6 Warning Signs of a Bad Corporate Culture and How to Fix It
Bad corporate culture reflects on every company’s workforce and the service consumers. In the midst of a bad corporate culture, the company’s past reputation or achievements, level of talents, location, size, and awards won does not matter; the rewards are the same. And among all the attributes of a bad corporate culture is the long-term effect. Aside from strangling productivity through its impact on the immediate workforce, a toxic workplace goes ahead to kill the company’s potentials. Many employees will flee in search of the right company, and the remaining staff would hang their efforts below the minimum corporate target.
However, it’s still possible to fix your corporate culture regardless of how bad it has gone. Only the right approach from a general perspective is required to make it happen. Yes, there’s no rulebook customized for your firm on how to fix company culture problems. But how do you even know there’s trouble in your corporate culture?
Here are six warning signs of a bad corporate culture and a mild guide on how to fix company culture problems relative to each of the warning signs.
1. Unmotivated employees
Frequently dealing with unmotivated employees is one of the clearest warning signs of a bad corporate culture. Are your employees present but don’t demonstrate presence? You will need to increase employee engagement by implementing a cultural shift that will include employee recognition. Another viable step to fix this bad corporate culture attribute is to enhance communication and collaboration.
2. Dissatisfaction and workforce anxiety
Are you getting dissatisfactory results? Unclear vision and poor employee development make this one of the attributes of a bad corporate culture. Are you sure your employees are getting all the support they need? You definitely have a toxic workplace dealing with this. Acknowledging this challenge and positively influencing your team is a promising way of fixing this problem.
3. High employee turnover
High turnover is another warning sign of a bad corporate culture. When a company is always hiring for the same position, the management has a BIG question mark. Identifying why the employees are always leaving is the first step in fixing the bad corporate culture. Knowing the problem means it’s half solved.
4. Being all things to all people
Serving all roles to everyone results can lead to a toxic workplace. It shows that your corporate culture does not recognize individual strengths for a robust task delegation. This will not only hurt performance but deter healthy employee engagement. General performance should be derived from collective efforts and fair delegation of tasks based on individual strengths.
5. Failure to meet deadlines and goals
The success of every project is its delivery in due time and this may point to the lack of collaborative efforts and communication. Failure is not always defined at the top level but the imbalance of responsibilities at the downstream and other levels.
6. Lack of empathy
Empathy is one of the missing attributes in a toxic workplace. Lack of empathic leadership deters employee motivation and makes engagement strategies inefficient. Fixing this involves engaging employees in a personal conversation in one-on-one meetings. The idea is to build trust and improve professional relationships.