In Good Company: How Workplace Culture Can Transform Your Business

“Workplace culture” might be one of the most misunderstood terms in modern business. Every organization has a different idea of what culture means, but it’s often skewed by personal biases and past experiences. 

Let’s redefine what good company culture looks like, why it’s a vital aspect of your business, and how to assess and implement a healthier approach, starting today.

What is workplace culture and why does it matter?

When we talk about workplace culture, we’re talking about the personality of a culture. It’s the invisible framework upon which the organization is built, based on the daily behavior of the leadership and employees. It’s how things get done, from the way decisions are made to how employees interact with each other. 

In both healthy and unhealthy workplace cultures, the values and habits are modeled from the top down, with leadership setting the tone for how their team members work, day in and day out. 

It’s no secret that there’s an engagement epidemic happening all over the globe, and workplace culture is a key factor in how dialed-in employees are at work. 

A 2025 Gallup poll found that only 31 percent of employees identified themselves as engaged at work, and 18 percent admitted they were actively disengaged. When polled about the reasons for their answers, less than half (46 percent) said they knew what was expected of them in their roles, and only 38 percent said they felt like someone cared about them at work. 

Not knowing what’s expected? Feeling like no one cares? We can’t pretend to be shocked at the lack of engagement when workplace culture is suffering. When good company culture is activated, employees are more engaged, which results in lower turnover and higher profitability. The bottom line: You can’t afford to ignore your company culture. 

Signs of positive workplace culture

If you’re serious about improving your company culture, you’ll need to know what some of the best organizations have in common when it comes to engaging employees and putting culture first. Here are some of the factors we’ve noticed when it comes to a positive workplace culture. 

Integrity and honesty

Your organization’s integrity plays a huge role in how employees feel about their roles and their long-term longevity with a company. A 2025 Deloitte study found that 86 percent of Gen Z-ers and 89 percent of millennials said a sense of purpose is important to their job satisfaction. When an organization operates at a high degree of honesty and employees understand their role as a vital part of that organization, they then guide their own decision-making with those values. 

Transparency

Part of a healthy company culture is involving employees in making decisions. You can’t do that without taking a radical approach to transparency and candor. Transparency is what makes employees feel like they’re a part of the equation, empowering them to share ideas and affect change. 

It’s true that, in past work environments, leadership was in charge and employees were expected to follow orders. In 2025, we’re pulling back the curtain so everyone knows what’s going on and what they need to do to excel in their roles. 

Communication

With radical transparency comes a commitment to constant and clear communication. Your employees have a right to healthy, two-way channels of communication where they can share ideas, comments, and concerns without fear of retribution. 

It’s even OK (and perhaps even more important) to communicate clearly when things aren’t going well. In letting your employees know the truth about how things are going, you mitigate the high highs and low lows that can spook employees or make them feel out of control. Instead, your ability to communicate honestly increases team members’ feelings of ownership in both positive and negative situations. 

Innovation

Companies with a healthy workplace culture are always striving to do things better. 

Google, an all-time great example of positive company culture, has long held a “20% Initiative,” where employees are encouraged to take 20 percent of their time to work on innovative and creative pursuits. The initiative has paid back in spades, with employees creating products like Gmail, Adsense, and Google News in their 20 percent time. 

Pushing employees to things outside the box and constantly innovating in their roles (and giving the freedom to succeed and fail) is almost always a good thing for culture. 

Employee development and education

No one wants to feel like they’re stuck in their jobs and, if you’re not careful, stagnation can really seep into your overall company culture. You should be hiring individuals who are always striving to be better, know more, and work smarter. 

Offering opportunities for development and education can help employees find more fulfillment in their careers. Deloitte found that employees who felt fulfilled in their careers were 12 times more likely to rate their company culture as good or excellent. 

Teamwork

It’s time to stop thinking the watercooler will suffice as the center of your organization’s culture. If you want to increase teamwork, you need to give your employees the opportunity to interact in positive and fulfilling ways. Patagonia, for instance, offers paid time off for employees to volunteer together. In serving their communities, employees bond over their shared interests and connect in ways outside of the office. 

Recognition and rewards for contributing to the culture

Only 27 percent of employees said they’d received recognition from a manager in the past seven days. When you notice an employee positively contributing to a healthy workplace culture, it’s worth it to give them the kudos they deserve. They’re helping create an atmosphere of communication, collaboration, and innovation. There should be ways to both publicly and privately offer recognition as a way to reinforce that behavior. 

Whether it’s in a weekly team check-in or your regular one-on-ones, leaders who make an effort to recognize their employees for culture keep the good vibes flowing and send a clear message to the rest of the team: Culture here matters.

Wellbeing and work-life balance

Finally, good company culture isn’t complete without a focus on personal well-being and a healthy work-life balance. An organization isn’t some unchanging faceless entity. It’s more like a living, breathing organism that is constantly evolving. 

When you have an organization made up of individuals with different lives, families, and experiences, you need to put more of a focus on work being part of a healthy approach to a balanced life, not the sole reason for living. 

We believe that if someone needs to check out for a kid’s baseball game, to see their healthcare provider, or even just rest, they should. If you’ve taken the other steps to promote a healthy workplace culture, other employees will fill in the gaps knowing that other team members will do the same for them. It’s a cycle of trust, empathy, and action that is one of the clearest signs of a healthy company culture. 

How do I assess my workplace culture?

Wondering if you’re working with a positive or negative culture? There are some obvious signs, like how your employees treat each other or the rate of employee turnover.

If you’re looking for hard data, however, Positive Leader has created a Positive Culture Index to help you assess where you’re thriving and where you’re lacking in your organization’s cultural efforts. Armed with the data, you’ll know where you can improve in your leadership, teamwork, and company ethos.

As always, one of the best ways to take the temperature of something at work is to ask! From employee surveys to frank personal conversations, chances are that your employees have thoughts. Talk to them about what you want your company culture to be and see if they have opinions and suggestions on how to improve. It’s an ideal first step in fostering a healthier approach to workplace culture and a new way of thinking about your organization’s role in creating a better place to work. 

Ready to Transform Your Company Culture? The Positive Culture Index (PCI)  helps you evaluate your current workplace culture and identify specific areas for improvement—taking the guesswork out of building a thriving organization.