Want to create a work environment that employees love? Of course you do! But where do you start?
We've got some interesting insights—straight from the mouths of employees—to help you build a thriving workplace culture that your employees are passionate about.
We surveyed more than half a million employees from companies in our Best Places to Work program. Here are the top 20 words they used to describe their cultures.
Best Words to Describe Company Culture
The following words are ranked by how frequently they were mentioned by employees, from most frequent to least frequent.
1. Fun
2. Challenging
3. Friendly
4. Engaging
5. Rewarding
6. Collaborative
7. Flexible
8. Supportive
9. Exciting
10.Caring
11. Family
12. Professional
13. Busy
14. Fast-paced
15. Innovative
16.Teamwork
17. Motivating
18. Positive
19. Comfortable
20. Integrity
Here are some tips on how to implement a few of these elements into your own culture!
1. Fun
- Provide in-office games, like a ping pong table or board game station.
- Host themed office parties for common holidays.
- Surprise employees by bringing in coffee, catering lunch, or hosting a happy hour.
2. Challenging
- Encourage employees to take on different responsibilities outside their daily tasks.
- Push employees to create challenging stretch goals.
- Use GOOD one-on-one meetings for thought-provoking career discussions.
3. Friendly
- Create a welcoming onboarding experience.
- Hold quarterly, cross-departmental gatherings so employees get to know other teams.
- Assign a culture coach to new hires to teach them how the organization functions and answer any questions.
4. Engaging
- Match employee strengths with role responsibilities.
- Hold regular career conversations that empower employees.
- Use one-on-one meetings to find and remove obstacles to engagement.
- Recognize employees and teams for strong performance.
5. Rewarding
- Encourage managers to uncover what makes each team member feel valued.
- Publicly praise employees who finish challenging projects or live your company values.
- Recognize behavior and achievements with monetary rewards and gifts.
- Give employees chances to give back to their communities.
6. Collaborative
- Use common workplace apps like Slack and Google Docs.
- Schedule recurring cross-department meetings.
- Form cross-department squads to lead key initiatives, such as a D&I task force, culture crew, or fun committee.
- Align personal goals with team and organizational goals.
- Create collaborative spaces with couches, chairs, and group working stations.
7. Flexible
- Allow employees to work remotely.
- Create a relaxed dress code.
- Keep core work hours, but allow for flexibility.
- Equip employees with technology to communicate from separate spaces.
8. Supportive
- Let employees publicly recognize one another.
- Offer a flexible schedule so employees can handle life responsibilities, such as appointments or school activities.
- Open yourself to employee questions when leadership communicates change.
- Provide supplementary health benefits, such as self-care days or relaxation rooms.
- Welcome failure, and treat occasional mistakes as lessons that build toward future success.
9. Exciting
- Hold office competitions, like chili cook-offs or ping pong tournaments.
- Get out of the office with off-site team meetings or happy hours.
- Run in-office fitness challenges.
- Add a “wins bell” that employees and teams ring when they hit a goal.
- Set up yard-game days on the lawn.
10. Caring
- Invest in employees’ lives outside of work.
- Encourage employees to take courses or attend conferences that support career development.
- Celebrate life events, such as weddings, work anniversaries, and birthdays.
- Provide extra support during hardship, such as illness, injury, or a death in the family.
- Run pulse surveys to gather opinions and show employees you value their input.
11. Family
- Encourage employees to spend time together outside of work, and give them ways to do it.
- Celebrate life events, such as weddings, work anniversaries, and birthdays.
- Set hard stops on when employees respond to work calls or emails to support work-life balance.
12. Professional
- Be a role model. Act professionally and respectfully, and expect the same from your team.
- Be forgiving but firm. Hold employees accountable for their goals and behaviors.
- Treat everyone with equal respect, from a new intern to the tenured CEO.
- Separate break areas from work areas.
- Create privacy rooms for prospect or customer calls.
13. Busy
- Create goals that inspire employees to push themselves.
- Promote the “two-minute rule.” If a task takes two minutes or less, do it right away.
- Set clear agendas so meetings stay on track.
- Hold a daily morning huddle to talk through each person’s tasks for the day.
14. Fast-paced
- Create open lines of communication.
- Stay agile by working in sprints to prioritize tasks.
- Seat team members next to each other.
- Set up shared calendars so teammates can see each other’s schedules.
15. Innovative
- Run focus groups so employees can suggest new ideas.
- Research new technology, and check whether your employees have the tools they need to succeed.
- Use workplace design to create areas where employees gather and innovate.
- Create opportunities for cross-team collaboration.
16. Teamwork
- Schedule team-building activities.
- Set goals that use individual strengths to reach shared objectives.
- Use common workplace apps like Slack and Google Docs to support team communication.
- Let employees give each other honest feedback, and coach them on how to process and act on it.
- Clarify roles so each person knows what’s expected and how their work affects team success.
17. Motivating
- Set deadlines, but let employees choose when the work gets done.
- Start a peer coaching program.
- Publicly recognize employee achievements.
- Reward challenging goals in ways employees appreciate.
18. Positive
- Give positive reinforcement. Try phrases like:
- “I appreciate the way you…”
- “The team couldn’t be successful without your…”
- “I admire the way you take time to…”
- “I’m impressed with…”
- Begin team meetings with individual highlights.
- Use positive messaging when delivering announcements from leadership.
19. Comfortable
- Invest in adjustable desks so employees can sit or stand.
- Provide coffee, tea, and cold water.
- Offer comfortable couches and chairs in shared areas.
- Keep the office temperature around 72 degrees.
- Rethink your office color scheme.
20. Integrity
- Be honest about the state of the organization, even when the news isn’t positive.
- Take responsibility for mistakes instead of passing the blame.
- Curtail gossip.
- Don’t accept praise for someone else’s work. Make sure the right person is recognized.
- Save social media and personal calls for break time.
Get ideas for all 20 elements of the best workplaces by downloading our ebook, 20 Words That Describe The Best Workplaces.