Contents

• Introduction
• What is Workplace Culture?
• What is Positive Workplace Culture?
• Toxic Workplace Culture - What is it & How Can we Avoid it?
• How is Organisational Culture Created?
• Questions to ask yourself when creating your workplace culture
• Why do Workplace Values Matter?
• 6 Steps to Creating a Culture of Listening
• Where Does Culture Live?
• Moving from Organisational Cultural Fit to Cultural Growth
• Can You Have a Global Workplace Culture?
• Measure Your Impact With The Happiness Index

Introduction

Hello there! In the next 9 chapters we’re going to address some common questions we get at The Happiness Index about creating and maintaining workplace cultures. From embedding listening into your day-to-day to building a global culture - this guide has it all!

Plus, we’ll link to loads more resources to support you in your journey to a successful workplace culture!

We look forward to seeing the changes you make in your organisation, tell us all about your progress in Our Community.

Still have questions? Don’t hesitate to reach out to one of our experts. 

What is Workplace Culture?

What we DON’T Mean by Workplace Culture

Workplace culture is not:

• Drinks after work on a Friday
• Beanbags and fake grass in the communal areas
• A table tennis area set up in reception

All of these things can be part of a wider workplace culture strategy.

What we DO Mean by Workplace Culture

A blend of the following all aligning with your organisation’s mission, values and vision:

• Leadership practices
• Policies
• Work spaces
• Communications

Meaning your organisation’s culture is just as unique as the individuals that make up your team. 

What Are The Benefits of a Focus on Workplace Culture?

• 79% of finance leaders said investors want more insight into culture - Accounting Weekly
• 66% of employees wanted to know about a company’s culture and values above all else when considering changing jobs - LinkedIn
• 56% of employees say company culture is more important than salary when it comes to job satisfaction - Glassdoor
• 82% believe that culture is a potential competitive advantage - Deloitte
• Receiving a ‘Best Place to Work’ award leads to a 0.75% increase in a company’s stock price - Glassdoor

What is Positive Workplace Culture?

A positive workplace culture is one where everyone thrives, not just survives!

This means that your team are both engaged AND happy.

Remember: a positive environment for one person, will not be the same for another. You need to strike a balance between creating an environment that’s positive for a diverse workforce and trying to create a positive environment for everyone. Diversity is key for creating a strong, productive team. Trying to please everyone is almost guaranteed to be unsuccessful.

The Neuroscience of Positive Workplace Cultures

Clarity

By understanding their individual job requirements and how these feed into the overall impact of the organisation, people can feel like they’re making a true difference.

Top Tip: Ensure information flow from leadership - when people feel like they’re involved in true two-way conversations and how their performance is impacting the successes of the business.

Personal Growth

Our brains are wired to seek challenge, progression and development. This will look different for every individual in your organisation. If you can’t offer your people growth, they’ll look for it elsewhere.

Top Tip: We have specific Neuroscience Theme surveys which will allow you to dive deeper into these Neuroscience areas! This will help you identify key actions and quick wins!

Building Positivity Through Flexibility

Being flexible will look different in every organisation. You may be able to offer flexibility over schedule, location or remit. This will mean that the organisational culture can be adaptive to individual needs. No two people within your organisation have the same requirements, and even for one individual their needs might change over time.

Top Tip: We encourage you to build a culture that doesn’t try to impose one-size-fits-all solutions. Not only will this help you build an organisation that encourages diversity, but it’ll also encourage more positivity. Leading to higher performance.

The Dangers of Toxic Positivity - A Warning!

We all want to build positive organisational cultures. But no one is positive all the time. Everyone is human and will feel the full range of human emotions. That means positivity and negativity.

Diversity is key for creating a strong, productive team. Trying to please everyone is almost guaranteed to be unsuccessful.

Toxic Workplace Culture - What is it & How Can we Avoid it?

What is a Toxic Workplace Culture?

Difficult, aggressive and distrustful colleagues make us feel uncomfortable in the workplace and can be the face of a toxic workplace. This is typically due to bigger underlying structural issues. A lack of accountability, direction, acknowledgement, psychological safety, freedom, and development opportunities are often root causes for individuals acting out and jeopardising relationships.

The Neuroscience of Toxic Workplace Cultures

Safety

When people don’t feel safe, their amygdala takes over, putting them into fight or flight mode. This is why you often see confrontational relationships in toxic workplaces. Workplaces where people feel a lack of trust, balance and unsafe (either mentally or physically) will usually become toxic.

Relationships

Humans are essentially pack or herd animals: our brains have evolved to live in communities. Having open, honest and meaningful connections at work is key to our overall happiness. When there are few positive relationships, either at the managerial or interpersonal level, we see toxic workplaces.

Toxic Workplace Culture & Remote Working

Working remotely can sometimes mask the appearance of poor relationships, but it won’t eliminate the problem entirely.

Recent surveys have shown that many people have seen a reduction in negative behaviours as a result of remote work. “35% had seen a reduction in gossip, 30% saw less yelling and arguing and 28% saw less bullying.” - Capterra

Top Tip: Remember to ask more questions. For example, have these behaviours been driven underground? Just because things aren’t happening in the open doesn’t mean they’re not present - virtual channels can be harder to monitor.

Action Stations

The best way to avoid toxic workplaces is to keep monitoring the happiness and engagement of your employees.

We recommend using our Employee Voice survey so that you can always keep a pulse on what your people are thinking and feeling. Our powerful dashboards allow you to filter for

comments including words like bullying and harassment or other concerning behaviours. This will allow you to respond quickly and appropriately if anything concerning comes up.

How is Organisational Culture Created?

Who Creates Organisational Culture?

There are two schools of thought when it comes to who should be creating a thriving culture:

Top-Down:

Benefits

• More control over work practices, policies & vision.
• More uniformity across departments, teams & locations.
• Ensure DE&I is enshrined in your culture in meaningful ways.

Potential Pitfalls

• Your team may be less engaged because they’re not involved in the process.
• Could implement things that don’t work for your team.
• Involving your team from the beginning will ensure their support.

Bottom-Up:

Benefits

• More engaged team
• Create a culture tailored to your team’s needs
• Get support from individuals from the beginning.

Potential Pitfalls

• Certain characters may hijack the process leading to the exclusion of diverse voices.
• More stagnant because established individuals are prioritising continuity.
• Policies, philosophies & vision may become less proactive and effective.

The Best of Both Worlds

We advocate for culture creation from both top and bottom. This is a little more challenging - it means a lot of open and honest two-way communication and ongoing touch points, you can’t set it and forget it. But we think it’s worth it.

Before Taking Action

1. Assess your current culture - ensure that you understand what your current situation is and how well it’s serving (or not!) your people! Understand what’s working well, and where you have room to improve in your current culture.

Top Tip: Don’t forget that it’s important to segment the data you get to ensure your culture is working for everyone. Our powerful analytics allow you to check on particular teams, divisions or demographic groups.

2. Define your Vision & Values - If you don’t have a clearly defined vision or values, you’re going to be like a ship without a compass when it comes to your culture. Having a clear direction of where you want to go will be invaluable to building a workplace culture you’re proud of and that gives everyone in your organisation the environment they need to thrive.

Questions to Ask Yourself When Creating Your Workplace Culture

Policies

• How flexible are your hours?
• What benefits and bonuses do you offer?
• When and where are people expected to work?
• How do your teams communicate?

Leadership Practices

• Does your leadership team take holidays?
• Do managers send emails (and expect replies) outside of hours?
• Have leadership bought in on your culture strategy?

Workspaces

• Are your workspaces inclusive?
• Are you encouraging teamwork, open communication and collaboration?
• Have you designed your virtual and physical workspaces mindfully?

Communications

• How and when do you communicate with your team?
• Are there differences in communications between teams, locations and departments?
• Is your communication two-way?

Why do Workplace Values Matter?

What Are Workplace Values?

Your workplace values shape the attitudes, behaviours and direction of your organisation. They are the qualities, standards and practices that matter most to your team.

Why Should You Care About Values in The Workplace?

1. Give your workplace direction - Values are the guiding star for your organisation and allow you to communicate clearly what your organisation’s meaning and purpose is.
2. Solid cultural foundation - Ensure that you have a recognisable reasoning behind your strategy. Having a solid foundation will help you build something you’re proud of and works for your organisation.
3. Encourage positive behaviours - Communicating your values to your team will encourage the behaviours you want to see within your organisation.
4. Cultural unity without homogeneity - By having the same values, you’ll see unity, even without making everyone conform.
5. Build engagement naturally - Neuroscience shows us that meaning and purpose is one of the key themes that builds engagement. Values are one of the main aspects of meaning and purpose.

The Neuroscience of Workplace Values

Meaning & Purpose

Values sit within the meaning and purpose neuroscience theme which aligns with the engagement side of our neuroscience model.

Top Tip: Ensure that everyone’s meaning and purpose are aligned, by clearly defining and communicating your workplace values.

Clarity

If you’re able to align your communications with your values, you will be able to create consistent messaging which will resonate with your team. This will allow people to think about how it aligns with their personal values and purpose.

Top Tip: Demonstrate to your people how they positively impact on the organisation and your team’s meaning and purpose.

Freedom

Give your team a greater sense of freedom with clarity on values. Encourage autonomous behaviour within the values described. Your team will be able to make decisions that are aligned with the overall values and direction of your organisation. 

Examples of Values in The Workplace

Remember that values which resonate with some members of your team might not resonate with everyone. Similarly, values that work for one organisation would be terrible for others.

Example values which may work for your workplace:

Teamwork, putting the customer first, assuming positive intentions, collaboration and failing fast. But these are just ideas, there are loads more out there!

6 Steps to Creating a Culture of Listening

It’s time to get practical. Here are our 6 steps to creating a culture of listening.

1. Get organisation-wide buy-in - You need everyone from your CEO to your newest intern to be on board with listening. Not only do you need to understand how everyone thinks and feels, you also need everyone to support the implementation of actions following feedback.
2. Understand how to reach all your people - Your strategy is only as strong as the data that underpins it. This means you need feedback from everyone in your organisation from office workers and managers to people in the field or on the shop floor.
3. Create a robust system for two-way feedback - Communication needs to be both ways. Make sure you listen to your people, gather further information and context and then tell them what you’ve found. This will build a culture where everyone can see their impact on the process.
4. Share processes for actions and accountability - Actions speak louder than words, so it’s important to implement change off the back of what you’ve found. This will show everyone that providing feedback has a positive impact on their working environment.
5. Don’t try to do everything (all at once!) - Assess your resources (think about both time and budget!) and prioritise actions that will have the biggest impact. You’re only going to be as successful as your actions are impactful so prioritise and set a realistic roadmap.
6. Make listening a habit - Listening can’t just be a one-off. You may not get much feedback the first time, but as you ingrain the listening habit, more and more people will participate and you’ll get more accurate feedback and more insightful results.

Where Does Culture Live?

Culture lives in the people who make up your organisation. Neuroscience tells us that the energetic connection between the people who make up your organisation is key to creating a robust culture. Not a physical office!

Building Culture in a Remote First or Hybrid Workplace

So if you’re not building culture in one physical place, how can you build culture? We have some tips:

1. The brilliant basics still apply - You need good policies, leadership practices and communication - even (especially) when you’re not in the same place.
2. Make an extra effort to encourage energetic connections - Encourage as many “watercooler moments” as possible. Make sure your team never feels guilty for taking a 5-minute break to speak to their colleagues - this is when the magic happens!
3. Make your virtual spaces as accessible as possible - This goes without saying, but virtual spaces are even more important. Making all your virtual spaces accessible to everyone and ensuring no one gets left out will be key to creating a successful remote or hybrid culture.
4. Don’t forget about work-life balance - It can be easier to draw a line between work and home life when there are physically separate spaces for the two. Make sure you encourage your team to take the time off they need to keep themselves mentally and physically healthy.

The Neuroscience of Remote & Hybrid Culture

Relationships

Humans are ultimately social creatures, and so we thrive off of being able to understand, connect with, and work with others towards shared goals.

Top Tip: Ensure you allocate adequate time and resources to fostering connection. Dedicated collaboration time can help build a stronger, more cohesive culture.

Enablement

To do their jobs properly, your team will need to be able to collaborate with each other. Both within their work functions, but also across your organisation.

Top Tip: Listen to your people when it comes to who they need to collaborate with, what would help facilitate this, and what roadblocks they foresee. This will help you gain tangible insights.

Personal Growth

Traditionally L&D has been seen as either direct mentoring, sitting beside someone particularly skilled or classroom learning - which is more challenging remotely.

Top Tip: Offer as many different methods of personal growth as possible. Books, online seminars, virtual coaching, team shadowing, senior team office hours and reverse mentoring are all available in both hybrid and remote-first models. 

Moving from Organisational Cultural Fit to Cultural Growth?

What is Hiring For Cultural Fit?

Hiring for cultural fit is a more traditional approach to hiring which looks for people who will fit within the culture and norms of your organisation.

Benefits

1. Cultural cohesion - Hiring people with a similar approach, mindset or outlook will help you find people who will thrive in your team.
2. Positive relationships - People who get along well with their teams are happier. People who can collaborate well with their teams are more engaged.
3. Cultural stability - Creating a close-knit team of similar people has retention benefits. Plus, your team will naturally sustain your organisational culture more easily.

Pitfalls

1. Lack of diversity - This approach can lead to the exclusion of people who don’t look, sound or behave like those already in organisations. This can lead to monocultures.
2. Stagnating culture - You will need to guard against doing things just because “that’s the way it’s always been done!” This will hinder innovation due to group-think.
3. Less representative workforce - ideally you would like your team to reflect your customer base. Hiring for cultural fit might exclude certain segments of your potential audience.

What is Hiring For Cultural Growth?

Hiring for cultural growth, sometimes known as cultural add, is a more challenging approach that involves looking for cultural gaps within your organisation and actively looking for people to fill those gaps. This might include hiring people with specific backgrounds, approaches, thinking or working styles and more.

Benefits

1. More intentional culture building - With this approach you need to be really clear about the culture you’re looking to build and nail down your cultural trajectory.
2. Agile culture - Culture should always be a journey, not a destination. Assessing cultural gaps allows you to continuously build your culture as you grow.
3. Diversity of culture & opinion - A diversity of opinion and approach will help you challenge your ideas and create a more substantial and thoroughly thought-through culture.

Pitfalls

1. Hiring poor cultural fit - Straying too far from cultural fit may risk increasing turnover so you need to be aware of who you’re adding to your team and why. You must also ensure they share your values!
2. Danger of “diversity hires” - Don’t hire simply to tick diversity boxes. Instead, look for those with different backgrounds, views or approaches and appropriate skill sets.
3. Not being culturally ready - You and your team must be ready. We always recommend having a robust cultural roadmap and a listening strategy before hiring for cultural growth.

So, Which is Better?

As long as you’re hiring a diverse team of talent, whether you choose to hire for cultural fit or cultural growth will depend on where you are in your journey. Either approach can help to create a strong, diverse and motivated team that will achieve your HR and business goals and create a safe and enriching environment for everyone in your team.

Can You Have a Global Workplace Culture?

Cultural Differences

There are bound to be cultural differences between teams and locations. Particularly in a global context.

Some of this will be based on different workplace cultures around the world. For example, in Scandinavia leaving the office at 4 is seen as very normal while in the United States it can be looked down on. Or more general religious or cultural differences.

Trying to artificially force a monoculture on your team is not only likely to be ineffective, but you may actually alienate members of your team.

Cultural Alignment

If your vision and values remain consistent across your teams, locations and offices, (which they should) you should have the same cultural direction.

What this looks like in practice will depend on your organisation, but certain processes, policies or workflows may be able to be standardised across your offices to help create cohesion.

Thinking creatively about how to demonstrate that everyone within your organisation is working towards the same goals can help create a more cohesive culture. So it’s extra important to have your vision and values clearly defined.

The Neuroscience of Global Culture

Neuroscience is particularly helpful when thinking on a global scale. Despite differences on regional, country and even individual levels, our wiring is broadly the same.

Our Neuroscience Model helps you to really understand what makes your team not only survive but thrive. We give you data and scientific models that can be applied to your team wherever they are in the world.

Our 8 neuroscience themes have been scientifically proven to map across cultures and global divides. We allow you to break data silos and compare and contrast the engagement and happiness of your team wherever they are in the world.

Happiness is Global

Our internal data and research highlights that engagement may be different across the world, but happiness is global.

No matter what language your team speaks, happiness is a human emotion. Engagement is a more complex concept that can be harder to understand in a global context. So it’s important to include happiness in your strategy when building a global culture.

Creating a strategy that builds what your team needs to be happy regardless of their context will help you create cultural touchstones that can be applied across your locations.

Measure Your Impact With The Happiness Index

We offer a wide range of pre-built surveys underpinned by neuroscience. They will help you measure your entire employee experience. Here are some we think you may benefit from:

Cultural Assessment

Ready to start supercharging your culture? It’s time to measure your cultural health! Understand the key engagement and happiness drivers across your organisation.

Employee Voice

Creating a thriving culture is all about staying agile to the needs of your people. Listen to your team in real-time with our always-on survey.

Neuroscience Themes

Sometimes it’s important to go deeper. Our Neuroscience Themes surveys give you more insight into the needs of your people to build robust action plans.