As a hiring manager, great talent has to go through you before they can make it onto the team. That’s why HR managers can help build a better workplace from the time they onboard talent through a first work anniversary and beyond. Creating a positive office culture isn’t about free food and unlimited vacation. It’s about ensuring that employees know they are respected, valued, and given opportunities to grow.
A positive company culture helps foster growth, boost productivity, and most importantly, keep best talent. You can help your company build a better workplace and culture from day one. Here are five ways to start:
- Give every position meaning.
Employees are more productive when they know their work positively affects their colleagues and the company. They need to know they’re making a difference. Many of your employees most likely already find meaning in their work, but it’s a difficult task to spread this feeling to the rest of the team. Interview teams of employees and ask what makes their job meaningful to them. This will give you an idea of how to make sure every employee finds meaning in their work.
- Build up trust.
Every employee wants to feel trusted. They don’t like to be kept in the dark on company news, and they definitely don’t like to feel as though their every move is scrutinized. Encourage your department heads to have faith in their employees and to be honest with them on their performance and growth opportunities.
Take a look at how your company handbook handles this. Often, companies have policies that make this kind of freedom hard to come by. Find ways to give employees a little more freedom.
- Hire better.
It can be tempting to try to fill open positions as quickly as possible. It’s easy to fall back on traditional interviewing techniques. However, both of these situations mean that you’re most likely not hiring the best talent. Make sure you’re taking the time to assess each candidate based on job attributes identified in the past. Set the hiring manager up for success with a better pool of candidates.
- Offer guidance.
Most of the time, it will take employees up to six months to become fully productive. Maybe even longer in highly technical positions. The employees who will get up to speed the soonest are the ones who ask the most questions, meet more members of their team, and do research on their own. Offer guidance to new employees and managers simply by sending an email reminding managers to encourage questions, introduce new employees to more team members, and offer additional resources.
These tips will get you started, but your work as an HR manager is never over. Make sure you’re always repeating this process. Before you know it, your workplace will be on the road to success!