Company Culture Metrics: What You Need to Be Tracking and Why
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Over time, an organization’s culture is bound to shift as new employees join the team and others say goodbye. However, whether it shifts positively or negatively depends on how well you support, engage with and manage your employees. That’s where tracking company culture metrics comes in.
Data from company culture metrics provides crucial information leaders can use for the betterment of their organization and its treatment of employees. It allows businesses to maintain a strong company culture through regular evaluations, ensuring the organization remains a desirable workplace for employees. Through company culture metrics, businesses can align themselves with their goals and gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace.
Why you need to track company culture metrics
Measuring company culture metrics highlights how satisfied employees are and what your company is doing right to create a positive company culture. It also sheds light on areas in your organization where employees may feel unsupported.
Without addressing employees’ concerns, workers may feel demoralized or unheard, leading to reduced productivity, poor performance and decreased revenue. However, using these metrics to improve your organization can stop issues or bad habits before they arise. This can result in increasing employee performance and improving their morale, engagement, productivity and retention rate.
Through company culture metrics, leaders can determine whether or not the organization’s goals align with actions by uncovering areas for improvement. For example, if you’re trying to create a more healthy and welcoming company culture, you can gain insight into how inclusive your company is by measuring diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) metrics.
By tracking culture metrics, organizations can further shape their company’s identity – since healthy company culture is a standout trait that many companies pride themselves on having or seek to have. You may also attract better talent, gain employee trust and see an increase in revenue.
Positive workplace culture is vital to modern-day workers. According to the Society for Human Resource Management, 90 percent of surveyed employees who rated their company culture as “poor” have considered quitting their job, and likewise for 72 percent of those who rated their culture as “average.”
The company culture metrics you should track
Here are the top company culture metrics for you to measure.
Employee referrals
Tracking employee referrals can demonstrate a lot about how workers view the workplace. If an employee is satisfied in their job, they will likely refer others to your organization; and if they aren’t, they’ll be sure to advise people not to work there. By tracking the number of employee referrals your company gets, you can measure employee satisfaction and see how your company’s culture affects your staff.
Productivity
Productivity is an important metric to track, as an unproductive employee or team that is unable to complete its tasks may indicate a deeper problem within the organization. Employees should feel motivated to do their job; however, if the team is dealing with an unhealthy work environment, they may lose motivation and feel not aligned with company goals, leading to lower productivity.
Communication
By tracking communication metrics, organizations can ensure employees feel empowered to freely share constructive feedback and opinions without fear of repercussions. Employees should feel encouraged to be open and honest with those in their company, regardless of their position.
Take time out to get honest feedback from workers, and make sure those employees are kept in the loop about the changes being made to bolster morale at work. Small actions, such as personally thanking a worker, can do a lot to improve someone’s mood and level of satisfaction regarding a workplace.
Adaptability
It’s critical that employees feel well equipped to handle organizational changes. Otherwise, they may wind up feeling overwhelmed and overworked. Regardless of what it relates to, managers can feel they have everything necessary to handle changes with relative ease, but that sense of empowerment might not extend to other employees.
By tracking adaptability, businesses can see how employees feel about upcoming changes and ensure that they can quickly adapt to upcoming changes; if they don’t, companies can provide resources to help employees build these capabilities.
Turnover and retention rates
Employee turnover and retention rates can be strong indicators of a company’s culture, as they demonstrate how quickly employees voluntarily enter and exit the organization. If new hires and existing employees leave a company at a high rate, this could indicate an issue within the organization – likely an unhealthy or negative workplace culture – that the organization needs to rectify. In contrast, employees are likely to stay with a company for a long time when the workplace has a positive culture.
Personal wellness
Giving employees access to a personal wellness incentive, such as a gym membership discount, can give the impression your workplace truly cares about helping employees stay healthier. However, besides bolstering that aspect of company culture, a personal wellness program is an economically sound choice for your company.
Comfort level of the work environment
Characteristics like the layout of an office and the comfort level of a room can make a big difference in whether people are able to do their jobs well and feel content during the process. Though some employees may be hesitant to come to a human resources representative if they feel like something about the workplace makes them physically uncomfortable, even seemingly basic features, such as temperature, can make a difference in productivity.
If you’re having trouble getting workplace comfort metrics, put a “suggestions box” in a communal office area and attach blank index cards. People can use those index cards to make anonymous comments about what they like and dislike about the comfort level of their workplace and, more importantly, how to make it better for everyone.
Employee recognition and support
When employees feel they are contributing positively to an organization and that colleagues are noticing those efforts, they’re more likely to have higher spirits and a greater sense of self-worth. In contrast, if people feel they are getting lost in the shuffle and that no one would notice if they just stopped doing their jobs, that can bring down the productivity level of an entire team.
If it seems your corporate culture is lacking, you’re not alone. Thankfully, these tips you’ve just read for keeping tabs on metrics should help you make positive organizational changes that could keep employees happier, reduce turnover and make your workplace a more positive environment overall.
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