How To Build A Culture Focused On The Employee's Unique Skills
What is the most important thing your company does? If you’re like most companies, your answer would be to make money. While this may be true, it isn’t the most important thing you do as an organization.
Current trends show there is more to company success than money. Many executives admit that there is something much more important: work culture, the people who work at their organizations, and how they are treated/developed over time.
A work culture that takes your employees’ unique skills into account will help with retention and engagement, while one that doesn’t will lead to high turnover and poor performance.
Luckily, there are ways to create the ideal work culture that focuses on each employee’s unique skills, no matter how big or small your business may be. Here are some tips to get you started.
1. Having a Hiring Strategy
Hiring strategies are designed to help you find employees who will fit your company's culture and team mentality. A good hiring strategy will also help you uncover their unique skillsets to be put to good use within the company.
For example, a good onboarding process is critical, as it allows new hires to feel supported and empowered. Your goal should be to make them productive quickly without adding stress.
A good strategy will attract human beings, not workers, to your organization. Recruit human beings who have strong soft skills and are interested in your company's mission or purpose.
Focus on applicants with unique passions, work experience, education, and skills. If you create an environment where candidates can show off their soft assets during interviews, you'll likely have more invested employees in their work.
2. Your Management Style
Even though a good management system is a key to strengthening employees' unique skills, there are still managers who micromanage. Micromanagement can create several adverse effects: increased turnover, unhappy employees and no trust.
Avoiding micromanagement can significantly impact employee well-being, which will improve productivity in your business and make work a happy place. A good management style allows you to create a culture where employees feel encouraged and optimistic at work while enhancing their skills and performance.
It’s important to encourage workers with positive feedback or show them how they're making an impact with their work.
3. Invest in Lifelong Learning
By investing in the ongoing education of each employee, you're not only supporting their professional development but also making them aware of the ways your company is prioritizing their soft skills. At various stages of your employee's career, talk about how all employees are expected to continue learning and growing—especially when it comes to communication, collaboration, and management of team projects.
If they understand this expectation is ongoing throughout their time with your company, they'll be more motivated to keep up with new developments and will feel ownership in improving themselves.
Additionally, give them praise and show them the benefits of continued learning within your culture.
4. Avoid tools that standardize
People hate being standardized, and employees won’t want their unique skill sets and preferences reduced to commodity metrics. They want work environments and cultures that appreciate what makes them unique—and where they can do their best work.
But how can you create positive workplaces for every employee? The answer is simple: hire employees with diverse strengths and then place them in jobs designed around them. Focus on putting employees in roles based on their skills rather than just trying to make everyone fit into predetermined roles. Your company will have happier employees who are more effective at their jobs.
Avoid tools and practices that create an us vs. them mentality between employees and management. Management needs to listen to employees' concerns, and this can be done through face-to-face, one-on-one meetings, group brainstorming sessions or even office contests designed around problem-solving.
5. Focus on Team Work
Today, people increasingly work in teams, but team structures are not being done purposefully. Having a purposeful approach to teamwork means having an explicit, detailed, and accurate description of teamwork.
Using such an understanding as a guide makes it easier for organizations to build cultures that support intentional teamwork. Intentionally designed work cultures are those where there is shared meaning among members, goals, and how these goals will be achieved.
Conclusion
Culture is the true differentiator in the business world, especially when so many startups are competing for talent. A good culture puts the employee first, ensuring that people have a fulfilling and productive experience to do their best work.
If you want to build a company where employees feel like they can develop themselves and use their unique skills, there are lots of ways you can make it happen. One of the best ways is by creating a workplace that focuses not just on what each employee does but also on who they are as a person.
When you give your employees the chance to get more out of life and let them find their flow, you'll find that your team becomes more motivated and engaged.
