7 Ways Company Culture Affects Employee Engagement

“Company Culture is the backbone of any successful organization.” - Gary Vaynerchuk

Employee engagement is one of the major goals business organizations are pursuing today. According to Gallup, engaged workforces are 21% more profitable, 17% more productive and exhibit 59% less turnover. These enormous benefits of employee engagement stimulate employers to focus on building an engaged workforce. There are multitudinous strategies they implement for this purpose, but one thing that often gets neglected is company culture. You may wonder: does company culture impact engagement rates? Yes, company culture significantly influences workplace engagement.

If you are also focusing on engaging your workforce, don’t forget to cultivate a captivating workplace culture. If you aren’t yet clear about how company culture affects engagement, let’s explore 7 ways in which it does.

 7 ways company culture affects employee engagement

 1. Company culture decides how your employees feel about your organization:

Employee engagement is defined as the extent of emotional involvement your employees exhibit towards your company. When they are emotionally invested in your company, they naturally feel motivated to give their best every day. That’s exactly what you want from your workforce. Their outstanding performance in one of your major business objectives, isn’t it?

But, how does such deep emotional investment bloom in the hearts of your workforce? There are a number of factors that play a role and company culture is one of them. Company Culture is the behavior and overall attitude of your company. If your company has a cordial attitude towards the employees, keeps them at the forefront of everything, won’t your workers be emotionally invested in your organization? Undoubtedly, they’ll and obviously, there are some exceptions but a majority of your workers will.

Quite the contrary, if your company culture consists of micromanagement and foul practices towards workers, they’ll have negative feelings towards your company. With that, they’ll become disengaged. Having said that, company culture impacts employee engagement to a great degree.

 2. Company culture determines employee relationships:

Did you know that good employee relationships promote employee engagement? Cordial bonds between your workers eventually translate into their emotional inclination towards your company. If they feel happy to be in your company because of their office friends, ultimately they have good feelings for your organization too. This is true in most cases. Now, let’s explore how good company culture facilitates good employee relationships.

Your company culture consists of the governing principles, behavioral norms and ways of conduct that are permissible in your company. If you bind your employees to behave in a positive way, ultimately you have generated a bridge through which they can form affectionate bonds with each other. When there are negligible conflicts in your company, everyone extends human treatment to each other, undoubtedly your employees will become happy and engaged. So, again company culture impacts workplace engagement by determining the quality of employee relationships.

3. Company culture affects employee happiness:

According to research, company culture directly impacts employee happiness. Obviously, a negative culture disturbs employees and makes them unhappy. And as we already know, employee happiness is of utmost importance. Happy employees exhibit greater productivity, reduced absenteeism and greater engagement at work.

Imagine that you work at a firm and you feel miserable because of the governing methods, micromanagement or any other thing. Will you be absolutely involved in your work, give your 100% or just consider it as a formality to get your paycheque at the end of the month? Obviously, you’ll consider it as a formality. The same is true for your workers. Having said that, if you aspire to cultivate a happy, productive and engaged workforce, building a positive company culture is a must.

4. Positive company culture leads to good employer branding:

 You may wonder, this blog is about company culture’s impact on workplace engagement, then why have we started discussing employer branding? The answer is that employer branding is directly proportional to employee engagement and positive work culture leads to good employer branding. Feeling confused? Let’s discuss it in a simple manner.

Let’s consider that you have an outstanding company culture. Your employees share their experiences with your company voluntarily on their social media accounts and do word-of-mouth marketing for your employer brand. Results? You’re building an excellent and alluring employer brand.

A good employer brand attracts the best talent, which in turn leads to employees who are passionate about their work. Those who are passionate about their work, naturally exhibit greater levels of employee engagement. Further, 49% of companies see employee engagement as a result of effective employer branding.

With that said, there is a direct relationship between company culture, good employer branding and employee engagement. In short, positive culture leads to good employer branding which further leads to greater employee engagement.

 5. Company culture impacts employee well-being:

 We all know that employee well-being is linked to employee engagement. Healthy employees are more engrossed in their work. That’s natural, don’t you think so? Unhealthy employees experience frequent health issues which impair their ability to get absolutely engrossed in work. For instance, if you have a headache, your attention stays with the pain. Consequently, you can’t focus on work. Having said that, unhealthy employees are more likely to be disengaged. Not because they aren’t passionate about work but because their health issues inhibit their engrossment in work.

So, employee wellbeing is crucial for workplace engagement. Further, company culture significantly affects employee well-being. Toxic company culture exposes workers to immense stress and even pushes them into the pit of burnout. Stress and burnout have both negative psychological and physical effects. Quite the contrary, a good company culture promotes employee happiness, relaxation which translates into their well-being. Hence, company culture promotes employee well-being and enhances employee engagement.

 6. Positive Culture promotes job satisfaction:

Job satisfaction is one of the major factors that impact workplace engagement. Those who feel content with their job life, aspire to continue with it for a long duration of time. Hence, they perform at their best every day which leads them to high levels of engagement. Further, when it comes to factors that lead to high job satisfaction, company culture is one. None of us wants to spend our precious time in a toxic place. Given that, toxic company culture stimulates workers to switch their existing workplace and look for a better organization with a positive work culture.

7. Great company culture connects employees with a higher purpose:

According to research conducted by Gartner, employees seek higher purpose at work. We, human beings, have an innate desire to have a higher purpose in life. We don’t want to limit ourselves to the purpose of earning a monthly salary. There is much more that we seek. Given that, giving your employees a higher sense of purpose is a key way to keep them engaged. A great company culture consists of a unified vision and mission which helps your workforce achieve a greater sense of purpose. This way, company culture promotes employee engagement by giving workers a greater sense of purpose.

Workplace engagement is one of the most important goals an organization should pursue. It leads to greater employee productivity, performance and increased retention within the company. Building a positive company culture is one of the best tactics for enhancing employee engagement. The above mentioned are some ways in which company culture directly impacts workplace engagement. After reading the above points, are you feeling motivated to work on your organization’s culture? If yes, why wait? Start with it right away!

About the Author

"Doing what you love is the cornerstone of having abundance in your life." Wayne Dyer's thoughts are well suited to Kiara Miller. She has been working as a content marketing professional at 'The Speakingnerd’. Her passion for writing is also visible in the innovative joys of material she provides to her readers.