People & Culture | 20-12-22
How a positive work environment contributes to project success
2 min read
People don’t leave jobs; they leave toxic work cultures. You are less likely to want to go to work and have a career in an industry if you don’t enjoy the culture surrounding it. A healthy workplace culture promotes motivated and engaged staff members, elevates productivity, creates a healthy team environment and enables long-term success. This has been a challenge for the engineering industry, and Axiom strives to be a leader and cultivate a healthy workplace culture.
Several factors influence workplace culture, both in positive and negative ways, and it is important to understand their impact. Workplace value alignment plays a large role in workplace culture as it is fundamentally tied to how the perspectives and goals of the individual align with the company they choose to work for. At Axiom, our values represent the diversity in workplace values held by our team.
We understand that workplace values can and do differ between different demographics. The impact of having a demographic unintentionally dictate value placement in any field is that you can create a situation where only people with those values can be successful. By being mindful of this impact, Axiom has created a work culture that deviates from the traditional. As a result, we are able to attract a more diverse range of workers, which has strengthened our company’s culture.
At Axiom, our approach starts at a personal level by encouraging comradery between staff by providing spaces where staff can relax around each other. Monthly breakfasts and other social events throughout the year help break down barriers between roles and allow for organic conversations.
This creates an environment of mutual respect and understanding between staff members, allowing them to feel more connected to each other, which often can be a challenge in high-stress environments. By allowing healthy interpersonal relationships to form, staff members can feel more supported in their workplace and encourage them to speak up when they need support.
Inconsistencies between advertised workplace culture and the translation of that in the leadership team’s actions also have a large impact. Staff members can feel disillusioned with their workplace if leadership does not hold them to the same standard as everyone else. It is important that staff can see that everyone is responsible for workplace culture. Axiom does this through our senior team members leading by example, actively teaching and mentoring new staff to encourage a community of support.
Work-life balance can be difficult to navigate, especially in a professional project-driven field. There has been a paradigm shift in the views around life outside a career. Axiom is aware of the challenges to this balance that engineering can create. We make sure that when staff members’ circumstances change, we work with them to find the best solution for everyone. Placing staff members on site is a discussion with them, and it is essential to include them in the process. By being proactive about people’s life outside of work, we are able to maintain a good workplace culture.
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