Culture & Engagement

Toxic cultures and low engagement present critical business risks. A culture of poor practices can result in low productivity and high attrition rates and risks tribunal action. Employers should also be mindful that in today’s connected world, employees have the ability, influence and platforms to make internal issues public, potentially causing reputational damage.

By focusing on driving engagement through a healthy organisational culture, employers can work toward improving employee retention and organisational financial performance.

While linked, culture and engagement remain two different concepts for HR to manage within the wider employee experience piece, each demanding ongoing focus and adjustment in line with environmental and organisational changes.

For culture, this relates to the working environment and how this is shaped by the accepted actions, practices, processes and behaviours that determine organisational performance and profitability.

Engagement means more than being happy at work; it relates to how connected and invested an employee feels emotionally to the organisation, and how motivated they are to deliver results. This involves seeking continued feedback on a two-way, always-listening basis.

Culture and engagement each play a critical role in business performance:

Communication – Effective communication will be key to engaging employees, increasing productivity, enhancing reputation and increasing your return on people investment. Building a culture of transparent, frequent and high quality communications relies on open and timely dialogue to effect change and the desired actions, outcome and support from employees, particularly through periods of transformation and change.

Senior buy in – It is important that senior management understand the contribution and value of organisational culture and employee engagement to the bottom line. When reliably measured, positive employee engagement can be correlated to positive business outcomes such as higher employee productivity and lower turnover rates.

Reputational risk and advantage – The proliferation of social media and website such as Glassdoor has exposed employers to greater risk of reputational harm from disgruntled employees or endemic cultural problems. But this new transparency should be seen as an opportunity for advantage, to turn employees into advocates on platforms where potential employees will seek authentic insight.

Continuous measurement – The digital landscape has rendered the annual staff survey limited in its insights and relevance. New tools and approaches are needed to provide real-time sentiment and pulse feedback.