A Handbook For Fostering Civility At Work
We think of the average workplace being made up of adults who have, most likely, gone through various stages of education and socialization before getting hired. They must know how to demonstrate respect, professionalism, and good conduct in every work setting, right?
Wrong.
Workplace incivility is, sadly, a common occurrence with 66% of respondents in an SHRM survey saying they’ve experienced or witnessed workplace incivility within the past month.
Civility at work has to be deliberately and strategically nurtured to create a conducive and productive work environment. Keep reading to find out what civility at work is all about, its importance, and how it can be fostered in your organization.
What Does Civility At Work Mean, and Why Does It Matter?
Civility at work means treating colleagues, customers, clients, and others in the workplace with respect and professionalism. It’s the standard of respectful behaviour and interaction that helps maintain a healthy workplace culture. Beyond being nice, it encompasses multiple elements that keep teams thriving and productive.
Elements of workplace civility include:
- Listening actively without interrupting
- Using polite language and avoiding sarcasm, dismissive remarks, or disrespectful body language
- Demonstrating courtesy in daily interactions
- Managing and regulating one’s emotions, particularly when under stress
- Treating everyone with fairness
- Offering feedback and criticism constructively
Workplace civility is great for employee mental health. Since humans can pick up on unfriendly social cues, such as interruptions, rolling eyes, and ignoring emails, the smallest acts of incivility can trigger stress and anxiety. Civil interactions, however, facilitate psychological safety.
Incivility forces team members to withdraw and keep their ideas to themselves. This isolation can impede productivity. Respect breeds trust and openness, which strengthen team collaboration.
Similarly, workplace civility is key to employee engagement, inclusion, as well as conflict prevention and resolution. By fostering the acknowledgement of all team members, regardless of their backgrounds, identities, and experiences, it enhances employee loyalty and sense of belonging. Respectful communication, even under pressure, can reduce misunderstandings and stop minor issues from escalating.
Customer experience benefits from civility in the workplace as well. That atmosphere of respect and courtesy will always reflect in customer interactions, leading to improved customer retention.
How To Foster Civility At Work
Below are practical steps to enhance workplace civility in your organization.
1. Establish Policies and Set Expectations
To preempt workplace incivility, it’s important to set a clear framework for professional behaviour and communication. Documenting policies and expectations creates clear guidelines on what’s acceptable, preventing ambiguity and ensuring that all employees will be held to the same standard.
Defining standards of professionalism, teamwork, and respectful communication is a good starting point. It’s equally helpful to provide examples of unacceptable behaviors—think microaggressions, bullying, verbal abuse, intrusive actions, and offensive jokes—and declare zero tolerance for them.
2. Model Respectful Behaviour
Often, employees look to their leaders to define what’s accepted and expected. Organization leaders who practice civility as much as they preach it make it the norm. By being calm, approachable, and respectful, they prevent incivility from taking hold.
Modeling respectful behaviour also makes it easier to enforce civility policies without seeming hypocritical.
Active listening, respectful disagreement, punctuality, inclusive participation, timely responses, calmness during conflicts, courtesies, recognition, and approachability are some civil behaviors that company leaders should model.
3. Train Employees On Civility
Civility involves empathy, constructive criticism, and tact. Employees must hone these skills for respectful interaction. Training employees on civility makes them understand that it’s a shared responsibility, teaching them what is expected of them and what they should expect from their team members.
Consider starting by explaining and reemphasising why civility matters. It’s helpful to focus on teaching practical soft skills that support civility and offering regular workshops on emotional intelligence.
Leverage interactive learning and reinforce civility in daily operations.
4. Weave Civility Into All Organisational Processes
Civility shouldn’t be a standalone initiative. Instead, it should be a part of how your organization operates. To make this a reality, build it into your organization’s regular processes.
During recruitment and hiring, respect, teamwork, and civility should be included as core competencies in job descriptions. Assess interpersonal behaviour by questioning candidates on how they handle collaboration and criticism. During the onboarding stage, introduce the organization’s civility policies and emphasize civility expectations.
Civility should also be a criterion in performance reviews. Employees who demonstrate respect and professionalism should be recognised and rewarded, while repeated uncivil behavior should be flagged as a performance concern.
5. Create Safe Feedback Channels
Employees should be confident to raise issues, express ideas, and share concerns without fear of ridicule or retaliation. Safe feedback channels encourage team members to report uncivil behaviour early for company leaders to address before it worsens.
Implement regular anonymous employee surveys, HR reporting systems, and grievance procedures for employees to rate workplace culture, raise issues privately, and make complaints. Suggestion boxes and an open-door policy where employees can freely express concerns and ideas can be helpful.
Ensure these channels are accessible, confidential, and effective.
Civility at work is indispensable, but it must be actively cultivated. Setting policies, modeling civility, training employees, integrating civility into organizational processes, and creating trusted feedback channels will make respect and good conduct the order of the day at your workplace.