A culture audit to inform brand articulation

Scope

As part of a brand articulation project, we conducted in-depth quantitative and qualitative culture audits capturing how employees felt about their workplace experience. We assessed whether this aligned the existing brand articulation and with prevalent views within leadership, and ultimately allowed us to recommend a brand territory and messaging that would resonate internally and externally.

Background

For the culture audit we used the Qi Index, a tool that analyses the current versus desired cultural state of the company. The index maps employees' dominant behaviours, states and emotions regarding the perceived corporate culture. The final report visualises the collected data and gives insight into how a group may generate value from external threats and opportunities.

What we did

1. Conducted interviews with 30 senior leaders to understand their vision for the business 2. Ran an anonymous survey with the remaining workforce to ascertain employees’ views on the current culture and to voice how their desired environment would look and feel 3. Added bespoke demographic filters to present how different groups felt about the current culture compared to interview insights

Results

We found a disparity between the current and desired results as well as when comparing the audit’s findings to the discovery interviews undertaken with the leadership team. The analysis revealed that employees were engaged and truly cared about their work and organisation, however they felt cautious in their environment which they wanted to be more innovative.

Impact on brand narrative

The results were used to inform the brand narrative and exploration and provided unifying traits that encompassed the culture of the business. This led to a more ownable brand articulation that fit with the sentiments and values shared by employees, while providing the stretch every brand narrative needs to empower the next phase of a business’ growth.