifested. However, it’s entirely possible to get ahead of such perils and reinforce corporate culture with a corporate culture audit. Discover more about how a corporate culture audit works today or contact our team to learn more about how corporate investigators could support your business today.
