Research into toxic workplace culture reveals how a lack of inclusion, fairness, and purpose at work is causing employees to leave their jobs in droves.

Toxic company culture is a lot like catching a nasty bug. It can spread quickly, and before you know it, everyone’s feeling under the weather.

Toxic vibes can race through an organization, with people picking up on bad habits and negative attitudes. When employees see others gossiping or treating their colleagues unfairly, it’s easy for them to fall into the same pattern, and soon enough, the whole atmosphere takes a hit.

Toxic company culture has increasingly become a significant concern for organizations, as more employers are waking up to how company culture can have a heavy sway on employee turnover, employee morale, and productivity. Addressing and transforming an unhealthy culture is crucial for the long-term success and sustainability of a business.

In 2022, MIT Sloan Management Review published a survey that delved into the role toxic culture played in the Great Resignation.

After analyzing 34 million online employee profiles, researchers found that “a toxic corporate culture is by far the strongest predictor of industry-adjusted attrition and is ten times more important than compensation in predicting turnover.”

According to the MIT analysis, toxic company culture is characterized by a lack of diversity, equity, and inclusion, workers feeling disrespected, and unethical behavior within an organization. Such an environment can lead to high employee turnover, low morale, and decreased productivity.

What are signs of a toxic work culture?

Key signs of a toxic workplace culture include:

1. Unfair treatment or discrimination

2. Exclusionary behavior or cliques

3. Lack of workplace trust and support among team members

4. Excessive workload and unrealistic expectations

5. Poor communication and lack of transparency

7. High levels of stress and burnout

8. High employee turnover

Great Place To Work® research reveals the same about employee retention and flight risk drivers.

In our 2021 survey of more than 330,000 U.S. employees, those who said they didn’t intend to stay at their company a long time pointed to the absence of the following as key culprits:

• Purpose in their work
• Looking forward to coming to work
• Feeling proud to work at their company
• Diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging

Let’s narrow in on that last one: diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB). Employees with low intent to stay raised these concerns about issues relating to equity and inclusion:

• Gender equity
• Fair promotions
• Fair pay
• Equal and limited opportunities

The same study also revealed that underrepresented minority groups were at the highest risk of leaving.

Changing a toxic company culture

If toxic company culture is the problem, can it be fixed?

In short, yes. But it will take time and consistency.

“Rebuilding trust is possible,” says Julian Lute, senior strategic advisor at Great Place To Work. “Steady, consistent focus in the right places will help you gain traction in support of your efforts to be better.”

Julian recommends three ways leaders can start to change toxic company culture:

1. Accepting accountability for past mistakes and current issues

2. Following your words with your actions, demonstrating a commitment to change

3. Committing to ongoing, transparent, and two-way communication with employees

Many organizations that achieve Great Place To Work Certified™ status score high on fairness, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) efforts and experience high retention figures.

Take the company Bitwise Industries, which tripled in size over the last two years while others struggled to hire and retain staff.

CEO and founder Jake Soberal credits the rapid workforce growth to their commitment to diversity and individualism and meeting employees’ needs (rather than only expecting employees to meet company needs).

“It’s not: we will tolerate you, we will charitably serve you,” he says. “It’s: you are essential to our collective success. We have continually gotten better if for no other reason than we’ve added wonderful people who have expanded the edges of that culture and enriched it.”

Focusing on employee needs pays unending dividends, as evidenced by decades’ worth of research. Organizations that prioritize connecting purpose to employee work and fostering diversity and inclusion, among other things, experience a positive workplace culture and higher retention.

Using employee surveys to fix toxic company culture

Employee surveys can be an incredibly powerful tool for diagnosing a toxic company culture. Just like a doctor uses tests to identify what’s causing a patient’s symptoms, we can use surveys to get to the heart of any issues within our workplace.

Surveys can help you pinpoint problems preventing you from creating a more positive environment:

1. Gathering honest feedback: Surveys give employees a safe space to share their thoughts and experiences, confidentially if needed. By encouraging honest feedback, you can gain valuable insights into how your team members truly feel about the work environment and identify areas that need improvement.
   
2. Spotting patterns and trends: By analyzing survey results, you can identify patterns and trends in engagement, collaboration, and willingness to recommend their workplace. This information helps employers recognize potential issues, like favoritism, lack of recognition, or poor communication, that may be contributing to a toxic culture.
   
3. Inclusivity and representation: Surveys ensure that everyone’s voice is heard, no matter their role or position within the organization. By including all employees in the process, we can better understand the unique experiences and challenges faced by different individuals and groups.
   
4. Measuring progress: Regular surveys allow us to track our progress over time. As we make changes to address the issues uncovered in the surveys, we can gauge the effectiveness of our efforts and make any necessary adjustments to keep moving in the right direction.
   
5. Encouraging open communication: Surveys can help foster a culture of openness and transparency, demonstrating that leadership values employee input and is committed to creating a positive work environment. This can encourage team members to share their concerns and ideas more openly, both during the survey process and in their day-to-day interactions.
   
6. Identifying strengths and opportunities: While surveys are excellent for spotting problems in a toxic company culture, they can also help us recognize what’s working well. By celebrating our strengths and building on them, we can create a more resilient and positive culture that benefits everyone.
   
7. Building trust and collaboration: When employees see that their feedback is taken seriously and leads to meaningful change, it can strengthen trust and collaboration among team members. This shared commitment to creating a healthier work environment can bring everyone together and make the organization stronger.

Is your workplace showing signs of a toxic culture?

The Great Place To Work Trust Index™ Survey can be your secret hidden ace in diagnosing a toxic company culture. Gather honest feedback, spot patterns, and measure progress, all while fostering trust and collaboration. Ask us today about how we can work together to help you create a happier, healthier workplace for everyone.

Claire Hastwell

As the Content Program Manager at Great Place To Work, Claire helps decode the psychology behind high-trust workplaces using Great Place To Work’s extensive data repository on employee experience. Claire has co-authored noted reports such as “Women in the Workplace” and “The Power of Purpose at Work,” and contributed to Fortune with her profiles of the Best Workplaces™. Her latest white paper draws on three decades of employee survey data to give HR leaders strategic guidance on nurturing trust, inclusivity, and growth within their organizations.

The connection between purpose, ESG, employee engagement and business results.

It sounds too good to be true, but there’s a proven way to improve employee engagement, lift financial performance and help save the world all at the same time.

Focusing on your workplace ESG, which stands for the environmental, social and governance impacts of an organization’s activities, is the key to delivering all three of these goals.

The concepts of ESG are mostly spoken about at the boardroom, shareholder and global level.

And it is big business.

The United Nations estimates that the annual global spending by governments and the private sector needed to deliver the world’s ESG-related goals is around $5 trillion a year, or more than 6% of world GDP.

The impacts of workplace ESG on employee experience

But by focusing on ESG in the workplace, organizations can do their part for the planet while also delivering improvements to employee engagement, innovation and productivity, and driving business success.

Giving employees a clear connection to something important – a purpose that is bigger than an individual role – is an important factor in an organization’s success.

Research from Great Place To Work® shows that when employees say their work has “special meaning,” rather than being “just a job,” they are 56% more likely to experience innovation opportunities.

So, how are organizations using ESG principles in the workplace?

Can you improve your workplace ESG?

And why does it matter?

I spoke to three Australian business leaders – each of them Best Workplaces™ winners and Great Place To Work-Certified™ – and an expert in the field to answer these questions and find out how the principles of ESG are being used by the Best Workplaces to drive employee satisfaction, engagement and performance.

The origins of workplace ESG

But first, a quick refresher on the underlying concepts of ESG.

ESG had its genesis as a framework to help investors use criteria other than simply financial return in choosing their investments.

The problem investors were trying to solve was that they had no way to account for externalities — the things that did not cost an organization anything (such as dumping waste) but had a cost to others (who had to clean it up).

Three central factors emerged:

• Environment – How does an action or choice by an organization use energy and other resources and in what ways does it create waste?
• Social – How does an action affect people in the broadest, most diverse sense?
• Governance – How are decisions made and are they honest, ethical and fair?

This three-part framework has been extended beyond its original investment roots and now describes much of how society expects its companies, nonprofit organizations and governments to operate.

Catherine Maxwell, general manager of policy and advocacy at the Governance Institute of Australia, and a leading authority on governance and risk management, tells Great Place To Work that workplace ESG is deeply connected with corporate purpose.

“The better organizations are starting to ask questions like ‘what is our purpose?’ and ‘how is that purpose connected to what we actually do?’” says Catherine.

“And they are asking some quite hard questions: How do we treat people? How do we interact with our stakeholders? What’s our culture? And how does our culture fit with our purpose?”

Employees are fast becoming sensitive to discrepancies between what a company says and the way it acts.

“That’s the really interesting piece,” says Catherine. “How does what we say about ourselves match up match up with who we are?”

The benefits of committed workplace ESG practice show up directly in results.

“And they are asking some quite hard questions: How do we treat people? How do we interact with our stakeholders? What’s our culture? And how does our culture fit with our purpose?”

“It’s kind of intuitive – more satisfied employees work harder, stay longer, produce better results and are more committed to an organization,” says Catherine.

“And there’s a halo effect – people who work there and leave there speak well of it, so it becomes a self-perpetuating thing.”

ESG and employee engagement

ESG performance as a driver of employee satisfaction is an important piece of what makes a company a great place to work.

A Marsh & McLennan study found that employers that have high employee satisfaction and are attractive employment destinations for university graduates tend to have lower carbon emissions, have more diversity, and make a greater effort to understand employee feelings.

This is making ESG performance a competitive advantage for engaging and attracting employees.

“The stakeholders are not just the people that own the business.”

Bruce McFarlane, CEO of fast-growing Melbourne professional services firm BlueRock, says purpose is one of the key reasons that employees join his firm.

“Our purpose statement is ‘do the things you love with people you care about and great things will happen’,” he says. “That’s morphed into our vision.”

“People join BlueRock for a number of reasons but one of the keys is to give back and be part of a community that cares about our clients and the environment.”

BlueRock is a certified B Corporation, meaning it has been independently assessed as making decisions that benefit not only employees and clients, but also the wider community and the environment.

“One of the changes we’ve just made is changing our purpose under the Constitution. The change –which sounds subtle – is that the business is now operating for the benefit of the stakeholders,” says Bruce.

“The stakeholders are not just the people that own the business.”

This means BlueRock has taken some practical steps, like mandating that people issues are always the first item on any meeting agenda.

It also runs an annual capital raising process to give all employees the chance to buy into the business, driving engagement and allowing them to participate in profit growth.

And unlike many professional services firms, BlueRock prizes transparency.

“There’s not a lot that we discuss behind closed doors. We’re very transparent in all these things we’re doing – financial decisions, people decisions, investment decisions,” says Bruce, adding that a monthly employee survey quickly catches any deviation from the firm’s values.

Governance in the workplace

Sam Riley, CEO of Ansarada, an Australian tech success story that provides AI tools and virtual data rooms for the investment banking industry, says ESG is baked into Ansarada’s policies, procedures and systems, partly because helping clients with governance is precisely what the business sells.

He says aligning behind this purpose is critical to employee engagement.

“Our purpose is to see that anyone with a passion and a purpose is able to grow a business,” he says.

“We want to give them the tools and the capability and the resources. The same technology that Goldman Sachs would exploit to optimize a multi-billion-dollar deal – that same content, functionality and support should be available to a start-up.”

Riley says Ansarada would like nothing more than to align all staff to purpose and do away with traditional hierarchies.

“Our organizational design should be structured totally around priorities and objectives and cross functional teams,” he says.

“Can we put departments to death?”

4 steps towards authentic workplace ESG

At the Green Building Council of Australia, the member organization that administers the building Green Star ratings system, the chance for employees to have a real environmental impact is baked into the mission statement.

“All the studies show that organizations that are purpose-led with people aligned for that purpose are more successful and their people live more engaged and happier lives,” says GBCA’s CEO Davina Rooney.

“Our purpose is to transform the built environment for the sustainable future.

“People spend 90 per cent of their time indoors…so if we’re going to win the war on climate change, buildings are essential.

“Unsurprisingly, a large number of the people who work for us are enormously driven by their passion for sustainability and their drive to see change.”

Davina advises organizations to take four steps to authentically implement workplace ESG.

“First, Australians are highly educated on these issues. If you say ‘we are highly engaged with ESG and we’re sponsoring an initiative’ but you’re not doing anything about testing renewable power or the efficiency of your own office, your employees will catch you out pretty quickly.

“Two, we also say, set a leadership vision – a lighthouse on the hill – but also be clear on what you’re going to do tomorrow, because that’s what creates engagement: a vision for the future and immediate action towards it.

“Unsurprisingly, a large number of the people who work for us are enormously driven by their passion for sustainability and their drive to see change.”

“Three, make sure it’s not greenwash. It is important people know that it does what it says on the tin.

“Fourth, have fun with it. You don’t need to ask your employees to keep up – they are probably three steps ahead of you.

“Your next generation of ideas will come from your employee base.

“If they see their ideas as part of your strategy, and part of building a future with them, this will mean that your environmental goals progress, but you’ll also have better employee engagement.

“And then after that you won’t have to worry about your employee engagement proposition; your employees will manage that for you.”

Prove you treat our employees right with Great Place To Work-Certification™

Getting your company Great Place To Work-Certified proves to stakeholders (that includes investors, job seekers and employees) that you are doing right by your people. Because the qualification is based on employees’ confidential survey feedback and a methodology trusted by Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For®, stakeholders can trust that your company is one to invest in. Learn how to get your workplace Certified today.

Samantha Huddle

Samantha Huddle is the General Manager of Great Place to Work® in Australia and New Zealand. Sam has more than two decades of experience from the grassroots to the C-suite and helps businesses build high-trust, inclusive cultures that deliver tangible results. With expertise across the government, philanthropic and corporate sectors, Sam brings a collaborative, values-driven approach and a passion for achieving social impact through business

Workers say it matters how their employer is investing in sustainability and reducing carbon emissions. Here’s what that means in practice.

One stakeholder cares more than any other about how companies perform on sustainability and environmental goals: employees.

Gen Z and millennial employees in particular say that a company’s climate record will influence whether they take a job offer, with 60% of Gen Z saying they would avoid applying for a job at companies that have a perceived negative impact on the environment.

But tapping into the passions of these employees is a delicate balancing act.

Plenty of research has shown that inauthentic efforts at corporate social responsibility (CSR) can backfire. To be successful, companies must carefully involve employees in efforts to meet sustainability goals, from reducing waste to lowering carbon emissions.

Three drivers of engagement

New research has identified three drivers of employee engagement when it comes to CSR initiatives:

• Tension that exists either in the goals for CSR initiatives or the means used to accomplish CSR programs (This tension is created by a disconnect between which CSR goals/means an employee prefers and which the employee believes their company adopts.)
• Whether an employee engages with CSR work occasionally or as part of their role every day
• An employee’s ability to adopt a paradoxical mindset (As F. Scott Fitzgerald once described: “the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.”)

These three drivers determine how engaged employees will be with your CSR efforts, says Garima Sharma, assistant professor, Kogod School of Business, American University.  

One lesson from this research is that it is easier to reconcile tensions in CSR at the means level — what tactics or programs a company pursues — rather than at the goals level. Goals represent ideology, which is harder to bridge. If an employee is focused on CSR out of a personal passion — because it is the “right thing to do” — they will have conflict if they think that their organization is focused on CSR primarily as a business opportunity, and vice versa.

Is the goals conflict one that can be reconciled?

“It’s much, much harder,” says Sharma.

Finding internal advocates

To avoid this tension, many companies are finding ways to make sure employees feel included in setting CSR goals.

For PCL Construction, involving employees starts with finding a local leader in each of its offices that can take on the challenge. Every office, which is empowered to set its own strategy to meet its business needs, has someone who participates in PCL’s Sustainable Construction Advisor Network.

“These are individuals who volunteer to serve as local experts in their office, point persons for sustainability training or being there as a technical resource on our construction projects,” says Scott Beckman, director of sustainability for PCL.

Employees give lots of feedback to the organization about how they perceive efforts to increase sustainability and promote climate-friendly business practices.

“One example of that recently was some of our offices took it on themselves to establish waste tracking databases, and worked with their local waste haulers to ensure that we’re getting the proper reporting and tracking from them so that we can then roll that up into consolidated reporting,” says Beckman.

Tri Pointe Homes also empowers its team members to improve its LivingSmart® program, which underpins its commitment to healthy and environmentally responsible business practices.

“At Tri Pointe, ideas come from everywhere,” says Heather Breidenthal, CHRO of Tri Pointe Homes.

“Our team members are always encouraged to share their ideas for improvement and much of what happens in homebuilding happens ‘boots-on-the-ground’ style, as we are building our actual homes and communities.”

Scaling to customers

Engaging employees is also crucial for scaling the impact of climate-focused policies. For Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) only 3% of its total carbon emissions is from its own operations. Its supply chain is responsible for another 31%.

A whopping 66% is generated when customers use HPE’s products.

Yet, even when focusing on customer-facing solutions, employees play a crucial role in educating customers and creative problem-solving. Every employee has to play a role. The dedicated team of six that focuses on sustainability for the entire global customer base can’t speak to every customer interested in making their technology more sustainable.

“I’m always delighted when a customer tells me, ‘Hey, I heard from this pre-sales person or this salesperson and they were explaining to me all the things that HPE does from a climate perspective,’” says John Frey, chief technologist for sustainable transformation at HPE.

Making it personal

When it comes to training, many employers are connecting learning about sustainability and climate solutions to career growth and development.

At Trek Bicycles, product managers have extensive training in the concepts and practices of circularity — that is, how new products can be made with recycled products with a plan to reclaim the materials at the end of life.

“We brought in some expertise from Europe,” says Mark Joslyn, vice president of human resources at Trek. “We conducted a series of workshops and classes, first educating designers and product managers about how the lifecycle analysis is performed, and the impact of all the inputs.”

That’s when they learned the true value individual passion and expertise can have on the organization and our planet.

“We learned that the greatest impact or the largest percent of impact a product has in the world is determined at the point of design,” explains Joslyn. If you want to have a product that uses responsibly sourced and/or recycled materials, that’s shipped in sustainably sourced packaging, that contributes less to your carbon footprint, it has to be designed to do so.

“So having [designers and engineers] informed about how their decisions will drive that is essential,” Joslyn says.

Bringing the impact home

Another way to help employees connect with CSR initiatives is to bring them to the places where employees work.

For Trek, one powerful example has been their recycling drive held each year on Earth Day where employees can bring e-waste, footwear and bicycle parts and equipment to recycle them.

“It sounds really simple, but there are a lot of products now that are very difficult or expensive to recycle depending on where you live,” says Joslyn. “So you might have electronics, you might have other products that your local recycler won’t take … that you want to dispose of responsibly — that’s a day that people now mark on their calendar.”

Getting involved

Looking to get your employees more involved with sustainability and climate initiatives?

Consider these tips:

1. Start with education

Do all your employees know what you mean when you use acronyms like ESG? The term, which stands for environmental, social, and governance issues has become a hot button topic headed into a contentious presidential election cycle.

“There is a lot of noise out there,” says Breidenthal. “Gather and share examples and interesting stories (with pictures) from across the company. Start there and ask your employees to share their own stories. You will be amazed at what you will be able to collect, as well as the insights you will gain.” 

2. Develop and publish a sustainability report

It’s important to know your current impact before you can start making measurable progress, much less communicate a strategy with your employees.

“It’s served as a really great organizing framework,” says Beckman. “It’s caused a lot of internal discussion when we produce it, from the top levels all the way down.”

3. Help employees share stories and best practices

You never know where a great idea might come from. Storytelling tools and channels offer a way for employees to contribute their expertise and drive conversations across the organization.

At PCL, employees share through a program called “My Sustainability Story.” Staff are encouraged to tell personal stories, best practices and anecdotes to an internal audience on Yammer, an internal social media platform.

“Having a healthy way to disseminate knowledge of sustainability best practices throughout the company is really key to moving forward as an organization,” Beckman says.

4. Don’t hesitate to engage

“Part of the challenge is often we’re hesitant to do things we can’t measure,” says Frey.

While the metrics to gauge improvement are getting better for environmental impact and carbon footprint, there are plenty of things that will have an impact that are harder to measure.

“Listen to your employees; listen to your customers,” Frey says. “Don’t wait to get started until you have all the measurement systems in place.”

Learn what moves your workforce

Wondering how your employee experience competes with the best enmployers in your industry? Our survey tools can help.

Ted Kitterman

Ted Kitterman is a content manager for Great Place to Work®. Ted has experience covering the workplace, business communications, public relations, internal communications, work culture, employee well-being, brand purpose and more. His work shines a light on the unparalleled data and insights offered by Great Place to Work’s decades of research, helping the company share its vision of a great place to work For All™.

Feeling disenchanted about improving your workplace culture? Turn obstacles into an opportunity to foster a better company culture and more successful business.

Creating a positive company culture can seem like a daunting task. Lack of buy-in, budget constraints, and competing priorities can all make the process overwhelming.

According to our research, a great workplace is one where employees trust the people they work for, have pride in their work, and enjoy the people they work with.

A strong company culture is a catalyst for improving employee retention and fueling innovative thinking. When working with employers, we consistently hear about these five pervasive challenges.

Fortunately, our new research on overcoming common HR challenges to cultivate a company culture offers precise strategies to address these issues and pave the way for a thriving workplace environment:

1. Obstacle: I don’t have time

While building trust does take time, the results will be worth it — for your employees and for you. Investing in people pays off in productivity and loyalty, as high-trust cultures have half the turnover of their competitors and see accelerated rates of innovation.

In our 2023 study, we found that workplaces that earned Great Place To Work Certified™ status — a certification only granted after meeting stringent employee experience benchmarks — had only half the turnover of the average U.S. workplaces. This is even more striking in the hospitality sector, a field where the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a 69% turnover rate; in contrast, Certified workplaces average a 20% turnover.

Imagine the savings in costs and recruitment time if you could halve your turnover rate.

The bottom line is that companies that invest in their workers deliver stronger financial results over the long term. 

Solution: Reward new habits with praise, bonuses, and other forms of appreciation.

Powerful changes in company culture don’t necessarily require more time, just small shifts in habits. Encourage positivity and thank employees for their good work.

Hilton recognized team members with their Hilton’s Heard at Hilton social media campaign, which shares inspiring messages from guests around the world so employees could see first-hand the impact they were making.

Recognition programs encourage team members to recognize their peers. But Capital One’s Spot Awards also awards points that can be redeemed for gift cards or cash. And people managers are notified each time a team member is recognized.

Use the time you have in the workplace strategically and dedicate one lunchtime a week to meet with your team or people one-on-one. A more informal setting helps you get to know each other and gives you space to voice your appreciation of them.

Saying “thank you” takes only seconds, but its positive impact lasts much longer.

2. Obstacle: My operating environment is too different

Many issues are not as unique to an industry as you might think. One thing your business has in common with other industries is people. At the heart of creating a positive company culture is ensuring your employees feel a sense of meaning, belonging, and value.

Whether yours is an international IT company or a healthcare start-up, our research shows that meaningful work will drive retention among your employees — across all industries and generations.

Solution: Keep an open mind to new ideas and solutions.

Avoid defaulting to thoughts such as, “that would never work here.” Instead, observe what other companies are doing to cultivate a thriving company culture.

At times, your environment can be an obstacle. With hybrid working, flex hours, and globally integrated teams, bonding over the water cooler is more of a challenge.

Jess Ramos, a learning and development team manager at NVIDIA Corporation solved the problem of engaging remote teams through “Friendship Fridays,” where colleagues hop on a group call for a virtual catch-up, including folks outside their immediate team.

Rocket Companies understands that sometimes you must stop working on everyday tasks to innovate. The Detroit-based fintech company introduced Hack Week, a week every quarter when teams meet to look at ideas in a new way and create prototypes. Some of the projects that have come out of Hack Week included rethinking passwords, a better way for clients to get their tax transcripts, and a way to give partners better visibility into the loan process.

Soliciting ideas from every level of your workforce can help solve unique industry challenges and foster a culture where employees feel valued and heard.

3. Obstacle: It’s not the right time

Mergers, layoffs, and global events can create uncertainty in the workplace. However, they can also be an opportunity for positive change. Great Place To Work’s research into these five most common challenges to a thriving company culture shows that when leaders foster trusting relationships, employees are better able to embrace change.

A period of disruption is not only the perfect time to reinforce company culture, it’s the right time to listen to your employees, address their fears, and outline next steps.

Solution: Communicate with and check in on employees, ad hoc and with surveys.

Caring people leaders understand the importance of surveying employees during a time of crisis or change. Some of the ways listening to employees can benefit businesses include:

• Unmasking hidden concerns
• Decoding resistance to change
• Informing strategic decisions
• Building trust

During the challenging times of the COVID-19 pandemic, DHL continued to actively seek feedback from its employees, illustrating the benefits of ongoing communication in maintaining a positive company culture despite disruptions and layoffs.

Responding to a survey question asking what they would change about DHL, one UK employee noted little room for improvement, stating:

“Very little, as the company regularly asks for feedback and continually asks, ‘Is DHL still a great place to work?’ And the answer is: yes, it is. DHL has done an amazing job during this pandemic in keeping us all up to date and safe.”

This feedback underscores the positive impact of DHL’s persistent efforts to foster a responsive and supportive work environment even in the midst of a global crisis.

4. Obstacle: My employees aren’t on board

While managing people is rewarding, it’s not without its challenges. If you’re struggling with a team that’s disengaged, the best path forward is to re-examine your approach, and then look for creative ways to rebuild trust.

In our experience, companies who respond to employee feedback and take at least one action on the most important issue build a sense of trust that employees can continue to expect to be heard.

Solution: Listen to employees and help them see the value of creating a great workplace.

Employees never get tired of feeling heard and understood. Our research shows the best workplaces share similar practices in implementing employee listening strategies:

• Leverage employee resource groups and committees
• Ensure authentic follow-up on employee feedback
• Create engagement through multiple channels 
• Send periodic employee engagement surveys

Texas Health Resources, Inc., understood that listening to their employees was vital to their business. The organization talked with more than 150 employees across its hospitals and physician clinics to ask, “What gets in your way of creating a phenomenal experience?”

From that, the company identified more than 400 pain points, classified them into 160 unique pain points, and then prioritized 42 of those to work on over the next three years to improve its care team experience.

Veterans United Home Loans helped to provide opportunities for confidence-building in employees so if someone has an opinion contrary to the crowd, they can find their voice and feel comfortable knowing that speaking their mind is valued and appreciated.

5. Obstacle: My boss isn’t interested

Unfortunately, not all leaders immediately see the value of creating a thriving company culture. Or if they do, they don’t see it as critical to running the business. However, according to 2023 research from FTSE Russell, companies on the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For® list outperform the market by a factor of 3.36.

If the math doesn’t sway management, you can always start with your own department.

Solution: Focus on what you can change, not what you can’t

In every organization, there are departments, divisions, and locations where employees enjoy a great workplace experience. Start cultivating a pocket of greatness within your company by adopting these practices:

• Create a strong sense of identity in your department
• Adopt a healthy mindset that treats cognitive obstacles as issues to be overcome
• Use whatever power and position you have to build a supportive environment
• Lead by example and use your influence to inspire employees

Sheetz, Inc., helped build a supportive environment by creating “Show the Love” kits for its stores with thank-you cards, posters, celebration pins, and appreciation coupons to recognize outstanding efforts. Posters are used to celebrate birthdays and work anniversaries and have plenty of space for co-workers to sign and add personal messages — a common and beloved practice among their employees.

This is an example of a program that doesn’t need executive buy-in and can be implemented at the team level. Stay focused on those things that you can influence — in time, your sphere of influence will increase and open doors that were once closed.

Get Great Place To Work’s white paper on how to overcome common HR challenges to learn more strategies for creating a thriving company culture.

Claire Hastwell

As the Content Program Manager at Great Place To Work, Claire helps decode the psychology behind high-trust workplaces using Great Place To Work’s extensive data repository on employee experience. Claire has co-authored noted reports such as “Women in the Workplace” and “The Power of Purpose at Work,” and contributed to Fortune with her profiles of the Best Workplaces™. Her latest white paper draws on three decades of employee survey data to give HR leaders strategic guidance on nurturing trust, inclusivity, and growth within their organizations.