The Challenge: Culture Blocking Innovation
The new CEO and leadership team had ambitious goals for business transformation and innovation. But employee feedback was clear — the workplace culture needed work. An initial engagement survey confirmed this, with just 2 out of 10 cultural dimensions scoring above benchmark.
The business recognised that if it wanted to attract top talent, improve collaboration, and innovate, it needed to start with the foundations: employee experience, leadership, and communication.
Our Solution: Data-Driven Culture Strategy
Amplify HR led a multi-step approach to uncover and address the barriers to progress:
- Conducted an employee engagement and satisfaction survey to measure the current cultural baseline.
- Ran employee focus groups to gather open, honest insights and ideas for improvement.
- Used our Find Grow Keep framework to develop a People & Culture action plan that prioritised 20 clear initiatives, including:
- Fixing urgent compliance issues
- Introducing structured performance discussions
- Launching new learning and development programs
- Opening new communication channels
- Creating processes to foster collaboration and innovation
The Results: Culture Shift That Delivered Measurable Change
Innovative businesses need more than great ideas — they need the culture to support them. By investing in people and building the right foundations, this organisation created a high-trust, high-performance environment that enabled transformation and future growth.
- Survey improvement from 2/10 to 6/10 and then 10/10 areas above benchmark within two years — including gains across leadership, communication, growth, and change management.
- Five years on, every survey category remains above benchmark, proving sustained impact and a lasting cultural shift.
- Reported benefits included:
- Lower staff turnover
- Fewer formal grievances
- Higher innovation and faster service development
- Better quality hires
- Greater openness to change across the business
All of this was achieved while navigating the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic — reinforcing the strength and resilience of the culture that was built.
Business Impact
What began as a workplace culture refresh evolved into a long-term strategy that unlocked the business’s ability to adapt, grow and innovate. With a stronger culture and clear people processes in place, the organisation now has the confidence to scale, experiment, and lead — with its people behind it every step of the way.
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