Work to Thrive: Turning around toxic company culture

Ensuring your business succeeds means creating a place where people thrive. Jasmine Anderson, HR Business Partner at office company Canvas Offices, offers an approach to turning around toxic company cultures.

In today’s cutthroat business world, toxic company culture is more than just a minor internal issue, it’s a serious threat to any company’s long-term success and survival, impacting everything from reputation to productivity and even recruitment costs.

Unfortunately there is a tendency for business leaders and their management teams to focus on increasing their bottom line at the expense of the wellbeing of their employees. While this may work temporarily, the long-term effects can be dire. In the UK, a 2020 report by HR software provider Breathe, found that toxic company culture costs SMEs £15.7 billion per year. 

A clear example of this is global transportation company Uber, whose inability to tackle sexism and harassment resulted an employee creating a 2,900-word blog post about her experiences which subsequently went viral. Such was the global outrage that the company’s CEO, Travis Kalanick, was forced to resign and the company agreed to pay $4.4 million to settle charges brought by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). 

When employees feel disengaged, burnt out or abused, it is time for management teams to step up and assess their management style, policies and procedures. A failure to do so can have serious consequences but senior management teams must first learn to recognise when they have a problem and how to negate it.

Understanding the causes of toxic culture and the impacts it can have

Toxic cultures are typically created when employees are mistreated or feel undervalued, and unsupported. This can manifest in many ways, including unachievable KPIs, employee burnout, high staff turnover and even a lack of respect and trust, leading to micromanagement and even workplace bullying. In a toxic workplace, employees lack trust in leadership and often feel that they can’t speak out and their voices don’t matter. Research conducted by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) uncovered that one in three people, both managers and workers, have left their jobs because of negative work culture – a statistic costing businesses brilliant staff members, who could even end up working for a competitor. 

Clearly a healthy workplace should not be taken for granted and is something all businesses need to prioritise. Indeed, it is the foundation of employee satisfaction, engagement and work productivity. Remember that toxicity reflects poorly on your brand and can permanently damage your company’s reputation, so management teams must undertake specific measures to prevent it arising. 

Proactive Strategies to ensure a Healthy Workplace Culture

1. Communication

Transforming toxic cultures is no easy task and requires work from everyone in the company. One of the most important and easiest ways to make positive change is engaging in consistent, clear and transparent communication within the organisation, particularly senior leaders. It is essential that senior members of the company can deliver all types of news, whether it be positive, negative or just updating team members on decisions made in the company. Letting members of staff have a voice and share their thoughts with any decision making is also essential in fostering workplace trust, something that is vital to mutual respect and the smooth running of both interpersonal and company operations.

2. Feedback Sessions

Implementing structured feedback sessions regularly between managers and employees can also aid in building connections within the workplace. This will allow colleagues to speak with one another on a one-to-one basis, expressing concerns that can then be discussed with managers or HR representatives. The option for anonymous feedback could also be a good option for those who are nervous to voice their opinion. Regardless of how things are shared or how employees prefer to speak up, embracing new perspectives will help with securing employee trust and could even help your organisation flourish. 

3. Comprehensive Training

Investing in comprehensive training sessions about workplace bullying, bias, conflict resolution and communication techniques is something every organisation should be participating in. Providing the senior management of your company as well as employees with tools in how to positively manage workplace conflict and issues will help your company evolve. 

4. Prioritising Cultural Health

Within startups or small companies, there will always be challenges when it comes to company growth. Being part of a team that prioritises cultural health is imperative for the happiness of employees and the success of your business. For example, investing in a ‘people leader’ or team could support growth by supporting training sessions, communication channels and empowering discussions between management and junior employees. 

Leading change within your workplace 

Understanding workplace toxicity in your organisation is imperative and it is even more important to face the issues head on and make the first steps towards change. By senior staff engaging in transparency, inclusivity and a commitment to communication, employees will start to build a level of trust. Leaders must not only communicate their vision for healthy workplace culture, but also ensure it is backed up by consistent actions, which can be done by prioritising training, transparency and involving wider company members in decision making. Businesses should be building a culture that attracts talent and empowers employees to thrive by being respected and heard.