Using Data Analytics to Measure the Impact of Corporate Culture

By Barrie Carlyle, Managing Partner, Waterstone Human Capital

When we talk about the data analytics of human resources and corporate culture, we’re often talking about things like employment engagement scores, employee net promoter scores, or attrition and retention rates. All very important metrics on which HR leaders keep an eye. But these aren’t the only sets of data that should be of interest when it comes to corporate culture and its affect on business success.

At the Canada’s Most Admired Corporate Cultures Summit which took place in Toronto on March 1, 2018, we asked corporate leaders to talk about the data and analytics of corporate culture. They did discuss culture’s impact on the usual metrics, but where it got interesting was when they looked at the impact of culture on external KPIs like sales numbers and customer feedback. In short, culture is a driver of performance.

Case Study #1: Reliance Home Comfort

Reliance Home Comfort transformed its culture under the leadership of CEO Sean O’Brien and in conjunction with Waterstone’s Culture Assessment services: sales leads from service technicians increased 300 per cent in three years; customer net promoter and Google Review scores went up substantially; and overall market share increased. The culture transformed to one of ownership/accountability, collaboration and teamwork, and the impact was felt on the bottom line and in the traditional HR metrics, but also in the overall experience customers have with Reliance team members.

Case Study #2: Deep Foundations Contractors

An assessment of the Deep Foundations Contractors culture using the Waterstone Culture Dashboard™ helped the company redefine their core values to better reflect what their team was experiencing.  The result? The Deep CARES values:

Continuous Improvement
Accountability and Teamwork
Results Oriented
Ethical
Safety as the #1 priority

These values are now embedded in the company’s total rewards systems with the Values Performance Bonus.

The Lessons from Data

There are three big take-aways for companies looking to use data to measure the impact of culture on their business:

  1. Don’t just measure employee engagement. Engagement is an output of culture, so have your team members give an accurate, current state measurement of the culture in your organization.
  2. Go beyond the bottom line. Financial results are often influenced by issues such as the state of the economy, existence or lack of a competitive product and the behaviour of your competitors. Winning organizations are going deeper to analyze customer feedback and the origin of sales leads to determine the impact culture is having on their marketplace position.
  3. Do something meaningful with the data once you have it. Embedding the values directly into compensation through a vales-based bonus is a visible and tangible way of demonstrating the organization’s commitment to driving a wining culture.

Want to learn more? Visit www.waterstonehc.com or email us to find out more about the Waterstone Culture Dashboard™ and Waterstone’s cultural assessment services.