When it comes to overarching organizational performance, culture matters.
But even if your leadership team agrees with prioritizing culture, securing investment for programs still requires a watertight business case, aligned with the overall strategic direction of the company. That's why we partnered with Forrester on a Total Economic Impact™ study and created the Culture Amp ROI Calculator.
We also asked three HR leaders to share their own experiences:
Why culture matters.
All three leaders agreed that building a strong culture helps foster a sense of belonging and purpose, leading to higher engagement levels.
For Heather, culture is part of the BPM five-year strategic plan: “People are at the heart of everything we do, and we want to attract, develop and retain world-class talent. When people feel they're performing well and their work is valued, they stay at the organization.”
Throughout his tenured career Bjorn has also found that a strong company culture directly impacts business outcomes:
“A strong culture enhances employee engagement, productivity, and retention, leading to improved profitability and innovation. And a positive culture fosters better communication and collaboration, which are essential for navigating challenges and driving organizational success.”
Debbie also believes that a strong company culture contributes to the long-term success of the organization:
“Companies need to be adaptable and resilient to navigate change effectively. A strong company culture built on trust, transparency and open communication can help employees weather challenges and embrace change more readily.”
Empowering high-performance.
All three HR leaders have seen the impact of culture in empowering people to bring their best selves to work each day.
“We all want to be part of a culture that brings out the best in us, where we feel like we are doing meaningful work that has an impact,” says Heather.
“This means creating environments where people are challenged and where they can put their strengths to use. We strive to foster psychological safety so our colleagues know they can be innovative, make mistakes and learn along the way.”
Debbie noted that high-performance teams are resilient and capable of navigating setbacks: “They adapt quickly to change, learn from failures, and continuously improve their processes and performance.”
For Bjorn, “It’s about fostering a sense of belonging, where employees are aligned with the company’s mission and values, and where collaboration, innovation and continuous improvement thrive.”
Data-driven results.
A data-driven approach to culture means being able to measure the impact of your program, while avoiding bias and keeping everyone accountable, our ROI calculator is a good place to start.
As Bjorn notes, “For me, this involves showcasing the direct impact on key metrics such as employee engagement, retention, productivity and ultimately, organizational success. Collect and analyze data on these metrics before and after implementing initiatives to quantify the effectiveness of programs.”
Heather agrees data is essential for providing an equitable way to share experiences: “As an accounting and advisory firm, we value numbers and data. Culture Amp allows us to hear from each person accurately and not over-index on some voices that may speak more loudly than others.”
For Debbie: “The fact that we can run reports and managers can measure ongoing success metrics is critical to our overall success and outcomes.”
Where are you starting from?
Securing investment in a program to help you build your high-performance culture means understanding the current baseline.
For Debbie, taking her pitch to the board was about illustrating the cost of not having a measurement tool.
“Not having this kind of data was going to cost us our credibility, trust and reliability. We’d not used a tool like Culture Amp before, but the leadership team were supportive once they understood the cost of sticking with the status quo.”
For Heather, having baseline data helps her leadership team understand culture and performance progress.
“We were undergoing a significant rebranding process and developing our next five-year strategic plan when we started using the Culture Amp platform. Our leaders understood the value and impact of having this data because if we were going to invest in these significant initiatives, we wanted to see the impact later down the line.”
Bjorn agrees the data gathered by Culture Amp is the foundation for deeper conversations internally: “Efficient data collection, standardized analysis and reporting capabilities mean we can make informed decisions and demonstrate the ROI of efforts.”
Getting leadership buy-in.
All agreed that getting leadership involved early in the process is essential for successfully securing investment in a culture program.
Bjorn’s advice is to: “Focus on aligning initiatives with overarching business goals, demonstrating tangible ROI, and involving key stakeholders from the outset.”
“With hindsight, I would have involved leadership even earlier in the process of implementing culture initiatives and securing buy-in. By ensuring clear communication and co-ownership from the outset, we could have accelerated the pace of implementation and achieved greater alignment with strategic objectives even more.”
Heather encourages HR leaders to make clear the importance of culture when presenting their case:
“You can have all the best strategies in the world, but if your culture doesn't align with your values and what you say is important to you, the strategies won’t matter.”
“Looking back, we could have done more to help our stakeholders and leaders understand what engagement is and why it matters. If I were to start again, I’d allow more time to help leaders understand the results and get them more involved in the action planning.”
Debbie says quantifying savings is important.
“Calculate the tangible cost savings resulting from the implementation of HR technology. This could include savings from reduced recruitment advertising costs, decreased time spent on administrative tasks, or lower employee turnover costs.”
She also stresses the importance of communicating results: “Use data-driven insights to support your findings and make a compelling case for continued investment in HR technology.”
The consensus is clear. Helping leaders understand the potential impact of programs and taking a data-driven approach are essential to securing investment.
All companies ultimately want a high-performance culture, they just need to understand how to get there.
