Workplace Culture and Engagement

Build a workplace where people are treated fairly, contribute confidently and want to stay.

Book a discovery call with Ella to learn more about how to create an inclusive and engaged workplace.

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WHAT MSKES A GOOD WORKPLACE CULTURE?

Culture is how work happens in your organisation: how people lead, make decisions, collaborate, recognise contributions and respond when something goes wrong. Employee engagement is people's connection to their work and your organisation. We help you understand that everyday experience, define the culture you want and make practical changes to the behaviours, management practices and communications that shape it.

This includes diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) work: looking honestly at who is progressing, who is being heard and what needs to change. As you grow, it gives you a shared foundation for how people work together, with a clear assessment of your culture, agreed priorities and practical tools to improve employee experience and make your values visible in daily working life.

Want to shape how you are seen outside the organisation? → Brand Positioning and Communications, for reputation, messaging and campaigns.

Culture, inclusion and employee experience review Find out what is helping or hindering your people. We run employee research and review working practices across areas such as inclusion, management and progression, then deliver a findings report and prioritised action plan. 

Values and behaviours framework Define what your culture looks like in practice. Working with leaders and employees, we set out clear behaviours, examples of expected and unacceptable conduct, and guidance for everyday decisions.

Culture implementation plan Turn the framework into how your business works. We recommend how to build the behaviours into onboarding, team routines, recognition and performance conversations, backed by manager tools, named owners and a delivery roadmap.

You can commission a focused project or combine these services into a wider programme, building on any employee research or frameworks you already have.

WHY WORK WITH ARDENT?

Culture is shaped by how your organisation operates and communicates. Our collective combines Ella McCann-Tomlin’s experience leading commercial and people teams, Dr Kirsty Gardiner’s social psychology expertise and Sophie Burness’s employee engagement and communications specialism.

We examine how working practices and leadership behaviours affect people's experience, alongside what employees tell us, and we would rather give you an honest read than a comfortable one. Then we involve your teams in defining practical changes, with clear expectations for managers and leaders. You get changes people can experience in their working day, and your team gets the tools and ownership to sustain them.

PROOF IT WORKS

Helping Kindred strengthen its culture foundations:

Kindred wanted an independent assessment of its DEI programme. We combined confidential employee conversations with a review of data, policies and practices, including hiring and progression. Kindred received a research-informed report identifying strengths, gaps and priorities for improvement.

WHY IT MATTERS

  • Make values useful — Give people clear expectations for how to lead, collaborate and make decisions.

  • Build a fairer employee experience — Identify and address practices that limit people's ability to contribute, develop or be heard.

  • Give people more reason to stay — Understand what employees value and act on the experiences that put their commitment at risk.

  • Keep your culture as you grow —Make the behaviours and working practices you value easier to carry into new teams and locations.

THE ARDENT METHOD

  • ILLUMINATE

  • ALIGN

  • EMBED

COMMON QUESTIONS

  •  If you need a clearer picture of your culture, start with a culture, inclusion and employee experience review. If you already have useful evidence, we can move into defining behaviours, planning changes or improving engagement. We'll use what you already know to focus the brief.

  • Yes. Inclusion is part of how we approach culture, from reviewing hiring and progression to building fairer everyday practices. We'll agree whether you need a diagnostic review, a framework for behaviours or support putting an existing strategy into practice.

  • We help translate your values into observable behaviours and expectations for leaders, managers and teams. For example, a value of fairness might need clearer ways to allocate opportunities, recognise contributions or make promotion decisions. You get a practical framework and a plan for applying it to relevant working practices.

  • We use appropriate combinations of interviews, surveys, focus groups and working sessions, with different ways for people to contribute. We explain how feedback will be used and the limits of confidentiality before collecting it. The plan also includes reporting back on what was heard and what action will follow.

  • We agree measures linked to the behaviours and experiences you want to improve. These might include whether people feel able to raise concerns, experience fairer access to opportunities or see managers acting on feedback, alongside engagement, retention and progression data. We review both what has been implemented and whether employees experience a difference.

  • It depends on your organisation's size, the research needed and the support required to implement changes. We'll send a proposal setting out the deliverables, timings, responsibilities and fees before work starts.

READY TO CREATE A WORLD-CLASS COMPANY CULTURE?

What kind of culture do you want people to experience? Let's define it, and the practical changes that will get you there.

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