The rise of workplace ‘culture’ in recent years has not gone unnoticed, to say the very least. According to Forbes, the list of benefits of a rich and thriving company culture includes increased and/or improved:
- Innovation
- Employee retention
- Productivity
- Financial performance
But, you can’t just expect a culture to happen out of nowhere: you have to build it. And to build it, you need to recognise where your agency’s culture is potentially broken. To help you reap the enviable benefits of a winning culture, here’s 9 commons ways your culture may well be broken.
1. You rule by dictatorship
It may well be your responsibility to make key strategic decisions or manage a team, but that doesn’t mean you should make every decision in isolation. By developing processes where your recruiters and senior managers have the opportunity to share their ideas, it will you allow your agency to develop and grow through collaboration.
2. You have no clear company mission, vision or values
Not having a clear agency-wide vision is a sure sign of a broken recruitment culture. Your mission, vision and values summarise your agency’s business strategy and objectives and will guide and motivate your staff to succeed and understand how their contribution aligns with your agency’s objectives and values.
Find out why your mission, vision and values are critical to building an exceptional recruitment team.
3. You don’t offer flexible working conditions
In a survey conducted by PowWowNow, 58% of respondents believed that having flexible work conditions would help them become more motivated. Flexible working hours or the option to partly or fully work remotely are sought-after employment options for your existing staff or potential employees for your agency.
Introducing flexible working conditions (where it does not impact your agency’s operational delivery), will assist your staff in achieving a better work-life balance, whilst also delivering a high quality service to your candidates and clients..
Want to find out more about remote vs. office working for recruitment agencies? Read our blog.
4. You don’t empower your staff
You want your staff to know that they play a huge role in the success of your agency, but how can they when you don’t empower them. Employees who don’t feel empowered do not have the permission to take action and make decisions within your agency.
To start empowering your staff, consider the following steps:
- Set and communicate clear expectations
- Establish honest and transparent communication channels
- Encourage personal development and on the job training
- Inspire creative thinking
- Provide constructive feedback
5. You encourage micromanagement
Lisa Barnes, writing on the “Damaging Effects of Micromanagement” comments that micromanagement will, “at best create a perpetual environment of dependency, inefficiency and unease, and at worst, render irreparable harm to staff morale.”
It’s easy for recruitment agency owners and managers to micromanage their staff because they:
- Want things to be done in a specific way
- Fear a loss of control over their business
- Worry about their company reputation
As an owner or manager, it is essential that you give trust and autonomy to your staff because this is how exceptional employees will flourish. If you suspect a manager relies heavily on micromanagement, offer them training on more productive tactics they can use to get the results they want.
6. You have one rule for some and another rule for others
It’s important to inspire fairness throughout your recruitment agency. Giving some staff special privileges or treatment over others is detrimental for the team atmosphere and morale.
No one wants to be the victim of favouritism or see it at play in their company. If there are changes to your processes or you identify areas in your business that may engender disparity, communicate this to your recruitment staff and ask for the best way to resolve it from multiple parties. By hearing a variety of opinions, you’ll be able to come up with a process that is fair for everyone.
7. You rarely organise office events
Team building events (in or out of the office) is not a new concept but it is still an effective tactic for boosting staff morale and improving productivity. Collectively your staff can accomplish more by working together than any single worker will ever be able to do.
Building work relationships is also important to your staff well-being. For some employees work can be a very lonely place so it’s important for employers to understand just how important building social connections are in the workplace.
8. You don’t deal with conflict effectively
Conflict is natural in competitive environments. After all, you and especially your recruiters are all striving to hit targets in an often high-pressured environment. But when conflict does occur, it is best to have a process to deal with it professionally and definitively. Instead of letting conflicts bubble under the surface, address it in real time and allow both parties to discuss and come to an agreement or resolve the conflict
9. You rarely provide feedback
A report by Officevibe proves just how valuable feedback is to your employees – even when it’s negative! 4 out of 10 workers are actively disengaged when they get little or no feedback and 92% revealed that they think negative feedback is actually effective at improving performance.
Cultivating a truly positive company culture will be rewarding not just for your employees, but for your recruitment agency as a whole. It’ll help you attract and retain exceptional staff and positively contribute to the success of your agency.
