How To Elevate Your Company Culture: A Guide 🪴

Okay, let’s be honest: building a good company culture isn’t a walk in the park.

In fact, it’s more like building the damn park from scratch. It takes time, a lot of care, and a bit of know-how.

And who better to talk about building a park than Leslie Knope?

In this newsletter, we're sharing tips to boost your company culture, with my favourite workplace series: Parks & Recreation (it is, literally, my dream culture).

Our latest guide offers 5 practical steps towards a healthier company culture.

No fluff, just actionable tips to shape a team that is more engaged, productive, and genuinely happy. Let's jump right in.

#1: Train your leaders to be more empathetic 

Your leaders set the vibe. Imagine if every boss had a bit of Leslie’s heart?

Nearly 9 out of 10 people believe that their manager is crucial to team spirit and work environment.

But how can you set up your leaders for success? Provide them with regular empathy training.

#2: Listen…then act.

Listen to your employee feedback and then act on it. Ensure your actions are visible and communicated clearly—keeping your team in the loop is key.

For example, maybe a recurring feedback is that employees feel overwhelmed by the amount of meetings they have, you could then follow these steps:

• Communicate the issue: “We hear you and we’re working on it!”
• Strategize solutions: Work with management to think of alternatives, like meeting-free days, turning certain meetings into Slack sessions instead, or reducing meeting time. Gather ideas from employees as well as sharing your brainstorm sessions.
• Implement and continue to monitor: Test out a variety of solutions and see what works best for your team. Continue to gather feedback.

It’s important to act quickly on feedback. If it takes you 12 months or longer to make a change, a lot of good employees could leave in that time 👋

#3: Culture goes beyond people — it includes some non-human aspects too!

Taking a lavender-vanilla scented page from Tom Haverford's shiny, extra exclusive, leather-bound notebook: Your office space plays a huuuuge role in how employees feel at work. 

Comfy chairs? Healthy snacks? Slack etiquette after work hours? These are some non-human elements that also impact your overall culture.

Consider adding a personal touch to your office to represent your vibes – for instance, at nilo.health, we have a Wall of Same to showcase all our twinning moments.

For the next two steps in building a thriving company culture, check out our guide and in German.

Lastly, if you're in Munich and leading a people team, we have an exciting event lined up (We can't guarantee pizza, but knowledge, for sure).

👉👉 Grab your spot here.

We hope this guide helps you get started on boosting your company culture.

When in doubt, always ask yourself WWLD: What Would Leslie Do?

And if you haven’t watched the show — I insist on adding it to your watchlist. 

Until next time, 

Prerana Sastri ✌🏽