Here is our list of the best company culture committee ideas.
Company culture committee ideas are policies or proposals to enhance the company’s atmosphere and increase engagement levels. Examples include creating a culture committee, having an open-door policy, and setting up a new hire mentorship program. The purpose of these activities is to encourage employees and reduce turnover rates. These concepts are also known as “company culture ideas.”
These ideas are similar to work social committees and aim to improve company culture and plan employee engagement activities. The ultimate goals of these groups is to create positive work environments, cohesive remote work cultures and facilitate culture building initiatives.
This list includes:
- culture committee activities
- positive workplace culture activities
- company culture committee events
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List of company culture committee ideas
In today’s workforce, many employees say they consider the company’s culture over the pay rate. Furthermore, companies where team members do not feel important often have high turnover rates. Here are some of the best company culture committee ideas you can implement in your workplace to keep team members happy and engaged.
1. Create a Company Culture Committee
If you have not already done so, establish a committee to organize and plan positive workplace culture activities. This team of employees will be responsible for tracking the pulse of the workplace and ensuring the company embodies its values.
Having a team in charge of this task helps keep the desired culture the main focus in the busyness of everyday work. Therefore, when you are filling this committee, be sure to select team members representing a variety of ages, cultures, and genders.
Learn more about company culture committees.
2. Host Regular Team Meals
Eating together is one of the best company culture committee events and a great way to build relationships. There are different ways to implement team meals depending on your budget.
For example, consider feeding the team once a week or a month. The comped meal will be a nice treat for employees, and it also takes a slight sting off their grocery bills. However, if hosting a company-wide dinner is not feasible, then consider planning regular potlucks. With this approach, team members bring food to share, and everyone enjoys a delicious meal together. Feel free to change up the theme and focus on different types of food each session.
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3. Establish a Buddy System
In large companies, separate departments operate in vastly different spheres. When respective teams have little to no contact with each other, they might not know what is going on with the other. When there is little to no communication between departments, productivity suffers.
A great way to combat this problem is to set up a buddy system. You can create partnerships between departments by encouraging relationships between groups. If you pair up a team member from one department with someone from another, communication and productivity will increase. You can encourage these pairs to plan monthly coffee or lunch dates. Plus, stronger relationships lead to a more robust company culture.
One great application of this idea is to start virtual coffee breaks.
4. Start Interest Groups
Often, employees only focus on work tasks together. However, when team members keep all their attention on the job, they often overlook personal aspects that would develop deeper relationships.
Starting interest groups in the office is a great way to enhance relationships among team members, and to connect colleagues that might not otherwise interact. You can ask coworkers who are passionate about a topic to lead a group or encourage volunteers to plan some activities. Examples might include hiking clubs, woodworking demonstrations, or crafting nights.
If your office is virtual, then you can create Slack channels for these clubs. For example, TeamBuilding has had online interoffice Slack clubs for cooking, Tarot reading, learning sign language, makeup, and roleplaying games.
5. Focus on Diversity
Thanks to culturally diverse backgrounds, employees have unique thoughts, ideas, and skills to bring to the workplace. Employers should acknowledge and recognize these differences.
If you create an environment that encourages diversity, employees feel comfortable being their true selves. With this comfort comes inspiration and ideas. When team members come together from different cultures and backgrounds, good things happen, and dynamic ideas follow.
Here is a list of diversity and inclusion activities for the office.
6. Encourage Employees to Follow Their Passions
One of the best ways to create a positive work culture is to encourage team members to chase their dreams. If you have the budget, then consider offering employees a stipend each year to grow their hobbies. This stipend can go towards classes, equipment, or events. If there is no room in the budget, then offering monthly classes on various topics might be a suitable alternative.
Encouraging individual growth among team members will directly relate to company growth. Creating a work-life balance is imperative to happy and invested employees.
7. Have an Open Door Policy
One of the best culture committee activities to implement is an open-door policy, especially among senior leadership. This policy does not mean employees have 24/7 access to the CEO. Instead, leadership should establish times when team members know they can approach upper managers throughout the week.
When executives set up weekly or monthly office hours where employees know they can bring their questions and concerns to the boss, it creates an open and accountable work environment. Plus, setting up specific times encourages those with concerns or ideas to prepare their ideas for a timely presentation. It is impactful to create a dynamic where junior employees know leadership will listen to their ideas.
8. Celebrate Together
Getting in the holiday spirit is a wonderful way to enhance the culture of the workplace. Culture committee activities should include holiday parties throughout the year. For example, host Valentine’s, July 4th, Labor Day, and Halloween parties. Or, choose whatever holidays are important to your team.
If you have an in-office environment, then coworkers spend most of this time in close quarters. Focusing on building relationships is essential for a positive work environment.
Some of the best company culture committee events are social activities planned for the whole group. For example, host a company picnic, plan a watch party for a major sporting event, or organize an Office Olympics. There are many ways to build up your team while encouraging fun. These events encourage social relationships among team members outside of work.
Here is a list of office party ideas for inspiration.
9. Celebrate Milestones
Recognizing important milestones and anniversaries is meaningful for new and established team members. There are many large and small ideas depending on how important or impactful the event is. For example, consider a mug or plaque for a first anniversary. However, offer a more substantial gift like a large cash bonus or sabbatical at the ten-year mark. If your team is remote, then you can mark milestones by making an announcement in a Slack channel and sending the team member a digital gift card.
10. Focus on Wellness
Stress is bound to happen even in the most productive and adjusted work environments. Finding ways to deal with stress enhances the culture of the company.
Encouraging team members to focus on their health is beneficial to employees and the company. For example, you can focus on wellness by offering a monthly stipend for gym memberships, hosting a weekly yoga session on-site, or encouraging daily meditation. You can also institute wellness and fitness challenges that encourage team members to adopt healthy habits by tracking progress publicly on a shared spreadsheet.
Check out more employee wellness ideas.
11. Utilize All Positions
There are many roles in office settings that go under-utilized. Analyzing what roles perform which tasks can drastically increase productivity. For example, consider if a task an employee is doing should go to the office administrator, or potentially hire someone to tackle odd jobs.
Furthermore, be sure you properly use interns. Often, summer interns become experts at daily coffee runs. However, these young and ambitious temporary employees can meaningfully contribute to the company. Plus, investing in interns often yields high-quality employees down the road. Utilizing all positions better improves job satisfaction among all employees.
12. Plan Regular Townhall Meetings
A town hall is an informal meeting where participants are encouraged to ask questions to a leader. This setup is essential because it gives team members, an active part in the discussion. If you give employees a chance to ask open and honest questions, then they will feel seen and heard.
You can either plan a town hall meeting virtually or in person, depending on your company’s logistics. If you have a smaller team, then an in-person meeting once a month or quarter is a fantastic way to encourage participation. However, a remote town hall via Zoom or Google Meet allows all team members to sign in, observe, and ask questions. Town hall meetings are excellent company culture committee events.
Companies can also use town halls to recognize good things happening in the group, give shoutouts to exceptional employees, and welcome new team members. Town halls are significant in remote offices with limited daily interaction.
Here is a list of all-hands meeting ideas.
13. Do Not Ignore Failures
One of the worst pitfalls to a company’s culture is to pretend failure does not exist. No company in the history of work has been without mistakes and mishaps. Furthermore, to be successful in the long run, it is essential to learn from mistakes.
One of the best company culture committee ideas is to find a way to address and move forward after a team member makes a mistake. A mature and appropriate way to deal with failures will encourage new ideas and risk-taking. Employees aware of their company’s support are more likely to innovate. Learning happens through trial and error. As a culture committee, you can plan events and initiatives that encourage team members to share failures in a group setting so that employees can see that their peers are not perfect and that leadership treats mistakes as learning moments.
14. Ask the Team
Many participants do not want to take the time to answer survey questions about a random topic. However, office surveys offer essential insight into the thoughts and opinions of team members. By asking employees for their feedback, you show them their ideas matter. However, be careful not to send out too many surveys as they can get tedious, and employees will start to ignore them.
Check out this list of sample employee engagement survey questions.
15. Set Up a New Hire Mentorship Program
Getting hired at a new company can be overwhelming. Establishing a mentorship or ambassador program is one of the best ways to ease the transition and set new team members up for success. You can assign an experienced mentor to guide each new hire through the onboarding process.
This mentorship is beneficial while the new employee settles in and beyond. A senior team member can be a sounding board and work friend to younger or newer employees. This partnership can help develop both teammates and enhance the work environment.
Here is a list of mentorship program ideas.
16. Focus on Work-Life Balance
Creating an atmosphere with work-life balance is essential. There are many policies a company can put in place to increase happiness and encourage a good balance for employees. Paid family leave, flexible scheduling, or hosting company picnics are great ways to include families in team members’ work lives. If possible, allow team members to be partially or fully remote.
Along the lines of focusing on families, consider your new parent policies. Frequently, new parents feel overwhelmed when it is time to leave to have their new baby and upon returning to work. Having policies in place that take the stress off of these transitions will help team members. For example, consider longer paid leave periods for births and ease team members back into the workplace by offering a flexible work-from-home period.
Here is a list of work-life balance tips.
17. Encourage PTO
Many team members love to travel and would likely take more trips if they had more opportunities. If employees are hard workers who consistently get their work done, then consider offering vacation perks. Some companies even offer unlimited vacation policies!
While this type of policy is not realistic for all companies, offering additional paid time off is a fantastic bonus for diligent employees. Companies might interest employees with extra benefits over a slight pay increase. Traveling rejuvenates team members and prepares them to get back to work post-trip.
18. Host Happy Hours
Whether your team is in-person or virtual, happy hours are a wonderful way to build relationships while unwinding at the end of the day. These events can bring teams together in a relaxed setting.
If your company has the space to host an event at your location, then team members can stop work a little early one day a month to socialize. Or, choose a nearby location to accommodate a group to host a happy hour.
If you are remote, there are many ways to plan a virtual happy hour. First, set up a time for team members to log in with Zoom or Microsoft Teams. Then, have ice breakers and fun games to keep participants entertained and encourage relationship building.
Check out this list of work happy hour ideas.
19. Ensure Company Perks Reflect Culture
If you offer benefit packages to employees, be sure these options reflect the core values of your company. For example, if employee retention is a priority, then focus on competitive raises and offer sabbaticals and flexible time off. Or, if service is an important focus, then offering paid time off for volunteering is a great way to show employees where your values are.
Making sure your values and benefits align puts your money where your mouth is. Remember, actions speak louder than words.
20. Reconfigure the Office
The physical layout of an office can go a long way to creating a positive culture. As team members are happier and feel more connected to coworkers, their performance increases. If you can rearrange the layout of your office, then consider a more conducive structure. For example, ensure all team members have exposure to sunlight if possible. Also, consider whether separate office spaces or cubicles are the best setups for your space. Open floor plans encourage collaboration and are also more visually appealing for employees.
21. Finish Strong
Finally, be sure to celebrate a successful year. You can plan an end-of-year party to recognize accomplishments and praise the hard work of all employees. This event closes out a great year and launches the team into a new one on a good note. Be sure to encourage team members to share favorite memories and set goals for the following year.
Here is a list of ways to spend end-of-year budget.
Conclusion
Company culture committee ideas are essential to creating a positive work environment where companies encourage and develop team members. When employees feel unseen and unheard, they are more likely to seek employment elsewhere. Focusing on team members and overall organizational culture makes you more likely to earn employee loyalty and productivity.
For more advice, check out these books on company culture and guides to employee engagement and an explainer on personality hires.
We also have a list of fun office raffle ideas for work.
