Maya Angelou once said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

This quote applies not only to personal interactions but also to the way companies establish company culture. When an employee feels valued and respected, it is more likely for that to leave a positive lasting impression on their experience which then affects the team and the productivity within the company. However, on the flipside of that coin, employees who feel unmotivated, undervalued and working without purpose, are more likely to produce minimal amount of effort, are less interested in engaging in team activities and basically physically clock in, mentally check out and clock watch until their shift is over.  

For companies, this has become an alarming trend that has become as contagious as if not more than COVID. Some companies feel that the solution sometimes lies in terminating the employees that reflect such behaviors but the reality is that this is just the tip of the iceberg that stems from a much larger problem: a crack in the company’s foundation. 

Here are some solutions:

Prioritize Your Employee’s Needs – Listen more and talk less! Exercising clear communication by enhancing your listening skills is key to great work culture. Offering empathy and support can be a great place to start. You hired humans not robots (yet) so you want to make sure you understand that these human beings undergo a multitude of emotions both personally and professionally while they are sitting at their workspace. Pretending like it isn’t happening hasn’t served to get the elephant out of the room so take charge and face it head up. These simple exercises help both the employee feel seen, heard and valued but also providing a safe space for vulnerability and support that results in loyalty and focused efforts. 

Reduced Work Overload – Not sure when this started happening but it seems that when companies start losing employees that weren’t necessarily producing to par, they started overloading the loyal employees that decided to stay. When employees leave a company, it can be a difficult and disruptive time for everyone involved but overloading your good employees isn’t the answer. Or cost effective for that matter. Some employees think that one person can do the job of three therefore there’s a cost savings but the reality is you are gambling the health of a great employee that may end up leaving for lack of support. A good company recalibrates their core structure to ensure that the tasks are fairly assigned in order to receive high performance in each department. Remember… being cheap can sometimes be much more expensive!