Workplace culture can make or break an organisation.
But what is workplace culture? That’s the question that many businesses struggle with.
It’s not some vague concept that a business implements from the outside in. It’s not what you deliver, or what you promote in your job advertisements.
It all comes down to behaviour. Workplace culture is modelled by the repeated behaviours of a broader cohort of work colleagues: what’s done and what’s not done, whether good or bad, and led—or at least reinforced—by management. This behaviour sends messages about what’s acceptable, and what people need to do to fit in and be recognised and appreciated.
Recent studies suggest that when it comes to predicting staff turnover, the culture of a workplace is 10 times more important to employee satisfaction than compensation (Sull et al, 2022).
So, modelling positive behaviours and building a supportive workplace culture, allows you to retain and motivate talent. It sends a message to new employees that your business is a desirable place to work. It gives you an edge.
At Keogh, we have incorporated these elements into Cultivate, a model that helps to measure, build, and sustain a flourishing workplace culture. Get in touch with us to learn how it can support your business to thrive.
There are five elements you can focus on that help to create a positive workplace culture and improve the employee experience.
1. Purpose
Purpose at work isn’t just about having a task to complete or a project to work on. It reflects our desire to contribute to something bigger than ourselves.
According to the Mercer 2024 Global Trends report (Mercer 2024), the greatest driver for employees thriving in their role is working for an organisation whose purpose they’re proud of. But it’s more than a business simply drafting a purpose statement. It’s the real impact and meaningful difference an organisation makes to the communities with whom it connects, the causes it supports, and the extent to which it provides meaningful work for its people.
Employees who find their work meaningful are shown to put in more effort, do higher quality work, and put in more hours towards their business goals than those who don’t (Achor, S. et al, 2018). In essence, they care more.
Purpose-driven work is becoming more of an important factor in workplace culture. Particularly for Gen Z employees, with 38% reporting they want to work for a socially or environmentally responsible organisation (McCrindle, 2021). And they’re a generational cohort who will soon be making up a large proportion of the workforce.
And while not every organisation is purpose-led, that doesn’t necessarily matter. Leading a company for the right reasons, and doing the right thing by its people, communities, and the environment, goes a long way towards this.
2. Connection
The need for connection is human nature and reflects our desire to belong and matter to others. We need to feel that we are cared for and cared about.
And as we spend so much time in the workplace, it makes sense that strong connections make a significant difference to the culture of an organisation. Research shows that companies who prioritise connections are 2.3 times more likely to have engaged employees (Mulcahy, 2022).
It’s not just connections with their desk mate. It’s relationships with their teams, and their leaders; it’s building respect and ensuring inclusion, leading towards a more positive workplace experience.
Company culture is more than the odd morning tea, or birthday event. It’s the real, genuine actions undertaken by leaders that can drive workplace connection. More than just the social events and team building activities, it’s being there, being present, and engaging with colleagues. Checking in with your teams, offering a space to share stories and experiences, and encouraging connection daily. It can even be formalised in the form of buddy systems, mentor programs, or employee resource groups.
As well as trust, a key aspect of building connection is recognition and appreciation: recognition for your team’s hard work, for a job well done. When lacking, it can be the straw that breaks the camel’s back; employees who feel they’re never recognised for their work are 39% more likely to go on the job hunt (Achievers Workforce Institute, 2023).
Frequent recognition, even a simple acknowledgement, is the most accessible and impactful lever that business leaders can pull to improve belonging, engagement, and retention. And, by being present, getting to know people, and focusing on open, transparent, and consistent communication—you build trust, grow connections, and nurture a healthy culture in the workplace based on mutual respect.
3. Mastery
We all want to improve our skills, capabilities, and knowledge. Businesses that offer such opportunities to their people lay the groundwork for a strong organisational culture—and businesses that don’t pay the price. In a survey undertaken by Culture Amp of over 300,000 employees, a lack of growth opportunities was cited as a top reason for leaving the company (Jackson, 2022). When leaders support their employees in building skills, those employees are four times more likely to keep working at their organisation—at least for another year (O. C. Tanner, 2024).
However, mastery and growth mean different things to different people. To some, it means stretch projects and more challenging work. To others, it means personal development opportunities or promotion.
But learning isn’t just about crash courses and workshops. A recent McKinsey study (Dietsch et al, 2020) noted that flourishing organisations encourage personalised, adaptive learning for their people. Enabling their teams to choose what they learn, how they do it, from whom, and the depth of learning they undertake.
As a result, many businesses are moving away from stand-alone programs and designing learning journeys for their people: continuous learning opportunities that take place over some time, that may include learning interventions such as fieldwork, pre- and post-classroom digital learning, social learning, on-the-job coaching and mentoring, and short workshops.
Providing your people with opportunities not just to learn, but to grow—and do it in the way that works for them—can give your business an edge when attracting, keeping, and motivating people.
4. Autonomy
Much like connection, wanting to feel in control is a natural human trait, particularly in the workplace. It’s about having choices and feeling like we’re able to direct ourselves.
This autonomy is crucial in nurturing high-performing teams. When people feel in control of their roles and their outcomes, they’re more likely to put more effort in, feel connected to the role, and value their work. Employees who feel they can act with autonomy in their day-to-day work environment tend to have stronger job performance, higher job satisfaction, and greater commitment to the organisation (Lee et al, 2018).
Related: How to build a high-performance culture.
A way to boost autonomy is to treat individuals as leaders: leaders of what they do. Give them control of their day-to-day schedule, and how they achieve their goals.
Bear in mind, though, that this only works if the person is competent. Giving too much control to someone who isn’t competent, or is just learning the ropes, leaves them listless and struggling. Conversely, not enough control can breed resentment.
It’s all about balance.
5. Psychological safety
In 2012, Google embarked on an initiative called Project Aristotle. Their data indicated that psychological safety, more than anything else, was critical to making a team work (Poyton, 2024).
In a nutshell, psychological safety is the feeling of being able to speak up without fear, reprimand, or humiliation at work. It reflects our desire to be supported and safe enough to take risks. It’s key to building relationships, making smart decisions, innovating, and getting work done—all the hallmarks of a high-performance work environment as opposed to a toxic workplace culture where no employee well-being and mental health support exists.
Related: How to identify and fix a dysfunctional workplace culture.
There are many things a leader can do to build psychological safety at work:
- Provide your leaders and teams with tools and resources so they can agree on how to deal with failure and different points of view on important issues—giving them the power to solve conflict and challenges productively.
- Encourage equal turn-taking; inviting and encouraging different perspectives, and ensuring everyone feels heard.
- Focus on celebrating success, including the small wins as well as the big.
- Technology can be your friend, too. For example, when you need input on a topic, but you feel that psychological safety is still an issue, use anonymous polling.
- Model being vulnerable as a leader. Admitting when you’re wrong—authentically—and showing it’s okay to make mistakes will accelerate trust and promote psychological safety within your teams.
For more information on how we can help make your workplace more psychologically safer, see our Psychological Safety service page.
These repeated behaviours drive workplace culture
As you can see, workplace culture isn’t something that you talk about. It’s something you do and act on every single day.
Together, these five elements can help to build a positive, high-performing workplace culture—one that gives you an advantage in attracting the right people, keeping them, and creating an ongoing cycle of positive change and business success.
Our Cultivate model considers all these elements and provides a clear way to measure your company’s culture. It’s designed to help your business understand where you’re at now, and if any improvements need to be made to get where you want to go—and, importantly, how to do it.
Why not get in touch with us to learn how Cultivate can help you gain a deeper understanding of your business’s culture?
References
Achievers Workforce Institute. (2023). The future is flexible: Achievers Workforce Institute 2023 Engagement and Retention Report. https://www.achievers.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Achievers-Workforce-Institute_2023-Engagement-and-Retention_Flexible-Future.pdf
Achor, S., Reece, A., Kellerman, G., Robichaux, A. (2018, November 6). 9 Out of 10 People Are Willing to Earn Less Money to Do More-Meaningful Work. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2018/11/9-out-of-10-people-are-willing-to-earn-less-money-to-do-more-meaningful-work
Dietsch, S., Dowling, B., and Nielsen, N. (2020, August 27). Is your organization harnessing the proven power of learning? McKinsey & Company. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/the-organization-blog/is-your-organization-harnessing-the-proven-power-of-learning
Jackson, F. (2022, July 8). Why your best employees are leaving and how to stop it. Culture Amp. https://www.cultureamp.com/blog/why-your-employees-are-leaving
Lee, A., Willis, S., and Wei Tian, A. (2018, March 2). When Empowering Employees Works, and When It Doesn’t. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2018/03/when-empowering-employees-works-and-when-it-doesnt
McCrindle. (2021). Gen Z – what are their career expectations? https://mccrindle.com.au/article/topic/generation-z/gen-z-what-are-their-career-expectations/
McKinsey & Company. (2022, March 9). Gone for now, or gone for good? How to play the new talent game and win back workers. McKinsey Quarterly. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/gone-for-now-or-gone-for-good-how-to-play-the-new-talent-game-and-win-back-workers
Mercer. (2024). Workforce 2.0: Unlocking human potential in a machine-augmented world.
Mulcahy, S. (2022, November 15). Hybrid Teams: How to Redefine Connections in the Workplace. Enboarder. https://enboarder.com/blog/rethinking-connection-for-a-hybrid-work-world/
O. C. Tanner. (2024). Cooperative Skill Building. https://www.octanner.com/en-au/global-culture-report/2024-cooperative-skill-building
Poyton, B. (2024, March 28). Google’s Project Aristotle. Psychological Safety. https://psychsafety.co.uk/googles-project-aristotle/
Sull, D., Sull, C., and Zweig, B. (2022, 11 January). Toxic Culture Is Driving the Great Resignation. MIT Sloan Management Review. https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/toxic-culture-is-driving-the-great-resignation/
