When is the last time that you thought about your company’s work culture? Is it a positive place to be, where employees collaborate with one another and offer constructive feedback? Or is it a toxic environment where employees compete with one another, managers play favorites, and communication is either lacking or destructive?
A toxic work culture can have far-reaching, negative effects. Investing in your company’s culture is one of the best things that you can do. Remember that this is something that has to be cultivated over time. And as much effort goes into building a positive workplace environment, it can all quickly disappear.
Read on for some of the most common effects of a negative work culture.
Employee Turnover
If your company does not inspire employees and provide positive experience and opportunity, it probably will not be long until they start to look for another position. When we spend so much of our time and energy in the office, a toxic workplace environment will quickly lead to burnout. Constantly having to post job openings, screen candidates, and train new hires takes time and energy that could be saved with a more positive work environment.
Decreased Productivity
When your employees feel like the company cares about them, they will return the sentiment in their work. A toxic work culture does exactly the opposite. It demotivates employees, and makes them less invested in their projects. This often means that it requires more time to complete the same tasks – and the quality usually suffers as well. In a negative work environment, employees are also more likely to call in sick, leave early, or engage in personal activities at work.
Lowered Workplace Morale
It is important to remember that a toxic work environment is pervasive. It may stem from just a couple of dissatisfied employees, but can ultimately affect your entire staff. It is absolutely critical that managers are aware of their employees’ sentiment and the office gossip. If you start to see signs of a toxic work culture taking root, do your best to work with or remove the responsible parties before any long-term damage is done.
Negative Company Reputation
The reputation of your company is absolutely critical. It will determine whether high-quality candidates will want to work with you and whether high-value clients will want to hire you. If your company starts to develop the reputation of having an unhappy staff, it might not be long until you start seeing external effects.
The Bottom Line
A toxic work culture affects your staff, your management, and even your prospective clients and applicants. All of the negative effects mentioned above equate to lost profits. If this does not have you convinced that your company culture requires your time and attention, nothing will.
Photo by Paulo Silva on Unsplash