How To Build A People-Centric Culture In 8 EASY Steps!

In the modern workspace that is continuously evolving, organizations are forced to recognize the power of creating a people-centric culture. Regardless of the base focus that we all have on profits and performance metrics, there’s a considerable shift towards putting individuals in focus within an organization.

The emphasis a people-centric culture makes is not only on the achievements themselves but on how they are achieved, making sure to highlight the human effort put into it. Let us dive deeper into the details of a people-centric culture, and explore the benefits, challenges, and steps to create it.

What Are The Core Components Of A People-Centric Culture?

An employee-centric culture has several core components to take into account if you wish to successfully create one yourself:

Empathy and Respect: Creating a work environment that embodies empathy and respect will be the pillar of a people-centric workspace. This way, you acknowledge the diverse perspectives of your employees.

Healthy Communication: Encouraging transparency will cultivate an environment of feeling heard and valued by everyone in your organization.

Employee Well-being: Prioritizing support for your employees concerning mental and physical health is essential to being a people-centric workspace.

Collaboration and Teamwork: Fostering a space that encourages collaboration and teamwork will promote cross-functional collaboration.

Flexibility: Flexible work hours and arrangements will show you understand the human conditions and will provide your employees the support they need.

Recognition: Recognizing that the contributions of your employees should be acknowledged and appreciated is especially important if you wish to be a people-centric organization.

Leadership: Ensuring that the leaders in your organization embody the people-centric culture will help set the bar within your workspace.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion will help create an environment where your employees will feel included valued, and supported equally.

How To Build A People-Centric Culture At Work? 8 Step Guide:

Step 1: Assess Current Culture

Evaluate your current workspace and make sure to take benchmark data during this process. You can use surveys, interviews, and assessments to do so to have a better understanding of your employees’ current experience and hence what needs to be improved.

Conduct regular pulse surveys with your team.

There are plenty of incredible survey tools you can use to conduct regular surveys and asses the organizational culture in your company. In fact we put together a list of them just for you: Top Pulse Survey Softare.

If your organization uses Microsoft Teams on a regular basis, you might want to give Teamflect a try. It is the best survey tool in the Microsoft Teams ecosystem and it lets you send out and analyze surveys without ever having to leave Microsoft Teams!

Step 2: Define Core Values & Competencies

In accordance with your findings, define core values that prioritize your people. Make sure to align these values with your company’s vision. Consider involving your employees in this process to help build ownership and alignment on their end as well.

Examples of Core Values & Competencies

While these can change depending on your organization’s culture and a million other things, here is a list of some rather common and helpful core values and competencies to have in your team:

Integrity: Commit to honesty and transparency within your organization.

Diversity and Inclusion: Celebrate diversity in all regards in your workspace, to provide an equal environment for all perspectives to coexist.

Innovation: Embrace creativity and adaptability to ensure the most forward-thinking outcomes in your creations.

Problem Solving: Analyze situations and identify solutions with your team.

Resilience: Be prepared to bounce back from tough spots and maintain your proactivity.

Leadership: Inspire and guide your team, make sound decisions, and cultivate a positive workspace.

Determining Core Competencies Digitally

You can use Teamflect to determine your core competencies! Teamflect offers default competencies that you can take inspiration from and if you have other options in mind already, you can always customize and make it your own!

Step 3: Leadership Commitment

Ensuring commitment from your leaders will allow you to lead by example which is an important step into making sure that these values are imbedded to your workplace culture.

Be clear in your expectations and values when doing so and make sure to provide proper training. By keeping communication open and leading them by example yourself, you can ensure the necessary commitment from the leaders within your organization.

Step 4: Communication and Transparency:

Foster channels for open communication so that everyone can regularly share information among themselves regarding company goals, strategies, and changes. This step allows you to encourage feedback and foster transparent dialogue.

Step 5: Empowerment and Autonomy:

By granting employees autonomy, you can empower them within your decision-making processes where feasible. You can also help empower them by providing support with wellness programs that support your employees beyond just work, but also in terms of physical and mental health.

Step 6: 360-Degree Feedback, Rewards, and Recognition

Invest in and encourage feedback and individual development opportunities. Make sure to recognize, appreciate, and reward your employees for their achievements. Consider feedback, rewards, and recognition a healthy circular function that assists you in your business progress.

360-Degree Feedback

If you want to start a 360-degree feedback cycle inside Microsoft Teams, you can use feedback software such as Teamflect to send your feedback requests organization-wide with ease. You can include managers, direct reports, peers, and external parties in the feedback process and get a complete picture.

Rewards & Recognition

Step 7: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)

Creating a diverse and equal culture will be imperative in having a people-centric work environment. You will not be able to foster a people-focused culture without including fairness and diversity in your team-building strategies.

Step 8: Measurement and Accountability:

Keep track of how your culture develops over time with regard to your benchmark when you first started. By keeping track and collecting data on your process, you allow for clarity in identifying improvement points and hold your organization accountable for its goals.

Don’t forget, people-centric culture is an ever-evolving process that requires dedication and consistency in your efforts. Your commitment to adapt accordingly as you grow will be imperative as you adjust to your employees’ needs.

5 Benefits Of Having An Employee Centric-Culture

There are many positive outcomes to creating a people-centric work environment. Here are five benefits that you’ll receive in return for your efforts:

• Increased Employee Engagement: When your employees feel that they’re valued, and taken care of, they will be more willing to engage and provide better quality work.

• Enhanced Retention and Loyalty: Employees are far less likely to look for other positions outside of your organization if they feel respected and appreciated. An employee-focused workplace will naturally reduce turnover rates since your employees will be less likely to search for other opportunities.

• Improved Performance: When employees feel that their perspectives are taken into account and heard, they are far more likely to be inclined to have trust that it will be worthwhile to share and invest their efforts in their work.

• Better Well-being and Satisfaction: Prioritizing the well-being of your employees and fostering a space of support will cultivate a better work-life balance. This positive impact will inevitably affect how satisfied your employees are with their experience at their jobs.

• Company Reputation: A people-centric culture plays a role of positive impact on all levels within an organization. In turn, it cultivates a reputation of a happier workplace that will attract top talent and improve your brand’s overall image across your industry.

5 Challenges In Building A People-Centered Culture

As with most things in life, building people-centric workplaces also comes with challenges of its own. Here are five things to watch out for if you’re working on building your own employee-centric organization:

• Resistance To Change: Not all employees in your organization may be willing to embrace a shift in their workplace of this magnitude. Such resistance may affect your progress in embedding a people-focused company outlook in your organization.

• Inconsistent Leadership: If your leaders don’t fully support the model and aren’t able to demonstrate the values it may slow down the process of embracing a people-centric culture in your workspace.

• Time and Resource Constraints: Implementing such changes to your organization requires time and effort in addition to financial resources. Balancing this with your current business needs may bring about challenges as to how smoothly the implementations are made.

• Measuring Impact: Quantifying and tracing something abstract such as a people-focused environment may be challenging. Make sure to determine realistic and applicable metrics to simplify this process.

• Maintaining Consistency: To make sure that the people-centric culture is sustainable, you will have to recognize that it is an ongoing process and remain consistent. Such cultural changes may be challenging when you’re also working to manage your business within market conditions and other internal processes.

Although navigating these processes may be challenging, the long-term effects of having a people-centric culture in your organization will be especially rewarding, especially once you find your rhythm with it.

Mistakes You Shouldn’t Make While Implementing A People-Centric Approach

Similar to the challenges you might face, when you’re navigating your journey to building a people-centric entity, you may experience negative outcomes if you fall for these mistakes:

• Lack of Leadership: One of the key components in embracing a people-centric culture is onboarding your leaders to it. If they aren’t fully committed then your system will not be fully operational and can lead to mixed messages.

• Overlooking Employee Input: A people-centric culture prioritizes its people so not including your employees’ insights in this process would be counterintuitive.

• One-Time Project Approach: Cultivating such an environment is an ever-evolving process and a one-time approach would be detrimental to your sustainability and success with a people-focused workplace.

• Ignoring Diversity and Inclusion: A people-focused team will always take diversity and inclusion into account. Neglecting this step will hinder your overall success with this approach.

• Failure to Adjust: As mentioned, since a people-centric culture is always evolving, you will naturally have to adjust to your findings along the way. If you fail in this step, then you will face the consequence that your people-centric workplace not being a sustainable outcome.

• Neglecting Evaluation: In relation to failure to adjust, neglecting any evaluation from time to time will hinder your progress in a similar way. You need data to measure impact and identify where you need improvements.

If you successfully avoid these mistakes, you will have a strong start in your journey to creating a people-focused organization.

5 People Centric Workplaces To Learn From

What better way is there to figure out how you can approach and build your own people-centric approach than to look for real-life examples?

See what these five companies are doing to understand what a people-centric culture can look like in the real world:

Real World Examples

• Google: Google is widely known for its focus on employee well-being and satisfaction. The organization provides multiple benefits and perks, including flexibility with working hours, healthcare, and more such as opportunities for personal growth.

• Salesforce: Salesforce puts its Ohana culture at the forefront. They actively promote a sense of belonging and inclusivity. The company invests in wellness programs and volunteering.

• Zappos: Zappos has a very unique company culture and chooses to prioritize the happiness of its employees by offering comprehensive training and encouraging creativity and individuality.

• Patagonia: The outdoor apparel company is well known for its active commitment to work-life balance, and being environmentally responsible. They offer flexible work hours and promote diversity among other perks.

• Microsoft: Microsoft has been focusing intently on cultural transformation and highlights empathy and inclusion. The company promotes diversity and employee well-being through several initiatives such as flexible work hours and growth opportunities for its people.

These companies are just a few examples of what a people-centric culture at work can look like. You too can help cultivate such a space by following these steps and using Teamflect to help organize yourself, the best performance management software for Microsoft Teams!