The Top Ten Most Frequently Asked Workplace Culture Questions
As a leading thought leader, keynote speaker, and trainer on the topic of workplace culture, I get asked a lot of questions about workplace culture, so I thought I’d pull together the top ten most asked workplace culture questions into one handy dandy summary guide.
So here we go!
- What the heck is workplace culture, and why does it matter?
Your workplace culture is the unique set of rituals, traditions, values, and behaviours that make your organization different than any other workplace.
It’s your workplace DNA, your mojo…your collective ecosystem.
It’s about HOW you do the things you do. How you bring your values to life, how you work together as a team, how you deliver exceptional customer service, and how you communicate.
And the reason it matters is simple!
Your workplace culture is your #1 competitive advantage!
Your workplace culture is your #1 competitive advantage that you can control in a world where so many things are beyond your control.
Your workplace culture is your #1 competitive advantage when it comes to attracting great employees that are a fit for your workplace, retaining employees, improving performance and productivity, and delivering exceptional customer service.
Your workplace culture impacts absolutely every aspect of how you operate!
And study after study after study demonstrates time and again the workplace culture is the key driver of success in any organization!
- How can we improve our workplace culture?
The first step is awareness and recognizing that great cultures don’t just happen by accident.
You need to be intentional when it comes to building a great workplace culture.
You need to make sure that everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) understands that everything they do either adds to your workplace culture or detracts from your workplace culture.
Now this is of course a huge answer, so let me just summarize a few key areas to focus on:
- Get your hiring and onboarding right. Hire people with your culture in mind – people who not only are a fit for your culture, but people will strengthen your culture.
- Train for your culture. If culture is a key driver of success then invest your training dollars toward helping people understand what your cultural norms and expectations are and how they need to work to strengthen your culture.
- Create rituals and traditions that will strengthen your cultural values.
- Celebrate a strong and unifying sense of purpose.
- Make sure you aren’t just paying lip service to your values. Translate what your culture values actually mean in terms of everyone’s specific behaviors, model those values out loud, hold people accountable for living your values out loud and celebrate employees who live your values out loud.
- Open meetings with a “culture moment” to reinforce your values and cultural norms.
- When making decisions get in the habit of always asking “How will this reflect our desired culture and help us build our desired culture”
- How do we measure or assess our current culture?
There are a number of ways to assess and measure your culture, from employee engagement surveys to holding open town halls where employee can offer feedback and ideas to strengthen your workplace culture.
Asking employees what words, images, or phrases come to mind when they think of your workplace culture is a great check in question.
Holding regular “stay interviews” (as in, “What can we do to keep you happy and inspired” interviews) with employees can offer valuable insights.
Measuring key indicators such as employee (and customer!) retention and absenteeism rates is critical!
Having honest conversations about what your unwritten workplace rules are can help you unearth insights about what your real culture is.
And generating a list of both red flags (things that might indicate trouble) and green flags (behaviors that suggest you are moving in the right direction) can also help.
- What are the signs of a toxic or dysfunctional workplace culture?
High employee turnover rates, excessive employee burnout rates, high levels of absenteeism, poor customer service engagement scores, a lack of debate and honest conversation in meetings, a lack of psychological safety so no one feels free to speak up, micromanaging leaders, a lack of trust, fear-based leadership, excessive gossip, people working in isolated silos, a lack of accountability, low morale, cynicism, favoritism, and poor or no communication are all signs of a potentially toxic, or at the very least, a not-so-great workplace culture.
Another great sign is this: No one ever brings up the topic of workplace culture because everyone knows it’s bad or a sensitive topic!
- What role does leadership play in shaping culture?
Leaders play an outsized, disproportionate role when it comes to workplace culture.
In fact, the reason I wrote my book, “Small Moments, Big Outcomes: How Leaders Create Cultures That Fuel Extraordinary Results” is to encourage leaders to think of themselves as not just leaders, but as culture leaders” It is the job of a leader to be the champion and torch bearer for workplace culture.
Remember, leadership is highly contagious. Leaders are like orchestra conductors when it comes to workplace culture: They set the tone through their words and actions.
Quite simply, everything a leader say and does either adds to the workplace culture or detracts from the workplace.
As a leader, how you hire, train, coach, mentor, communicate, facilitate meetings, make decisions, hold employees accountable, encourage, appreciate, and recognize employees will all have an impact on the workplace culture.
- How do we create a more inclusive and diverse culture?
Okay, so clearly this is a massive question. Everything from your hiring practices to policies comes into play, but for me, from my lens, the key is nurturing a psychologically safe workplace where employees feel they truly belong.
And let’s recognize there’s a substantive difference between belonging and “fitting in.” Fitting in means having to change who I am to be accepted, whereas true belonging is about being accepted for who I am.
And how else do we expect employees to feel passionate about their work and remain loyal and want to contribute their energy and ideas and adopt a growth mindset towards success unless they feel they truly belong?
Employees need to feel as though they are co-creators in the future of your organization!
And when employees feel safe and trusted and valued and like they belong they will speak up in meetings, they will passionately debate ideas in a healthy and respectful way, they will ask challenging questions that confront biases and longstanding assumptions and norms, and they will point out serious workplace issues that need pointing out.
- How can we align our culture with our values or mission?
Actions speak louder than words and talk is cheap.
You can have the most inspiring mission and list of values on the planet, but if you aren’t using them to guide decisions and hold one another accountable and celebrate your success with, it’s better to not have them at all!
Seriously.
Not using your values as guideposts and not living up to your values isa surefire recipe for creating cynicism and distrust.
As I mentioned above, you need to:
- Relentlessly translate and interpret what your values actually means. You need to become the chief repeating officer where your values are concerned and turn them into stories, top ten lists, videos, training sessions, case studies, and heck even musical numbers to bring them to life in meaningful ways!
- Model your values in outrageously loud ways so everyone can see your values being lived. Employees should be able to list your values just based on the behaviors they see (and please know, they are already doing this, they just might not be talking about the values you want them to be talking about!).
- Treats your values as lines in the sand. Hold employees accountable when they don’t live up to your values and celebrate employees who live your values out loud!
Finally, know that if your values truly mean something there will be times when you need to make “big gulp” decisions. Decisions that require you to (GULP) do something that’s a little (or a lot) painful or costly or difficult in order to demonstrate that your values really do stand for something.
That you stand for something.
- How do we maintain a strong culture in hybrid or remote teams?
The short answer: The same way you do when everyone is together.
Culture is culture, regardless of where employees are working.
Now, having said that, of course with a hybrid or remote workplace you need to be extra, extremely intentional about building your culture. Which means being more intentional about:
- Checking in (not checking UP) with employees
- Creating in-person touchpoints
- Appreciating and recognizing employees
- Communicating, communicating, communicating and, oh, did I mention…communicating!
- Talking about cultural values and norms
For a list of ideas on how to engage, inspire, and add fun to your remote/hybrid teams I’ve got a list of 165 Ways to Inspire Hybrid Teams!
- What are examples of great workplace cultures, and what can we learn from them?
There are so many examples of great workplace cultures in every industry that offer fabulous opportunities for benchmarking and opportunities to of course learn from.
Many are well known companies (such as Patagonia or Zappos) but don’t overlook the hundreds of examples of lesser-known companies that can offer inspiration and insights.
My book, Small Moments, Big Outcomes: How Leaders Create Cultures That Fuel Extraordinary Results overs up dozens and dozens of examples of organizations in a range of industries.
And please don’t fall into the old trap of believing that somehow your industry is unique.
Everyone thinks this.
I hear it all time: “Yeah that might work for them, but not in our industry.”
Here’s what I know from studying workplace cultures for 30 years. Culture is culture is culture.
Sure, there may not be specific things you are able to do, but the principles are the same.
So, although you may not be able to replicate an exact idea, there are always lessons, insights, and inspiration to be gleaned from looking at what other organizations and companies are doing to drive build inspiring workplace cultures.
- How can we involve employees in shaping our culture?
Okay let’s change the word “can” in this sentence because this is non-negotiable.
To build a winning workplace culture you absolutely have to involve all your employees.
Workplace culture can never be something that is delivered from on high. It has to be nurtured, fostered, supported, and championed at every level.
Workplace culture needs to be formed top down AND bottom up and for that matter sideways!
Workplace culture needs to be co-created.
All your employees need to understand that they play a critical role when it comes to creating your workplace culture.
In fact, companies I highlight in my book make an explicit demand of their employees: Fully half of how we assess your workplace performance and hold you accountable will be based on how well you are contributing to the kind of workplace where everyone wants to show up on a Monday morning.
In other words, they remind employees it is their job to not just do the technical part of their work, it is their job to help build a better workplace culture.
©2025 Michael Kerr, CSP (Certified Speaking Professional)
Michael Kerr is a Canadian Hall of Fame speaker who travels the world researching and speaking about inspiring workplace cultures. Michael Kerr is known as one of Canada’s top thought leaders on workplace and one of the most in-demand speaker on the topic of workplace culture. Michael is the author of nine books, including “Small Moments, Big Outcomes: How Leaders Create Cultures That Fuel Extraordinary Results,” “The Humor Advantage: Why Some Businesses Are Laughing All the Way to the Bank,” “Hire, Inspire, and Fuel Their Fire: How to Recruit, On Board, and Train New Employees to Live Your Culture Out Loud,” and “The Jerk-Free Workplace: How You Can Take the Lead to Create a Happier, More Inspiring Workplace.”
