7 Signs of a Healthy Staff Culture

Gone are the days of punching a time clock and hunkering down until retirement. Now, an organization lives and dies by its culture. High-capacity people want to work for high-capacity organizations – and high-capacity organizations care about culture.

Author and management consultant Peter Drucker says it best: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” It’s a sentiment echoed by our CEO, William Vanderbloemen in the book Culture Wins: The Roadmap to an Irresistible Workplace. He writes, “When a culture is bad, no matter how talented the team or great the strategy, a team will never reach its potential. Because whether good or bad, culture is the trump card that determines your team’s outcome."

As a leader, you have the ability to create a contagious culture where people want to come to work, and even more, where they want to invite their friends to join them.

These seven characteristics help shape a healthy culture for your purpose-driven organization.

1. A Clear Vision And Purpose

Does your team (and your target audience) know why you are doing what you’re doing? The words of author Simon Sinek ring true: “People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it. And what you do simply proves what you believe.”

Articulate exactly why your organization exists, and then cast that vision daily. Yes, every day. Clarity is the key to alignment. It’s also key to attracting the right members to your team.

To sum it up, vision gives clarity, clarity leads to alignment, and alignment is potential for growth.

At Vanderbloemen, we have a weekly all-staff meeting where our leadership highlights examples of when our work has made a difference in helping other teams. We exist to serve teams with a greater purpose – that’s the “why” our entire staff shares. What’s yours?

2. Well-Defined Core Values

Whether you know it or not, your team operates from a set of values. They might not be written down or have even been said out loud, but as the leader, you’re setting the tone for the values by which your team operates.

Years ago, when Vanderbloemen had a team of just ten, CEO William Vanderbloemen intentionally set aside time at the staff retreat to formalize our team’s values for the first time. What started as a list of fifty ideas narrowed down to a list of nine core values the team felt could embody the organization. This was one of the most significant points in the trajectory of Vanderbloemen’s team culture. It has allowed the strong culture of the small team of ten to remain consistent today as a team of nearly 40 full-time employees.

If you don’t have your values solidified as an organization, start the process now. Answer the question, “When we're performing at our very best, what characteristics describe us that aren’t found in our competitors?” Then write those values down and reference them often.

3. An In-House Team

An in-house team, as opposed to a team that prefers to work virtually, has an advantage in the culture-building department.

Leadership at Vanderbloemen made an intentional decision a few years ago to have an in-house team, allowing for the highest amount of collaboration, team bonding, and culture building that makes the search process so effective.

While there is a place for virtual teams, if your organization is struggling culturally, be careful how much you allow your team to work virtually. If you’re in a turn-around or revitalization process, you might consider having everyone in the office for a large portion of the day so that you can actively reestablish a positive culture together organically.

Yahoo, IBM, and Best Buy are a few high-profile organizations that shifted to having more staff onsite as they overhauled their cultures.

In the hierarchy of communication, there’s no replacement for the personal touch of an in-person conversation. It’s difficult to interpret tone and true intent through more impersonal mediums like text or email.

Author Carol Kinsey Goman writes about the value of in-person teams: “If your organization actively promotes telecommuting and virtual teams (often a necessity with today's global workforce), you’ll find that just one initial face-to-face meeting will go a long way to sustaining team spirit and increasing productivity when everyone goes back to their respective workplaces.”

If you do go virtual, consider ways you can maintain the health of your culture by planning an in-person gathering for your team.

Yet getting everyone together in the same location is only part of the solution. A lot of thought needs to be put into the design of your space to facilitate better communication and allow staff to more effectively perform tasks.

Vanderbloemen’s offices have an open setting where people can work at their desks, sit in big comfy chairs, or stand at a high table by a window. There are also small, private rooms where people can work quietly or have a phone conversation or meeting. A large cafe allows employees to eat with one another or to host cultural events for the entire team.

This flexibility allows team members to engage with one another in spaces most conducive to productivity. In this way, the physical design of our office complements our company values and culture.

Think about ways you can encourage more opportunities among your staff for in-person engagement. You’ll likely find that the stronger the working relationships, the stronger your culture will be long-term.

4. An Environment of Collaboration and Engagement

There’s no replacement for being physically present when building collaboration in the workplace. So if collaboration is important within your organization, consider an in-house team.

When your culture is healthy, your employees will be working together toward shared objectives and collectively solving problems. If your staff members frequently self-isolate and choose to work independently, the established culture is inhibiting creativity.

Consider ways you can involve staff members in participating in your vision. Involve your staff in the newsletters, announcements, and brainstorming sessions that happen behind the scenes. Give each person opportunities to actively participate in the “why.”

It can be easy to get stuck in a departmental bubble. Think of ways you can encourage staff to work with members of other teams. They'll get insight into the value of others' roles, likely growing bonds and respect.

5. An Environment of High Trust and High Expectation

Trust is central to a healthy culture. Staff members can thrive under a high expectation. Trusting employees with much demonstrates that their contribution to the team matters. Leaders may struggle with letting go of control and placing it into the hands of their teams. When accomplished, a high-trust environment allows creativity, new ideas, and high performance to thrive. In contrast, micromanaging can negatively impact an employee's confidence and performance.

To sustain trust once you have it, you need to intentionally have regular check-ins and collaborative goal-setting between leaders and staff. You also need regular reviews to ensure that objectives are being met and see that there is overall alignment. Do not mistake trust for ignorance. If you entrust your staff with your mission, follow up on how they stewarded the work.

If you feel stuck with staff reviews, download our free staff review template.

6. A Growth Mindset

No, not a growth mindset in terms of profits or company growth. Rather, you need a growth mindset in the sense of seeking constant improvement. Model goal-making regularly as a leadership team, and encourage individual growth and goal-setting for each member of your team.

Psychologist Carol Dweck outlines the definition of a growth mindset in her book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success when she says, “The passion for stretching yourself and sticking to it, even (or especially) when it’s not going well, is the hallmark of the growth mindset. This is the mindset that allows people to thrive during some of the most challenging times in their lives.”

A growth mindset allows employees to operate in spaces just outside of their comfort zones. It also allows for candid, non-evaluative feedback and creates a culture that welcomes new ideas. Employees are expected – or sometimes encouraged – to fail, adapt, and improve, without ever being labeled as ‘failures.'

Organizational mindset is a critical piece of a healthy culture. The group mindset influences “workers’’ satisfaction, perceptions of the organizational culture, levels of collaboration, innovation, and ethical behavior” (Harvard Business Review).

In a growth mindset organization, employees can stretch themselves because they’re excited about learning new skills and solving new problems. As Dweck notes, organizations with a growth mindset stress the idea that “becoming is better than being.” And that mindset is infectious. When modeled by those in leadership, you can completely alter your organization’s culture.

7. Work/Life Balance

Plenty of organizations won’t stop you from taking vacation, but they might frown upon it behind closed doors. Be an organization that actively encourages employees to use their time off to spend time with family, recharge, rest, and relax. If you ever hear grumbles about not being able to take a vacation in an office, that is usually a sign of a culture influenced by restricted work/like balance. That discontent then bleeds into criticism in other areas of work.

You can balance the importance of having an in-house team with flexibility that provides work/life balance. Vanderbloemen offers employees a flexible window of time when employees can arrive at and leave work, allowing the early birds to arrive at 7 a.m. when they desire and the others to arrive at 8 or 9 a.m. so they can work when they are most productive. Staff members also have the freedom to use their allotted paid time off as needed. When employees take time off, responsibilities are delegated to allow time off to truly be a time to unplug. 

Having this spirit of flexibility helps strengthen a great staff culture and informs the way the staff speaks about their job. When you treat work/life balance with importance, your team will feel seen by the leadership, and they will feel cared for by the staff that supports them.

A healthy culture doesn't develop overnight, but the time to change your culture is now. Invest in your culture and your staff, and you'll establish a foundation for greater growth so your organization can fulfill its mission statement.

If you're thinking about ways to implement these seven traits, take our Culture Tool survey. Vanderbloemen can provide your specific team with a detailed culture scale, revealing your highs and lows. We'll assess the health of your organization and take your culture to the next level.