How to Measure Company Culture

Why Culture is Your Competitive Advantage

Company culture—it's a phrase we hear a lot these days. From mission statements to recruiting strategies, businesses are constantly touting their culture. But how often do we stop to think about what culture truly means and how it impacts our daily work lives? Today, culture is more than a buzzword; it's a measurable, actionable element that makes or breaks employee engagement, retention, and overall productivity.

And yet, measuring culture has often been like trying to catch a cloud. It’s intangible, complex, and constantly shifting. That’s why we’ve developed the Kudos Culture Insights Dashboard—a powerful new feature that brings clarity and quantification to something often seen as immeasurable. But before we dive into the specifics, let’s explore why measuring your culture is crucial for organizational success.

Culture Is Your Strength—But How Do You Track It?

For years, organizations have been investing in their culture—whether by celebrating employees, running well-being programs, or offering professional development opportunities. These initiatives are important, but how can you tell if they're truly making a difference? Are employees feeling more valued and engaged, or are your efforts falling short?

How to Measure Company Culture

There are several effective ways to measure your company culture that provide a well-rounded understanding of the employee experience. Here are a few methods you can use to get a clearer picture of your workplace culture:

1. Employee Surveys and Focus Groups

Traditional employee surveys are still one of the most effective ways to gather insights about your company's culture. Surveys can be designed to cover different aspects of culture—such as engagement, alignment with values, and employee satisfaction. Adding qualitative methods like focus groups allows for deeper conversations where employees can share their thoughts in a more detailed and open-ended way.

2. One-on-One Check-Ins

Frequent one-on-one meetings between managers and their team members are essential for maintaining a pulse on culture at the team level. These conversations provide an opportunity to discuss concerns, celebrate wins, and gauge the overall morale of individual employees. By listening to feedback directly, managers can understand challenges that may not show up in surveys.

3. Observation and Environment Assessment

Paying attention to your work environment can tell you a lot about your company culture. Are people collaborating comfortably, or is there tension? How do employees interact during meetings? In a remote setting, how engaged are team members during virtual events? Observing behaviors, body language, and participation can give valuable clues about the health of your culture.

4. Culture Walks and Leadership Shadowing

Leaders can take part in "culture walks" where they experience different parts of the organization—this means sitting in on team meetings, observing workplace rituals, or shadowing employees during their day-to-day tasks. This direct exposure helps leadership understand the true employee experience and identify areas where culture might need reinforcement.

5. Monitoring Workplace Communication

Analyzing the nature of internal communications can also provide insights into company culture. This could involve looking at email communications, participation in group chats, and collaboration tool usage. Are messages encouraging and supportive, or do they reveal stress or friction between teams? Open and transparent communication is a strong indicator of a positive culture.

6. Social Listening and Sentiment Analysis

If your organization uses social or professional networks like LinkedIn or internal social platforms, social listening can help you understand how employees feel about the company. Sentiment analysis tools can scan messages for tone and sentiment, providing an aggregated view of how employees talk about their work experience.

7. Monitoring Employee Well-Being Metrics

Tracking well-being metrics like absenteeism rates, usage of mental health resources, or engagement in wellness programs can provide indirect insights into your culture. A rise in absenteeism, for example, might indicate a decline in morale or heightened stress levels, while high participation in wellness initiatives suggests a culture of care and support.

Most companies rely on intuition, anecdotal feedback, or occasional surveys to gauge culture. But intuition isn’t always accurate, and waiting for a yearly survey means you might be slow to react to culture shifts, missing opportunities to make impactful changes in real-time.

Enter the Kudos Culture Insights Dashboard—a revolutionary tool designed to make culture management simple.

By combining these traditional methods with insights from the Culture Insights Dashboard, you can get a comprehensive view of your company’s culture—both in terms of quantitative data and human perspectives. This approach helps ensure you’re making informed decisions that truly enhance the work environment for everyone.

Measuring Company Culture: The Kudos Way

The Culture Insights Dashboard simplifies culture measurement into five key indicators: Recognition Reach, Recognition Participation, Employee Churn Rate, Morale, and eNPS (Employee Net Promoter Score). These indicators provide a clear, data-driven picture of your culture, allowing you to understand what’s working, what needs improvement, and how your investments are impacting employee experience.

Let’s break down why these insights matter:

1. Recognition Reach & Participation: Recognition is the lifeblood of any positive culture. How often are employees being recognized for their contributions, and how widespread is participation across your team? With these metrics, you can quickly see if recognition efforts are inclusive or if certain areas need more focus.

2. Employee Churn Rate: People leave jobs for various reasons, but culture often plays a significant role. Tracking churn helps you understand if your culture investments are reducing turnover—potentially saving significant time and costs in recruitment and training.

3. Morale: How do employees feel about their work environment? By tracking morale over time, you gain valuable insights into the emotional health of your workforce and can address issues before they become problems.

4. eNPS: eNPS is a leading indicator of employee satisfaction and loyalty. It’s a simple, effective way to gauge if your culture inspires employees to recommend your company as a great place to work.

The Power of Knowing: Making Culture Actionable

When you start the process of measuring your culture, you’re not just collecting data—you’re getting actionable insights. A high employee churn rate? Maybe it’s time to dive deeper into feedback and see what’s driving people away. Recognition lagging? Implement a recognition platform and plan campaigns to encourage everyone to participate.

This allows you to monitor how your culture evolves, react quickly to trends, and make focused improvements where they matter most. It gives leaders the confidence that their actions are positively impacting their workforce—and gives employees the reassurance that their voices are heard and valued.

Your Path to a Better Workplace Starts Here

Measuring your culture is the first step in improving it. The Kudos Culture Insights Dashboard makes it easy to see where your organization is thriving and where there’s work to do. Whether it's celebrating achievements with recognition data or taking action on feedback from your employee sentiment surveys, the dashboard is your ultimate tool for building a healthy, thriving workplace.

Ready to start your journey toward a better culture? With the Culture Insights Dashboard, you can transform vague notions of workplace culture into a clear, actionable strategy. Because when it comes to culture, the more you know, the more you can grow.