Login
What are the best ways to measure company culture?
Maintaining a healthy company culture is key, but new research shows that CLOs and investors have different opinions on how best to evaluate it.
Jerome Doraisamy
The Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) and global communications firm Edelman have released the first joint Trust in Business Report, a survey of chief legal officers (CLOs) and institutional investors on their perceptions of how to increase public trust in businesses.
Last week, Lawyers Weekly reported that the report had outlined the vastly different views between CLOs and institutional investors when it comes to the importance of increasing diversity.
Results
When asked what metrics or methods a company uses, or should use, to evaluate corporate culture and the success of a company’s human capital management practices, almost all (91) of CLOs said employee engagement surveys, compared to just 47 per cent of institutional investors. There was also a stark difference in uptake for speaking with current employees at all levels, with 75 per cent of CLOs doing this compared to just 47 per cent of investors.
CLOs were also more likely than investors to speak with senior leadership (67 per cent versus 51 per cent), examine the voluntary employee turnover rate (60 per cent versus 39 per cent) and consider the workforce diversity percentages (55 per cent versus 40 per cent).
Less than half of both CLOs and institutional investors like to monitor employee social media sites, such as Indeed, but 48 per cent of CLOs and 41 per cent of investors adopt this approach to evaluate corporate culture.
However, institutional investors were more likely than CLOs to utilise “best places to work” rankings (42 per cent versus 37 per cent), or speak with ex-employees (33 per cent versus 30 per cent).
Reflections
It is hard to surmise, ACC and Edelman mused, whether CLOs or investors have a better gauge on how best to measure company culture.
However, it noted, “CLOs may be closer to the human resources office (or at least to the chief human resources officer) and know what tools are considered reliable – or, shall we say, trustworthy”.
“Another idea: why not use more than one of these methods? Triangulated results may be even more trustworthy,” the report suggested.
Jerome Doraisamy
Jerome Doraisamy is the editor of Lawyers Weekly. A former lawyer, he has worked at Momentum Media as a journalist on Lawyers Weekly since February 2018, and has served as editor since March 2022. He is also the host of all five shows under The Lawyers Weekly Podcast Network, and has overseen the brand's audio medium growth from 4,000 downloads per month to over 60,000 downloads per month, making The Lawyers Weekly Show the most popular industry-specific podcast in Australia. Jerome is also the author of The Wellness Doctrines book series, an admitted solicitor in NSW, and a board director of Minds Count.
You can email Jerome at:
