Work culture isn’t just some corporate jargon word that gets thrown around a lot—it’s an invisible force that can make or break your team’s success.
Whether you have a positive or negative workplace culture, it’ll impact your team dynamics, productivity, and overall performance. A positive culture can help you build cohesive teams and reach new heights. And a toxic one will drive away workers and destroy morale.
At TeamBonding, we’ve spent decades helping organizations come together, improve their company cultures, and grow.
This guide will focus on work culture. We’ll be defining it, exploring different types of work cultures, and showing you how to improve workplace culture in your organization with actionable strategies.
What Is Work Culture?
Let’s break it down to the basics—what is work culture? At its core, it’s the collection of beliefs, attitudes, values, and behaviors that create the atmosphere of a workplace. It’s the fundamental “vibe” of your organization, crafted by the people who inhabit it on a daily basis: your employees.
Work culture isn’t one-size-fits-all. It can vary dramatically from one workplace to another. Some organizations have a positive, people-first culture that energizes and empowers employees. Others develop toxic environments that drain motivation and creativity, dragging everyone down.
The type of workplace culture your organization creates depends on the collective actions and attitudes of your teams.
Factors That Influence Workplace Culture
Multiple dynamics contribute to shaping your company’s culture. Beliefs, attitudes, values, and behaviors are some of the key ingredients that ultimately define how your organization feels and functions. In other words, how you and your employees act on a daily basis will play a significant role in creating your workplace’s cultural landscape.
Here are some factors that can influence work culture:
- Leadership style: The type of leadership that’s most prevalent in your organization typically sets the tone for the workplace culture.
- Workplace communication: The communication styles your teams and leaders use are directly connected to the flow of information, shaping your organizational culture.
- Company values: The core values of your business influence your team members and leaders, and they play a big role in organizational culture.
- Peer relationships: The team dynamics that guide how your employees behave when interacting with their peers create the day-to-day experience of your organizational culture.
These nuanced dynamics are critical to understand if you’d like to make meaningful changes. While every workplace is unique, recognizing the contributing factors is the first step in creating a positive work culture.
Exploring Types of Work Cultures
Just as every organization has its own identity, corporate culture comes in many different varieties. If you want to create change in your company, it’s essential to understand everything from positive cultures that build thriving companies to toxic cultures that stifle growth.
Toxic Work Culture
Let’s address the elephant in the room: toxic workplace culture.
As Kim Crowder, Founder & CEO of Kim Crowder Consulting, pointed out in a recent episode of our Team Building Saves The World Podcast, there’s a striking parallel between toxic workplaces and abusive relationships:
“We don’t use the language ‘abuse’ in workplaces a lot. We say ‘toxic work cultures.’ But if you take that behavior and you compare it to something in personal relationships, it’s the same thing, right?”
The signs you’re in a toxic work environment are often clear:
- Gossip and rumors
- Management that doesn’t listen to or value employees
- Bullying
- Poor communication
- Lack of equality and unfair policies
- Poor leadership
- Demanding schedules
- Low team morale
- Overly competitive employees
- High turnover rate
- Burnout and poor mental health/well-being
- Poor work-life balance
- Lack of trust
The list could go on, but you get the idea. If you notice these things in your workplace, it’s probably time to make some changes. A toxic culture drags everyone down, resulting in decreased productivity, low efficiency, and poor teamwork.
Positive Work Culture
On the flip side, positive workplace cultures energize and empower team members. They also increase productivity, improve teamwork, boost productivity, and help the organization reach its full potential.
The hallmarks of positive work culture include:
- Transparent, effective communication at all levels
- High team morale
- People-first leadership
- Strong support systems
- Fair, just policies
- Active appreciation of diverse ideas and people
- Emphasis on work-life balance
- Positive team dynamics
While each workplace is unique, these fundamental patterns of good work culture hold true across organizations. Recognizing and striving towards these indicators is the first step toward meaningful improvement, whether you’re managing a hybrid workplace, leading a traditional office, or building a remote team.
Examples of Work Culture Done Right
Workplace culture is often best shown in the real world, so let’s look at some examples of good work culture so you can get a better idea of what a positive culture at work actually looks like.
Creating a positive workplace culture may seem difficult, but these two companies show that it’s possible when you care for your employees.
1 Warby Parker
A great example of workplace culture is Warby Parker, an online eyewear company. So what makes their culture great? They make it a top priority—Warby Parker is always working on keeping it positive.
They’re constantly setting up fun events, launches, and more to keep the company and its employees focused on the future. These events also serve to give people something to look forward to.
They also do little things to keep people connected, such as having all employees help clean break areas or sending random employees to lunch together. Little stuff like that can greatly impact culture, especially over time.
The end result of all their efforts is a positive workplace culture. Their employees are proud to work for Warby Parker and excited about what is coming next. Employees support each other and help each other achieve their goals.
2 Buffer
The internet and software company Buffer is a perfect example of a positive company culture for remote teams. This company has shown that remote work doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice culture.
Buffer has been a fully-remote company since before COVID. Outside of the usual incentives like insurance and 401k matching, Buffer offers employees a whole suite of benefits. Here are a few highlights from the many freebies they give their employees:
- Company retreats
- Macbooks
- Kindle & ebooks
- Fitness trackers
- Unlimited vacation time
Buffer also emphasizes employee well-being and company culture. They prompt employees to schedule quick meetings to catch up with each other, encourage 1:1s with management, and put a focus on work-life balance.
How Does Workplace Culture Influence Productivity?
Before we discuss how to improve work culture, let’s take a quick look at its connection to productivity, which is directly influenced by employee well-being.
These topics—work culture, productivity, and well-being—are closely related. Understanding the connection can help you start to change your company culture from the inside out.
Employee Well-Being and Productivity
Work culture directly impacts employee well-being, which is tied to satisfaction, retention, and productivity. When the culture is positive, employee well-being will likely be high, and when it’s negative, we see poor employee well-being and disconnected teams.
According to Gallup, U.S. organizations lose upwards of $20M for every 10,000 workers due to poor well-being, and there’s $322B of turnover and lost productivity globally. Those are some staggering numbers, but the good news is building a positive company culture can improve employee well-being and save your organization a lot of money.
Employee Mental Health and Productivity
Mental health and well-being, though similar, aren’t exactly the same. Still, research shows that poor mental health in employees directly correlates with lost productivity. It’s also associated with lower performance, retention, satisfaction, and engagement.
Company culture has a direct impact on the mental health of employees and vice versa. Just as a toxic workplace can cause conditions like depression and anxiety in team members, employees experiencing mental health challenges can drag down the entire environment.
Likewise, if you ensure your employees are feeling great and have comprehensive mental health care, they’re likely to spread those feelings and uplift the entire environment!
Does Your Company Culture Need to Change?
Okay, it’s finally time to talk about how to change work culture. It might seem like a monumental task, but it’s very possible with the right techniques and approach.
If you’ve made it this far, chances are that you’re already working on the first step: recognizing the need for change.
Change can’t happen unless you identify what needs to change and why. You need to be able to pick out the signs of a struggling work culture. Here are some questions to ask yourself as you take an honest look at your work culture:
- Are gossip and rumors prevalent in the workplace?
- Does management fail to make employees feel valued and heard?
- Are there signs of bullying between team members and/or leaders?
- Are the employees overly competitive with each other?
- Is there a lack of transparent, clear communication?
- Is there a lack of equality or unfair policies?
- Are there signs of poor leadership?
- Does the workplace impose demanding schedules?
- Does your office suffer from low team morale?
- Is there a high turnover rate?
- Do employees experience burnout and poor mental health/well-being?
- Do team members have a poor work-life balance?
- Is there a lack of trust between employees and management?
This isn’t a definitive list, but if you answered yes to one or more of these questions, your workplace culture has room for improvement.
How to Improve Workplace Culture?
There are several strategies you can use to improve culture at work. For example, something as simple as regular employee check-ins and an open-door policy could have a big impact on company culture.
Likewise, even small gestures can make a difference. For example, you might try ending each meeting with an open floor where anyone can make a point or ask questions.
Team Building Activities
One of our favorite strategies is using team building and leadership development activities. Team building is a perfect way to bring your team together, encourage communication, increase morale, and target key areas for improvement—all while working towards a better culture.
For example, an event like Ice Sculpting can help your team build relationships, boost comradery, improve communication, and get everyone to have fun while creating a better workplace. Beat the Box is an event based around escape room-style challenges; it can help improve teamwork and leadership skills. And if your team is remote, an event like Virtual Office Party is a great way to have some fun and bring your team together to increase morale.
Improving your culture at work can be difficult, but team building activities like these can help make it possible while having fun with your team.
Improve Your Work Culture with TeamBonding
Workplace culture plays a huge role in your business; it impacts retention, engagement, satisfaction, productivity, innovation, and so much more. Today’s employees increasingly value their well-being and workplace culture, so making a change is more important than ever.
It’s time to implement strategies designed to drive creativity and encourage collaboration so you can create a happier, more productive workplace. And if you’d like some assistance, TeamBonding is here to help!
We have over 20 years of experience and a wide selection of events designed to improve company culture and engage your employees. Take action today—contact TeamBonding to discuss how to get started.
