The Importance of Building with Community

The Importance of Building With Community 

Startups that want to hire and keep the best people for their company must look at ways to incentivize their workplace environments. One of the most effective ways to encourage high-quality employees and long-term employment is through building a great workplace community.

Building Great Work Environments

Companies that want to encourage their star employees to stay with them must find ways to foster belief in the company they work for. One of the biggest mistakes that companies make is to focus on their goals as a company with little regard for their team. This approach can spell disaster for a company’s long-term goals.

High turnover in a startup rarely produces positive growth patterns unless the employees are unskilled and easily replaceable. Even in these circumstances, it can be very time-consuming to have to retrain new employees time over time. 

The good news is that building a positive and healthy office space is not a goal out of reach. Much of the basis for creating a positive work community is best handled by helping the team create valuable contributions and become part of a common goal. In some companies, one of the approaches that has had a positive effect is the gifting of company public trading stock to employees. This approach helps employees have a more invested interest in the company’s success. As the company grows in success, the value of the stock rises, which offers team members a profit from the enhanced share value. In some cases, some companies offer voting shares of smaller amounts. 

While giving part of the business profits through company shares can be a positive approach, many other strategies can work as well. In some companies, the use of bonuses and profit sharing are effective tools. Since almost all employees can benefit from extra cash bonuses, these approaches can be beneficial in keeping team members engaged in making the company grow. However, this approach does not truly satisfy the basic need for people to enjoy their work environments and feel their contributions have definite merit.

Positive Employee Approaches

In most cases, the best approach is helping employees feel the benefits of their contributions are worth more than simple monetary bonuses. The happiest employees are those that feel their contributions are rewarded not only in financial benefits but in acknowledgment of their work through higher career advancements and company recognition. Doing this in addition to encouraging star employees to advance into leadership positions are often the best approaches to keeping the best employees happy.

In a series of studies compiled on what makes for the best work environments, most employees listed a variety of things they considered important. One of the biggest concerns for most employees is an acknowledgment from their supervisors or management team of their contributions. Team leaders overwhelmingly felt that they needed recognition for their contributions to the success of a company.

Some of the most successful companies take the approach of building a community or family environment. Sick time is not considered a harm to the business but a time for one of the company’s sick family members to get well. Often the change in this approach makes for less sick time. This approach helps each employee feel cared about as a person aside from how much money their work makes for a company. While some employees will try to take advantage of this, ethical employees who care about their work and the people in the company they work for will not.

Other great ways to help team building in a startup can include recreational team time, a pay it for initiative for the team, encouraging in company group-based work projects and encouraging team members to provide feedback to increase moral. 

This blog was written by our friends at The Farm Soho. Check 'em out next time your in NYC!