Login
iscover
Business leaders should endeavour to foster a healthy, cohesive work environment to achieve high performance among employees, according to an HR expert.
Newsletter
Happy, cohesive business cultures lead to high performance, says expert
27 February 2025
•
7 minute read
Creating the balance between a healthy yet high-performance work culture is the “golden balance” business leaders should look to achieve within the professional services sector.
You’re out of free articles for this month
To continue reading the rest of this article, please log in.
Create free account to get unlimited news articles and more!
Talking on a recent Under the Hood podcast episode, Steven Ford, HR director of Goodwork, said it was important for accounting firms to continue pushing towards mitigating “hustle culture” and the negative impacts it could have on the inner workings of a business.
In his experience of being an outsourced HR department, Ford revealed the firms that openly acknowledged the damaging side of hustle culture were the ones that were successful in striking the balance between a happy, yet high-performance culture.
“The firms that acknowledge the potentially destructive side of hustle culture and really communicate that they’re trying to mitigate it and provide psychological safety while still having high-performing teams that work at a nice pace, with good productivity are the ones that win,” he said.
“And these firms win because they keep the good people, which in turn attracts more good people to further build this healthy, high-achieving environment.”
When working with accounting firms and providing strategies to rebuild their culture, Ford relied heavily on deciphering the different philosophies and personalities of each firm owner or business leader.
The main element he focused on was helping firms clearly define their culture and identity, before using that as a “magnet” to attract the right type of people to engage, interact and click with it.
This method allowed employees to identify if they felt “at home” or uncomfortable within a particular work environment, which flowed into their work ethic and productivity, Ford said.
“In essence, understanding what you want your business’s identity to be will build your employee base to a level that will feel like the right fit and will also feel a lot smoother, and that’s a really important starting point.”
“I will always say you’re better off acknowledging and talking through any problems you might be having to understand them. Ripping off the Band-Aid 100 per cent of the way will always find you some common ground to work from.”
Another important step in reestablishing a healthy and high-performance culture was defining the business's values and getting employees to interact with and reflect on those.
Firms should steer away from “surface level” values and motivating quotes pasted to office walls and dig deeper to drive real change.
“Meaningful change can happen in literally three months if you commit to shifting the energy properly and sustainably,” Ford said.
“You need to engage with your team and redefine your values to get a real shift in the atmosphere and the culture for people to start working more cohesively.”
You need to be a member to post comments. Become a member for free today!
