Does Company Culture Matter? | Talking HR

Culture Beyond Perks  

When we talk about company culture, what are we really referring to? It isn’t just about dress codes, team-building activities, or office design. Culture shapes how people interact, make decisions, and feel at work. It influences everything from employee engagement to retention and even business performance. 

Yet, as many businesses face pressure to adapt, grow, and digitalise, culture can become diluted or deprioritised. This event aimed to bring clarity to these challenges and offer practical insight on how to build, maintain, and strengthen culture. 

The Insights 

Our panel featured James Baker, Employment Law Specialist at Michelmores LLP, Michael Fletcher, People Director at Cuckoo Broadband and Tammy Lillie, Chief People Officer from the Met Office.  

They each bought a unique insight into culture change in their businesses, with James delving into examples of where toxic culture has led to employment tribunals, and what you can do to come back from problems with your culture. 

James shared how there are many aspects to a company culture, and there is no one size fits all. He noted how there has been a decline in the past year alone for workplace perks, with a 52% reduction in pension enhancements from February this year to last. This in conjunction with the national living wage and insurance changes can result in an unease for employees.  

He remarked on the importance of making sure your culture aligns with what you are saying publicly, otherwise this could land you in hot water legally. Where there is a culture of ‘banter’ established, this isn’t something that can be overcame overnight and, to ensure your team buys into this change.  

With change in mind, Michael took us through how Cuckoo Broadbrand flipped their culture and established a culture of unity, embraced originality and delivered unforgettable experiences for customers.  

Following survey sessions across the team and senior leadership, they established what behaviour’s they wanted to see in the business. In response they created a ‘good eggs’ reward and recognition scheme which is peer managed and fed back to line managers when a team member goes above and beyond. All teams are encouraged to celebrate the wins and take time to celebrate achievements.  

Their internal intranet provides a hub for all employees of good news and their ‘Cuckoo Compass’, a peer led group by 6 team members, is a method they use to create a culture of learning, with excel training sessions, mental health support talks and opportunities to share experiences across their diverse background of employees.  

Their analysis of their staff helped them understand how to implement a culture plan. This analysis is echoed by the team at the Met Office, who recently underwent a ‘change readiness’ programme to better understand how the business and the team were prepared for future changes to the market.  

Tammy spoke of how her background in engineering helped them develop a culture of problem solving, with research-based solutions. They encourage failing fast to deliver progress and growth, with feedback from their team to optimise and improve long term.  

With 2,400 employees across 60 locations, implementing a culture across a widely spread team can prove challenging. Tammy spoke on how their work at the Met Office involved building capacity for change while encouraging people to develop change mindsets.  

They wanted to equip people to be on the front foot and keep up with both internal and external changes. 

But in order to do so, as echoed by all of our speakers, the team needs to understand why, and why now you are adopting these changes. 

Bringing your team on the journey of cultural transformation is key, to help people understand that change wasn’t being done to them, but rather was part of them and their experience in the organisation.  

What are the next steps? 

Throughout the conversation, one thing became clear. Culture isn’t a “nice-to-have”, it’s the backbone of resilient, high-performing organisations and the key to long term success. It cannot change overnight and your team need to buy into your cultural transformation plans in order for them to succeed.  

While there is no one-size fits all answer, it can be said that investing in your culture is investing in your own success.  

From onboarding to employee reviews, career development and team events, culture is integral in every aspect of a business.  

If you are undertaking your own cultural transformation, and want to better understand how your benefits packages or salaries compare to others in the region to improve your employee proposition, please do get in touch.