Your Culture is a Mess—and It’s Costing You Millions

Let’s be honest: leadership often has a much rosier view of the workplace than those who are actually in the trenches. It’s not intentional—it’s just how the corporate ladder works. The higher up you go, the harder it is to see the day-to-day struggles of your employees.

Below, I'll summarize one of my client's journey which epitomizes where thousands of workplaces are today. I'll use their experience as a STEP-BY-STEP for you to see?what your next steps could be on building the workplace culture you've always dreamed of (and potentially saving your company millions at the same time).

Lets begin..

In 2019, I was once called in by a enthusiastic VP of HR who suspected there was more going on under the surface at her company. The executive leadership team was convinced they had a strong workplace culture - people seemed friendly, employee churn seemd reasonable. But as I always say, assuming your culture is great without data is like trying to build a house blindfolded—with a chopstick as your only tool. You can do it, but it’s going to take forever, and the results probably won’t be pretty.

So, what’s the first step? Collect science-backed data.

Step One: Collecting the Right Data

Before jumping to conclusions, we started by deploying a tool that gathered critical data across several key areas, like how employees were experiencing leadership, communication, psychological safety, and more. In my experience, the gut feelings of leadership usually only reveal about 10% of the actual cultural issues—and this case was no different.

We needed a full picture, and that is just what we got: We we're able to get a?360° picture?of employee experience. Both quantitative and qualitative. It covered areas like:

- Psychological Safety: Could employees speak up without fear of negative consequences?

- Leadership Effectiveness: Were leaders inspiring trust and engagement across the board?

- Communication: Was information flowing freely and transparently, or were some teams left in the dark?

- Inclusion and Belonging: Did employees from diverse backgrounds feel like they truly belonged?

- Growth Opportunities: Were employees clear on how to grow within the company?

- Retention Expectation: were employees planning to?leave over the next 6 months, one year?or 3 years, and why?

When the data came in, the results were a real eye-opener. The VP of HR was floored. “We thought we were doing so well!” she said, shaking her head. What they hadn’t realized was how disconnected the leadership team was from the real issues employees were facing.

The Data: An Eye-Opener

Here's a view from 10,000 ft. Let me break it down for you, because this data spoke volumes:

- Psychological Safety? Not great. A large chunk of the workforce didn’t feel comfortable speaking up. According to Amy Edmondson at Harvard Business School, psychological safety is critical for innovation, and teams with high psychological safety see significantly better performance.

- Leadership Effectiveness? Mixed reviews. In some departments, leadership was rock-solid. In others? Let’s just say the feedback was less than glowing. According to the Harvard Business Review, bad leadership is one of the top reasons employees leave.

- Communication? Fragmented at best. A lot of employees felt like they were getting information through a game of telephone—distorted, delayed, or not at all. McKinsey says productivity jumps by 25% in organizations with effective communication. Clearly, there was room for improvement.

- Inclusion and Belonging? Lacking. Employees didn’t feel a sense of community, which was creating silos. Deloitte found that organizations with inclusive cultures are 6x more likely to be innovative and agile. This wasn’t just a cultural issue—it was a business risk.

- Growth Opportunities? Vague. Many employees didn’t know how to move forward in their careers, leading to frustration and disengagement. LinkedIn reports that 94% of employees would stay at a company longer if it invested in their career development.

- Retention Expectation?: Frightening. Over 33% of the workforce?or seriously considering leaving?within the next 6 to 12 months. Another 15%?were considering leaving within the next?24 months. This employer typically had an employee turn of 20% Which they thought was reasonable. They had no idea how much it was costing them.

The data wasn’t just an eye-opener; it was a roadmap. It gave us a clear view of what needed to be fixed—and how to do it.

Caveat: The Importance of Science-Backed Data

Here’s the thing: you can’t fix what you don’t know. It’s easy to roll out a “culture initiative” or plan some team-building events, but without real data, you’re just guessing. And guessing is expensive. Trust me—trying to fix your culture without science-backed data is like playing darts in the dark. You might hit the board, but you’re going to waste a lot of time (and money) in the process.

Building the Roadmap

Once we had the data, we built a solid plan to address the company’s culture gaps. Here's what we did:

1. Improved Communication Channels: We created structured feedback loops so employees could voice concerns and ask questions without fear of backlash. According to Gallup, companies with systematically engaged employees see a 21% boost in profitability.

2. Leadership Training: We tailored leadership development programs to each department’s needs, focusing on transparency and support. When leaders are more effective, employees are 65% more engaged, according to the Harvard Business Review.

3. Psychological Safety: We created an environment where employees felt safe to speak up and take risks. Psychological safety doesn’t just make people feel good—it drives performance and innovation.

4. Clear Growth Paths: Employees need to know how they can grow within the company, and we made sure they had that clarity. According to LinkedIn, lack of career development is one of the top reasons employees leave, but 74% say they’d stick around if they saw a future in their company.

5. Inclusion and Belonging Initiatives: We implemented programs that fostered belonging, bringing employees from different backgrounds and departments together. This helped build a more cohesive, innovative team.

Six Months Later: A Total Transformation

Fast forward six months, and the results were undeniable:

- Employee engagement improved by 35%.

- Turnover dropped from 22% to 8%. A little churn is normal, but we got it to a place where the company was retaining its best talent.

- Psychological safety scores increased by 40%. Employees were contributing more ideas and collaborating better.

- Productivity surged by 25%.

But here’s the kicker: they were losing over $1.5 million a year to lost productivity, turnover, and inefficiencies. Fixing the culture didn’t just improve morale—it saved them millions.

The Bottom Line: Don’t Guess, Use Data (i.e science-backed data)

As a VP of HR, you know some employee turnover is inevitable. A little churn is healthy. But when it starts creeping up beyond that, it’s a sign of deeper issues.

If you’re not using science-backed data to understand your workplace culture, you’re leaving money on the table. Gut feelings and intuition aren’t enough to keep your best employees engaged or to build a culture that attracts top talent.

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P.S. If you’re not collecting data, happy to talk. If you are collecting data but don’t know what to do with it, we should definitely talk. Feel free to DM me. Don’t let a disconnected culture cost you millions.

#Leadership #HR #Culture #PeopleAnalytics #EmployeeExperience #WorkplaceData #Retention #DataDriven