Company Culture Archives | Kudoboard Blog

Changing Management for Hybrid- Empathy and Connections

August 29, 2023August 25, 2023 Miranda Lloyd

When developing as a leader, the focus is typically on improving skills and qualities to enhance job effectiveness and team running. These leadership values generally are things like creativity, decisiveness, and expertise.

However, in recent years, we are beginning to realize that empathy is one of the most essential leadership qualities. Especially in a hybrid workplace, empathetic management can contribute to connection for an employee base that longs for understanding and deep connection.

Historically, empathy was considered a “soft” leadership skill. Businesses viewed it as something nice to have in a leader but unnecessary. As more research is done, we are beginning to realize just how vital empathy is for effective leadership.

Everything You Need to Know About A Healthy Company Culture

August 26, 2023August 23, 2023 Miranda Lloyd

About 63% of US companies find it harder to retain than hire workers. Why is this? One of the major reasons is due to company culture. Whether intentional or not, every company has a unique culture. A company’s culture is the personality of your business. It plays a vital role in how employees behave and how the public perceives the organization. It can determine employee retention, productivity, and quality of service.

What is Company Culture?

Company culture is defined as a shared set of company goals, practices, and general attitudes. It is something outside of a formal program but rather the environment and feel in the workspace.

10 Ways to Celebrate March Madness with Your Coworkers

May 30, 2023May 30, 2023 Danica Rugg

It’s that time of year again. Easter candy has replaced the Valentine’s clearance section, the groundhog predicted another 6 weeks of winter, and mentions of online brackets and “selection Sunday” keep popping up everywhere. You guessed it: March Madness has arrived.

The NCAA Division 1 men’s basketball tournament (aka March Madness) is played every year in the spring and features 68 college basketball teams from around the country. This wildly popular, single-elimination style tournament, has an estimated 70 million people filling out a bracket every year in an effort to try and predict the winning team. It’s obvious why this might be a headache-inducing nightmare for bosses who are clinging to something resembling productivity. The headache only gets worse in the post-Covid rise of people working from home (don’t pretend you wouldn’t also be wearing pajama bottoms and cheering on your favorite teams during work hours if you could).

8 DEI Initiatives Your Company Needs

May 23, 2023May 21, 2023 Ashley Gould

When you start researching the term DEI initiatives you will find that this is considered a growing trend in the business community. DEI refers to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the workplace. Take a moment to consider this. How is this a “trend” in the business community, not the absolute standard? Hard to believe this is something that must be implemented into workplace culture. 2020 seemed to become the year that we all were forced to slow down, in turn allowing us to really pay attention to some of the inequities occurring in the world. Our culture has finally decided to shine a light on increasing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the workplace and while we are shocked it has taken this long, we are here for it.

What does DEI Mean?

DEI stands for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Specifically this term is used to describe how these terms are applied in the workforce. In order to fully understand what this means and why these initiatives matter, we have to take time to define each term separately.

Diversity

Diversity is simply welcoming people from all different backgrounds into a group. In this article, we are specifically talking about the workplace, but diversity refers to all different situations. Whether personal, social, or business, it is important to make sure we are welcoming all different backgrounds. This can mean race, religious beliefs, economic background, age, gender, all abilities, and learning differences. It is important to remember that not all differences can be seen, so we need to focus on making sure we are really diving into differences and including everyone.

Why You Need DEI Initiatives in the Workplace

May 23, 2023May 20, 2023 Danica Rugg

If you are connected to a company’s workforce in any way then you have likely heard the following three letters mentioned often: DEI.

These letters stand for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and are each vital to any work environment. Topics like these, though to some might boil down to nothing more than trendy buzzwords, provide a crucial foundation for a prosperous society - both in the workplace and outside of it. To create a diverse workforce and environment that is welcoming and accessible to all, DEI initiatives are becoming common solutions to a problem that is deeply rooted in our history. As companies become more intentional about how they approach DEI initiatives and prioritize them in their employee experience strategy, we will begin to see why we need DEI initiatives in the workplace. Before reaching that conclusion, however, let’s first look at what diversity, equity, and inclusion mean within a workplace context.

Are DEI Programs Effective?

May 17, 2023May 17, 2023 Libby Allnatt

A work culture where everyone feels valued and a variety of perspectives are brought to the table is likely to thrive. If everyone feels able to contribute and has the tools to do their jobs to the best of their abilities, it’s going to lift up the whole team.

DEI – diversity, equity and inclusion – programs can help achieve this. But a lot of DEI initiatives miss the mark. There are a few things to consider when developing an effective DEI strategy at your organization, and a few pitfalls to avoid.

Do You Need a VP of Employee Experience?

May 5, 2023May 3, 2023 Danica Rugg

Being a manager or company leader in today’s job market is no easy feat. Finding and attracting top talent is difficult enough, but retaining those employees takes it to another level of “hard.” The workplace landscape is rapidly changing and leaders are trying to adapt to new technologies and needs, as well as navigating the increase of remote work. If a company wants to succeed then it must continually evolve to meet employee and customer demands and strive to create a positive, diverse, and supportive environment. All of this boils down to prioritizing the employee experience and investing in ways to improve it.

The Next Epidemic: Burnout in Healthcare

May 3, 2023April 30, 2023 Ashley Gould

Over the last few years, we have been watching the consequences and changes that have come due to the Covid-19 pandemic. We have seen political unrest, employment issues, lack of supply, businesses folding and so much more. These have all been alarming, but there is one issue that has arisen that deserves some attention. That issue is healthcare burnout. Our physicians and other healthcare providers are leaving the industry at an alarming rate. According to Forbes.com, a recent study found that “31% of clinicians globally, and 47% of U.S. healthcare workers, plan to leave their current role within the next two to three years.” What is the cause of this mass exodus? There are many things leading to this, but healthcare burnout is the best way to sum it up. Let’s dive in.

What is Healthcare Burnout?

Burnout in the healthcare industry is when the negative consequences outweigh the positive aspects of a position, causing employees to seek a career change. According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, “Burnout is a long-term stress reaction marked by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a lack of sense of personal accomplishment.” There are several issues in healthcare that are causing burnout rates. It is important to understand what they are so that we as a society can address them.

Causes of Healthcare Burnout

Our Current Cultural Environment

The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic marked a significant change in the political and societal environment of our country. Political leaders used the pandemic as an opportunity to push their political agendas onto the public. Unfortunately, since science was not strictly adhered to when relaying information about the pandemic, our country became much more divided than it ever has. There is so much misinformation being spread and medical workers have been painted as the bad guy, puppets of a controlling government.

8 Ways Employee Benefits May Change in a Hybrid Workplace

May 2, 2023April 30, 2023 Ashley Gould

Ever since the Covid-19 pandemic, we have been rethinking what the workplace should look like. When employees were sent home to work it was a truly unique experiment in the working world. What did we find? Well, working from home is actually beneficial in a myriad of ways. From increased employee satisfaction to lowering costs for businesses, we began to see that there could be a new way to work. When employees were asked to come back to offices, essentially back to the old way of working, we saw an unprecedented number of employees leave the workforce in “The Great Resignation”. This spurred businesses to re-consider how they ask their employees to work and the concept of the hybrid workplace was born.

What is a Hybrid Workplace

A hybrid workplace allows employees to decide when and where they would like to work. They can choose to work at home, in the office, or a mix of the two. Some companies that have made the switch to a hybrid workplace will give employees total freedom to choose where they are working, while others have required a certain number of days in the office.

A hybrid workplace often means that employees have more autonomy in when they work as well. Employees are able to get their work done when they are most productive, rather than required to work at certain hours.

10 Valuable Ways to Improve Employee Experience

April 25, 2023April 25, 2023 Danica Rugg

It’s no secret that today's workplace looks far different than it did 10 years ago. Technology is rapidly changing, we have better standards for diversity and inclusion, and flexible work arrangements are becoming more commonplace. The Covid-19 pandemic created a huge push for remote positions which is changing the possibilities for how work is done. The customer experience has always been a key focus for every company but in the last few years leaders are waking up to the understanding that employee experience is just as important (if not more so). Organizations are investing time and money into creating a company culture that prioritizes its workers and finds ways to improve the employee experience.

What is the Employee Experience?

Employee experience, commonly referred to as “EX,” is the sum of everything an employee experiences throughout their time in a company. This overall experience encompasses every aspect of the workplace and work environment, such as the company culture, the hiring and onboarding process, salary, benefits, relationships with management and coworkers, growth opportunities, and so much more. Though some smaller parts might seem insignificant, each piece is necessary for a strong employee experience. A helpful framework for understanding this topic is something called the “Employee Experience Equation.”