In our last article, we looked at the signs that a workplace culture might be broken, and what business owners can do when things have gone off track. But what if your culture isn’t broken? What if it’s just… not as good as it could be?
Maybe people are doing their jobs, but there isn’t much energy in the room. Good employees are leaving a little more often than you’d like. Managers are managing differently. Problems tend to simmer rather than being addressed. Or you’ve grown quickly and realised that the culture you had when there were 10 of you hasn’t quite survived becoming a business of 30, 50 or 100 people.
This is where culture work can make an enormous difference. Despite what you might have heard, it doesn’t necessarily involve a culture survey, a retreat or spending six months rewriting your company values.
Often, the most effective changes are much more practical. First, what actually creates workplace culture? Your workplace culture isn’t what is written on the wall. It’s what happens every day. It’s how a manager responds when someone makes a mistake. It’s whether poor behaviour is addressed or quietly tolerated because the person is a high performer. It’s whether employees know what is expected of them. It’s whether someone can raise a concern without regretting it afterwards. It’s how new employees are welcomed, how decisions are communicated and whether leaders do what they say they’re going to do.
In other words, culture is the accumulation of hundreds of small behaviours. If you want to improve it, that’s a very useful place to start.
1. Ask your people one simple question
You don’t always need a 40-question employee engagement survey. Try asking “What’s one thing that would make this a better place to work?” Then listen. You might be surprised by the answers.
It could be clearer communication. Better equipment. Managers actually having regular conversations with their teams. More consistency around rosters. Knowing what’s happening in the business. Dealing with one person’s behaviour that everyone else has been putting up with for months. The important part isn’t just asking the question. It’s doing something with the answer.
Nothing damages engagement faster than repeatedly asking employees for feedback and then appearing to ignore it.
2. Deal with the behaviour everyone knows about
Most workplaces have had one. The technically brilliant employee who is awful to work with. The manager who plays favourites. The person who continually speaks disrespectfully to others. The employee everyone works around because confronting their behaviour feels too difficult. When leaders tolerate poor behaviour, they’re unintentionally setting a standard.
Other employees don’t necessarily think “Management hasn’t dealt with this yet.” They start thinking “Apparently this is acceptable here.”
One of the most powerful things a business owner can do for workplace culture is address poor behaviour early, fairly and consistently. You don’t need to turn every issue into a formal disciplinary process. Often, a clear conversation about what has happened, why it isn’t acceptable and what needs to change is enough, but have the conversation.
3. Make sure your managers actually know how to manage people
This is one of the biggest culture issues we see. Someone is excellent at their job, so they’re promoted to supervisor or manager. Then we expect them to magically know how to lead people.
- How to give feedback.
- How to handle conflict.
- How to manage underperformance.
- How to have a difficult conversation.
- How to motivate different personalities.
- How to respond when an employee becomes upset.
- How to recognise when something has crossed from a management issue into an HR issue.
Most people aren’t born knowing how to do these. If you have five managers applying five completely different standards, employees experience five different versions of your workplace.Giving managers practical people-management skills is one of the best investments you can make in culture.
4. Have more small conversations
If the only time an employee gets meaningful feedback is during an annual performance review, you’re making things unnecessarily difficult. Good workplaces tend to have lots of small conversations.
- “How are things going?”
- “Anything getting in your way?”
- “That was really well handled.”
- “I noticed this happened yesterday – can we talk about it?”
- “What support do you need from me?”
These conversations take minutes. But they prevent an enormous number of bigger HR problems. They also mean employees don’t spend six months wondering whether they’re doing a good job, and managers don’t spend six months quietly becoming frustrated about something they’ve never actually raised.
5. Look at the first 90 days
If you want to understand your culture, look at what happens to a new employee. Before they start, does anyone contact them? On day one, does somebody know they’re coming? Is their equipment ready? Does someone explain how things actually work – not just hand them policies? Do they know what good performance looks like? Does their manager check in after their first week? Their first month? Before probation ends?
The first few months tell an employee an enormous amount about the organisation they’ve joined. A thoughtful onboarding process doesn’t need to be complicated or expensive. It just needs to make someone feel that you were expecting them, you’re pleased they’re there and you want them to succeed.
6. Notice the people who quietly make your business better
Recognition doesn’t have to mean an employee-of-the-month program. In fact, some of the most meaningful recognition costs absolutely nothing.
- “I saw how you handled that customer. Thank you.”
- “I know this week has been difficult and you’ve really stepped up.”
- “That was a great piece of work.”
- “Thanks for helping the new person settle in.”
The employees who hold cultures together aren’t always the loudest or highest performers on paper. They’re often the people who help others, share information, solve problems without drama and make the workplace easier for everyone around them. Make sure those behaviours are noticed. Because what leaders recognise gets repeated.
7. Decide what you won’t compromise on
This may be the most important one. Every workplace has standards – the question is whether they’re intentional. Think about the three or four behaviours that should be non-negotiable in your business. Perhaps it’s
- We speak respectfully to each other.
- We raise problems rather than letting them fester.
- Managers don’t avoid difficult conversations.
- We do what we say we’re going to do.
- We don’t tolerate bullying, harassment or discriminatory behaviour.
- People can make mistakes, but they need to take responsibility for them.
Whatever they are, make them real. Talk about them. Model them. Use them when you’re making decisions. And apply them consistently – particularly when it’s inconvenient.
Because culture isn’t really tested when everything is going well. It’s tested when your best salesperson behaves badly. When a manager isn’t managing. When two employees aren’t getting along. When someone makes a significant mistake. When the business is under pressure. What you do in those moments tells your employees far more about your culture than anything written in a values statement. You don’t need to fix everything at once
If you’re a business owner reading this and thinking, we could probably do better on most of these, don’t turn culture into another enormous project.
- Pick one thing.
- Ask your people the question.
- Train your managers.
- Improve onboarding.
- Start having regular check-ins.
- Deal with the behaviour you’ve been avoiding.
- Then build from there.
Small, consistent changes are much more powerful than a big culture initiative that disappears after three months. And if you’re not sure where to start, that’s often where an external perspective can help.
At HR Cornerstone, we work with business owners to understand what’s really happening in their workplace and put practical people strategies in place, from improving leadership and communication to addressing workplace issues, strengthening HR processes and helping create a culture where good people want to stay.
If your workplace culture isn’t quite where you’d like it to be, get in touch with HR Cornerstone. Sometimes a few practical changes can make a much bigger difference than you think.