Building Pride in the Workplace – What Does a ‘Proud’ Work Culture Really Mean?

How many organisations can legitimately state that their employees are ‘proud’ to work for them? It’s a pretty outstanding thing to be able to do. Having an employee who ultimately takes pride in their work brings many benefits, not only to themselves, but the customers they serve and in turn, the business or employer. One’s self-motivation brings the desire to deliver a good service – it encourages self-worth and provides job satisfaction, but it can be hard to firstly create and then maintain such a culture. An organisation that can provide its employees with the opportunity to encounter different challenges, who are given responsibility and the autonomy to thrive professionally, whilst being guided in a supportive and encouraging environment are all factors that improve morale and aid employee retention. Key behaviours fostered by pride Believing in the business that you are employed by, or in this case, being proud of where you are working, whether for ten years or ten weeks, influences key behaviours in a workforce: Feeling strong loyalty to their employer Increase in employees telling people who they work for Increases how often employees tell people the organisation is a great place to work Employees become brand ambassadors Increase in employees putting in that extra effort Increase in employees recommending employer’s products and services Decrease in employees actively looking for a job elsewhere Increased sense of community and belonging How does worker and employee behaviour benefit the customer? There are many advantages to a corporate culture that instils pride in the workplace, primarily: Increased workforce reliability and consistency Workers who care about doing their best – stronger work ethic Increased customer service levels Improved overall morale Dependable brand representatives Better value for money How to Build Pride in the Workplace? Building pride is a team effort, but it requires strong leadership and buy-in from the very top of the organisation. It also needs staff to feel truly valued and invested in by their employer. This leads to a common sense of purpose, where everyone understands and believes in what their organisation is trying to achieve – and understands their role in delivering success. An organisation’s values should be clearly defined, and staff can then be recruited in line with those values. A strong sense of corporate social responsibility helps, such as opportunities to volunteer for good causes on company time. Even apparently small things like the way the office is laid out and decorated can make a big difference. Taking Pride in Your Work – Proud to be Driver Hire, a Case Study For five years now, Driver Hire has continually achieved outstanding results in their annual Pride surveys which are sent to their candidates, clients and our own employees. How did the survey come about in the first place and what does it mean? The obvious benefit to carrying out regular surveys is that it’s great to learn the opinions of your customers and employees, and the invaluable feedback gained can allow you to continuously improve your services and workplace environment. This was the core objective back in 2014 when the first survey was launched, but Pride goes beyond just feedback. It’s not just how proud the employees of Driver Hire are that tells a story – because with hundreds of customers served nationwide and over 17,000 shifts worked in an average week, it’s important to ensure that they are taking pride in their work too. As an integral part of Driver Hire’s workforce and the glue that holds everything together, it was important that the survey extended to those who have worked for offices on temporary contracts.