By Insights
A welcoming office culture plays a vital role in the success of any technology organization. After all, it’s a great way to keep employee morale at its highest, with improved efficiency and productivity as a result. In the end, a great company culture makes your organization more like a community as opposed to just a business.
What follows are a few ideas for fostering a community-like office culture at your organization. Leverage these insights for a myriad of benefits, including improved employee retention, a more effective staffing process, and the aforementioned productivity boost.
Why a Sense of Community is Important in Technology
Tech professionals, especially those in younger generational cohorts, want a sense of belonging beyond being just an employee. Sure, many IT pros tend to hop from position to position, but perhaps they are searching for a place to truly call home. This is why fostering a culture that promotes a sense of community offers so many benefits, including an improved retention rate. This is an essential factor in a difficult tech job market.
Building a Workplace Community Requires a Long Term Approach
Simply put, a community is a social system larger than an individual. In an IT world where collaboration and communication are vital for success, this basic fact remains one of the reasons for the popularity of DevOps as a project management methodology. Still, building the right kind of office culture requires a longer-term approach; it’s not something that can happen overnight or even in a year.
Of course, startups and other younger organizations find it easier to build a sense of family. Still, the more established companies in the tech world need to follow a similar tack, albeit more slowly. Ultimately, a higher level of employee engagement is a strong differentiator in a competitive industry.
Engaged Leadership Helps Foster a Community Spirit
Encourage your managers to take an engaged leadership approach as opposed to one more hands-on and micro-managing. This technique helps inspire employees to take initiative as necessary. When workers feel part of something greater, they are more inclined to be innovative.
Middle-Out Works Better Than Top-Down
Related to that last point, old school top-down management techniques aren’t as effective in the current professional world. Encourage your middle managers to inspire change throughout the organization. When combined with open communication and a sense of family, the company culture becomes more like a real community.
Does your company need help building a great technology team?
Speak with the experts at Technology Partners. As one of the top IT staffing agencies in the Midwest, we provide great candidates able to fit within your culture. Schedule some time with us soon!
