It takes 5 years to repair a toxic culture 😳 speaking to the This Is Work podcast, Australian organisational psychologist Emily Douglass gave an insight into toxic cultures, the sheer amount of work and commitment required to start to make a difference, and the buy in from leadership (at all levels) required to see momentum and genuine change.
There is no hack for doing away with a toxic culture 🪄
So, how do you know if you have a toxic culture? The first sign is probably that you felt the need to ask the question “is our culture toxic?”
Next, look to your workforce, because it is telling you. The most obvious sign is turnover and lack of tenure. Sickness; not just fake sickies but signs that the toxicity has permeated every day life. Anxiety, stomach issues, fatigue, mental health impacts. For employees it’s things like snapping at your family when you get home, being too tired to do the things you enjoy, the Sunday night dread. The effects of a toxic workplace on your wellbeing aren’t immediate, they slowly seep in, infecting your life. Just like exposure to a toxic chemical.
And then there is engagement. As it is, only about 20% of Australian employees are engaged, imagine how low that figure is at toxic workplaces. Classic signs are employees doing the bare minimum. Just enough to get by and not draw attention to themselves. It doesn’t even have to be intentional, a by product of a toxic workplace is that psychological shift to not caring, not caring about making an effort for the team, the organisation or for themselves.
If you’ve listened to me bang on about engagement you’ll know it’s the psychological connection to the work and the organisation that triggers discretionary effort, creating the level of engagement that is directly tied to achieving business outcomes.
Let’s talk numbers.
Lack of employee engagement costs the Australian economy about $200 billion per year. What influences engagement? Leadership, Directors, Boards, the business owner. Employee engagement levels are a direct reflection of leadership capability. In fact, the direct manager is responsible for 70% of the lack of engagement and employee turnover within their team.
Psychological and psychosocial workplace injury claims cost the Australian economy between $12.2 billion and $39.9 billion annually. Lost productivity due to serious mental health injury claims is more than 4x all other workplace injury claims Australia wide. Unsure of what psychological safety is? Our free fact sheet can be downloaded HERE
An intentional focus on culture & engagement via our EX solution can increase profit by 17%, increase productivity by 18%, reduce absenteeism by 83% and see a 64% reduction to safety incidents.
Changing culture is playing the long game. It’s reprogramming long held habits, it’s gaining trust and buy in, it’s examining structures to question their value.
Let’s transform HR together.
If you would like a strategic approach tailored to your specific business needs contact us to arrange an obligation free chat about how we can help.Through impactful HR we create a positive employee experience every time.We aim to create future-focused, people centred HR solutions to accelerate organisational and employee wellbeing, engagement and performance by making HR easy.
THE PEOPLE & CULTURE OFFICE SUPPORTS HR TEAMS AND ORGANISATIONS AUSTRALIA-WIDE TO TAKE A FRESH APPROACH TOWARDS THEIR PEOPLE AND CULTURE FUNCTION.
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