The 4 Cs of Culture: Getting to the truth of your workplace culture

Culture is one of the most important things for businesses of all shapes, sizes and sectors to invest in and get right. Unfortunately, it’s also one of the hardest things to define, measure or pin down. It’s not a policy, a strategy, a set of perks. You can’t write it in a document or stick posters on the walls that will magically become your culture. Culture is the reality of how people feel, act, speak and show up every day. And worse still, it’s fluid, slippery and changes and evolves quickly.  

When it comes to measuring workplace culture, we often find ourselves referring to employee survey data, retention rates, employee reviews, evidence of loyalty or even discretionary effort. None of which is wrong – they’re all good sources of data – but this analysis takes time, relies on employees feeling safe enough to give their honest opinions, and the results are usually reflective of just a snapshot in time.  

If you’ve just arrived at a new organisation and are trying to identify where the culture sits right now or you’re on a mission to improve your organisation’s culture, here’s how we approach assessing a culture reality.  

At Something Big, we’ve boiled it down to four key things, we call them the 4 Cs of Culture:

1. Communication

Everything starts with language. The tone, terminology and openness of how an organisation communicates all reveal what a company really believes. From Board meeting minutes to social media posts, from Town Hall scripts to internal emails, and even the naming conventions of projects – all of these give clues about how the organisation values its people. 

How does the business refer to its people? Are they employees, colleagues, staff… or resource? Is the language even consistent across different departments? Are employees seen and spoken about as genuine contributors, partners, and individuals? How is their work viewed, is it respected for the expertise it takes, or is it seen as unskilled? What conversations happen when people leave the business? What are the key words that keep popping up? How would you describe the tone? When you reflect on communication, how do you feel? 

 2. Comprehensive

When a business cares about its culture and in turn has a strong one, it runs like a golden thread throughout everything they do. From hiring, onboarding, customer interactions, decision making, leadership behaviour, the approach to policies and even the way the office operates. When culture is rich it leads the way. When trying to assess a culture, looking at things like job adverts, policies, approach to learning and development and where inclusion sits on the agenda all help build up a clear picture of culture.   

 3. Consistency

Culture isn’t a trend. It can’t be picked up and put down. It lives on regardless of whether it’s on this month’s agenda or not. When assessing culture, it’s really important to look at it over time, the good times and more challenging ones. How did the company treat its people during the pandemic, when times were tough and difficult decisions had to be made? Or when times were good and they could celebrate and reward hard work? Companies that truly get it invest consistently knowing how fragile culture is and what it takes to protect it. 

4. Commercial Connection

Culture isn’t just nice-to-have, it’s a commercial fundamental. You don’t have to look far to find commercial benefits to have a strong culture. Whether it’s about attracting and keeping talent, avoiding the cost of constant re-training or absenteeism, or driving better service through motivated employees – culture plays a vital role. It also protects brand reputation and encourages discretionary effort and advocacy. 

Organisations that get it know that investing in their culture reaps reliable ROI and have robust approaches to employee communication, learning and development, employer brand and EVP, reward and recognition, employee appreciation and more.  

How well can you define the reality of your culture? Are you clear on where you should be focusing to drive your culture in the direction you want it to go. How well can you identify the areas that are undermining your culture?  

If you’d like some help assessing your culture as it really is, book a call to chat to one of our culture experts here.