Communication is one of the most complex concepts facing modern man. Within the workplace especially, office politics can be tough.  We all want to have a stable, satisfying working life.  When things flow smoothly at work, the rest of your life seems like a piece of cake.  Conversely, when things are tough in the office, every small issue in your life can cause a big blowup.

For many, it’s the ultimate goal, the ambitious intention, the just out of reach vision. Heading up a high-productivity, low-drama team is everyone’s dream.  Of course, working in close quarters for hours on end may eventually precede some conflict.  But a well-organized and high-functioning collaboration can weather any storm. Below, four simple strategic initiatives to create a harmonious and highly efficient team environment.

We’ve all had negative working experiences.  Many offices are filled with unhealthy competition, our days peppered with manipulation and deceit in efforts to get ahead.  So what makes for a healthy working environment?  How do team leaders create positivity and productivity in equal amounts?  There is a secret that some of the world’s top leaders know, one word that gets them further than anything else in their careers. Gratitude.  Time and time again, studies have shown that it is not happy people who are thankful, but rather thankful people who become happy.

The workplace is changing at a fascinating pace. Companies are recognizing more and more that creating a virtual workplace is beneficial both professionally and personally. One US study has stated that as many as 3.7 million employees now work from home.

By now, any internet social HR professional should be witnessing first-hand the transition companies are making from old-school annual employee surveys, to frequent pulse polling or in other words, consistent employee engagement.  In fact, over the past few years, a clear handful of startups have developed applications and tools to help with this, including us, duh.

While many of us in the industry see this transition as a “why didn’t this happen sooner” type of thing, there are still others that find difficulties adopting a more engaging system of building great company culture.  One of the topics that we discuss when helping new clients, has to do with what questions to ask.  

When a company is introduced to pulse polling for the first time, they are unsure how to go about asking the right questions.  Therefore, Vibecatch has made that part easy too.  We’re going to walk you through setting up your first poll with Vibecatch, while you are reading this, just so you can see how easy it is.

Ready?

One of the most common responses we get when talking to a new prospective client is, “Oh we already do annual surveys,” and this is a big problem.  Lucky for us, as we have the solution.

Problems with annual surveys:

Sam walks into a room with a straight face.  No hint of a smile.  A bit of a sigh as he sits down in front of his peers.  Virtually no eye contact.

Greg walks into a room, makes eye contact with everyone, smiles, says hello, asks how everyone is doing, maybe even chuckles here and there.

Based on those two scenarios, who would you rather meet?

Poor communication is definitely one of the top reasons a company can be torn apart. If the quality and the quantity of communication is poor between colleagues, this can have a direct effect on efficiency, productivity, and the bottom line. If there is a lack of communication between leadership and their teams, things can get even worse. Why is communication so important?

A wise person once said to me, that you can only control what you can control. This statement resonates with me, and it should resonate with everyone because it’s pretty much a fact. The sad truth is that things will happen in life that are out of your control. The only thing you can control is how you react and manage it.   One of the most difficult things HR professionals (and managers in general) face in the office, is figuring out how to approach tragedies the right way. As we all know, even during the toughest tragedies, work is work, and somehow we need to keep things going.

Last week we started talking about diversity, and the importance of diversity in the hiring process.  We are all individuals with different personalities, and those personality traits start to show when we’re put in teams and forced to work together.  Certain people emerge as leaders, other focus on analyzing, and so on and so on.  

To expand on this topic of diversity, we’re now going to talk about cultural diversity in the workplace.