Many organisations now recognise the importance of building a positive workplace culture – it’s no longer a secret that culture is a critical driver of employee engagement, productivity and business success.
Fostering a speak up culture, where employees feel comfortable enough to speak their minds and raise concerns without fear is a key element to building a strong workplace culture.
Research shows that employee/employer trust levels are on the decline, only 37% of UK employees trust their leadership team, which can make creating the conditions to empower employees to speak up a challenge. The good news is that culture tech platforms are designed to make it easier for businesses to improve their processes and build a tech-led speak up culture that drives long-lasting cultural change.
Firstly, what is a speak up culture?
A speak up culture is where employees feel comfortable and empowered to speak their mind, whether that’s voicing an opinion, sharing an idea or raising concerns without fear of the consequences. They know their opinion or concern will be respected, valued, taken seriously and if necessary, dealt with appropriately.
What’s important to understand is that a speak up culture is not only about creating psychological safety to empower employees to speak up, but also about actively listening and acting on feedback to inform decisions. Without action from leaders, it signals opinions aren’t valued, unwanted behaviour is acceptable and reinforces the belief that nothing happens even when employees do come forward with their concerns. Having a robust speak up culture in your organisation is one of the most best steps to preventing culture damaging behaviours and to build a healthy work culture, as it creates a deterrent for unacceptable behaviours – people are less likely to act in unacceptable ways at work when they know that people are confident enough to speak up against it
What are the benefits of building a speak up culture
Building a speak up culture in your workplace benefits everyone. It fosters a culture of trust and transparency between employees and leaders, creating a safe space where people feel valued and respected, knowing they can speak openly, bringing their ‘whole selves’ to work.
When employees feel like they are heard, they are more engaged and take ownership in their work which can lead to increased productivity and innovation. Other business benefits include:
- having a more diverse workforce with a wide range of different perspectives which can improve decision making and accelerate innovation
- reduced levels of misconduct and other unwanted behaviour
- high levels of morale and job satisfaction which improves retention rates and makes it easier to hire and retain top talent.
Another important reason for building a speak up culture is that it helps you mitigate risk, you hear about issues quicker and in more detail meaning they can be resolved quickly, avoiding cases reaching Employment Tribunal and the large costs that this process can incur.
What is culture tech?
Culture tech are digital tools and platforms that can help organisations improve their culture. Culture tech ranges from employee engagement platforms to feedback and reporting tools to identify cultural trends. Culture tech facilitates transparent communication which is central to building a speak up culture in the workplace.
How can businesses use culture tech to build a speak up culture
Using a culture tech platform like Culture Shift can help you build a speak up culture in multiple different ways including:
Modernises your reporting channels
Voicing concerns and complaints at work is often a daunting experience for employees, statistics show that only 36% of people who have witnessed or experienced problematic behaviour at work report it.
Traditionally, making a report means speaking to a line manager or HR team which can be uncomfortable and, in some cases, inappropriate – perhaps it’s the line manager or member of the HR team that’s the problem. Whilst there are many other reasons people don’t speak up, embedding a reporting platform gives employees a different way to report incidents.
One of the main benefits of implementing workplace reporting software is the ability to allow employees to make anonymous reports. Anonymous reporting creates a safe space for dialogue between employees and management, allowing them to come forward in confidence that their name isn’t attached to the report, making them feel less vulnerable.
Our research found that 62% of employees would be much more likely to report problematic behaviour if they could do it anonymously.
Culture Shift’s platform provides an easy way for employees to report with the option of anonymity through a straight-forward step-by-step reporting process. Modernising the way you seek employee feedback using culture tech platforms can help remove the barriers and normalise reporting unwanted behaviour which contributes to building a speak up culture.
Create a faster feedback loop
Culture tech allows organisations to gather data in real time giving you continuous insights into your organisation, removing the delay of traditional methods, allowing you to act more quickly.
Because culture tech platforms are online and live 24/7, it allows employees to report behaviour straight away. No longer do they have to wait until working hours to make a report to their line manager, they can do so at any time, which can encourage more reports because they haven’t had time to dwell on or downplay the incident and talk themselves out of making a report.
Not only can you accelerate a resolution once a report is made, but it also ensures employees can see how their feedback is being used and acted upon. When employees can see the report leads to tangible outcomes and action is being taken, this also encourages more people to speak up.
Streamline traditional HR processes using culture tech
Culture tech platforms allow you to streamline traditional HR processes. For example, Culture Shift’s platform has an in-built case management system which ensures no report slips through the cracks, creating a compliance proof response to managing cases of misconduct, bullying and harassment.
Automate triage
HR teams can triage cases and assign them to specific case managers. This allows teams to evenly distribute workload, ensure cases are followed up properly and managed in a more advanced way.
Use AI to link reports and identify patterns easier
The Culture Shift platform contains a powerful AI name matching function which automatically links names across multiple reports. This helps save you time sifting through data and gives you a clearer picture during your investigation.
For example, perhaps ‘Graham’ has been mentioned in multiple reports, the software provides links to each reporting instance and the status of the case. This can help you identify:
- if there is an ongoing problem with Graham’s behaviour at work and allow you to follow the correct HR procedure to discipline him and prevent future occurrences
- or, it could be that Graham has reported an incident at work and someone else has witnessed the same incident her has reported and included his name in the report, in this scenario, you can identify Graham as being a victim of unwanted behaviour and put the right support in place to help him.
Harnessing data to effectively analyse and improve workplace culture
Culture Tech platforms capture data in one central location with inbuilt reporting capabilities so you can analyse data quickly and in multiple different formats, giving you valuable insight into your culture.
Culture Shift’s reporting platform gives leaders access to a real time data dashboard that can be segmented and filtered in a variety of ways, allowing you to delve deep into the data. These insights allow you to identify trends and can indicate areas in need of improvement at a glance. No longer are you left guessing what the issues are or trying to analyse data across multiple different sources. Our platform gives you a better understanding of the overall culture in your organisation and key metrics to benchmark and track progress over time.
Culture tech platforms give you tools to activate change in your organisation based on real data. You can identify and tackle culture-damaging behaviour head-on, breaking down communication barriers to help build a speak up culture.
The most powerful way to understand and transform your culture is with data. By embracing culture tech, organisations can save time, improve their reporting processes and access powerful insights driven by data to create a speak up culture and long-lasting change.
Book a free demo
Culture Shift’s platform gives you access to powerful tools including reporting, case management, support and analytics to help you build a culture where people belong and are safe to speak up if they don’t.
Source
2023 Edelman Trust Barometer survey
