Workplace culture: building engaged and growth-oriented workplaces in the UK

Good-natured banter flying around the office and a buzz to the place that you just can’t create out of nothing? Or a place of deathly silence with just the sound of laptops clicking away and a tired-looking pot plant in the corner that reflects the morale of your co-workers?

Which is more familiar to you?

Having a thriving workplace culture is vital for your managers, workers, and everyone involved in the business. If employees look forward to coming to work everyday, you’ve won half the battle of making your company a success. It also holds strategic importance in driving performance, business growth, talent retention, and innovation.

Despite there being a big increase since 2024, only one in five employees are fully engaged at work. It’s not a lot, is it? And with 74% of organisations having hybrid working practices in place, bringing a positive impact to employees, employers say this way of working is negative for the workplace culture of the organisation.

This article will delve deeply into all aspects of what is meant by a workplace culture, including how it can boost a business, why it’s important, practical steps on how to improve it, how to build a good workplace culture for remote workers, and any challenges you might face, along with citing real UK case studies that show how building an engaged workforce can make all the difference to your company. 

The definition of workplace culture is when a company uses a collective set of values, behaviours, norms, and expectations to shape how work gets done. It’s not about the ethos or the mission of the company, but more to do with what members of staff experience at ground level, on a day-to-day basis.

At a visible level, this incorporates the behaviours of the leadership team, styles of communication, workplace rituals, and policies that all staff should adhere to. At a deeper level, it includes inclusion, accountability, trust, psychological safety, and attitudes on learning and risk-taking.

But it is not just defined by the banter in the office or the unhealthy silence. It is reflected in those daily practices such as:

• How feedback is delivered.
• Who gets promoted and why.
• If flexible working is supported in a genuine way.
• How mistakes or discrepancies are handled.
• Whether diverse perspectives are heard and, more importantly, valued.

In the UK, workplace culture is guided by legal and ethical frameworks, such as the Equality Act 2010, flexible working rights, employee wellbeing, and inclusion. Research has consistently shown that those organisations with strong and aligned workplace cultures benefit from higher staff engagement, increased retention, more robust internal mobility, and improved performance outcomes. UK examples of these can be discovered further on in this article. On the flip side, a poor workplace culture can result in disengagement, a high turnover of staff, and a risk to the reputation of the company brand.

For those job seekers looking to work at a particular company, before they apply for a position, they might ask themselves:

• What is valued here?
• How do staff members succeed?
• Will I feel respected and supported with room to progress? 

First off, let’s define exactly what we mean by employee engagement and retention. Employee engagement is the level of commitment, both emotionally and physically, and the effort that employees display in the workplace.

If you have a workforce of engaged employees, it stands to reason that they are more likely to go beyond the minimum required to do the job (so no quiet quitting here), champion the company they work for, and be invested in sticking around for some time to come.

But, as mentioned above, the UK has one of the least engaged workforces, which has consequences such as disengaged employees looking elsewhere for a role, reporting higher levels of burnout, and demonstrating lower rates of productivity. With a competitive labour market and a skills shortage, it might be time to readdress the workplace culture in your organisation.

As with engagement, staff retention is another key aspect to this. While some staff turnover is good to keep things fresh and buoyant, a high turnover can often reveal hidden workplace culture issues. Why do so many staff leave after just a few months or a year? What is driving them away?

When taking part in exit interviews, employees tend to mention:

• The general feeling of being undervalued.
• A lack of career progression.
• Poor leadership guidance.
• A reduction in flexibility in the workplace.

Financially, it makes sense to retain staff, as hiring and replacement costs can range from 30% to 200% of a salary, depending on the sector and seniority. Losing staff also means the loss of valued organisational knowledge, a reduction in productivity while getting new staff onboarded, and a potential reduction in staff morale.

Linking engagement and retention with the workplace culture is vital. When employees trust the leadership team, feel safe, understand how their own work has value within the company, and see clear career development opportunities opening up, engagement rises. And when this happens, there’s a drop in staff turnover.

In order to ensure engagement and staff retention are part of a shift in culture for the better, businesses should monitor:

• Engagement survey scores and trends over time.
• Turnover rates.
• Internal promotion rates.
• L&D participation.
• Time-to-progression.
• Exit interview themes.

Including career development options into a company can really boost workplace culture through employee engagement and retention. If employees can see a future within the business, then they are more likely to stay. Practical options for this include career path frameworks, clear promotion criteria, structured internal mentorship programmes, and regular career conversations. Companies that invest in the learning and development (L&D) of staff create a culture of progression. This shifts the whole focus to proactive career development, with skill development and career clarity, as opposed to reactive, which encompasses exit interviews and counter-offers when someone is planning on leaving.

Follow these guidelines to build a positive workplace culture.

1. Diagnosis

Hold focus groups and carry out workplace culture audits and employee surveys. Incorporate quantitative metrics and comprehensive feedback, in the form of stories.

2. Marry up leadership behaviours

There needs to be a consistent message coming from all leaders in the business, so involve leaders in training on coaching, feedback, and accountability, with a shared language across values and purpose.

3. Introduce and embed meaningful processes

These can include:

• Career catch-ups and check-ins.
• Staff recognition tied to outcomes.
• Internal job architecture frameworks and structured development programmes.

4. Support flexible working frameworks

For remote and hybrid workers, who don’t necessarily have much chance to bond with colleagues in an office, it’s worth setting out guidelines for how meetings are run and the expectation of collaborating with other departments.

5. Ensure DE&I is embedded correctly

This requires transparent goals, metrics, and reporting that support diversity, equity, and inclusion across the board – not just an exercise in box ticking. Inclusive behaviour should be integrated into performance criteria.

Building solid relationships with co-workers in the office has always been the easiest way, as well as the most obvious. It’s so much easier to make connections face-to-face for most people. But with hybrid and remote working now prevalent, especially among the younger generation, it’s worth really focusing on how to engage with virtual teams and remote workers, using proper systems with the emphasis on leadership behaviours.

Apply the checklist below when assessing cultural maturity across your remote workers:

• Clarify norms and expectations

Do this by defining clear communication protocols, such as response times and meeting etiquette, diligently documenting decision-making processes to show transparency, and establishing agreements around availability, collaboration, and boundaries.

• Equip managers with the tools to lead remotely

This can be achieved by providing training on how to lead remotely, monitoring proximity bias in promotion decisions and performance reviews, and holding managers to account for team development metrics and engagement scores.

• Ensure visibility and fair access

This requires making sure that remote workers have equal access to leadership exposure and projects that stretch them beyond their current skills, keeping a close eye on internal mobility data in order to identify any disparities regarding location, and including representation from remote employees in regard to cross-functional initiatives.

• Map out individual connections

Scheduling purposeful in-person collaboration days is a much better option than just bland office mandates that don’t inspire anyone. It’s also worth embedding regular 1-2-1s with the focus on wellbeing and career development, and facilitating virtual mentoring or buddy schemes that support a sense of belonging.

• Highlight that career development isn’t based on location

Remote workers need to see that they aren’t being treated differently because they’re not in the office, so offer digital-first learning and development programmes that are accessible to all employees. Additionally, integrate career conversations into quarterly check-ins and publicise promotion pathways and internal vacancies transparently.

• Measure what matters

Track engagement scores by working patterns, including office-based workers, those who are hybrid, and those who are remote. Monitor retention, absenteeism, and promotion rates across locations, and follow-up on survey feedback, then communicate tangible actionable points.

• Reinforce the workplace culture through leadership behaviour

Senior leaders should be able to model trust and flexibility within the organisation while consistently communicating purpose and strategy across channels. Publicly recognising excellent performance helps, regardless of where employees are located.

If the executives at the top of the pile in the business aren’t fully invested in building an engaged workplace culture, this can greatly hinder progress.

Alongside the above point, a lack of support can make it tricky for any systems, that are designed to increase the rapport with staff, to gain traction and be sustainable.

A resistance to change from employees can bring the whole ethos crashing down, especially if they are used to doing things a certain way.

Effective communication on how to foster a positive workplace culture is crucial to its success, so a breakdown in communication can lead to disengagement.

Departments which work independently can obstruct any progress and hamper collaboration, which could prevent the company from achieving its full potential in this scenario.

• John Lewis Partnership

Employing 69,000 people, including Waitrose, and as an employee-owned business, John Lewis Partnership champions engagement and partnership at its centre, reinforcing inclusion and long-term commitment for staff to create a positive workforce culture.

As this SME UK article cites, John Lewis employees, who are referred to as “partners,” are empowered by having a voice in the company’s decisions; an approach that is embedded in their workplace culture.

The company tops the list for having one of the best organisational cultures in the UK, based on staff ratings, due to its work-life balance, good flexibility, and for treating all staff with respect. It was also rewarded for “creating an inclusive culture where female employees could openly talk about menopause” and introduced a package of support with guidance on management, health, and nutrition advice, along with access to free mental health support.

• Aldi

The discount food retailer, which employs nearly 16,000 people in the UK, scored 82% on positive engagement. 95% of workers were clear on the results expected from them and 94% understood how their job contributed to Aldi’s business goals. These statistics point towards a robust workplace culture, as it is noticeable that clear targets have been set and staff are aligned with company objectives.

Aldi also ranks amongst the highest for brand reputation, as stated in The Harris Poll UK in the 2025 Corporate Reputation Index. While brand reputation might not be a direct measure of workplace culture, it is connected with how staff and customers externally perceive the workplace and its values.

• NatWest Group

The banking giant, employing just under 60,000 members of staff, built a culture measurement framework, tracking staff engagement and the effectiveness of leadership against external measures. This led to engagement levels of staff rising from 73% to 89% and leadership effectiveness improving by 17%, from 68% to 85%.

The group was also the winner of the Best Mental Health Strategy at the Employee Benefits Awards in 2024, receiving praise for an increase in employees reporting manageable stress levels and wellbeing engagement after targeted programmes were brought in. At the same awards, the NatWest Group was runner up in the Best Benefits to Support Menopause category.

• Unilever

With approximately 6,000 employees, and products in 95% of UK households, Unilever scores well on equity, diversity, and inclusion, with an EDI rating of 4.2 out of 5 from thousands of staff ratings. This indicates that employees perceive the company’s workplace culture positively.

As well as this,a report for the company showed it is making ground with achieving more inclusion and gender balance, signalling positive cultural reputation outcomes.

• A positive workplace culture can improve retention, engagement, and growth.
• Establish this through diagnosis, clear leadership behaviours, measuring metrics, and flexibility.
• Ensure remote workers are included every step of the way.

If your organisation could do with some help and guidance on career frameworks and outplacement services, contact us today to find out more.