“You sort of smell it, don’t you, that engagement of people as people. What goes on in meetings, how people talk to each other. You get the sense of energy, engagement and commitment, belief in what the organization stands for.” ~ Lord Currie, Chair of the Office of Communications and Dean of Cass Business School

When you look around your office, do you feel a positive vibe that fosters growth, expansion, innovation and engagement? If yes, then you are fortunate and possibly working at an ideal workplace that brings out the best in you.

What makes organizations like Google, Microsoft, Intuit and some others the best places to work? Why do employees vie to get in to these companies – and hate to leave? What makes these organizations rank so high on the best places to work rankings?

The magic sauce is much more than any one factor (yes, the free food and drinks, flexibility, pets and parties all add up). One common aspect across all these companies is their progressive nature when it comes to people management and business.

Another common feature is that these organisations boast of a work culture, which is empowering and distinct from the usual corporate culture. Broadly speaking, culture is the character, identity and personality of an organization. It’s the sum of many parts – values, beliefs, behaviors, attitudes and traditions – that make the organization unique and distinct. Read our blog on why workplace culture matters.

The great thing is that most organisations can adopt certain best practices from these exemplary organisations and endeavor to be a progressive and empowering.

Let us look at a few points, which can help convert your office in to a progressive and open-minded workplace:

Create an extraordinary team culture

A workplace is often a reflection of a company’s true culture.  When an organization believes in team achievements over individual achievements, it is surely setting the stage to become an employee-driven workplace. It is often noticed by corporates that a team of talented individuals always bring more laurels to the company inform of significant achievements like crucial project wins, customer satisfaction and more. Organisations driven by team culture are believed to create a more healthy, loyal, happy and engaged workplaces.

Gear up for a diverse workforce

If yours is a millennial heavy organization, chances are that most of your employees are jack-of-all-trades and they love the idea of being exposed to great minds and diverse viewpoints. The millennial workforce is also known to take pride in donning several hats. If experimenting with different roles at work brings job satisfaction to them, encourage and enable it. Your data scientist may be a graphic designing expert too and could even take over the role of social media expert in the need of the hour. Assess your employees’ potentials well and provide them various diverse opportunities and responsibilities to keep them happy and engaged at work.

Make room for fun and creativity

Fun at the workplace sounds easier than it actually is. At the ground level, keeping fun a priority in office could be challenging. However, one could keep a check on how much time and effort that’s going into fun and creativity should receive during work hours by checking on the overall employee morale. If you are noticing that the general work environment is grumpy, dull and low, frequent breaks for fun and creative activities could immediately boost up the workplace energy. Give your employees a chance to enjoy themselves. You will eventually notice an overall healthier and happier office environment.

Offer lifestyle perks

As the millennial workforce embraces digital technologies to be efficient at work, they expect organizations to be flexible with working hours without compromising on compensation. Irrespective of the fact that they are beginners in their career or otherwise, for the new-age workforce, quality of life at work and post-work are of equal importance and keeps them motivated. Offering flexibility to suit employees’ need will also work out as a great people retention strategy.

Health and wellness are also areas of interest to employees now and organizations would do well to provide free fitness and meditation classes, healthy food options, intramural sports and so on.

Encourage entrepreneurial talent

Who would you include in the team to lead your next big project – an employee who is self-motivated and enthusiastic or the one who works great at following orders and instructions? Mostly like you would choose the first one.

Create a company full of ‘intrapreneurs’ who think of the organization as their own and take decisions to make things happen. There is no doubt that self-motivated employees are a great inspiration for co-workers as they drive everyone around them to perform and push their limits just like they do. They are creative thinkers and take complete onus to lead their team and company to success. Their enthusiasm at work is so contagious that they set great examples for freshers and other employees. So, ensure that you create an environment for such talent to flourish and succeed. It will do wonders for your organizational growth too!

If you like our ideas and have more to add on what makes today’s workplaces progressive, please do share your thoughts and views in the comments section below.