As a small business owner, you’re busy growing your business and serving customers.  Of course, you want and intend to have a positive work environment, but sometimes things get away from you. Your bright, shiny company culture you loved becomes stained and dull before you without attention. Left unchecked, a toxic workplace leads to higher turnover, lower productivity, less trust & collaboration and disengaged employees.  Who wants that?

What does a toxic small business environment look like?

Toxic cultures are toxic in many varying ways. Let’s look at some of the less common signs that indicate a toxic small business. 

No complaints

Getting no complaints from employees seems like a good thing, doesn’t it?  Founders often tell me this is the reason they don’t need anOmbuds program. No complaints means everyone is happy.  Ummm, not so much. Employee silence doesn’t mean things are good.  It can mean that people fear the consequences of speaking up or thinking sharing concerns is futile.

Blaming culture 

If you deal with mistakes by asking who did it, then your culture is likely blame-avoidant.  That means your people don’t want to get the consequences of making a mistake so they aren’t innovative.  They don’t want to collaborate and aren’t offering to help colleagues either.  Psychological safety is low and your people are worried about surviving, not meeting company goals.

Rumors and Triangles

A lot of gossip, cliques and triangulation (when the hurt person tells others instead of the actor in hopes the message will get back to the actor) are signs that open communication is challenging. Employees lack the skills to have a productive conversation or to resolve conflict on a 1:1 level. Lingering conflicts lead to resentments, sabotage and other negative behaviors.

Favorites

Favoring employees because of their expertise, outcomes, personality or relationship to the owners is bad news.  People are aware of and resent unfair treatment.  When the rules apply to some, but not everyone, you set  yourself up for trouble.  And, you may not even realize you’re doing it. Employees will spend their time trying to be the favorite or topple the favorite instead of your mission.

Bullying

Bullying makes the list not because it’s less common.  Studies suggest that a whopping 98% of employees have either faced bullying or been a witness to it.  Bullying is a secret crisis.  It made the list because founders frequently ignore bullying because it’s difficult to address. If you tolerate an employee who manipulates or intimidates other employees, you’re essentially saying that you value that person more than others and no one will be held accountable for negative behaviors.

Does this sound familiar?

Do you recognize some of these issues at your company?  Have you heard employees kick around the word toxic?  If so, don’t panic.  I have two suggestions to get your culture back on track.

Do a Climate Study

You don’t know what you don’t know.  You may think that the culture is doing fine from your vantage point as the leader, however, you don’t know the full story.  A climate study will help you understand the employee experience and value proposition. You’ll also discover areas for improvement.

Hire an Ombuds

Establishing an Ombuds program is a big first step towards creating a more positive work culture. 

 In case you don’t know, an organizational Ombuds is a neutral conflict management expert that provides two services to a company: one, provides a safe, informal, neutral and confidential space for employees to share their concerns and questions; and, two, acts as an early warning dispute resolution system that alerts leaders to trends, insights and hidden issues.

Here’s how an Ombuds can really help you out

• Allows your employees to speak up without fear of retaliation or damaging relationships
• Helps employees to clarify issues and make better decisions
• Provides training and coaching for employees, especially managers, to improve communication and conflict skills.
• Improves the employee experience because employees has an informal place to get help
• Enhances organizational effectiveness as trust and communication increase
• Reveal and address unknown issues before they can morph into larger problems
• Stay aligned with employee interests and needs

You might be thinking that at your size (1000-5000) employees that you’re not big enough to benefit from an Ombuds.  Nonsense.  Smaller companies benefit from Ombuds even more than big ones.

 A small business with 18 people hired me as their Ombuds because they were negotiating being acquired but had culture issues.  After almost a year together, their company sold for $18 million dollars.  Establishing an Ombuds program was a significant factor in the sale.

What can an Ombuds help you achieve?