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How To Be More Like Google: Enabling A Flexible Culture In Your Team
Every business owner would love to offer the perks of huge digital companies like Google. Employees everywhere would love to also work in a ‘Google’ office unlimited snacks, gym access, cool workspace or even their famous Google slide. For many businesses this just unattainable, either from a cost or logistical view, but adopting Google’s culture of ‘play and create’ is very attainable for any business.
Fostering a culture of creative happiness is a business is vital nowadays with graduates stating that the company culture plays a huge part in choosing where they work. With a huge skills gap in the UK, highly skilled workers are going to have their pick of jobs. Smalls businesses will be able to lure and retain talent away from big companies with higher wage packages by offering a workplace culture that fosters creative freedom.
FLEXIBLE WORKING HOURS
This is a big factor not only in tech companies but across multiple industries. Offering autonomy over where and how to work is a big deal to employees. 35% of millennials say that offering flexible working hours factors higher than wage for them. Of course offering flexible hours is a fantastic pull for talent who have family commitments or have health problems. There are now entire work programmes focused on helping women into digital job after maternity leave. Ensuring that your team doesn’t have to worry about getting time off to look after the kids makes for happier, more engaged employees.
CREATIVE BREAKOUT SPACES
Look around your office. Is there anywhere that the team can just relax and have a chat? No? Then you are missing a serious trick. Workplaces should offer collaborative spaces for teams to sit and discuss ideas or for informal meeting space. A 2013 study found that ‘workplaces to enable collaboration without sacrificing employees’ abilities to focus were more successful’. Employers who were able to provide alternative spaces to support all modes of working and learning scored higher on levels of productivity and satisfaction.
ERGONOMIC WORKSTATIONS
No one does ergonomic spaces better than Google. It has been reported that Google provides most of their staff with standing desks have are usually the first to experiment with treadmill desks. As previously mentioned, giving your team autonomy over how they can increase levels of happiness and productivity, this can be extended to allowing employees to choose how they carry out that work at their desk.
Business Insider found that productivity increased by 10% and staff had higher energy levels while working from a standing desk. For this exact reason, Google and other famous tech companies such as Facebook have been heavily investing in standing desks. The cost of ergonomic furniture is coming down drastically as new innovation for manufacture are being found. This means that even SMEs can bring a ‘Google’ feel to their offices without a huge price tag.
