Factsheet for SME employers and employees
What is organizational culture?
It is a set of values, beliefs and attitudes that guide the practices or simply ‘how things are done’ in an organization.
“…there is a general understanding amongst the staff that you will never be turned down for a genuine need to attend to parenting duties… [they] are accepted as part of your working life.”
Small business employee
Why does it matter?
Cultivating a positive, supportive workplace environment benefits employees and their organisations by enhancing
- Employee wellbeing
- Staff loyalty and retention
- Employee productivity and engagement
“And also, it helps performance doesn’t it, […] knowing that your work-life balance, family-balance is respected, makes you want to work better for the business as well.”
Small business owner
Unique selling point for SMEs
- SMEs often have more close-knit teams which are an important foundation for a supportive culture.
- You can foster an environment rooted in trust, respect, open communication and ‘give and take’.
It does not have to be costly: small steps can lead to big changes!
How do you improve workplace culture?
Have regular, open conversations: Challenges to support often emerge when not openly discussed. It is thus important to promote a culture of communication where everyone feels heard and valued (see How to start a conversation about a sensitive topic).
This helps inform a workplace culture based on trust and respect.
What can employers do?
- Have regular team discussions and 1-1 check-ins between managers and team members. Create an environment where employees feel comfortable raising issues or support needs without the fear of negative consequences.
- Build in time during 1-1s to discuss changing support needs such as adjustments to working patterns (e.g. before, during and after parental leave).
What can employees do? Be proactive and share your support needs with your manager. Could you make suggestions (e.g. a change in working hours to accommodate nursery drop-offs and collections; a suitable space for pumping breastmilk; adaptions to your working hours to support your feeding pattern)?
Be inclusive by adopting a life-course approach: Strategies developed to support new parents at work are a good investment as they can also be used to support all other staff.
A life course approach to staff support enhances fairness and inclusivity, as it recognises that all people have a life outside work, regardless of gender, life stage or nature of support need (see Life Course Approach).
“There is no difference between requests from men or women. […] and we’ve now got one or two of the elder staff who are needing time off because of parental care, and they’ve asked for reduced hours, the same as for childcare… we recognise people have a life outside work and try to make sure we take that into account as well as business needs.”
Small business owner
You can find more details on this topic here (add link to website and PDF).
