It has been proved time and again that engaged employees are good for the health of an organisation. A positive work culture makes them more innovative and productive. Besides that, it also reduces the turnover rate, while also keeping a lid on the hiring costs. In fact, Gartner points out that culture is one of the Five Principles of Organizational Resilience; “A resilient culture is built on principles of organizational empowerment, purpose, trust and accountability.”

In fact, culture is more important than strategy and leadership. Any strategy that the organisation employs will succeed only if it is supported by the right kind of work culture. For example, Zappos’ strategy is to be the best in customer service and to achieve that the company created a culture of happiness—they trained their employees well, trusted them to do their jobs and respect the decisions they take. Companies who align culture and strategy are far more successful than those who don’t.

Here are five ways to improve your work culture:

Articulate your mission and vision: It is essential for the company to communicate its vision and mission to employees. The statements should reflect your long-term strategy for the organisation, create short-term goals for each of the employees, and how they can achieve their goals. For example, Deutsche Bank agreed to set up ‘High Performance’ principles in consultation with staff. The result: 91% of employees say they go above and beyond what is normally expected out of their jobs.

Take care of employees’ health, wellbeing: Employee health and wellbeing are one of those understated secrets of a great company culture. In addition to healthier, happier employees, organisations can save millions on healthcare, increase workforce productivity and decrease employee absenteeism. When Goldman Sachs offered to pay for 75% of the health insurance for employees and their dependents, nearly 71% felt that they often or always receive great rewards.

Support training & development needs: In today’s competitive world, it has become absolutely essential that employees keep training themselves on the latest tools and technologies in order to ensure that they do not become redundant in the job market. One of the best ways of increasing employee engagement and retention is to support the career development of the employees. It will not only revitalize their commitment to the role, but also prompt them to consider future plans within the company. A strong company culture starts with effective training.

Get together and huddle every day: Meetings are unavoidable, but they are also long-winding, lose sight of the larger goal and sometimes miss the point. One way to get around this and build a great team spirit is to get people to huddle together every day for 10-15 minutes where the most important news and metrics are shared with the employees. Good news will help employees to be pumped up about work, while also giving them an idea of where the company is and what it is doing currently. When this becomes a routine, employees will feel involved and focused.

Promote camaraderie: Teamwork is an essential part of a good organisation as that helps employees to improve morale and productivity. One simple way of doing that would be to get the team to spend time outside of work, doing some fun activity together. This would help break the ice between the team members and increase camaraderie. This will also result in forging personal relationships at work, which will go a long way in creating healthy work relationships.

Building a great company culture is not only great for employee motivation, but also make your organisation a talent hub that will attract the best of the workers out there. As Louis V. Gerstner, former CEO of IBM once noted, “Culture isn't just one aspect of the game, it is the game.”