Published by isobel.regan@dontpanicprojects.com
Published Date 12.08.2024 
At Culture15, we’ve long been aware that culture dictates business success. And 94% of executives agree with us, according to a 2023 study conducted by Deloitte.
The issue is that strong business culture is about more than just being willing. It’s also about being able.
Despite gaining popularity as an organisational priority in recent years, the concept of company culture itself remains quite fuzzy – a fact that is by no means helped by the tools we traditionally use to measure. Take employee engagement surveys, for example. It can be difficult to accurately interpret the true extent of a business problem when these reports cannot be separated from the emotional language employees use to deliver.
Then, there’s the question of bias. Like it or not, making judgements is part and parcel of being human and this often means applying our own thoughts, feelings and experiences to others’ cultural reports. Add this to the fact that most surveys ask questions in a divisive, “agree/disagree” format and it soon becomes clear that current methods of gauging culture are quite limiting. And what does “work-life balance” truly mean anyway?
Measuring the intangible
If only there were a way to translate the vagaries surrounding culture into robust, accurate insights. Enter Culture15.
Founded in 2015, Culture15 is a SaaS platform specifically designed to convert ambiguous views on company culture into meaningful, actionable insights. Rather than using engagement as its starting point, our company believes that culture must be defined as the complete set of collective business behaviours. This gives a much more accurate overview of where people currently stand and how the business performs.
Numerical values are therefore assigned to each of the core business behaviours set, allowing companies to evaluate their score. If their current culture is weaker than they would like, they can then set about making actionable, data-driven improvements where it matters most, without being dragged down by erroneous guesses and unwanted bias.
Digital excellence
It’s an approach that’s seen us recognised as finalists in the 2024 Global Digital Excellence Awards – a celebration of outstanding digital campaigns, tools, teams and websites around the world. Judged by leading industry experts, it’s an honour to be considered for this ethical, transparent shortlist, where creativity and stand-out innovation are always prioritised.
Speaking about this significant milestone in Culture15’s nine-year career, our CEO and Founder, Charlie Coode states: “We are delighted to have been shortlisted for the 2024 Global Digital Excellence Awards. I’m so proud that our team is finally getting the recognition it deserves for innovation and creativity, as we continue to develop our culture measurement platform. We’re really proud to be included alongside four other impressive organisations in the Software Innovation category”.
A unique contribution
Culture15’s revolutionary tool has already changed the game for many world-renowned companies, with recognised names such as BMJ Group, The World Gold Council, Quilter, LRQA, Concurrent, Virgin Pulse and the British Army among trusted clients. Not only has our platform helped more than 50 organisations across 65 countries to measure and maintain organisational culture, but the historical views on behaviours provided provides an effective way to bridge the Culture Gap®, bringing clients up to their own expectations and standards.
In addition to measuring company behaviours, our platform also measures trust levels, sentiment and engagement – once again in the most objective way. The AI-powered verbatim feature, for example, converts written and spoken insights into culture – delivered in any language – into measurable scores on specific cultural axes, allowing leaders to design targeted improvements for strategic alignment. Engagement and satisfaction naturally follow as a result.
A labour of love
Speaking about the development process, our in-house product manager states: “Our culture measurement tool has been a labour of love. It’s been a great challenge to build a software that enables such an intangible, fuzzy concept to be attributed to metrics and rigorously tracked, providing so much value for organisations across the globe. Alongside all the team’s hard work, our success has really been down to our ability to react, adapt and improve based on direct user feedback. We also have some industry-changing revolutionary AI developments coming very soon and can’t wait to share them with our users”.
Looking to the future
With new languages and custom features frequently added at clients’ request, our journey has certainly been filled by continuous innovation and adaptability, which is why it’s such an honour to receive this finalists’ recognition. We take great pride in remaining agile and responsive, demonstrating complete dedication to meeting unique demands. It is this commitment that has cemented our reputation as the go-to platform for measuring and maintaining culture at any company.
Looking ahead, we’re excited to unveil exciting new developments that will further enhance our capabilities. We believe that a strong, data-driven understanding of culture will always be vital to any organisation’s success, but moving forward, will continue to ensure that reliance on metrics doesn’t have to mean elimination of the original cultural narrative. It’s simply a matter of reframing the way companies approach culture to ensure it remains at the heart of business success.
Once again, we’re incredibly proud to have been recognised for our contributions and would like to thank the Global Digital Excellence Awards for the honour. Congratulations to all the finalists – we can’t wait to hear the results!
