Culture scores

Human resources targets have their place, but a truly healthy corporate culture starts with putting people first, says BCB’s Head of People.

By Rachel Ramsay

If you ask people about corporate culture, they will all agree that it is vitally important. Ask them how to measure or foster a healthy corporate culture, and the answers will become a little less clear.

That culture matters cannot be doubted. From the crisis that engulfed traditional finance in 2009-10 to the scandals that have punctuated the history of the crypto industry, poor corporate culture has played a significant role. 

A lack of diversity leading to narrow groupthink, misaligned incentives, a lack of personal responsibility and accountability have all contributed to the financial sector’s less than unblemished record.

But how can we address this issue and measure our success?

Targets and tick boxes – a substitute for real action?

The finance industry is often very keen on quantitative measures – it’s an occupational hazard of dealing with numbers for a living. Diversity, equity and inclusion metrics are the best known, but there are many others, from staff turnover figures to employee satisfaction surveys.

But for too many companies, targets have become an end in themselves. In truth they are a rough and ready measure: useful for seeing the broad outline of your company, but also a possible distraction from the real challenge – building a genuinely healthy culture.

My ambivalence towards targets grows when I consider how the use of narrow metrics of culture can become tokenistic, or simply tools for a company to boast about its credentials rather than sincerely motivated efforts at cultural improvement.

None of this is to say that I do not keep an eye on such metrics at BCB Group. I am aware that on a numerical basis there are areas where we are doing well in diversity and others where we need to try harder.

For example, the representation of women in our company is extremely good with 50% of our employees and 50% of our senior leadership team being women. Women are less well represented in our technology teams – which is partly a result of the pipeline of talent. Quite simply, women are still under-represented in technology and STEM subjects at universities. We are trying to address this by asking recruitment agencies to make strenuous efforts to include women candidates in shortlists.

Social mobility is another area where I believe we need to work harder, and I feel passionately that our industry is still not attracting talent from wider social backgrounds.

But for all my attention to the data, I do not believe number crunching is the answer.

Culture grows from the ground up

Many organisations assume that if they reach certain targets – in diversity for example – they will create a better culture. Of course this helps, but the causality runs just as much in the opposite direction – creating a better culture will result in more diverse teams.

Whether it be the representation of women, job satisfaction or adherence to standards, these are cultural features that begin at the ground level. Family-friendly policies including generous parental make BCB a more attractive employer for women and indeed men. The other features of our employment – 30 days’ annual leave, extra mental health days and days for volunteer work and of course medical insurance – demonstrate that we value our staff. This is complemented by our flexible, hybrid approach to working environment. A clear corporate purpose are also foundations that make for an attractive working environment, job satisfaction, professional pride and therefore an effective business.

So, I will keep monitoring the data on our people – their diversity, their job satisfaction, their commitment to our values – and I will keep a gentle eye on a few targets.

But I also know it is vital that I do not become fixated on ticking boxes, because the data is just a snapshot and a rough indicator of progress. The real work lies behind the headline figures, because if you look after your people and create a culture that values and enables talent, industry and integrity, the targets may well look after themselves.