10 Signs of A Progressive Company Culture

Your workplace or company culture is one of the most important aspects of your business. Your culture directly impacts your company’s bottom line. If your culture is bad you will struggle to find good employees because the best jobseekers will avoid your company like the plague. If your workplace is tied up in boring procedures and out-dated policies, your employees won’t feel respected or value and they won’t stay working for you. They will be out of the door at the first available opportunity. Here are 10 signs that a company has a progressive culture.

• There Are No Forced Ranks

Forced ranking makes employees fit into one box and doesn’t allow for employees to be categorized in any other way. If the lower ranks don’t feel appreciated or valued, they will go against the rules and policies enforced by those in the management ranks. Managers need to be excellent leaders and all successful leaders earn respect and loyalty; they don’t demand it. Make sure your management teams are filled with mentors and not just dictators.

• Employees Have Latitude

Progressive companies don’t just allow their employees to have reasonable control over their work schedules, they encourage it. Flexi-time schedules allow your employees to do what they need to do before they come to work or allows for them to leave throughout the day if they want to. It also allows for work to be done remotely, like now during the biggest global health crisis in over a century. Flexi-schedules are all about trust, give your employees the opportunity to show they are deserving of this, you won’t know unless you try.

• Pay Attention to The Recruitment Process

Progressive companies have fast, friendly and reasonable recruitment processes. If you interview for a company and the vibe seems controlling and deceitful, chances are that that company is still in the 1950’s in terms of the rest of their employee policies and procedures. If your opinion is clearly valid and respected during the interview process, then you should take this as a sign that the company has a great and progressive culture.

• The Company Offers Prioritizes Health

A progressive company encourages their employees to make healthy choices throughout their day. Pay close attention to your employee lunch menus, you’ll soon be able to see if the options are limited to healthy options or cheaper and therefore more processed options. A company needs to have a healthy and happy culture that provides healthy snack options from a vending machine franchise. If your company can, it should also offer fantastic health benefits to its employees. If you keep your employees healthy then they’ll be able to spend more time being productive and less time being sick. 

• They Embrace Technology

Technology makes our life so much easier. This shouldn’t only be the case at home. Companies with a progressive culture drives the idea of constantly evolving in all aspects. A progressive company will have many technology driven programs and use an array of project management software in order to stay up-to-date and relevant within their industry. Companies who embrace technology have improved efficiency and increased productivity which leads to a better overall company culture. 

• They Don’t Have Outdated Disciplinary Procedures

The outdated disciplinary processes from yesteryear should be all but gone from a progressive company. Progressive discipline consists of disciplinary measures that give the employees a chance to improve. Common progressive measures include issuing warnings to an employee and following a process before considering dismissal. 

• There Is Trust

Progressive companies have trust, more importantly they have trust that works both ways. Employees need to feel safe and secure within their workplace, if they feel like the can trust their company, they will give 110% of themselves. Trust does work both ways, so just like employees need to be able to trust their employers, employers need to be able to trust their employees. If there is any kind of breakdown in this, then the entire trust relationship will fall apart. Trust is the most important business and brand asset you manage, especially in relationships with employees.

• The Absence of Fear

Fear is a toxic thing to have in the workplace. Employees acting out of fear will never be able to focus and perform at their best. A culture of fear creates a culture of mistrust and lies. If your employees make a mistake, and they will because they are human, they need to feel safe enough to admit that and receive the help they need to fix it. If your company culture is based on fear, then your employees will be too scared to admit when they have made a mistake and that mistake will keep on happening. Many studies show that a fear culture is a very short-sided approach and it leads to a toxic work environment that all but kills motivation and staff retention. 

• There is Open Communication

Progressive companies are open to listening to the input of their employees. Smart companies, and even smarter leaders, are aware that there is great value in having open-door policies. There is no one better to improve your workplace policies than the actual people doing those jobs. Transparency is undervalued and underutilized in most organisations and this needs to change. Your employees need to have open access to all the resources they need to do their jobs to the best of their ability. 

• There Are Limited Issues

Companies with bad culture have interdepartmental fights and squabbles all the time. This is largely owed to a culture of fear and insecurity. If your employees are forced into acting like animals, then they will, and your organisation will stop being a well-oiled machine. If your company employs a healthy and progressive work culture, then your employees will feel safe and secure and won’t throw anyone under the bus. Less fights will lead to a more productive environment. 

The idea of having a progressive company culture isn’t just about nap-pods and in-house yoga. A truly progressive company culture is more about respect and having your company recognize and celebrate the fact that your employees are the ones that make your company great.