HR Insights
January 6, 2025

The top 5 investments for building a strong workplace culture

Investing in company culture can seem like a waste of money for many business leaders. Our latest Pulse of Talent report shows where they can put their dollars for maximum impact. 

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Investing in company culture can seem like a waste of money for many business leaders. Our latest Pulse of Talent report shows where they can put their dollars for maximum impact.
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Employers face a tough balancing act between providing a great employee experience and ensuring high productivity, and there’s nowhere they feel this challenge more than company culture. Businesses with strong cultures are five times more likely than their competitors to see a significant revenue increase, and companies with a high-trust culture have half the turnover rate of their competitors. But individual organisations also have a hard time gauging whether their investments in this area have any real impact. 

Enter the 15th Annual Pulse of Talent: Calibrating culture in the age of agility report from Dayforce. This global report used a single eNPS-style question to determine which employees loved their company culture most (Culture Promoters), which ones loved it least (Culture Detractors), and which investments and experiences had the highest correlation with each group. From that, we created a ranked list of data-backed investments that can drive improvements in a company’s culture and bottom line.  

Read the full report 

Among the top investments identified by the report, we found a common theme – reducing everyday friction for employees and providing more personalised experiences at scale to inspire growth and loyalty.  

Here are the top five culture investments companies can make, based on the responses of over 9,400 employees around the world.  

Investment #5 – A convenient app for routine admin tasks  

When trying to build a better culture, many companies start with the hardest part first – high-touch programming to change people’s thoughts and behavior. But these efforts can be very expensive and difficult to measure when it comes to impact. Our study found that when it comes to culture, companies should start by looking at reducing the amount of friction employees experience day-to-day. It’s impossible to look up from a computer monitor and enjoy a company’s culture if someone is stuck in repetitive tasks. Culture Promoters were 1.7x more likely than Detractors to say they were able to “manage routine work-related administrative tasks (e.g., requesting time off, seeing your earnings, checking your schedule) via a mobile app.” This kind of technology can free up more of an employees’ time, but also more of a manager’s time and energy to help create deeper connections with their teams. To support this idea, Culture Promoters were more than 4.5x more likely to say they felt very or extremely connected to their manager than Culture Detractors.  

Investment #4 – A single place to find out what's happening in the organisation  

Employees who were identified as Culture Promoters reported having access to “a central place to get information about what's happening in the company” at nearly twice the rate of Culture Detractors, with a full 86% of the Promoter group using this kind of solution. One of the biggest factors feeding this impact is how informed Promoters felt about company news and updates, with this group being nearly five times more likely than Detractors to say they felt very or extremely informed. Having a central hub for company information might seem like a simple thing, but it’s a foundational piece for building a strong culture at your organisation.    

Investment #3 – Self-service tools to quickly answer HR questions  

Chances are you don’t love reading long FAQ pages or bugging coworkers with questions about company HR policies. But this kind of activity consumes huge amounts of employees’ time every year, creating friction and keeping them from doing the work they’re meant to do. So, it makes sense that Culture Promoters were 2.5x more likely than Detractors to report having access to a self-service tool where they can ask HR questions and get quick answers. Leading solution providers are even introducing AI into more of their offerings to give employees more control and faster access to the information they need. This kind of self-service tool represents a clear and simple win for culture builders.  

Investment #2 – A self-guided onboarding platform  

Onboarding sets a lasting tone for every employee at your company. Various studies have revealed its impact on retention, skill development, engagement, time to productivity, and even compliance. In our study, we found that Culture Promoters were an incredible 2.9x more likely than Detractors to say their company used a dedicated onboarding platform. This offering was highly correlated with other critical onboarding outcomes, as 83% of Culture Promoters said their onboarding experience helped them feel connected to their company’s culture (compared to only 23% of Detractors) and helped them get up to speed quickly in their new role (84% vs. 29%). 

Onboarding might seem like a small part of the employee lifecycle, but it can be overwhelming for many new employees. By creating a frictionless experience and offering personalised support at scale, it can have a significant impact on your company’s culture and bottom line. 

Investment #1 – Personalised experiences for learning and career development 

And now we come to our number one culture investment: personalised experiences for learning and career development. Offering personalisation at scale is no easy feat, but companies that achieve it see a transformation in their employees’ experiences of culture. Culture Promoters, for example, were 3.3x more likely than Detractors to report having personalised learning opportunities. Companies that do a strong job of this personalisation at scale also find innovative ways to incorporate AI into these offerings. To that point, Culture Promoters were an incredible 4.3x more likely than Detractors to say their company offered “AI-powered career recommendations.” This was the highest correlated impact of any culture investment we studied. Companies that offer strong personalisation at scale, especially when it comes to their employees’ growth and development, clearly separate themselves from other employers.  

Moving forward  

So, there you have it – the top investments in company culture based on the responses of over 9,400 employees from around the world. What’s especially important about these investments is that they offer simple, reliable ways to improve your company’s culture and productivity, especially compared to other culture investments that might be more complex, harder to measure, and unclear in their time to ROI. By investing in technologies that remove friction from employees’ daily lives and offer more personalised experiences to grow and see their future in your company, you can make your company an employer of choice, lifting morale and productivity to new levels. Read the 15th Annual Pulse of Talent to learn more. 

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