Maintaining positive business practices is an arduous job. However, just establishing them is never enough. What you need to do is maintain them day in and out and the only way to achieve this is through a penalty and reward system, which follows from careful monitoring of individuals in your organization.
Unfortunately, this can take too much time and effort. In fact, achieving this with 100 percent reliability may not be sustainable in the long-run. On the other hand, by building a productive startup culture, you might be able to automate this process and create an atmosphere that encourages productivity on its own. With this in mind, here is a brief guide to building a productive startup culture.
Project ownership
The first thing you need to understand about productivity is the fact that it is directly linked to intrinsic motivation. When it comes to large projects, it is more than clear in what way they benefit your company and organization as a whole. However, it might be less obvious what kind of advancement this brings to your employees individually. Luckily, there are more than several ways for you to address this. First of all, you need to mentally project the ownership of the project to the people who are actually involved in it. What this means is that they are responsible for its success or failure.
While most SMB entrepreneurs assume that this is the case by default, in most cases staff members only get to bear the responsibility for the failures or shortcomings of a project, without enjoying benefits of a job well-done. This has to change. Explain to them in which way the growth of your company is going to benefit them in the long run. Promote, give raises or simply publicly commend people for their effort. Moreover, it wouldn’t be bad to mention how adding the success of this project to their portfolio might benefit them in the future and provide them with additional leverage within your industry.
Create a work-friendly environment
Coming up with excuses is easy. However, having an optimized office space is about more than dodging blame for the lack of productivity. By leasing out an office that is optimized for work, you might turn a simple work space into your closest ally. Some Australian startup hubs find great pride in the availability of such spaces and it is quite easy to find a serviced office in Melbourne. The plethora of choices also means that it will be much easier for you to pick the option that suits the specific needs of your startup.
The greatest advantage of such space is not just in the fact that the office is furnished with greatest efficiency in mind but also in the location itself. The proximity of various transportation options, cafes and restaurants gives your talent attraction quite a boost. From the standpoint of corporate values, it gives your employees a chance to appreciate working for you, which drastically boosts your staff retention efforts as well. Al in all, there’s a statistic that a happy employee works 12 percent harder and placing one in a stimulating work environment might just help you achieve this.
Display some flexibility
There are so many factors that influence the productivity of your employees, but the dress code and work hours are not amongst them. By having a relaxed dress code, you will A) make your employees feel more comfortable and B) show them that you care about results and not formalities. Overall, by giving them more freedom (even if it is in something as trivial as dress code), you will make them feel appreciated and respected, which is definitely not a small thing.
Moreover, there are some studies indicating that the first two hours early in the morning might be your most creative time of the day. However, this isn’t the case with all your employees. There are some people who are more productive at night and denying them the opportunity to use this to their advantage is a bad business practice. Also, by allowing your employees to choose when they come to work, you create an atmosphere that is substantially less oppressive, which is bound to result in a morale boost.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, your startup culture is one of the most valuable assets in your company and, as such, it is something worth working on. Still, unlike many other projects you will have to make, it requires effort and careful planning, rather than a hefty financial investment. Whether this is more or less favorable mostly depends on your own point of view.