Corporate culture helps define a business, and employee habits and attitudes are at the heart of every work environment. For businesses, new technology can be used to bring fresh mindsets into a work community—helping to keep employees engaged, energized, and effective!

Tech Initiatives to Keep your Work Community Modern and Dynamic!

According to an interview with Molly Graham at Facebook, “a new philosophy is emerging in business and today’s young workers are driving a change in corporate culture . . . challenging our thinking about company codes of conduct and business philosophy.”(1)

A company may need to adopt new techniques in order to stay current and relevant, and although technology may bring a learning curve for business teams, it’s important to incorporate the technology that helps your brand connect with your team members.

Using Data to Keep your Business Culture Active and Relevant

While there’s a lot of focus now on Big Data and its insights about customers and markets, gathering information internally can help to:

  • Streamline operations
  • Increase productivity
  • Expedite supply-lines
  • Improve employee morale
  • Increase employee retention

If there’s one thing we’ve learned about the digital age, it’s that there’s simply no excuse for being out of touch.

“When employees are provided with ways to make suggestions that could improve the productivity or the general working environment of the company, it can be said that the environment is inclusive, as it allows for free communication between everyone employed by the business.”(2)

Businesses should offer frequent (perhaps even continual) opportunities for feedback—both anonymous and in forums. In meetings, training sessions, and presentations, audience response systems are an excellent way to gauge the feelings, opinions, and wishes of your team—helping managers and administrators make decisions that reflect the overall attitudes of employees and improve the corporate culture.

According to the SmartMeetings article (3), “Generation Tech: Leverage leading-edge technology to engage millennials,” written by SmartSource Rentals Vice President of Sales, Jeffrey Byrne:

Audience response systems give millennials another way to share their voices in real time. They’re perfect for audience polling about the event, exhibits attendees are enjoying, the winner of a prize drawing at a sponsor’s booth, reactions to speakers and more. They promote a highly interactive event while helping planners stay abreast of attendees’ opinions regarding various aspects of it. Exhibitors can use audience response systems to gain better insight into how their display, sales presentations and promotions are being received—valuable on-the-spot information to have if they want to make any adjustments.

Real-Time, Streaming, and Fresh Communication Techniques

Is your team using Slack? Millions of users are claiming that the instant messaging service has cleared out their inboxes and made team communication lightning-fast. Real-time streaming video services are also becoming more and more popular. According to Wired.com, we’re “approaching the point where people get annoyed if certain things aren’t streamed.”(4)

Communication (both within an organization and in a business’s external contacts as well) will become increasingly dependent upon newer, faster, real-time options for written and visual interaction. These applications and services make work-life better by:

  • Making communication easy and instant
  • Reducing time spent in physical meetings
  • Helping projects move faster
  • Reducing the time-drain of email
  • Improving overall productivity and satisfaction
  • Increasing teamwork and collaboration
  • Allowing for more flexible work schedules and remote offices
  • Building more positive relationships

“Collaboration that comes out of personal connections is amplified.”(1)

Offer a Technology or Gaming Lounge in the Office

Obviously, businesses focus a great deal of time and energy on events and technology that help engage customers and create profitable B2B relationships, but many of the techniques that our SmartSource Blog discusses in relation to business events can be applied to your corporate culture.

For instance, we’ve discussed the benefits of offering a technology lounge at events, but the advantages of a tech lounge apply equally for your work teams! Yes, your employees have access to desktops, printers, and charging stations in their work areas, but a workplace tech lounge is a common area which serves as a place to:

  • Gather
  • Exchange ideas
  • Enhance creativity through play
  • Recharge mentally and socially
  • Build stronger work relationships

All of these benefits help to create a better work/life balance—one of the most important qualities that today’s employees want from their job!

 

References:

(1) http://i-sight.com/resources/millennials-turn-corporate-culture-on-head/

(2) http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-corporate-culture.htm

(3) Byrne, Jeffrey C. “Generation Tech: Leverage leading-edge technology to engage millennials.” SmartMeetings Nov. 2015: 34. http://pubs.royle.com/publication/?i=278186&pre=1

(4) http://www.wired.com/2012/03/opinion-levy-backchannel-video/