Putting a Price on Happiness: The True Cost of a Bad Company Culture

A third (34%) of British employees quit their jobs as a result of dissatisfaction with their company’s culture. We all know the saying, “Workers leave managers and not companies.”

This leaves much to be said about the state of company culture and why it’s bad for your business.

Low overhead may seem like an obvious plus, but if it results in bad company culture, it could cost you more in the long run. Here’s why.

Large, influential organizations simply cannot be successful unless their teams are given an environment where they can be high-performing, challenged and inspired by the leadership that they’re employed by.

Bad company culture is the combination of weak leadership and an environment not conducive to employees reaching their full potential. This could mean that the environment is not managed correctly, the quality and quantity of work are not at a premium and team members suffer as a result of this.

The focus of leadership tends to be on the budget, business activities and strategies as opposed to creating a strong, motivated team. Which in my opinion, is infinitely more important to your business than any other component. If your team feels valued and driven then you’ll find yourself with a team that works in the interest of your business always.

It’s clear that no organization can buy loyalty, what is it they say? If you want loyalty then get a dog? Loyalty is expensive, but disengagement from your employees is even more so.

Retention is extremely difficult to measure because the variables involved are too much to account for.

You know how expensive it can become when hiring a new employee. You have to spend money on finding qualified applicants through advertising, screening and the interviewing process. Once you find someone new, there are further costs to training the new person, also, the productivity that is lost due to this person finding their feet can be counted as profit loss. In the first few weeks, it can be difficult for your new employee to take as many calls and make as many sales due to them settling in, adequately.

At the end of the day, there is also a loss to be accounted for in cultural impact when you have high employee turnover.

I’ve put together The 3 F’s that usually drive bad company culture, here they are:

Frustration can be a major cause of bad company culture. If there isn’t a good team dynamic, employees will find themselves frustrated when trying to get their jobs done. Good communication from the top of your company to the bottom is paramount to curbing frustration. Fear is not conducive to a positive working environment. It makes you think of the villain in comic book stories. If employees are scared to speak up or voice their concerns then their productivity is driven by fear, this is no good. Financial losses are a key indicator of bad company culture. Employees who are not satisfied will be absent more from work, show lower productivity rates and withhold on their enthusiasm.

These factors will inevitably create an environment where you’re spending too much budget on keeping your team complete, instead of keeping them engaged.

Fixing a bad company culture cannot be done overnight. You need to focus on creating an environment where there’s positivity, professionalism, appreciation, and consistency.

There’s nothing worse for employees than being within a company whose future is unclear.

Communicate with your staff and make sure they have a voice.