Why the psychological climate of your company is poor and how to change it

You may not be aware yet, but there are 4 problems that kill the productive psychological climate in your office. In this article, Barry Saltzman, will tell you how to restore the desired mood in the team .

Do you rate your employees annually? Great - why not do the same with respect to the psychological climate of the company?

It is important to remember that the psychological climate of a company is much more difficult to measure than the contribution of your employees. Employees can joyfully jump from project to project, but this does not mean that they do not work in a toxic environment. Despite the smiling faces, positive chatter and widespread congratulations on the victory, this does not mean that your staff does not scroll through the mind a long list of grievances every day on the way home.

Honestly, you may not know that not everything in your office works correctly if you do not make frequent and thorough assessments of the psychological climate of the company as one of your priorities. To identify the problem, I use the following parameters to determine the dynamics of the psychological climate of the team and, if something is wrong, I find the source of the flaws.

1. Job Satisfaction

Are your employees happy with the work they do? Do they understand how their personal contribution helps achieve the goals of the company as a whole? Do not be afraid to ask directly what annoys them, or does not fully work. At the same time, you should not completely change everything in your office just because of staff dissatisfaction with their work.

2. Collaboration

The lack of desire to collaborate with others is a clear indicator that something in the system is functioning incorrectly. Do your employees find an opportunity to join forces voluntarily? How effectively do they use it? Is there a hidden tension in the relationship that needs to be removed? Chat with the leaders of your units, and just pay attention to it. (We recommend reading a useful article on 3 steps to help pull your team together .)

3. Compliance with corporate values

What are the principles of your company? Do your employees know them? More importantly, do they know why these principles are chosen as guidelines and how they fit the goals of your company. The question “why” is just as important as “what” - perhaps even more. “Because I said so” rarely works even for kindergarten children; don’t think that it can stimulate your employees sufficiently.

4. Innovation

Whatever projects are planned daily in your team, no one enjoys the monotonous, repetitive tasks. It is important to enable employees to be creative . Your staff will be happy for the chance to do something unusual, and you will receive great fresh ideas in gratitude for giving them the opportunity to try something new - even if it does not succeed.

Purposeful work to change the psychological climate in the office can eliminate existing problems, and it is not so difficult as it might seem at first glance. Three possible solutions:

1. Reward positive contributors

Scolding employees who did something wrong or failed a task is a common occurrence in most companies (although, hopefully, this rarely happens). But how often do you notice, highlight and award a positive contribution?

On the one hand, this is a great opportunity to once again pay attention to those actions that promote the goals and values ​​of your company. It also helps to imbue the principles of those who observe it from the side.

Your office neighbor Alexei did much more for the client than his job requirements required, after which he received an increase in salary? There is a high probability that you will want to do the same. The reward of positive actions not only works better in order to motivate, but also helps to change the psychological climate of the team as a whole, creating a more pleasant and welcoming atmosphere. Your employees will feel the difference.

2. Your employees must see a prize

Compatibility with the psychological climate of the company should be a necessary requirement when hiring new job seekers with the appropriate life position, capabilities and experience. The values, principles and goals of the company should be constantly on the agenda, and not just on the first working day of the employee.

Do senior executives find the company’s psychological climate important? What about lower-level employees? Do all employees understand the values ​​and expected behavior, are they given instructions on how the ideal employee should think, act and behave? If you answered no, your organization does not give the psychological climate of the company sufficient priority.

The expectations of the company should be repeated at every step: rewarding good performers and reorienting the bad, a positive personal example of the leaders of the organization, clarity and simplicity of the company's requirements.

3. Company leaders must be like-minded

The leaders of your company should feel close to its mission and to each other.

For my readers in the human resources department, I don't mean intimate relationships or drinking all night. But leaders must be close enough in spirit so that their decisions in similar situations are the same.

Coherence is the key, the leader must set the tone for his subordinates so that they can do the same for their employees.

Communicate more and work together more often. Think of the leaders of your company as ambassadors of corporate goals and plans, give them the necessary tools to convey this message to subordinates.

PS We recommend one more article on the topic - 5 ways to increase team productivity.

Translation by Vyacheslav Davidenko, founder of MBA Consult