The meaning of “good” company culture is perhaps one of the most subjective questions organisations face today. There is no one-size- fits-all solution to developing a positive and effective culture, although there is clear indication that culture is essential to establishing a foundation from which performance and productivity can be fully unlocked.
FIGURE 1: A positive working culture is critical to success. When asked which of the following office attributes, at their most effective, could have the following business benefits, executives shared the following:
As seen in Figure 1, employees agree with employers’ assessment that culture is fundamental to motivation, well-being and satisfaction. Whilst there is alignment on the value of culture, that does not mean current strategies deployed by employers have created a perfect recipe of culture that can increase employee motivation, well-being and satisfaction to their full potential.
Therefore, it’s important to gain an understanding of how employers view their effectiveness across company culture efforts today. When asked to rank effectiveness of initiatives, executives ranked committing to ethical business practices first at 88%, followed by encouraging cross-team working and collaboration (73%), providing enhanced workplace services (70%), and incentivising innovation through the organisation (64%).
Other initiatives, such as flattening the organisation and empowering staff (43%), and encouraging remote working (32%) ranked substantially lower.
Executives feel their effectiveness at improving business performance through culture efforts is quite high and, generally speaking, employees agree. The main disparity in the effectiveness of culture efforts comes from reports from more junior employees who are less inclined to agree that their organisation’s culture initiatives are effective at improving their ability to perform than more senior members and department heads.
Executives of larger companies with employees between 1,000-9,999 and 10,000+ believe their culture initiatives are an average of 5-15% more effective than SMEs.
However, a shift in what defines an attractive and effective culture might be on the horizon. Sentiment from younger employees indicates that culture is beginning to take on a meaning that transcends traditional feelings of satisfaction, well-being and motivation.
As shown in Figure 2, younger employees are still fairly satis ed but feel less affected by their organisation’s ethics and values. Younger generations of employees are beginning to weigh the importance of ethics and sustainable practices differently than their more senior colleagues. This supports a larger conversation taking place in the global zeitgeist about how younger employees, particularly millennials, are focusing on purpose and searching for roles within organisations that align more with personal values.
An analysis of incentivising innovation in the organisation helps put millennials’ commitment to finding purpose and ethical practices into context. Figure 3 shows that millennials feel significantly less affected by innovation incentives than all other employees. Whilst millennials are indicating a clear desire for values and ethics, their Gen Z colleagues potentially present a more complicated need, as they are adopting a millennial mind-set with their desire for purpose, as well as calling out for more incentives.
The challenge for every employer has been determining the tangible benefit of culture that goes beyond the traditional behaviours previously mentioned.
According to executives, culture is the most important catalyst of generating creative ideas, and, therefore performance. However, as shown in Figure 4, when compared to employees, it becomes clear that the path to performance and creativity requires a more balanced mix of workplace attributes to successfully generate creative stimulation.
This is not to say employers should dismiss the importance of culture and withdraw current focus and investment in such initiatives. Culture remains the foundation for building an optimal office, and before the country can realise its full potential and reap the aforementioned GDP benefits, effectiveness levels for all culture initiatives would need to increase considerably.
As a driver of creative ideas, employers should consider culture a spark that needs to be fanned by other workplace strategies outlined in this report. This is where the holistic approach to designing workspaces is both essential and effective. A creative spark ignited by culture might need to be nurtured through the workspace and unlocked through technology in order for it to manifest into an idea that leads to business performance, and, ultimately, a positive contribution to the overall economy.
