How to tell if you have a high or low risk workplace culture

In this week’s Culture and Complaints Series, we explore high and low risk workplace culture with Stephen Bell, iHR Managing Director and Senior Training Facilitator

How can a business tell if they have a high or low risk culture?

Sometimes a high risk culture is really difficult to identify.

There are many indicators that give us the hint that a culture is high risk. Perhaps the most obvious is the behaviour of key influencers; at all levels. Many of those influencers will be at a manager level, but we must NOT discount the impact of non-management influencers.

It is the cycle of behaviours that these influencers wittingly and unwittingly drive through a team or the organisation. For example, sending on borderline jokes via an email or turning their back on interactions and behaviours that may actually be humiliating to an individual, such as the use of derogatory nicknames.

On the surface everything seems fine. Organisations may appear to have a commitment to sound values and practices. Sometimes it requires the removal of layers before it becomes clear there is a high risk culture

iHR Australia developed its ‘Inquiry’ process to be able to uncover ‘higher risk’ cultures.

One of the most obvious indicators of a lower risk team culture is that team members see their manager as approachable and have confidence in the organisation’s mechanisms for handling complaints. This is not a utopian concept.  It takes planning and consistent behavioural messages from influencers, both leaders and team members, that say ‘genuine concerns around the poor behaviour of others get addressed professionally.’

If you have any culture or complaints handling questions you would like answered, let us know.