Summary
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“Always Day 1” at Amazon or tunnel slides at Google, we are living in an age where positive work culture is a key business tenet.
Organizations carry out grand gestures to build a workplace that employees not only enjoy but also feel valued at. A second home which is worth giving one-thirds of life to.
But culture-shaping is not an overnight phenomenon. It happens with little effort at the ground level and bigger policy reforms at the decision table.
For the little part, I do believe that reorganizing your office space with better communication and coordination is fundamental to creating a positive work environment.
Therefore, I would like to shed some light on ways by which you can use ProofHub’s project management software, to develop a positive company environment. We have been reaping the fruits of the same since 2012, and now we have a basket-full for you!
But before we jump into that let’s first develop an understanding of what a positive work environment means.
What is a positive work environment?
A workplace that makes work enjoyable and promotes positive values such as healthy teamwork, brainstorming, idea-sharing, and openness towards diverse opinions, etc. Employees feel engaged with their work, feel motivated to do their best and return home with a sense of accomplishment.
Positive work culture is one of the key drivers of employee satisfaction. No one likes to be bogged down at the office, and if your employees feel good about their work, they’re most likely to produce great work.
We all appreciate the company of co-workers whom we can laugh with, and exercise minimum emotional restrain. We can be open about our feelings, discuss new ideas easily and communicate without judgment. All of us fancy that.
Be the culture shaper at your organization. Bring your team to ProofHub for free.
Elements of positive work culture
While building a positive work environment that resonates with the worldview of your team, it’s better to take advice from a vetted psychologist.
I’d like to refer to the expertise of Dr. Linnda Durre, a Licensed Mental Health Counselor who has been interviewed by the likes of Oprah and O’Reilly. She also appeared on the shows organized by American Health Network, PBS, and NPR.
No signs of fear, or domination
Workplaces where employees have no fears related to rejection, being ridiculed, or at worse, punished for mistakes, go a long way in creating a positive work culture.
It’s necessary to cultivate the “It’s okay to fail” culture. Fearful employees can’t come out of their comfort zones to perform their best.
Open and effective communication
Workplaces thrive on effective communication. It’s easier to get work done when the language is professional, and feedback doesn’t sound like personal attacks.
The other aspect of effective communication (that is easy to overlook) is context. In professional places, there is a huge volume of information that is shared around. This could be something as simple as a “To-do” or a Knowledge Transfer session.
If the communication (advertently or inadvertently) lacks context, it’s susceptible to misunderstandings that poison workplace positivity.
Healthy humour
Humor is one of the star stress-beaters and it also contributes to better office morale. Research shows that social laughter releases endorphins in the brain that are instrumental to building a more connected team environment.
Teams that laugh together more often share a stronger social bond.
Compassionate co-workers
You feel safe and protected when your co-workers understand your personal problems and make you feel at home.
Compassionate team members that support each other in times of illness, tragedies, and untoward circumstances end up creating a positive work culture.
Focus on flexibility
Offices that are open to new ideas and move toe-to-toe with the transforming work landscape promote positivity. It’s the responsibility of office administration to keep the company environment dynamic.
Period leaves, flexible work hours, remote working, self-managed schedules, uplifting appraisals are all signs of positive work culture.
Positive reinforcement
It’s quite encouraging to receive a standing ovation while being handed out a certificate of appreciation. Even a heartfelt compliment or a sincere pat on the back from time to time helps employees stay motivated.
Recognizing employee achievements or simply thanking them for their consistent efforts, is a source of positivity. It helps the team members know that they’ll be going to an office that values them.
How ProofHub can help you build a positive work culture?
I’d like to quote the great Steve Jobs here;
“Technology is nothing. What’s important is that you have faith in people, that they’re basically good and smart, and if you give them tools, they’ll do wonderful things with them.”
Along the same lines, I want to openly express the fact that software can’t manufacture a positive work environment. But what it can do is to help you keep negative habits at bay, and propagate positive ethics with greater ease.
Our development efforts at ProofHub have been highly human-centric. While it tries to make your office a thriving example of productivity, it doesn’t take the human out of the mechanism.
Here are a few ways you can use ProofHub to percolate positivity in your office.
Prevent misunderstandings from building up
Let’s continue the discussion on “context” in conversations.
When do people misunderstand each other?
- Due to incomplete or incompatible information
- When they assume without knowing
- The communication isn’t as transparent
Most of these anomalies dissolve when conversations are supported with rich context.
In ProofHub, you can enhance communication context with the help of the following features.
Shared Kanban Boards (task workflows)
A Kanban Board answers, “Who is doing what and how much they’ve done?” in an easy-to-grasp manner for everyone in the team.
You can view what all tasks are in the “To-do” stage and if that particular high-priority task has moved to the “Done” stage.
You can have custom stage names such as, “Almost there”, or “Brewing” or anything that your team resonates with.
Everyone who’s associated with the “Done” stage gets an email when tasks are completed. Similarly, emails fly out automatically when a task jumps from one stage to another.
Many times, co-workers get into arguments because they were never on the same page for a task. Shared Kanban boards keep everyone informed about task statuses and assignees so that concerns can be discussed well in time before they become conflicts.
And like we said earlier – conflict avoidance is a key facilitator of positive work culture.
Convert “oh, why!?” into “High-fives!” with smooth conversations. Bring your team to ProofHub for free.
Visual File Proofing
Have you tried to explain how the website header needs more spacing in an email? I bet it takes more than an email to clearly point out what you mean. And trust me, even if you move this conversation to chat, you need to attach several screenshots in order to get the task done.
ProofHub lets you integrate file proofing directly into your workflow.
You can point out, “Hey, we need more space here and here” using drawing tools that save you from writing elaborate emails.
You can have elaborate discussions without making them lengthy. The room for misunderstanding, as a result, shrinks on its own accord.
Keep members in loop, and in check
We all know that negativity makes way through broken conversations. If you miss CC-ing someone on an important email, you have given them grounds to think, “He might have done that on purpose.”
When such instances happen too often, the whole office culture can become a stinking mess of pent-up negative emotions.
ProofHub comes with three ways to deal with the “keeping everyone in the loop” challenge.
Discussions
Discussions enable team members to officially record conversations and keep everyone informed. You can tag as many people as you want, who should receive minute-by-minute updates for each comment made.
Each notification is sent via an email, making sure that everyone is CC-ed on the topic automatically.
Chat
Direct one-on-one and group chat lets team members instantly reach out to each other. ProofHub’s mobile app ensures that even if they’re not at their desk, they’ll get your ping.
You can enjoy a truly private yet focused workplace chat experience. Attaching files and GIFs are just added advantages.
@Mentions
Need to make sure your team members look at your comment? Use the @mention feature anywhere in ProofHub, be it Tasks, Discussions, or Annotations.
Each mention sends out a notification, an email, and a mobile app ping so that the team members can be in the loop no matter where they are. It’s easier than writing or following up on email.
When team members have effective conversations and don’t lag behind on each other, they feel more connected. It contributes to their morale and helps orchestrate a positive work culture.
Let team members work from anywhere
A recent FlexJobs Survey found that 96% of employees want some form of remote work to exist in their organization. This primarily tells us about the desire for flexibility to work from home when needed (31%), or a full-time remote work position (65%).
Flexible work offers a higher degree of freedom to employees and also promotes a better work-life balance. Especially, after the pandemic, flexible work hours have become a highly sought-out norm.
We have established that employees do need remote working options but it’s hard to maintain the same level of communication when employees are filtering in and out of the office. So, how do you fulfill this need?
Using ProofHub you can solve the two major challenges to remote work – patchy communication and sparse productivity.
Fully cloud-based with mobile support
ProofHub lets you work from home or anywhere in the world because it’s a 100% cloud-based solution. You just need a PC to log in to your account, and all your messages, tasks, files will be ready to use.
If you don’t have a PC handy, you can still view everything using the ProofHub Android and iOS Mobile App.
But what about security, you may ask? Worry not, you can restrict IP addresses to allow only trusted addresses to access your organization’s ProofHub account. You don’t need to set up VPNs or install firewalls.
You can get your work PC’s IP address fed into the system so that only trusted devices allow access to your business data. See what happens when someone from an unauthorized IP tries to access your data.
This lets employers confidently work with virtual teams and offer the desired flexibility to in-house employees.
Productivity tracking for managers
The second challenge for teams is to maintain the same level of productivity that is found in-office.
The responsibility befalls on the manager’s shoulders as they’ve to constantly track individual productivity levels, and ensure that the team stays productive.
ProofHub offers productivity tracking with the help of graphical reports that managers can readily leverage. The reporting is integrated into ProofHub, which means that you don’t have to create spreadsheets separately. It all happens based on the tasks and timelines assigned in ProofHub.
This way managers can ensure that virtual teams, even when out of sight, can stay productive. For offices, that are looking for distributed office environments, can also positively tackle virtual workplace challenges.
Build a distributed team with the right security and reliability in place! Bring your team to ProofHub for free.
Celebrate your team (and have fun in comments)
After the pizza party is over and your team has had a toast to hitting a new milestone in the project, it’s time to let everyone know that you’re valued.
Office celebrations get a notch more meaningful when people recognize your achievements. That feeling of accomplishment when HR sends out an appreciation email with the entire office tagged in it hits differently.
ProofHub makes virtual or in-office team celebrations, even more exciting.
Appreciate with announcements
Although we designed the Announcements feature to spread the word about team updates quickly, we love how it can double as an appreciation portal.
We constantly highlight special achievements, birthdays, holidays, and everything in between using Announcements. The good part is that everyone gets to participate in the conversation and it’s way livelier than an email thread.
GIF comments open the stage for creativity to flow unabashedly. The team can share moments of laughter and frolic, to quickly de-stress and refill their energies.
ProofHub for a positive work environment
On a whole, in order to cultivate a positive work environment at a grassroots level, ProofHub can help you introduce the following positive changes
- Streamlined communication that leads to lesser conflicts
- Uniform information sharing that keeps everyone on the same page
- Enabling a flexible work environment for employees
- Positive reinforcement at work for propagating personal accomplishment
These little changes go a long way in creating a positive work culture. By solving small challenges that weigh teams down, ProofHub aims to cultivate positivity as an integral part of your office culture.
So far, we have had some success in bringing teams together. We have been able to reduce the silent signs of workplace negativity in organizations that rely on ProofHub for their teamwork.
Let’s hear it from our customers.
Our testimonials primarily speak of improved team communication and getting work faster. Both of these are great motivators for teams and managers to deliver their best work.
You can also test out these claims for free by signing up for a ProofHub trial. The trial has all the features mentioned in this article so that you can get a more hands-on experience of the product.
Conclusion
It’s understandable at this point that a lot more is needed to actually make a work environment teem with positivity. Positivity isn’t a magic potion that everyone can gulp down their throats and forget about it.
In any case, the article tries to address some readily solvable challenges that may be hindering your team’s path to positivity. It’s surprising how a software tool can evenly pace your team dynamics in hopes of avoiding negative conflicts.
If you’re a manager, it’s time to shape your team’s culture for elongated and effortless positive outcomes.
