12 Ways to Build Workplace Community

Want a more productive organization with high morale, teamwork, and employees willing to go the extra mile? Build workplace community! You’ll likely find that workers care enough to stick with your company, even when times are tough.

In “How to Create a Workplace Community,” Demand Media’s Mika Lo points out a crucial step for leaders: hire — and retain — the right people! Look for candidates who fit your business’s values and objectives. Provide training and coach those who need a little help. It’s about both proactive onboarding and on-going employee engagement! 

Read on to learn specific steps to building workplace community and how to cultivate a company culture of gratitude starting today!

6 Steps to Build Workplace Community

1. Determine your company’s purpose and articulate your vision and mission clearly.
2. Gather employee input and use it to help shape business goals.
   This will help your workforce feel invested in your company’s vision and future.
3. Ensure that everyone, at every company level, communicates your mission and vision. Actions speak louder than words.
4. Provide diversity training, so workers from all backgrounds feel respected, and promptly address any discriminatory behavior or language.
5. Maintain open communication organization-wide, so employees can make suggestions, share ideas, and vent frustrations freely in a non-punitive environment. Follow up on issues, listen to employee needs and offer solutions.
6. Reward productivity and recognize achievements to encourage behaviors you want to reinforce.

Building Workplace Community with a Distributed Workforce

If you have a distributed workforce, where face-to-face interaction between teams is infrequent, build a workforce community online. Social relationships among workers are vital to your business’s livelihood.

As Jennifer L. Carpenter, vice president and associate counsel at LPL Financial LLC, observes in “Building Community in the Virtual Workplace”:

“The best way for companies to [foster social relationships] is by recognizing that Internet technology is not merely a communication device; it is also a very real space, replete with possibilities for social interaction.”

6 Ways to Build Workforce Community Across Distances:

1. Create “virtual teams” in multiple locations.
2. Assign projects across locations so workers get to know and trust one another.
3. Have supervisors perform regular video chat check-ins with employees.
   
4. Periodically hold staff meetings online via Google Chat, FaceTime, or Skype. Both seeing and hearing team members helps build those long-distance connections.
   
5. When you can, allow team members to travel to other locations for important team meetings or project work.
6. Each month, invite telecommuters to the office for a meeting or lunch.

As Jason Verdelli, founder and CEO of Phase 2 Solutions, writes in “How to Create a Community and Not a Workplace:”

“Start viewing your company as a COMMUNITY. A community that serves a purpose and can really make a change in this world for the better.”

Whether your employees work across the hall from each other or across the globe, these 12 tips will help build workplace community.
For tips and insights into building workplace community through meaningful, easy employee recognition, click below to download our free e-book, “The Ultimate Guide to Employee Gift-Giving.”

 
About gThankYou, LLC
Turkey Gift Certificates and Turkey Or Ham Gift Certificates by gThankYou! are two of America’s favorite employee gifts and can be redeemed for any Brand (Turkey or Turkey Or Ham), at virtually any Grocery Store in the U.S.
gThankYou, LLC provides company leaders with a variety of easy, meaningful and affordable ways to recognize and reward employees, holiday time or anytime. gThankYou! Certificates of Gratitude and our free Enclosure Cards are personalizable including incorporating your company logo. And, nearly all orders ship same day.
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