What Makes a Company a Great Place to Work?

There’s more to a job than just the work – a good work environment can play a huge role in employee motivation, performance and job satisfaction. Engaged, driven employees are not only happier, but perform their best every day. How can the right environment fuel people? Find out…

 

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How a Company Vision Affects the Work Environment

A clear company vision or mission statement provides firm values for employees. Having a clear vision also drives and directs important aspects like employee behaviour, ethics, and inspiration, as well as creates a sense of unity as all members of the company work together toward a shared goal. This clear vision or mission statement also helps provide management and department heads to develop a strategy which allows them, and their employees, to achieve the company vision.

At SA Oil, we work hard to ensure our vision reflects in every dealing we have with our customers, our suppliers and those within the company. Our aim isn’t just directing energy or fuelling industry – we aspire to kindle relationships with our clients, our colleagues, and our communities.

Leadership in the Work Environment

Those with leadership roles in a company play an important part not only in guiding the achievement of the company vision, but also in embodying the changes they wish to see take place. An excellent example of an organization with a leader who lives out this principle is The Obama Foundation, led by Barack Obama. The Foundation’s work is changing lives around the world and, under the guidance of Barack and his wife Michelle, the principles of the organisation are being realised, demonstrating how effective good leadership is.

Obama’s reputation for perseverance stands well after his presidential position ended – he continues to uphold the principles he put forward as the leader of one of the most powerful countries in the world, through his work in The Obama Foundation. An admirable trait, and one we’d like to try to follow by upholding our own brand values – to be alert, adaptable and principled – in all that we do!

The Work Environment & Management

Management has an often-underestimated influence on the work environment. Diligent, proactive and positive management techniques have been proven to provide distinct direction for employees, as well as establish clear organisation. Managers also have the capability to motivate entire teams and empower employees into great productivity, higher morale and greater achievements – and doing so in a constructive manner benefits both parties!

An example of strong management is facilitating team meetings once a week – this provides employees with support, makes for a strong team with defined goals, and increases motivation. Kudos to SA Oil’s Monday morning meetings!

Developing Your Career in the Work Environment

One of the most enticing aspects of a job or potential position is its ability to further your career. Companies that adopt practices or facilities which enable their employees to become better qualified, more knowledgeable, or more skilled, thereby developing their career, often see employee enthusiasm and gratitude reflected in their performance. Opportunities like this include training or development programs, and even paid study leave, which SA Oil is proud to offer its staff. We firmly believe that upskilling individual members of a team helps our team as a whole!

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Personal Development in the Work Environment

Equally as important as career development is personal development. Gone are the days which saw employees treated as mere numbers on a payroll – there is much evidence today that conveys the importance of acknowledging the personal needs of employees. Developing your employees’ interests, skills, personal goals, as well as being appropriately attentive to their personal lives, helps employees develop positive attitudes toward their job and their work place. In addition, employees also enjoy being at work – rather than in an environment which may be subduing their personal growth, they are growing and working in one which nurtures their personal development, ultimately benefiting both employer and employee.

Work Place Perks

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Delicious coffee at any strength – this is how we at SA Oil fuel up every day!

Numerous conglomerates, corporations, and companies around the world are increasing the number of work place perks they offer their staff. Studies have shown that benefits need not strictly be monetary to incentivize employees. Benefits like cafeterias or automatic coffee machines (we’ve got an awesome machine that works overtime!), or even leaving early each Friday (as we do at SA Oil!) can work as motivators and positive elements in the work environment, boosting employee morale and creating an enjoyable work place. Phenomenal examples of this type of non-monetary work place perks are those offered at Google, where a slide down to the first floor or napping at lunch time is the norm!

Work Place Reward Schemes

Remaining the most prominent method of employee motivation, many companies make use of reward schemes. These include offers like sales incentives, targets, profit sharing or 13th cheques. However, some companies have started taking a different approach to this motivator option – instead of providing personal targets, company targets or branch targets are becoming more popular, whereby every member of a team benefits from and can enjoy monetary rewards when achievements have been reached by the team as a whole. We’ve decided that this is the better approach, and have adopted the group incentive reward scheme ourselves, as a way of promoting team work.

Making a Difference

Numerous companies are supporting, or starting their own, environmental awareness programs or charity works. Apart from a company vision, working together towards a greater good, such as planting trees or participating in fundraising events, can improve the work place environment by several notches; these activities require teamwork, providing the opportunity for team-building sessions, as well as contributing to friendlier work place relationships. Existing or potential employees who have concerns in these areas will be motivated by the company’s ambitions, as well. A noteworthy organisation participating passionately in their own scheme is Unilever, who set up their Global Foundation in 2012.

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Beautiful Work Spaces

An attractive workplace can have surprising effects on employees. Offices or work spaces which are well decorated, clean and orderly often correlate directly with employee engagement, proactiveness and job satisfaction. Employees will enjoy coming to work and appreciate the healthy environment in which they carry out their jobs. Google’s employees have testified to this, as Google is well known for their eccentric and entertaining décor and facilities.

Recently, we decided to give our own office space a makeover, embracing a theme which both included our corporate colours and spoke to our brand position as an agile, flexible fuel solutions company. These renovations have bolstered our work energy – it’s even spawned our social media hashtag #workenergy, which we use to reinforce our ‘we love what we do’ ethos.

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We’re so proud of our boardroom – Monday morning meetings are such a pleasure!

The Work Environment and Company Culture

Company culture provides an unspoken promise to all staff members – much more than the physical appearance of your workspace, the nature of the environment in which you work can make or break the team. Company culture works hand in hand with work environment – it’s not just where you work, but who you work with!

Members of staff, regardless of where they are on the hierarchy, who do not share in the company’s vision, values or goals tend not to participate as much as staff who are more invested in what the company represents. Attitude, as they say, is everything! When we’re recruiting, we focus not just on education and skills, but on culture fit – how well a person will play with the rest of the team.

But it doesn’t stop there – we like to emphasise the importance of good relationships between people on all levels = between colleagues, between teams, between management and staff, and between the company and clients. We like to think our work environment is not only physically beautiful, but also dynamic and engaging in nature.

SA Oil’s Energised Work Environment

Promoting productivity through positive practice is how we’d like to describe ourselves! We know how important a healthy and positive work environment is for achieving results; that’s why we think it’s important to embrace a work environment which emphasises collaboration, dedication, and innovation. We seek people who will work with us to achieve our company vision while enjoying the advantages that are obtained and sustained through the teamwork we encourage – if you think you’ve got what it takes, get in touch!