How To Improve Workplace Culture ‒ The 4 Pillars
- Nov 10, 2022
- 4 min read
Updated: Mar 7, 2025
Written by: Jill Yeiter, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Would you like to improve the culture of your workplace, whether or not you have implemented a formal wellness program? I’ve identified four key pillars that can provide a solid foundation for positively impacting the culture of your organization.
What is Workplace Culture?
The culture of a workplace is the overall character of the business and is collectively made up of shared values, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors to shape both the physical and non-physical environment. A workplace can be highly diverse and deeply inclusive, respecting the individual nuances of each employee, while still having a healthy workplace culture that manifests overall and in smaller teams.
Why Focus on Culture?
It’s helpful to think of culture as the roots of an organization and programs, services, and products, either externally or internally focused, as the branches. The culture, or roots, will provide a solid foundation for everything else to thrive.
How Can Culture be Improved?
While there are many ways to improve culture, and every organization is different with its own unique character and personality, I’ve identified four key pillars that can have a real impact on culture. These pillars are values, relationships, systems, and sustainability.
1. Values
What are your organization's core values, mission, and vision? Have you taken the time to identify, formalize, share, and embody them? Lack of clarity or alignment can adversely affect culture and leave everyone feeling confused and unsafe, perpetuating “hidden rules” which directly influence the culture despite their unacknowledged nature. Embodying values is most important to avoid hidden rules. For example, if your company has stated a value of respect yet everyone turns up late and unprepared for meetings and there is no open discussion about this, the hidden rules have been given priority and the stated value is not prioritized, creating a disconnect and a break-down in culture.
2. Relationships
Do you prioritize people and see them as whole beings, not just employees? Do you extend the same respect and care to your employees that you show your customers? Do you provide opportunities for your employees to grow both personally and professionally? Investing in relationships positively impacts culture and productivity, increases retention, and drives the overall momentum of your business in the intended direction. Even in favorable circumstances, so much time is spent at work and if employees don’t feel seen, heard, and safe, one or multiple aspects of their health will suffer which may lead to quiet quitting. This bare minimum, at most, approach is largely driven by an overall sense of disempowerment and burnout, and genuinely investing in relationships can reduce this costly trend.
3. Systems
What systems do you have in place that are either helping or harming employee morale? Are your systems user-friendly, efficient, productive, and enjoyable? Values and relationships envelop the subjective side of your business and systems are more logistical and objective. Both are equally important and affect each other. If your systems are troubled people suffer due to the mental and physical energy drain related to inefficiency. So even if you have taken measures to prioritize relationships, you may still be silently harming morale with unaddressed, poor systems. We have so much user-friendly tech available to help these days, anything less than streamlined systems is inexcusable.
4. Sustainability
Are your systems and practices sustainable not only for the environment but also for the people implementing them and your profits? I do not specialize in sustainability coaching, but there are coaches and businesses that are solely dedicated to helping you identify gaps in your business and how to create actionable plans to move forward with flexible sustainability practices. If you aren’t quite ready to hire an expert, you could start with an internal survey asking employees how they perceive different areas of sustainability within your business such as systems, workloads, environmental impact, etc.
All You Need to Know
The culture of a workplace is the overall character of the business. The culture, or roots, will provide a solid foundation for everything else to thrive. I’ve identified four key pillars that can have a real impact on culture. These pillars are values, relationships, systems, and sustainability.
Call To Action
If you’d like help strategizing a plan to implement workplace wellness initiatives in your organization or would like to offer a wellness workshop or participate in leadership coaching I am here to help and can be reached at healwithjill.com.
Jill Yeiter, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Jill Yeiter is a Wellness Coach with a Bachelor's in Lifestyle management and two decades of experience helping others improve their health. She has expertise in Workplace Wellness, Pilates, Intuitive Eating, and more. She currently runs an online business, Heal With Jill, and offers a variety of free resources in addition to her paid coaching services.
