Tackling a Toxic Workplace Culture

Many people start off each year with a bundle of resolutions – to eat better, to exercise more, to spend more time with the kids… the list goes on. The start of a new calendar year is also a fantastic time for businesses to take stock and reassess. If your workplace culture is getting in the way of your business fulfilling it’s potential, make change your top New Year’s resolution for 2018.

what is workplace culture?

Culture is loosely defined as the beliefs and behaviours that govern how people act in an organisation.

While it is often considered to be a vague concept, how workers interact with each other is an incredibly important part of work life. Good organisational culture is now believed to be a key factor in a business’ success or failure.

If staff feel uncomfortable, unhappy or excluded, they will obviously not enjoy coming to work – which generally means that they will be less motivated, less productive and reluctant to go beyond the call of duty when asked.

how to identify if your workplace culture is bad

Whether a workplace is toxic or not is difficult to define. Generally speaking, if people are unhappy at work more often than not, you are dealing with a poor workplace culture.

Factors that can contribute to a toxic culture include:

• Staff not being trusted to take calculated risks or perform their jobs without being micromanaged.
• Workers constantly being asked to perform under significant pressure and without adequate resources being allocated to assist them.
• A lack of clarity or top-down direction.
• Poor leadership behaviour or interaction

what happens when workplace cultures are toxic

Toxic cultures can breed hostile, pessimistic team members, drive away top talent and prevent organisations from reaching their full potential.

Some signs and consequences of toxicity include:

• Increasing staff conflict
• High staff turnover
• High levels of absenteeism
• Presenteeism (where people physically show up at work, but don’t perform their duties to the best of their abilities)
• Increased workers’ compensation claims
• Complaints of bullying or other types of harassment

HOW to change a negative workplace culture

In order to address workplace toxicity, employers need to be prepared to tackle issues head-on.

These 10 steps towards changing workplace culture for the better can help make the task less daunting.

1. Identify and assess the underlying problems. This is best achieved by issuing a staff survey, conducting exit interviews to determine why staff are leaving, or otherwise encouraging open and honest feedback.
2. Establish a concrete company vision. Ensure that all employees are engaged with the vision and understand where the business is headed.
3. Rinse and repeat – ideally, make sure that surveys and opinion polls are conducted on a regular basis to identify what factors may be improving or worsening the workplace culture.
4. Encourage consultation and open communication. In addition to helping filter ideas and feedback up to the leadership team, this makes staff feel valued and assists in reducing emotions such as frustration or anger.
5. Facilitate friendships and encourage team building. If your staff actually like each other, they are much more likely to take additional steps to support co-workers and the business.
6. Be consistent and fair. One of the biggest gripes of staff who feel they operate in a toxic environment is that their supervisors seem to change attitudes on a regular basis, or that responses are likely to vary depending on what mood the boss is in.
7. Maintain a sense of fun – all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, as the saying goes, and creating a workplace where staff feel at home is much more likely to improve morale.
8. Pick your team wisely. When selecting and hiring new staff, consider how they will fit into the team and how they will get on with your other workers.
9. Be physically present. Although senior staff will doubtless have different hours and regimes to stick to than average workers, it is disheartening to see supervisors roll in regularly at 11am with coffee in hand, head out for long lunches and then leave in the early afternoon. Allow your staff to see that you are working just as hard as they are.
10. Recognise the efforts of staff. Whether this is through an employee of the month program, an annual awards dinner or simply ongoing quiet acknowledgement of good performance, ensure that staff know they are appreciated.

So, start this year the right way – make your workplace somewhere your staff want to be, instead of somewhere they have to be. And if you’re having difficultly with a toxic workplace culture, WISE can help, through out investigation, mediation and governance services.