In Short
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Implement casual dress codes to enhance comfort and productivity.
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Organise regular team activities to strengthen relationships and morale.
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Consider a pet-friendly policy to boost workplace happiness.
Tips for Businesses
As your startup grows, it’s essential to maintain a strong company culture. Encourage open communication, adaptability, and regularly assess your core values. Recognise and celebrate achievements to foster a positive environment. Prioritising culture helps sustain the innovation that drives your startup’s success.
Keeping staff happy is integral to the success of any startup. The culture is what makes startups so attractive, and keeping a hold of that culture can be difficult as the company grows. As a startup founder, it is important to maintain a startup culture as you grow. Beyond health insurance, maternity leave, and staff leave, there are additional benefits and perks you can offer to your employees. This article outlines some ideas that can improve the morale and productivity of your most important asset, your team.
Casual Office Policy
If your business has little face time with customers or clients, then why force your staff to sit at the desk in a suit? Casual attire in the office can make the environment better, make your employees more productive and help to foster your company culture. Set guidelines on what is appropriate, which will be entirely dependent on your business needs. Why not treat your staff with a work-branded t-shirt, baseball hat or other merchandise?
Office Activities
Planning office activities can improve morale and enhance interaction between growing teams across the company. It is a great way to foster staff relations, especially in offices where employees work remotely or part-time. Planning finances carefully and allocating a budget for team events is crucial to keep your business profitable but also build a great company culture.
Examples of activities include:
- paid team lunches;
- on-site competitions, such as table tennis or foosball games;
- off-site team activities, such as bowling or go-karting; and
- team sports, like running or yoga.
By planning and adequately advertising office activities, it only keeps your staff happy but also encourages socialisation within your startup.
Continue reading this article below the formPet-Friendly Workplace
Studies show it is a proven staff morale and productivity booster when the office dog is strutting their fluff around the office. Not only does it improve the moods of your wider staff, but it also assists staff members who are dog owners as they can work alongside their furry friends.
Startup Culture Inspiration
Look at other companies for inspiration, and discover what makes these places the best places to work. For example:
- Google have on-site haircuts;
- Patagonia’s Californian office provides volleyball courts, company bikes and actively encourages staff to hang five and catch a wave or two in the middle of the workday;
- Zappos have nap rooms as they believe sleep significantly impacts wellbeing; and
- Dropbox has Razor Scooters so their employees can get around the office quicker.
The LegalVision Startup Manual provides guidance on a number of common challenges faced by startup founders including structuring, raising capital, building a team, dealing with customers and suppliers, and protecting intellectual property.
The guide includes 10 case studies featuring Australia’s top VC fund partners and leading Australian startups.
Key Takeaways
As a startup grows and takes on more employees, it is easy to lose sight of the culture as teams break off and start forming their own culture. From casual dress codes to planned office activities, a startup’s culture can still be maintained as the company grows.
For more information, our experienced startup lawyers can assist as part of our LegalVision membership. For a low monthly fee, you will have unlimited access to lawyers to answer your questions and draft and review your documents. Call us today on 1300 544 755 or visit our membership page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Your startup culture is crucial to retain staff and is closely related to your company’s success and profitability. If your work environment is hostile, overly competitive or pressure-filled, employees will face difficulties motivating themselves to work productively for your company. A toxic work environment can also drive employees to seek employment elsewhere, some of which may be key players to your startup’s success.
Some ways to maintain a great startup culture are to introduce a casual office policy and organise office activities. You could also have a pet-friendly workplace.
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