Workplace Culture Review

When a complaint is received, employers have more options than they think.

When a complaint comes to leaders, they should first review all options for resolution. Resolution of a specific complaint does not always resolve ongoing workplace concerns.

Should this complaint result in a formal investigation? External or internal? How serious is it? How many similar complaints have come forward? Ongoing complaints?

Formal investigations involve a lot of time and resources and, for serious issues of harassment and discrimination, that may be the only way to proceed.

When safety and health concerns, such as possible bullying or unresolved conflicts continue to surface, we often recommend conducting a Workplace Culture Review.

Conducting a Workplace Culture Review will provide meaningful information about the workplace and lead to actions that will have a positive outcome for everyone in your workplace.

When complaints are shared by a number of employees, productivity concerns in the workplace arise or, high performers may leave the organization. An independent Workplace Culture Review can offer a positive way forward.

This approach is inclusive and allows employees to be anonymous and to provide candid feedback that is historically hidden from leaders.

The reviewer summarizes themes that supports anonymity and allows for future action.

Discovering the strengths, needs, opportunities and threats in the workplace gives leaders a clear pathway to improve harmony, meet objectives, create concrete action plans, and ensure a culture that demonstrates your core values.

Questions When Considering a Workplace Assessment

Do employees seem reluctant to speak up or fear retaliation if they do?
Have you heard about conflicts over the past year within this group?
Is there high staff turnover? Have high performers left?
Are there Board or governance conflicts?

How does a Workplace Culture Review work?

We collaborate with leaders to develop relevant questions to enable collection of meaningful information.

Confidential interviews and surveys with one department, or company-wide, are used to gather candid feedback. This may include anonymous surveys and one-on-one interviews to better understand the current workplace climate.

We work hard to ensure comments are not linked to individuals.

Some culture reviews involve focus groups and town halls as well. This approach provides a broader perspective. These results are not anonymous and provide an opportunity for employees to provide suggestions and feedback on workplace systems.

This feedback process is far less confrontational than an investigation and provides leaders with an expansive view of workplace dynamics.

From these results realistic (and doable) action plans are created and then executed with a senior person leading the implementation. A six-month review of the subsequent action plan is recommended.

By completing a culture review process, leaders demonstrate the value of employee feedback and makes change management effective.