Culture shock: Ways to review and improve your company culture for 2025

Wednesday December 18, 2024

The turn of the year is often a trigger for reflection on the past 12 months, not to mention planning for the 12 months ahead. While many companies may focus on a business plan, marketing strategy or financial forecasting, putting your company culture under the spotlight could be a useful exercise at this time.

So how come? Well, there are many statistics that show the positive impact that a positive company culture makes on a business:

  • 86% of job seekers avoid companies with a bad reputation.
  • Satisfied employees are 12% more productive than the average worker.
  • 69% of employees would contribute more if they received greater recognition*

With the cost of recruitment rising and many other business challenges vying for your attention, taking a little time fine-tuning your company culture now could pay dividends as 2025 unfolds.

 

Assessing your current culture

Of course, even if you have never proactively developed a company culture, you still have one. Maybe it works for you, or maybe it is holding you back. Alternatively, you may strive to foster a particular culture, but are missing the mark.

There are a host of ways in which you can get some hard evidence to see what you are working with:

  • Employee and business data – Absence rates, retention rates, internal promotions, turnover, profit.
  • Employee surveys – Ask them directly (but anonymously), what they think of the company, its culture and their role.
  • Third-party employment review sites, like Glassdoor.
  • Academic models such as the Organisational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) or the Business Needs Scorecard (BNS).

It will be important to bring your team along with you in developing a culture, so if you start involving them at this stage, explain from the outset what you are trying to achieve and why.

 

Identifying changes

As said, you need to involve your team in cultural development so if you haven’t already approached them, now is a good time to bring them in. Find out what they value and agree ways in which their views and the business can align, so that a sustainable culture can be pursued.

It can be useful to go right back to your business’s core values during this stage. Is your workforce in tune with them? Do they resonate with you and your target markets? Well thought out values will underpin most strong company cultures.

 

Tips for improving company culture

A company culture is a bespoke thing – it is the personality of your business. So there is not an instruction manual or definitive right way of doing it (although there are plenty of wrong ways). Here are a few ideas which are likely to be hallmarks of a good company culture. See what you are already doing and how adopting some of these may work for you.

Drive upskilling and internal promotion– Encourage your employees to get better at what they do and learn new skills. Give them pathways to internal promotion and make them feel they can achieve within your business.

Increase recognition – It is easy to fall into a cycle of only feeding back to employees when something has gone wrong or relying on annual reviews to cover off performance and recognition. Don’t take the good days for granted. Even an informal “thank you” or “well done” goes a long way, and you could introduce an employee of the month and quarterly or monthly reviews to really get the recognition flowing.

Involve employees in CSR – Most businesses nowadays will perform some level of corporate social responsibility (CSR), whether it is a small donation to charity or a large fundraiser. This is a prime way to encourage employee engagement and improve your culture. Let them help choose the causes to support, get their ideas on how you can do this and allow time for them to participate in the activities, such as encouraging them to volunteer in the community.

Collect data more often – Gain better data by surveying employees more regularly, carrying out exit interviews when they leave and just being approachable. There will be opportunities for continuous improvement as well as changing tack if you realise things are not going to plan.

 

Help from The HR Dept

Company culture is unique to your business and can help you thrive or trip you up. Whether you would like help assessing your current culture, defining a new one or implementing good practices, we are by your side. Get in touch today.

 

*https://teamstage.io/company-culture-statistics/

    Preventing People Problems

    Subscribe to our monthly newsletter

    Office Address: Halton Mill, Mill Lane, Halton, Lancashire, LA2 6ND | VAT Number: 462116026 | Registration Number: 15531080

    Copyright © 2007 - 2025 The HR Dept Ltd. HR DEPT is a registered trademark belonging to The HR Dept Limited.