5 Ways to Improve Company Culture Through Events

Company culture is something that everyone is impacted by at work, whether they’re aware of it or not. Culture is made up of all kinds of different aspects of a workplace, and one of these is the kinds of events that a business organises for employees or encourages them to attend.

Plenty of elements of company culture can be impacted by the kinds of events that employees take part in, which is why they’re a great method of improving and changing company culture. In this article, we’re going to explain the importance of workplace culture and then share some of the best ways to improve it with events and the kinds of events that work best for this.

Company culture is a term that describes the attitudes, behaviour, goals, expectations and processes that characterise how an organisation operates. It may also be referred to as workplace culture, corporate culture or organisational culture.

The culture of a workplace plays a massive part in how employees feel working there, as it influences how they are expected to behave and interact, how tasks are approached and what the motivation is behind the work they’re doing. Because of this, having a poor or unclear workplace culture can lead to problems with productivity, efficiency and employee retention.

Developing workplace culture and behaviour can be done in a range of different ways, from implementing new internal processes to offering new benefits to employees. Events are a great way to illustrate the important elements of your company culture and help to create a culture that is more aligned or cohesive, with different types of events serving different purposes.

Hosting and organising company events is a great way to improve your workplace culture. Here are five different ways that events can help.

Develop Employee Relationships

A huge part of company culture is how your employees interact and get on with each other. They don’t all have to be best friends outside of work, but a common element of a cohesive workplace culture is employees with strong professional relationships, which benefit the business through better communication, teamwork and productivity.

Team building events are a great way to improve this element of company culture, particularly when you take teams out of their usual working environment and give them all the chance to lead. In larger companies, you can also develop employee relationships across departments by mixing up teams so that your staff get the chance to do activities with people they might not have interacted with much before, which helps to create a strong sense of culture across different teams.

Embody Company Values

Company values can be quite simple to articulate, but when it comes to making them a tangible part of your culture, this can be a trickier task. Events are a great way to help employees actually embody your business values and get a better idea of what you stand for, which helps to better align them with the purpose of their work.

Your company values will dictate the kind of event you hold to facilitate company culture activities. One example of this might be that if one of your values is about sharing profits with worthy causes, you host a fundraising event or a volunteering day that gets staff involved with the organisation you’re supporting.

Another example might be that you have a value all about individual development and learning opportunities. You might then organise an event where all employees learn a new skill or get trained to use a new piece of software or equipment.

Recognise Top Performers

A sign of good company culture is that employees feel recognised and appreciated for the work they do, as this helps them to stay engaged in their roles and encourages high performance. You can develop this aspect of company culture by organising events that recognise and reward top performers in your organisation, such as hosting awards evenings, offering incentive travel, or holding events where individuals compete against each other to complete challenges that demonstrate their skills.

It’s important to strike the right balance between rewarding your top employees and ensuring that everyone in the team feels valued, as you don’t want to end up excluding employees with talents that might be harder to identify. But hosting these kinds of events also provides a great incentive for everyone to work harder, which improves culture in turn by increasing productivity.

Align Teams

We’ve talked about how to improve company culture by helping employees embody company values, but what about company goals? A sign of good workplace culture is when employees all understand the overall goals the business is trying to achieve and know how their work fits into this, which you can improve through team building events.

Hosting company-wide events that involve networking, socialising, team building and talks from directors and stakeholders is a great way to help your teams feel more aligned with business goals and get a better idea of the work that other departments are doing. What these involve will depend on the size of the company, but they can be anything from team days in the office to corporate trips.

Improve Morale

A happy workforce is the product of good workplace culture, and you can use events to boost employee morale and keep your teams feeling positive and motivated about the work that they do. Social events at work are a great way to do this, whether you’re organising meals out, providing a budget for after-work drinks, sending teams on fun days out to bond, or just organising smaller workplace events such as bringing in breakfast or streaming sporting events in a meeting room for people to watch.

Now we’ve discussed some of the ways that events can impact company culture, here are examples of the different kinds of events that can be used to improve culture in the workplace.

Networking

Networking events are events designed to help people from the same or similar industries to make new connections and share their experiences of working in a particular sector. These might be internal events in a large company, or companies might take employees to a larger networking event as part of a professional development initiative.

Events like conferences and trade shows also involve networking, and these again can help contribute towards company culture by supporting employee development or presenting opportunities to generate leads, make sales and embody your brand image. 

Trust-Building

Trust-building is a great way to improve communication in a team and help to bring employees closer together through shared experiences and supporting one another. If this is an aspect of the company culture that you feel needs improving, organising team events with activities that facilitate this is a great idea. You can either do this internally or plan a team day out to attend an event or experience that will help everyone develop more trust and confidence.

New Skills

Events that teach employees new skills can include workshops, seminars, conferences or training courses. If you think building a positive workplace culture will benefit from allowing employees to upskill, these types of events are a great option. You can either organise attendance for employees that you think would benefit, or advertise these events and offer to pay for attendance to encourage employees to make the most of the opportunity.

Doing Good

We touched on charity or voluntary work in a previous section, as this is a great example of a type of event that can really contribute to workplace culture. Events involving giving back or supporting a worthy cause can range from volunteering sessions to charity auctions, and if you’re looking to introduce philanthropy into your company culture then it’s a great way to help with this.

Social Events

Finally, social events are similar to networking opportunities, but have less of a focus on professional development and are more about giving employees a chance to bond and interact outside of the work environment. You can really impact company culture by organising regular social events at work, particularly if you’re hoping to promote connections between team members.

If you’re looking for ideas to improve company culture, events can be some of the best ways to help employees embody values, align with goals and feel more appreciated and supported by their employer. There is a wide range of different types of events that are each suited to different company culture goals, so if you’re working on building a positive workplace culture, be sure to begin with clear intentions and choose events with this in mind.

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