Written by Coran Lui

How to build a workplace people love: your blueprint for a thriving culture

7th October, 2025   •  

Have you ever been part of a team where everything just flows?

You can feel the energy, shared purpose, and you’re genuinely excited about what you can achieve together. While it’s easy to take that for granted, that kind of atmosphere doesn’t happen by chance – it’s the sign of a strong workplace culture that is cultivated over time. 

A healthy culture doesn’t just prevent issues – it drives progress, unlocks potential, and makes your organisation a place where great people want to do their best work.

In fact, teams with a highly positive culture are 23% more profitable according to Gallup.

Building this kind of workplace is one of the most rewarding journeys an organisation can embark on. It’s a conscious (and challenging) choice to create an environment where people truly feel energised, aligned, and inspired. And as a certified Top 1% Employer, we know how meaningful it is for your people.

On top of this, you don’t necessarily have to be a senior leader or decision maker for this to happen. Whether you lead a team or contribute as an individual, you have the power to model the values and behaviours that inspire positive change.

Ready to help build a workplace people love? We’ve distilled our experience building our own culture, as well as consulting a wide range of organisations of different sectors, sizes, and stages of growth – into eight essential pillars. 

Continue reading this blog to explore each one in more detail!

1. Mission, Vision, & Values 

When 9 out of 10 people are willing to trade a percentage of their lifetime earnings for greater meaning at work, it’s a powerful reminder that we all crave purpose. 

This is the heart of your Mission, Vision, and Values. This pillar is your North Star, designed to align your team, guide decisions, and shape your entire culture. 

It answers the most human questions: Why are we on this journey together? Where are we hoping to go? And what do we stand for along the way? This leads every leader to a critical question: How clearly and regularly are our mission, vision, and values truly alive in our business?

Strategies to turn your values from posters into practice: 

• Co-create your values to ensure they last
  • Gather a diverse, representative mix of your wider team (not just leaders – this is a common mistake!) and ask inspiring questions like “When are we at our absolute best?” and “What behaviours powered our proudest moments?” The themes that light up the room are your authentic values.
• Turn values into action
  • For example, at Higson, one of our core values is ‘We continuously improve’. Instead of leaving that as a vague idea, we define what it looks like in practice. It means proactively asking for feedback after a project to learn and grow, dedicating time each month to learn a new skill that benefits the team, and sharing our learnings  (both successes and mistakes) so everyone can benefit. This clarity turns a value from a poster on the wall into a real, everyday guide.
  • We’re proud to have helped many clients do the same. Take one of our recent clients, a fast-growing asset management business moving in a new direction. They wanted to give their leaders more clarity and ensure everyone was aligned around a shared vision. As part of a leadership away day, we worked with their CEO and team to refine their mission, vision and values – making them more aspirational, emotive, and grounded in clear behaviours.
    
    The result was not just words, but a framework all leaders could rally around and cascade to their teams. It gave them both clarity of direction and practical guidance for how to live their values day to day.
• Weave your values into everything
  • Your values should be the golden thread running through your performance reviews, your recruitment scorecards, and your criteria for promotion. This makes them a living part of your culture, rather than words on a wall.

2. Strategy 

Imagine a team where everyone understands the business direction and knows exactly how their unique skills contribute to success. 

Research suggests that when this happens, businesses achieve their goals far more effectively. This pillar is designed to create that clarity by providing business direction, focus, and a plan to achieve your goals. Think of your strategy as a shared map for an important adventure. 

When each team member has a copy of this map and can see how they contribute to the bigger picture, the team becomes able to collectively navigate challenges together, and stay motivated for the adventure.

As humans, we want to know the “why”. And it’s no different when it comes to our work, which begs the question: How is our business strategy created, and how do we celebrate progress along the way?

How to create a shared roadmap:

• Connect individual work to the bigger picture
  • When exploring objectives, don’t just delegate tasks. Paint a picture of how each person’s skills and efforts help the entire business achieve something remarkable. If you’re interested in reading more on how to set impactful objectives with your team, we recommend reading this blog.
• Involve your team to plan the future
  • A great strategy offsite isn’t a lecture – it’s a creative, collaborative session with a clear, energising purpose. To get this right, here are seven core areas to help you plan a successful offsite, as well as prompts to help you cascade your strategy effectively.
• Share the story of your strategy

Once you have your plan, create an inspiring narrative. How will you share it? What does the launch plan look like? Will leaders get a toolkit to spark conversations with their teams? A well considered frame and story ensures excitement and clarity spreads throughout the wider team.

3. Recruitment and onboarding 

Every new joiner brings fresh energy, ideas, and potential. A brilliant welcoming process can amplify that potential from day one, leading to 82% greater retention rates. 

This pillar is all about how you attract the right talent and set them up for success from the very start. Your recruitment and onboarding are the first touchpoint in a new team member’s journey, which is why we need to ask: Do we have clearly defined and inclusive processes that make people feel welcome and valued? A wonderful experience validates their choice to join you and accelerates their ability to make a positive impact.

Create a welcoming environment for new joiners through three core principles:

• Hire based on merit and skills, not just credentials
  • Shift from talking about skills to actually testing them. Design activity-based interviews where candidates solve problems, role-play scenarios, or work through tasks they’d face in the role. This not only gives you a clearer picture of their ability, but also reduces bias and reliance on vague “fit” questions. Pair this with a simple scorecard to compare candidates fairly and consistently.
  • Before meeting candidates, define the few skills or mindsets that matter most for the role (e.g. problem-solving, adaptability, collaboration, or growth mindset) and what behaviours they would have to show evidence for (e.g. with collaboration – do they actively listen and build on other’s ideas?). That way, you’re assessing more than technical skills or “fit,” and can see how someone could positively shape and add to your culture.
• Design a brilliant 3 month induction programme
  • This might sound alien at first, but it’s something we do at Higson! We map out new team members’ experience with care, personalising it based on individual needs and interests. While the first week may be about settling in and getting to know the role and team, the first month may then involve them in learning and contributing to meaningful work. By the end of the induction, our team members feel a true sense of belonging and see a clear path forward in their development and contributions.
• Pair them with a buddy
  • Connect a new joiner with an experienced colleague who isn’t their manager. This gives them another valuable touchpoint for all their questions and helps them build genuine relationships from the start.

4. Career development 

It’s reassuring to know that 94% of people report they would stay at a business longer if it invested in their growth. This pillar is core to that desire, as focusing on career development can enhance engagement, performance, and ultimately a sense of connection. In today’s world, one of the most motivating opportunities individuals seek is the time and space to learn and develop.

Investing in your people isn’t a cost – it’s an investment in the business’ collective future, building the skills and confidence your team will need to thrive. 

This requires you to honestly assess: How are we actively helping people grow and flourish within our teams and across the business?

Key actions to nurture your people’s growth:

• Make growth conversations a regular, positive habit
  • These discussions are a powerful way to show you care. One-to-ones are the perfect place for these conversations to take place regularly throughout the year – not just during formal performance reviews.  Here is a guide on how you can do them effectively.
• Give leaders formal development opportunities

Many leaders grow into their roles because they excel at their craft (i.e. their ‘day job’), and not because they were hired for their leadership skills. Think of the best engineer or the top salesperson on the team. Too often, they are promoted into a leadership position without any training on how to actually lead. This creates the “accidental leader.”

It’s one of the most common yet overlooked challenges in business. We expect brilliant individual contributors to instinctively know how to coach, navigate difficult conversations, and build trust. Without support, this can lead to a crisis of confidence for the new leader and a feeling of disconnect for their team.

Investing in training for your emerging leaders is a powerful act of support.  By giving leaders the tools and confidence to step into their role, they feel more capable and supported – and that energy spreads across the team, lifting engagement, motivation, and psychological safety.

And the impact isn’t just cultural. Recent research found leadership development delivers an average 7x ROI, where every $1 invested returns $7 through higher revenue, stronger sales, and major savings from retention and reduced hiring costs.

We have had the privilege of running many transformational leadership programmes over the years, for organisations that care about their people.

One memorable example is when we partnered with a global financial services firm to bring their leadership competencies to life through an eight-part programme. Participants began by assessing their own strengths, gathering feedback from their teams, and setting personal focus areas. 

During the workshops themselves, they learned to coach high-performing teams, cascade strategy, create an inclusive culture, and promote wellbeing, with follow-up sessions three months later to track progress and embed behaviour change. Leaders left equipped with the skills, mindset, and confidence to energise their teams and drive meaningful impact. 

If you’re ready to invest in your leaders, please get in touch to explore how we can help.

Three key takeaways:

1. Turn values into action. A strong culture comes from translating core values into everyday behaviours and decision-making – not just words on a wall.
2. Involve your team to plan the future. Engaging people in shaping strategy, goals, and ways of working builds alignment, ownership, and motivation across the organisation.
3. Give leaders formal development opportunities. Structured leadership training equips managers with the skills and confidence to lead effectively, creating a positive ripple effect across teams.

Curious how your culture measures up, or determined to continue investing in your people? Get in touch to hear more about our proprietary Culture Benchmarking Assessment, or explore our bespoke programmes that make a tangible difference. 

And stay tuned for Part 2 of this mini-blog series, where we’ll explore the remaining four pillars that turn good intentions into a thriving everyday culture!