Organizational values define a company’s identity, influencing goals, decision-making, and priorities. They are the pillars of your workplace culture. Employees who align with these values are more likely to be engaged, motivated and productive.

This SmartBrief on Workforce Special Report examines workplace values and culture and their impact on your business. Get ideas for crafting policy, developing microcultures, serving neurodiverse employees, managing remote teams and more. It's all here. Find out what you can do to bolster your work teams and drive performance throughout your organization. 

Creating a culture of respect and integrity is the responsibility of leaders, who must formalize and hold their teams accountable for these values, says S. Chris Edmonds, an executive consultant with The Purposeful Culture Group. Leaders must not only set expectations for performance but also for respectful behaviors, making these values observable and measurable in the workplace, Edmonds notes.

Build a strong workplace culture by eliminating the fear of mistakes and letting employees learn from their missteps, writes John Baldoni, who references wisdom from the book "Any Dumbass Can Do It!" by Garry Ridge and Martha Finney. "Rather than punishing people for what goes wrong, turn the experience into a learning session," Baldoni writes.

The monitoring of remote employees is more effective when employers focus on interacting with employees instead of merely using technology to track them, write researchers, who recommend clearly explaining the reasons for monitoring and basing the type of monitoring on people's roles. "When seeking to foster innovation, communication, and trust among remote employees, interactional monitoring should take precedence," write the researchers, who surveyed more than a thousand US and UK remote workers.

Employers can improve workplace culture by implementing policies that support collaboration, mental health and responsibly integrating AI. A focus on employee well-being can improve productivity and reduce health care costs, while AI policies should address usage guidelines and ethical considerations to prevent legal issues.

Disney CEO Bob Iger emphasizes the importance of hiring people who exhibit "genuine decency" along with professional skills. Iger's advice comes as toxic workplace culture remains prevalent, with a FlexJobs survey revealing that 87% of professionals have worked with toxic bosses.

An inclusive leadership mindset requires leaders to show cultural agility, adaptability, openness to change and intentionality, according to a Spencer Stuart report. Leaders with these qualities improve professional development, fair feedback and idea validation within teams, according to the report, which found only 22% of employees perceive their leaders as having an inclusive mindset.