Company culture is something that nobody much thinks or talks about, but everyone feels. Have you ever thought of your culture as a crayon box? No? It’s okay, we’ll get to that soon. The important point here is that our company cultures are made up of subcultures. These can take on their own distinct characteristics. Subcultures are the intertwined experiences, problems, beliefs, and behaviors of specific segments of a company’s population. These might be shift workers, for instance, or the sales department. Subcultures can also form around religious, racial, or gender lines, sexual preferences, or geography. Most employees fit into several groups. There are lots of nuanced and powerful subcultures!
To get back to our analogy, you might think of culture as a Crayola box, while subcultures are the individual crayon color groupings (think purple and periwinkle!) And while developing a workplace culture of health is crucial to a company reaching its full potential, it will never reach the pinnacle without identifying and supporting healthy subcultures.
How do subcultures differ in their health needs?
Some subculture health challenges are obvious, while others are more subtle. Take shift workers, for example. Did you know this subculture is subject to numerous health risks, ranging from gastrointestinal disorders, insomnia, and a heightened risk of accidents? Shift workers are also prone to heart disease, diabetes, ulcers, and depression. Those in your LGBTQ subculture are at greater risk for smoking and substance abuse, depression and anxiety, and suicide attempts.
None of the individual members of these subcultures can function at their best if they don’t live and work within a supportive health culture. That’s why managers need to carefully consider the ways they may influence their work teams’ subcultures. It’s really the only way to accommodate employee well-being. Do managers respect boundaries? Managers and leaders need to emphasize that employees should honor both work time and private time. Computers and smartphones can really get in the way of separating the two – especially for a remote worker subculture.
To help with this, managers and leaders need to overcome common misconceptions. Many remote employees think spending more time working makes them a more valuable team member. They often want to prove that they’re carrying their load, so they put their noses to the grindstone at all hours. That eats into activities that support employee well-being – food prep, exercise, and family time to name a few. So set boundaries!
Give your remote team permission to relax and recuperate. Especially pay attention to email etiquette. Employees and managers can decide what hours are optimal for sending and receiving emails. HINT: it’s not dinner time or the wee, small hours of the morning. Consider the work environment for a remote worker. Are they staggering just a few feet from their computer to the bed every night? Do they suffer from poor circulation, tension headaches, isolation, or depression? Spend some time devising a strategy and creating the infrastructure to support your remote workforce.
Ways to Foster Healthy Subcultures
If you have some discretion on resource allocation, consider that building and nurturing healthy environments needn’t cost an arm and a leg. You can support well-being by bringing nature indoors. Yes, nature does improve well-being. Instead of Christmas tchotchke that goes to die in some desk drawer, consider a gift that can flourish on top of the desk. A minor investment in plants can reap big health benefits. Just don’t pick high-maintenance varieties. Dying plants do nothing to improve health or morale!
But you don’t even need to spend that much. It could just be a matter of finding rooms or other areas for employees to “borrow,” where they can hold volunteer planning, club events, and the like. How about a corner of the outdoor facilities where workers can participate in pick-up flag football? How can you promote goodwill by being generous with your physical resources?
Your efforts will be multiplied if you provide the infrastructure for subcultures to flourish in. Let’s face it, it’s easy for workers to feel like just another face in the crowd. Developing a process for smaller subculture groups to participate can enhance the work experience. Think gay-straight alliance meetings, ethnic luncheons, or bicycle race planning. If your company has mindfulness programming, encourage your work team subcultures to participate together. First off, this will help to normalize the experience for those who think meditation is just for “flakes.” It helps show that bosses are on board, boosts peer support, and helps teams to normalize the practice so they can deploy it at stressful times. Ohm-ing together begets staying together.
Perhaps groups are unaware that these solutions are even possible, so it’s important to put out a message or launch a campaign for groups that would like to gather for healthy events so that they can “apply” for resources. If your company can afford it, providing small grants to any subculture applicants that can demonstrate how they would effectively utilize the money to promote well-being would be a great investment in your overall wellness culture. Those subculture groups could use the money in targeted ways to bolster their well-being and achieve their goals.
Take warehouse workers for example. One common issue for them is over-exertion or repetitive stress injuries. Might they benefit from a grant to bring in a functional medicine specialist to address their muscle imbalances and suggest ways to strengthen their muscles, helping to restore their bodies’ natural functioning?
You can see why identifying subcultures and their health needs matter. It’s vital to provide flexibility and freedom for your employees to express themselves authentically within the subcultures they are a part of and to embody their own dazzling Crayola colors.
So where do we start?
Here at LifeUp, we take subcultures and their health needs seriously. Our team is built on a foundation of diversity – both in the wide-ranging health specialties we offer and our cultural backgrounds. Here are some of our offerings:
- Functional medicine
- Mindset and performance coaching
- Meditation and mindfulness
- Yoga, Ayurveda, and sound meditation
- Nutrition
- Stress management
- Creativity and play
- Sleep, rest, and recovery expertise.
We embrace authenticity, diverse communities, and teamwork. The people who make up your subcultures will never function at their best if they don’t live and work within a supportive corporate health environment. Our Healthy Habits program provides the “a-ha” moments to transform employee wellness – no matter your subculture crayon box.
To your health!
Derek
