For financial success, too many businesses today rely on cut-throat, high-pressure, zero-empathy work culture. However, research says that this is counter-productive. Not only is a cut-throat work environment harmful to productivity, but it can also hurt employers, employees, and the bottom line. Here’s why positive work cultures are more productive!
The importance of a company’s culture on productivity cannot be emphasized enough. Based on past and current experience, the culture of a company is the overall environment and attitude in the workplace. While employee incentives can help create a positive work environment, a lot more is required to ensure a positive culture that positively impact workplace productivity. This includes the attitude and treatment of employees.
It is important that both the employers and the employees take an active role in creating a positive culture for employees instead of allowing the company culture to take shape on its own. So, why the need to create a positive work culture in the first place?
CEOs, business owners, and professionals are always looking for new ways to be productive. When people work at full capacity or maximum efficiency, they can get more done, achieve goals faster, and create strong foundations for their companies to build on. However, getting an entire team or office to be productive can be challenging.
Many managers and professionals with supervisory roles find it difficult to ensure productivity in the workplace. Often, encouraging employees to work harder and stop wasting time is a struggle for them. However, if the managers and professionals with supervisory roles are finding it difficult to encourage employees to be more productive at work, then the problem is not with the managers or the employees they’re trying to encourage. The problem then lies with culture of the workplace.
This is the reason why fostering a positive work culture is crucial. A positive company culture affords employees respect while expecting quality work every day. Additionally, it often encourages collaboration. A positive work culture can do wonders for any company and this is proven by research. The research is discussed in the following section.
The Problem with Cut-Throat, High-Pressure Work Culture
Many ‘experts’ says that stress and pressure push employees to perform more, better, and faster. However, they do not take into account the hidden costs associated with companies having a cut-throat work culture. According to a research, health-care expenditures of ‘high-pressure’ companies are nearly 50% greater than of other organizations. Additionally, the American Psychological Association (APA) estimates that more than $500 billion are siphoned off from the U.S. economy because of workplace stress, and 550 million workdays are lost each year due to stress on the job.
60% to 80% of workplace accidents are attributed to stress, and it’s estimated that more than 80% of doctor visits are due to stress. Workplace stress has been linked to health problems ranging from metabolic syndrome to cardiovascular disease and mortality. In addition to the health problems, another problem evident in cut-throat work environments is the problem of disengagement.
While a cut-throat environment and a culture of fear can ensure engagement for some time, research suggests that the inevitable stress it creates will likely lead to disengagement over the long term. Engagement in work — which is associated with feeling valued, secure, supported, and respected — is generally negatively associated with a high-stress, cut-throat culture.
In studies by the Queens School of Business and by Gallup, disengaged workers had 37% higher absenteeism, 49% more accidents, and 60% more errors and defects. In organizations with low employee engagement scores, they experienced 18% lower productivity, 16% lower profitability, 37% lower job growth, and 65% lower share price over time. Importantly, businesses with highly engaged employees enjoyed 100% more job applications.
The third and final problem with a cut-throat work environment is the lack of loyalty. Research shows that workplace stress leads to an increase of almost 50% in voluntary turnover. People go on the job market, decline promotions, or resign. And the turnover costs associated with recruiting, training, lowered productivity, lost expertise, and so forth, are significant.
Evidence Shows That Positive Work Cultures are More Productive and Bring Financial Gains
As mentioned earlier, a positive work culture can do wonders for your company. A positive company or workplace culture increases employees’ satisfaction with their jobs. They find the work environment more motivating and feel a greater sense of loyalty towards the company. As a result, they are more likely to enjoy working for the company and completing their tasks, which ultimately increases overall workplace productivity and has a positive impact on the bottom line.
These claims are not made in thin air. Instead, they are backed by research. Based on findings of a survey, a recent Gallup report concludes the following:
“Engaged employees produce better business outcomes than other employees — across industry, company size and nationality, and in good economic times and bad.”
Engaged employees are a byproduct of a positive work culture. According to a 2017 report by the University of Warwick published in the Journal of European Labor, being happy at work increases creativity, innovation, and motivation, thus boosting productivity. Additionally, a study by Glassdoor reveals that Companies that won a “Best Places to Work” award, recognizing their positive culture, significantly outperformed the overall market by 115.6% in the S&P 500.
In contrast, a portfolio of 30 companies with the lowest employee satisfaction rates significantly underperformed the overall market by 29.5%.
Lest there be doubt—cut-throat, high-pressure work environment that leads to stress is counterproductive and often a costly expense for companies. For this reason, the only way forward for a company should be fostering a positive work culture. Stay Positive, my friends! 😉
by Bobby J Davidson
We love our company and we love what we do. Check out the ‘Why Percento‘ page to learn more: Love of Technology and Business! As the President of Percento Technologies International, I provide day-to-day leadership to the company’s senior management and I am personally involved in the strategy, business development and sales activities of the firm.
The company was founded in 1999 with the purpose of providing a one call source for organizations in need of Enterprise IT Consulting and Management. We also provide a line of products in the boutique Cloud Server space with a touch of high-end website strategy consulting and design services. We personalizes the IT Service experience with a team approach, working with clients from diverse sectors of industry, including energy services, financial, legal, entertainment, healthcare, hospitality, retail and general and/or corporate business. percentotech.com/contact
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