Employee experience and workplace wellbeing have long been recognised as critical to business success. Indeed, Gallup reports that companies with highly engaged employees turn 21% more profit – with productivity soaring by 17%. Meanwhile, 67% of companies see innovation rise when workplaces are transformed culturally, according to PwC.
A worrying disconnect
Despite the majority of leaders understanding the fundamental role that culture has to play in organisational outcomes, however, a significant disconnect persists between what employees need – and how these needs are understood and met. The rise in remote and hybrid working has only widened this cleft, invalidating conventional methods of gauging sentiment – such as overseeing interactions and overhearing conversations in person.
As a result, according to Gallup’s 2024 State of the Global Workplace report, just 23% of employees worldwide are now fully engaged at work, with a mere 14% reporting that they and their colleagues feel fairly and equally heard. This is according to a global study by Workplace Intelligence and The Workforce Institute at UKG (2023), which also found that 74% of employees report being more effective in their jobs when they feel their voice matters. Despite this, however, 60% of employees feel employers fail to take their feedback seriously, according to the Workforce Institute at Kronos, which can lead to a cascade of negative outcomes, from reduced productivity and declining profits to increased staff turnover caused by diminished morale.
When company and employee needs align
It’s clear, then, that more must be done to bridge the gap between company ambitions and employee expectations. Indeed, companies that have successfully achieved cohesion have reaped significant benefits. Take Microsoft, for example. Under the leadership of Satya Nadella, the company implemented a cultural overhaul centred around employee engagement and inclusion. Nadella emphasised a growth mindset, encouraging employees to continuously learn and innovate – a significant shift from the previous, more prescriptive culture that employees reported was holding them back.
The change had a profound impact on the company’s performance, with Microsoft increasing turnover from approximately $300 billion in 2014 to over £2 trillion by 2021. Employee satisfaction also surged, with Microsoft frequently ranking among the best places to work. Microsoft’s annual “employee signals” survey likewise showed significant improvements in employee sentiment, particularly surrounding leadership trust and inclusion, proving that listening to what employees want truly works.
The power of understanding
Understanding employee needs goes beyond simple surveys and annual reviews, however. It requires a deeper, more nuanced approach that captures the essence of employee sentiment as a collective, before translating it into meaningful action. When businesses take the time to listen and genuinely understand their employees, they can make informed decisions that enhance workplace culture and wellbeing for all.
This is where culture becomes paradoxical. Despite the inherent value of narrative feedback – whether written or spoken – there’s a risk of both conscious and unconscious bias when it comes to interpretation. Human thoughts, feelings, interpersonal relationships and professional and personal life experiences alike can all skew how feedback is understood, potentially leading to misguided actions that fail to address the root cause.
Imagine, for example, that an employee reports feeling frustrated because their manager is giving them vague or conflicting feedback, leaving them none the wiser as to how to improve. A biased interpretation might cause leadership to increase the frequency of communication to resolve this, without addressing the quality or content of the messages delivered. Human error could lead them to miss what the employee was truly reporting: a lack of clarity and transparency from those higher up. In order to truly resolve this problem, the company would not only need to establish more meaningful dialogue centred around trust, where both parties – manager and employee – feel confident admitting when they don’t have the answers, but also reconsidering managerial feedback and relationships within the company overall. This can only be achieved, however, when leaders are able to step back and objectively assess the wider picture.
Defining culture through behavioural insight
In order to effectively bridge the gap between company objectives and employee expectations, then, businesses must adapt more robust measurement tools that provide a clear, unbiased picture of collective behaviours across the workforce. These tools enable leaders to numerically gauge specific business behaviours, offering a more objective understanding of the current culture whilst highlighting areas in need of attention.
For instance, rather than focussing solely on employee reports on whether or not they feel engaged, a company might measure the frequency and quality of cross-departmental collaboration, the transparency of communication from leadership and the consistency of managerial feedback. By understanding these practices and behaviours, organisations can then take strategic actions that directly address the core aspects of culture that influence engagement.
This approach shifts the focus from trying to boost engagement directly to fortifying the underlying cultural elements that naturally lead to satisfaction. When companies define and refine their culture through these actionable insights, based on qualitative data, engagement becomes a natural consequence, rather than the vague primary target. As such, culture moves from an elusive concept to something well within their parameters of control.
Looking to the future
In future, these capabilities will likely be enhanced with the power of AI, which has the potential to assist companies in translating employee feedback into unbiased information – offering even deeper clarity and vision. By leveraging such tools, companies can continue confidently along their cultural journey, ensuring that each voice is not just heard, but truly understood.
Charlie Coode
Culture15 is an innovative SaaS business that provides organisations with a rigorous platform to measure and manage culture, and has since helped more than 50 organisations, across 65 countries, put culture at the heart of business performance through the power of technology, and data.
