Young people entering the workforce nowadays demand a lot of perks. I know this because in the short time I’ve spent sifting through job applications, it’s not been hard to notice the similarities among them. Most of them want high salaries, flexible working hours, and other additional company benefits. But is a job really just about that?
The people from RISE would beg to differ.
The relationship between the employer and employee should be more than just the mere exchange of skills with monetary benefits; it should also be about fitting into the company’s work culture.
RISE by SME Corp. Malaysia is a group which organises talks and workshops for participants to learn from Malaysian entrepreneurs about how to build successful startups, and to get tips from various people from their respective industries and trades. RISE is curated by Tandemic, a social innovation lab that designed and crafted events (workshops, talks, book meetups) and handpicked speakers for RISE.
Image Credit: RISE
Last week, for “WORK. GROW. PLAY. REPEAT.” — a talk about nurturing engaged and empowered employees — they invited 3 notable speakers to share their experience with participants.
The 3 speakers were Adnan Lee, Managing Director of MBG Fruits Sdn. Bhd., a fruit shop chain with 20 outlets in Malaysia; Derek Toh, Co-Founder of Wobb.my, a revolutionary job searching platform; and Maverick Ling, Co-Founder of 57square, an easy-to-use mobile app creation and content management platform for SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises).
From the responses of the speakers to the questions posed by the host, here are top 4 myths about work culture that have been debunked.
Myth #1: A Cool Office Is Necessary For Good Work Culture
Image Credit: http://www.fastcodesign.com
I often hear about companies with good working culture, and immediately I’d think about offices with fancy decorations, hipster-looking furniture, pool tables, well-equipped pantrys with all kinds of snacks and food, walls with inspiration quotes and graffiti, huge HD flat screen TVs hooked up to Playstation 4s with the latest games (for employees to relax, they’d say), and slides that go from the third floor to the ground floor of the office.
What do you mean by I’m asking for too much?
But truth is, work culture has less to do with the interior design and facilities of the office, than with the people working in the company.
According to Derek, work culture is closely related to how people behave in the company. He said that good culture means that people are happy in their jobs, they believe in what they’re doing, and the leadership has trust in their team. Maverick goes a step further, saying that everyone should be dedicated to the company’s values and vision, and they should be putting their heart into their job because they are there for a reason, for a higher purpose.
Adnan Lee, Managing Director of MBG Fruits Sdn. Bhd.
Adnan points back the responsibility of good work culture to the employers themselves: “As leaders, we are role models.” He added that leaders should have certain good practices from the very start, and stick to them in order for them to grow and cultivate in the company.
Myth #2: Work Culture Is Only Important To Keep Employees Happy
In reality, work culture has more influence on a company than you’d think. From the responses of the speakers, there are 3 main factors which make having a good company culture important: productivity, hiring, and company direction.
Maverick said that when there is good company culture, people will share a common goal to give a bigger output. In terms of hiring the right people, Derek shared that by having good company culture, you would know who you want to keep and hire in your company. Other than having the right set of skills, you would also know how the people in your company should be behaving.
Maverick Lim, Co-Founder of 57square
Adnan shared that a question that you should ask yourself when you consider hiring someone is, “Does this person have values that are in line with the company?” This is because the job performance of the person can be trained and improved, but cultivating values takes much longer.
Adnan also highlighted the importance of having missions everyday to achieve the vision of the company. He said that it is common for companies to hang their mission statements on the wall, but most people end up forgetting about it. However, when there is strong company culture, people are able to make decisions according to the vision, mission, and core values of the company.
Also Read: 5 Things You Should Be Doing To Get Connected With Fellow Entrepreneurs
Myth #3: Good Working Culture Means Having Flexi-Hours And A 4-Day Workweek
In general, Maverick, Derek and Adnan don’t agree with the implementation of flexible working hours and the 4-day workweek. Maverick stressed that having discipline and fixed hours lead to performance: “There is a lot of competition in the industry and productivity depends on the management system.”
Derek Toh, Co-Founder of Wobb.my
“It depends largely on who you hire,” Derek said, explaining that employees will slack with or without you there if they are not a good hire. “If you want flexibility, you need the right people … then it’s ok to relax at the right time,” he added.
Adnan said that the way to have a 4-day workweek is to follow this rule: 7163655.
“Work for 7 days a week, 16 hours a day, for 365 days straight for 5 years. That’s how I made my first million,” he shared, drawing ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ from the crowd.
This man is proof that you really do reap what you sow. If you start off a business working 4 days a week and putting in half the effort that you could be giving, the results would also be half as satisfying.
Myth #4: Good Work Culture Isn’t That Important For Small Companies
Participants at the RISE talk
Not true. Apparently, a lot of hard work has to be done right from the beginning to instill the right work culture in the company. Just because the team is small, doesn’t mean that work culture can be neglected.
All it takes is one bad apple to bring the team down and disrupt the productivity and efficiency of the company, not to mention it would also hurt the company’s reputation and that is no way to start your company from the ground up.
We don’t need to invest in expensive material items to spruce up the office to instill good work culture; what we should be doing is invest in the interest and welfare of the people in the company. Hire the right people, make sure the mission and core values of the company is firm, and be a good role model — only then will the company flourish inside and out.
Also Read: Things You Should Know Before Starting Your Own F&B Startup So You Don’t Get Burnt
This is the last talk organised by RISE with the help of Tandemic, a social innovation lab which works with companies, government and non-profit organisations to build communities and social movements through innovation. For those interested in entrepreneurship and social enterprise, you can reach them at thoseguys@tandemic.com.
The post 4 Myths About Work Culture That Employers And Employees Need To Get Over appeared first on Vulcan Post (Malaysia).