An extensive and growing body of research demonstrates that positive organisational culture is the crucial factor in ensuring employee wellbeing, engagement, innovation, and productivity.
Seppala and Cameron (2015) from the Harvard Business Review argue that when we sacrifice positive workplace culture and instead cultivate a high-pressure and merciless environment, we not only miss out on significant benefits but also face considerable costs.
Research has consistently shown that the costs associated with cut-throat work cultures include reduced employee wellbeing, increased stress-related health care expenditure and long-term disengagement, which results in lower productivity and a higher degree of absenteeism, accidents and errors and voluntary turnover (Seppälä & Cameron 2015).
These cannot be counteracted by simply establishing material benefits. Therefore, employee wellness can only be achieved by fostering and maintaining a positive culture where employees feel safe, valued and cared for.
Supporting employees by creating an open and trusting culture is particularly crucial when considering employee mental health, as a recent survey of over 43 thousand British employees (Mind 2019) found that only 9% of employees from organisations that did not have open discussions about mental health, felt that their mental health was being supported by their organisation.
In addition to avoiding the costs associated with harmful work environments, positive work cultures create happier and more engaged employees.
Research by Gallup (2017) found that when we create a high degree of employee engagement through a positive work culture, businesses experience a 41% reduction in absenteeism and a 17% increase in productivity, greater employee retention and loyalty, greater profitability, and improved customer relationships as a result of a greater commitment to quality.