How to Improve Workplace Culture
Workplace culture is the heartbeat of your organisation. It influences how people interact, how decisions are made, and whether employees feel motivated, valued, and safe. A healthy culture doesn’t happen by chance. It is built through intentional actions, everyday behaviours, and a shared commitment to improvement. In this guide, we explore the practical steps organisations can take to shape a more positive, inclusive, and engaging workplace culture.
What improves workplace culture?
Improving culture starts with clarity and consistency. When people understand the values and behaviours expected of them, and see those values reflected in leadership and daily practices, culture becomes something tangible and trustworthy.
Key drivers of positive culture include strong leadership, inclusive communication, recognition, opportunities for growth, and a shared sense of purpose. Culture is also shaped by how organisations respond to pressure. For example, during periods of change or stress, do leaders double down on empathy and transparency, or fall back into command-and-control behaviour?
Real cultural improvement happens when actions match words, and when people feel that their wellbeing and contributions truly matter.
How to evaluate workplace culture?
You can’t improve what you haven’t taken time to understand. Evaluating workplace culture involves listening to the people who experience it every day.
This might include employee surveys, focus groups, listening sessions, and cultural diagnostics. A useful evaluation looks at both what is said and what is done. Are the organisation’s stated values lived in practice? Are there gaps between how different groups experience the culture?
It’s also helpful to look at indirect indicators. High turnover, inconsistent behaviour from managers, or disengagement can all point to cultural issues. A thoughtful evaluation process makes space for honesty and gives employees a voice in shaping what comes next.
How to create a fair and inclusive workplace culture
Fairness and inclusion are essential to a strong workplace culture. When people feel excluded, overlooked, or treated unfairly, trust breaks down quickly and the culture suffers.
Creating a fair and inclusive culture means removing barriers to opportunity, ensuring transparency in processes, and celebrating difference as a strength. It involves embedding equity into everything from recruitment to career progression, and making sure that policies are designed with a wide range of experiences and needs in mind.
Inclusion is not a one-off project. It is a way of working that needs to be modelled, supported, and measured across the organisation.
Signs of negative workplace culture
Recognising the signs of a poor or toxic culture is an important part of cultural improvement. Some of the warning signs include:
Disengagement, presenteeism and high employee turnover
Poor communication, lack of trust or exclusionary behaviour
Micromanagement or fear-based leadership
A lack of psychological safety and low morale
Leadership’s role in culture improvement
Leaders set the tone for culture, whether intentionally or not. Their words, actions, and decisions shape what is normal, acceptable, and valued.
Improving culture requires leaders to be self-aware, consistent, and open to feedback. It also requires them to model the behaviours they want to see in others. If inclusion, wellbeing, and integrity are part of your stated values, leaders need to be living examples of those values.
Investing in leadership development, holding leaders accountable for cultural impact, and involving them in the design and delivery of culture initiatives are all essential steps toward long-term change.
Recognition and reward systems
How you recognise and reward people sends a strong message about what matters in your culture. If collaboration, learning, or inclusion are priorities, these should be celebrated in the same way as meeting commercial targets.
Recognition does not always need to be financial. It can be public praise, peer-to-peer shout-outs, small moments of appreciation, or career development opportunities. What matters is that recognition is authentic, fair, and aligned with your values.
When people feel seen and appreciated, culture becomes a source of motivation and pride.
Final thoughts
Workplace culture is always evolving. Improving it takes curiosity, courage, and commitment at every level of the organisation. By listening, leading by example, and aligning values with everyday actions, organisations can create cultures where people feel proud to belong. A strong culture is not just good for employees. It’s essential for sustainable business success.
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