Albert Einstein once said, “If the facts don’t fit the theory, change the facts.” Ask yourself, are employees engaged? Are they productive? How is their morale? Having a positive workplace environment is an ongoing direction many offices around the world are leaning toward in order to reduce turnover, encourage productivity, and more or less just rally the team.
It doesn’t have to be complicated or something that happens overnight. Start small and work up to a more robust “cool” yet manageable office culture. Here’s some suggestions based on what other accounting firms are doing to shape their company’s culture:
- Flexible work hours
- Help retain employees and allow a healthy work-life balance. Trust employees to manage their time—this encourages better production and a more positive workplace.
- Remote working abilities
- Reduce the limits of geographic boundaries and allow your firm to attract top talent from anywhere around the world.
- Provide a well-rounded customer/client experience allowing employees to be available while traveling for work, participating at an offsite meeting, or even operating in the midst of a crisis such as a hurricane, winter storm, or a tornado.
- Allow your firm to provide less physical office space which is a positive for the bottom line.
- Real-time accountancy
- Encourage a social media presence that’s representative of the firm.
- Allow open communication with customers/clients through chat features, text messaging, etc.
- Casual wear
- Promote a more a casual environment by allowing employees to wear jeans or dress similar to how the client dresses.
- Schedule exercise breaks
- Reinforce the importance of stress relief during busy season and encourage employees to get physical all year long, which ultimately is great for productivity levels.
- Stand-up meetings
- Encourage shorter, more efficient meetings. This is literally where everyone stands up during the entire meeting. These types of meetings obviously don’t work for all interactions so don’t treat them as a one-size-fits-all for firms. It’s an interesting strategy when companies are known to be “meeting heavy” and are trying to reduce time spent in meetings.
- Ergonomic workstations and stand-up desks
- Provide insights on workstation ergonomics such as chair height, monitor distance, and even where to place a keyboard or mouse to help stay comfortable.
- Give the choice to employees if they’d rather sit or stand at their workstation (or alternate between the two).
Firms like KPMG, PwC, Ernst & Young, and Deloitte, were all listed in Fortune as one of the 100 Best Companies to Work for® in 2017 due to high employee ratings on insights in regards to company atmosphere, communication, rewards, challenges, and more.
These are just a few suggestions to get the ball rolling. There’s an endless amount of options to consider and to discuss with your Human Resources department if you’re looking into rolling out an all-encompassing office cultural program involving rewards, training, and leadership programs.
