How To Measure Culture Change: 10 Methods for Your Business
Creating lasting culture change means embedding new values into daily behaviors, decision-making, and employee experiences. But culture is intangible, making it tricky to track. So, how can you tell if your efforts are truly making a difference?
Cultural change is a major undertaking that requires much effort and significant resource investments. It also requires focused input from leadership, management, and employees over a long period. If done correctly, it can have a monumental positive impact on your employee experience and business results.
For this reason, measuring culture change is necessary to know how your business is progressing and the organizational impact of the transformation. This article discusses how to measure culture change and understand how your culture is transforming.
Contents
What is culture change?
Why measure culture change
How to measure culture change
Best practices for measuring culture change
What is culture change?
Culture change, also referred to as cultural transformation, is a set of activities an organization undertakes to change the behaviors and mindsets of employees to achieve strategic goals. A culture change is usually a gradual process that can be observed over a medium to a long period of time.
The trigger for a culture change is when the current culture of the business doesn’t align with its vision, mission, core values, and strategic objectives. This misalignment indicates to the leadership that the company culture has become a barrier to achieving the organization’s goals.
A business commitment to culture change shows employees the transformation isn’t just lip service but, rather, a concerted effort in the right direction.
Why measure culture change
Culture change is a resource-intensive process—one that involves time, effort, and commitment across all levels of the organization. Measuring it helps you understand whether your initiatives are moving the needle, where progress is happening, and where adjustments might be needed. Here’s why measuring culture change is important:
- Evaluating the success of your initiatives: You can assess if the culture change initiative has the desired impact. As you’re investing a lot of resources and effort into creating the change, you need to understand if it’s bringing you the results you expected, and if not, why this is happening.
- Showcasing the results: With data, you can show the business impact of the culture change in a measurable way, which helps you speak the language of the organization’s leadership. Cultural change requires time and money investment, so presenting its outcome and results to key stakeholders is essential.
Alongside organizational structural changes, Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella aimed to transform the company’s culture to ensure they’d reach their goals. A new Microsoft vision was developed, which was “to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more”.
Prior to the restructuring, employees lacked a sense of purpose, and engagement scores were quite low. Through various culture-related initiatives and realignment of its purpose, Microsoft was able to get back on track. One of the outcomes was notable stock price growth:
- Uncovering points of improvement: If the culture change has not led to the desired results, you can use data to look into what to improve and how to cement the culture change further. By understanding how the transformation is progressing, you’ll be able to uncover obstacles in both the internal and external environment.
- Identifying champions and leaders: Measuring culture can highlight individuals or teams who are successfully embracing and promoting the desired culture change. These internal champions can serve as examples and advocates for broader adoption across the organization.
Culture change is complex—and even more so when it comes to measuring its success. To drive real cultural transformation, you need the skills to diagnose the current state and design impactful interventions that stick.
The Organizational Development Certificate Program from AIHR helps you build exactly that skill set. You’ll learn how to lead culture change from strategy to execution. If you’re ready to start building a culture that drives results, this is your next step.
How to measure culture change
Measuring company culture, like measuring culture change, is not easy. You have to identify how to translate the culture into measurable elements, and you have to measure the outcomes of the change. Here are some ways to measure culture change:
1. Identify KPIs relevant to your culture change goals
A KPI (key performance indicator) provides a quantifiable measure of your company’s culture change over a period of time. It indicates the milestones along the way to let you know if you’re on track and acts as a benchmark to provide insights to help you make better decisions in the future.
It’s also important to connect the culture change results to business goals, such as revenue and profitability. Below is a relevant example:
Culture change goal: Develop greater enthusiasm for innovation in the company by the end of the year.
- 5% increase in revenue generated from recent innovations
- 10% increase in the use of the company’s idea submission board
- 10% increase in the number of actionable project ideas submitted by employees.
Any change from the starting point of the year to where the organization is now would be a result of the cultural change.
To ensure there is clarity in measurement, ensure each initiative is tied to a KPI. For instance, if you’ve taken steps to make it easier to submit ideas via the idea submission board, the KPI “10% increase in the use of the company’s idea submission board” is a good example of how to measure this initiative.
Here is another example:
Cultural change goal: Build a culture of learning in the organization by 2025
- 10% increase in the use of external learning platforms (e.g., Udemy, LinkedIn Learning)
- 7% increase in employee participation in learning programs
- 5% increase in satisfaction rates for leadership learning programs.
2. Use the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI)
The Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument helps you identify your company culture’s characteristics and how these differ from your desired organizational culture. You can also use the assessment to measure culture change over time by comparing the before and after results.
Developed by Kim Cameron and Robert Quinn, the tool identifies four types of company culture. The company culture exists “along with a competing values framework”, which consists of the following values:
- Flexibility & Discretion vs. Stability & Control
- Internal Focus & Integration vs. External Focus & Differentiation
Using these values, Cameron and Quinn grouped organizations into four cultural categories:
- The dynamic, entrepreneurial Create Culture (Adhocracy)
- The people-oriented, friendly Collaborate Culture (Clan)
- The process-oriented, structured Control Culture (Hierarchy)
- The results-oriented, competitive Compete Culture (Market)
An organization will typically have elements of all four types of organizational culture, with one prevalent culture:
Based on the results of the initial assessments, you can develop and implement various culture change initiatives to help you progress toward your desired type of company culture. After some time has passed, you can conduct the OCAI again and evaluate how the culture has changed.
3. Use the Organizational Culture Inventory®
The Organizational Culture Inventory (OCI®) is another diagnostic tool that enables you to measure culture change. Based on over 35 years of research, it measures the attributes of company culture with relation to employee behavior and performance. After completing a survey, it reveals the collective beliefs in the organization, behavioral norms, and thus, the foundations for culture change.
Once the company completes an OCI culture assessment, responses are profiled on the Human Synergistics Circumplex to unveil the norms within the organization. Similar to OCAI, you can conduct the assessment multiple times and see how your culture change is progressing.
4. Keep track of your Glassdoor ratings
You can see your Culture & Values rating on Glassdoor and track it over a specific period of time. This indicates how your employees’ perception of your company’s culture is changing.
The company ratings on Glassdoor are based on recent employee feedback, which is calculated through a proprietary rating algorithm. The more recent the review, the heavier its weight on your company’s rating. As such, this is a good measure to help you understand if any recent culture initiatives have shifted your ranking.
A Glassdoor ranking looks something like this:
Tracking your Glassdoor ranking is especially important if one of the goals of your culture change initiative is to improve your employer branding.
5. Conduct a sentiment analysis
Sentiment analysis is increasingly being used in HR to understand what employees are thinking. Dedicated software can analyze a variety of text-based data, like onboarding and offboarding feedback, and performance reviews, helping you see how employees perceive your organization’s culture.
Let’s say your culture change aims to promote the feeling of belonging, with the ultimate goal of retaining a diverse workforce. In this case, you should analyze the sentiment around this (next to your retention data).
Sentiment analysis software analyzes a variety of qualitative sources:
- Diary notes / comments
- Performance feedback check-ins
- Offboarding data
- Compliance policies
- Policy updates
- Client feedback
- Any textual records
- Employee survey feedback.
Through the use of Natural Language Processing (NLP), the combinations of phrases and words from the above sources are classified as positive, negative, or neutral, and scored on a scale from -1.0 to +1.0. Here is an example from Humanforce:
You can conduct sentiment analysis on a regular basis to understand how the culture has been transforming.
6. Organize a focus group
An employee focus group is an effective way to gather specific feedback on your company culture. To measure if any culture change has occurred, conduct the focus group periodically and note any differences. You can do this by analyzing your focus group results (key trends, actual quotes from the participants, a formal report). Some questions you can ask include:
- What company culture shifts have you noticed in the past quarter?
- How would you describe internal communication in this company?
- How does the company help you with your professional development?
- How would you define the leadership in the company?
- How do you believe the company defines success?
- Do you feel the company is committed to diversity and inclusion?
Formulate the questions based on the culture change you want to observe. Ask the same questions again after a certain period of time (e.g., one quarter) so you can compare results and measure culture change.
7. Measure your eNPS
Employee net promoter score (eNPS) is frequently used to measure employee engagement via survey questions like “On a scale of 1-10, how likely are you to recommend this organization to others as a place to work?” or “Based on your experience, how likely are you to recommend our organization as an employer to a friend or colleague?”
Improvements in your eNPS can be a good indicator of the success of your culture change efforts.
8. Employ a dedicated culture measurement tool
Dedicated culture measurement tools can also measure culture change at your organization. Examples of such tools include:
- CultureAmp: A powerful platform that uses continuous listening, feedback, and various development tools to improve employee engagement and performance over time. Its various metrics can measure the success of your culture change efforts over time.
- Perceptyx: Perceptyx uses employee surveys, social listening, and people analytics to gather insights within an organization. It can help turn your culture data into useful insights and measure change over time.
9. Observe workplace behavior and interactions
A significant part of culture change is reflected in how employees behave and interact daily. Observing these behaviors can help track whether the desired cultural shifts are taking hold. To measure cultural change through behavioral observations, do the following:
- Monitor interactions in meetings: If your goal is to foster a more inclusive culture, observe if junior team members are speaking up more. Are meetings more participatory instead of being dominated by a few voices? Are team members supporting each other’s ideas rather than competing?
- Track decision-making processes: If you aim to promote accountability, check if teams are making decisions independently without waiting for leadership approval on every detail. Are employees taking ownership of their projects more readily?
- Note participation in company rituals: If you want to foster a culture of learning, find out if employees are actively attending lunch-and-learns or internal training sessions. If you’ve implemented new DEIB initiatives, observe whether employees are engaging in discussions, attending ERG meetings, or participating in awareness events.
- Assess informal interactions: If you’re working to create a more connected culture, look for signs of stronger social bonds, such as more casual knowledge-sharing or mentoring across departments. Are employees engaging in cross-team collaboration more often than before?
Conducting periodic behavioral assessments—whether through collecting feedback from managers, or informal “culture walks”—helps identify if new behaviors are becoming the norm in the workplace.
10. Conduct manager check-ins and leadership feedback sessions
Managers play a key role in embedding culture change and can offer real-time insights into how employees are responding. To measure cultural change, do the following:
- Set up structured manager check-ins focused on culture: Ask managers specific questions—are employees displaying more initiative or giving and receiving feedback more openly? If wellbeing is a priority, are employees taking advantage of flexible work options without hesitation?
- Use 360 degree leadership feedback: If leadership behavior is central to your culture shift, assess if managers are embodying the new values. For example, if you’ve implemented a coaching leadership style, find out if employees feel supported and mentored rather than micromanaged.
- Assess leadership consistency: Do managers regularly reinforce the intended culture? For example, if work-life balance is a focus, they should lead by example and not send late-night emails. If psychological safety is a goal, they should encourage employees to speak up without fear of negative consequences.
- Gather employee feedback on managers: Use pulse surveys or direct employee feedback to determine if managers are perceived as cultural role models. If leadership development is a focus, are employees reporting improvements in how their managers communicate, support, and empower them?
By asking culture-specific questions at these check-ins and sessions, you can track culture change from a leadership perspective and ensure managers are helping to reinforce the evolving culture.
Best practices for measuring culture change
Measuring culture change needs to lead to real insights and action. To make the most of your measurement efforts, consider these best practices to ensure your approach is effective, meaningful, and aligned with your company’s goals.
- Establish a baseline before making changes: Measuring culture change is only useful if you have something to compare the changes to. Before implementing culture shifts, gather pre-change data on employee sentiment, engagement, and behaviors. For instance, if you want to improve psychological safety, conduct a survey before and after implementing changes to track progress.
- Combine quantitative and qualitative data: Culture change isn’t just about numbers—it’s also about how employees feel. Pair metrics like eNPS and survey results with focus groups, interviews, or open-ended feedback to get the full picture.
- Look for trends, not just one-time results: As one-time survey results can be misleading, you should track cultural change over time. Schedule quarterly or biannual check-ins to compare trends and make data-driven adjustments if necessary.
- Align culture metrics with business outcomes: Culture doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Changes should be tied to performance, retention, and engagement goals. If you’re fostering a customer-centric culture, don’t just measure internal sentiment—track customer satisfaction scores (CSAT), Net Promoter Score (NPS), and customer retention rates to see if employees’ behavior translates into better service and stronger relationships.
- Adapt your measurement approach if necessary: Don’t treat culture measurement as a box to check—it should inform action. If a method isn’t providing meaningful insights, adjust your approach. For example, if traditional surveys have low employee participation, try pulse surveys or informal check-ins.
A final word
The methods you use to measure culture change will depend on your company’s transformation goals. Combining different measurement methods will give you excellent insights into the impact of your change initiatives.
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