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Creating a positive workplace culture
Practical advice and case studies on how to improve workplace culture.
Why workplace culture matters
Positive workplace culture is tangible – you recognise it when you experience it, but its ingredients are not always obvious.
Broadly speaking, culture is the embodiment of shared values, customs and behaviours. It encompasses the ‘way things are done around here’ and has a significant impact on an organisation’s dynamics and its employees’ interactions.
Through consultation with organisations who have strong and effective workplace cultures, the Commission found that positive work cultures are characterised by:
a high degree of trust and respect between all levels of staff
improper conduct not being tolerated
high levels of wellbeing where people are motivated and engaged, contributing to staff retention
positive engagement where employees feel happy and enthusiastic about their work
a climate in which people feel valued
employees that have a sense of pride in the organisation’s goals and values
positive perceptions of how senior leadership support psychological safety and stress prevention.
How we measure workplace culture
To improve workplace culture, we need to know what we’re doing well and what we can do better.
The Commission analysed People matter survey data in 2023 and 2024 to identify organisations that scored highly on measures of workplace culture. To do this, we used regression analysis to determine 5 key factors that contribute to a positive workplace culture:
We then spoke to leaders from different organisations to find out how they build and maintain a positive workplace culture. We chose organisations from a range of public sector industries including health, water, sport and transport.
Despite the differences in industry and size, we found common themes and practices in their approach to building culture. These align closely with the key factors we use to measure workplace culture in the People matter survey.
Below you’ll find some practical tips and case studies based on the key factors. You can use these to help improve workplace culture in your organisation.
Senior leadership: visible and supportive leaders
Senior leaders are well placed to set the tone of an organisation and build a strong culture.
We spoke with senior leaders in organisations with a positive workplace culture to understand how they build a positive environment for their peers and employees:
create workplaces that are caring, compassionate and foster wellbeing and belonging
are visible and formally and informally engage with employees in a meaningful way
are deliberate in demonstrating the cultural norms, values and behaviours they wish to cultivate, including the public sector values
encourage and support personal and professional growth
encourage teamwork and collaboration so employees feel like they’re working toward a common goal. This is particularly important during times of stress or high workload.
encourage and enable staff to ‘speak up’ when they see negative workplace behaviours
make hard decisions when needed that are in the best interest of the organisation and public sector workforce.
The Melbourne and Olympic Parks Trust (Trust) manages the Melbourne and Olympic Parks precinct – Melbourne’s home of live events.
The precinct is home to 6 world-class venues, with the Trust responsible for the delivery of 400 events annually, including the Australian Open, headline music and entertainment and domestic sporting fixtures.
The leadership team knows how important visible and supportive leadership is in creating a positive workplace culture and maintaining high performance among their employees. They are committed to genuine engagement with their employees and take the time to get to know them personally. They demonstrate their commitment by:
maintaining a visible presence at the precinct’s diverse calendar of events throughout the year, providing on-the-ground support to staff delivering world-class events
taking time to meet with every new permanent employee to discuss how their role contributes to the Trust’s strategy, shared goals, and values.
Box Hill Institute (BHI) knows the transformative power of education having connected students with life changing learning for the past 100 years. Today BHI has 5 campuses in 3 locations and 1,100 employees who share a passion for the training and education of their 28,000 students so they can achieve a better life for themselves and help create a better world.
Recognising that people are its greatest asset, BHI wanted to listen and open up communications so they could understand and improve the employee experience. In 2022 they embarked on a unique and transformative approach to the People matter survey so they could increase completion rates across the organisation in their efforts to better ‘listen and take action’.
Led by the CEO and Executive team, they developed an engaging and creative People matter survey campaign. This included the leadership team taking part in fun videos and photos dressed up in 70s and 80s outfits to highlight their ‘goal’ to drive completion rates up from 56% into the 70%-80% range. Competitions were held with individuals and teams winning 80s themed hampers and prizes and the music department even wrote and performed a People matter survey inspired song.
As well as the light-hearted fun and energy that was created around the campaign, communications also highlighted the importance of ‘Listening and Taking Action’. Key focus areas based on the survey results were given executive sponsors and a lot of work was done to address and improve these areas, with many of the key improvements related to these areas. When people could see that their feedback led to real and meaningful change it helped to drive engagement and support of the People matter survey over the longer term.
With an engaging and authentic leadership approach, BHI’s People Matter Survey response rate lifted from 56% in 2022 to 84% in 2023 and then up to 89% in 2024. Across this period BHIs survey results remained strong overall in terms of both year on year performance and their sector standing against other TAFEs, particularly in the areas of positive wellbeing, safety climate, organisational integrity and engagement.
Organisational integrity and a connection to purpose and values
Building organisational integrity
All employees in public sector agencies must act with and uphold integrity.
Integrity risks and how they’re managed can vary between organisations because of the nature and location of their workplace.
Leaders from organisations with strong organisational integrity focus on:
supporting and encouraging regular integrity conversations across the organisation
creating a safe work environment for employees to report integrity concerns and address negative behaviours
implementing fair recruitment practices based on merit and equity
sharing and discussing integrity obligations, policies and procedures with all employees. For example, policies on gifts, benefits and hospitality, conflicts of interest or secondary employment requirements
tailoring integrity information to align with an organisation’s integrity risks. For example, by building employee awareness about:
financial probity requirements if services are procured regularly or complex contracting arrangements are in place
privacy requirements and the use of official information for frontline workers.
regularly reviewing policies and procedures to find opportunities for improvement and acting on issues and risks if they arise
offering and encouraging employees to complete integrity training
appointing integrity champions who specialise in integrity matters that employees can contact. For example, a champion who specialises in fraud and corruption control.
The Victorian Infrastructure Delivery Authority (VIDA) (formerly the Major Transport Infrastructure Authority) delivers Victoria’s transport and health infrastructure programs. VIDA is responsible for large budgets, a high volume of procurement activity and management of complex contracting arrangements. They oversee major projects like the West Gate Tunnel, Metro Tunnel and the new Footscray Hospital.
VIDA recognises integrity as one of its strategic risks. Championed by senior leadership, its Integrity Framework sets out the key policies and mechanisms through which it safeguards integrity so that employees:
know their obligations and comply with them
avoid putting private interests before public interests
report integrity breaches as an anti-corruption stance.
Supported by a Leadership Integrity Statement and an Ethical Behaviours Statement (among others) VIDA has taken a deliberate approach to creating a culture of integrity and prioritises resources for training and awareness and for promoting and ensuring compliance and accountability controls.
All employees, including independent members of VIDA’s Advisory Panel, must undertake 2.5 hours of integrity training on joining with annual integrity refresher training completed in subsequent years. As a result, virtually all employees have taken integrity training to build awareness of VPS Values, Conflicts of Interests (COI), Declaration of Private Interests (DOPI), Gifts Benefits and Hospitality, Information Security and Fraud Red Flags.
VIDA also communicates its integrity expectations with its project partners and undertakes due diligence and assurance related activities over its project partners as part of managing its integrity risks. Building awareness of their responsibilities, VIDA’s employees submit COIs and DOPIs that are assessed for irregularities or changed circumstances.
Creating a connection to organisational purpose and values
There’s a strong link between positive workplace culture and an organisation’s purpose and values.
The Victorian public sector has 7 core values. In addition, some public organisations develop complementary values that align with their purpose.
For example, organisations that deliver large-scale infrastructure projects may have different values to organisations that are customer and community focused.
Leaders from organisations with a strong connection to their purpose and values told us they:
co-create the organisation’s purpose, values and behaviours with employees to build a sense of shared ownership and a trademark for ‘how things are done around here’
communicate with each employee about how their role contributes to the organisation’s purpose and goals
identify and highlight the contributions of employees to increase engagement and performance
lead by example and acknowledge employees, teams and projects that model the organisation’s values
embed the organisation’s values in core processes. For example, employees may be asked to reflect on and demonstrate the values:
as part of their performance development plan
when applying for learning and development opportunities.
Yarra Valley Water (YVW) is the largest of Melbourne’s 3 water corporations responsible for supporting health and wellbeing, through the provision of essential water and sewerage services. YVW’s values were co-created and shape the approach that all staff take – be they on the phones taking customer calls, working in a treatment plant or enabling the smooth running of the organisation. YVW values are:
Putting People First
Working as One Team
Being Brave
Clear focus to Deliver what Matters
Together having a Positive Impact.
For YVW’s customers, communities, partners, the natural environment and each other.
YVW purpose and values are the “paper” on which the organisation’s 2030 strategy is written. The values are woven into each stage of the employee lifecycle – recruitment & selection, orientation & onboarding, performance & development planning, quarterly recognition and reward celebration and talent reviews. YVW’s values are a natural part of the formal and informal communication across the organisation and are foundational in the recruiting and promotion of talent in the organisation.
The Managing Director makes time to call all new starters and ask why they have chosen to be part of the YVW team. This approach is purposeful – it signals the important relationship between leader and team member, the importance of each person’s contribution to the organisation and brings the work of a team member under the umbrella of YVW’s purpose and values.
Safety climate and responding to negative behaviours
Safety climate refers to how physically and psychologically safe employees feel at work.
However, workplace safety issues, negative behaviours and other workplace harm can occur. It’s critical that workplaces have a dual focus on preventing harm and addressing it when it arises.
Creating a safe and mentally healthy workplace culture starts with senior leaders and managers. Leaders can take practical steps to influence workplace culture.
For example, the leaders we spoke to:
set clear expectations for ‘the way we act around here’ and make these expectations visible via discussion in team meetings and through visual reminders
build collaborative workplaces where different perspectives are encouraged, and staff feel empowered to contribute and safe to provide feedback
have clear pathways for reporting negative behaviours and equip managers with the skills to manage challenging situations so they can respond early to address poor performance or workplace behaviour when it arises
lead by example and demonstrate the behaviours and attitudes they want to see in their employees
implement systems, policies and processes to support a safe and mentally healthy work environment
implement clear processes and procedures for employees and managers to identify, prevent and manage psychosocial risks and issues
raise awareness, share resources and educate employees and managers about psychological safety
discuss wellbeing as a safety issue. For example, tired and stressed people cannot work at their best and can pose a risk to themselves or others at work
acknowledge the safety risks that are present in different kinds of workplaces. For example, unsafe practices on an infrastructure build site can at worst, put people’s lives at risk.
Beaufort and Skipton Health Service (BSHS) is a small rural health service that serves over 8,500 people in Beaufort, Skipton and surrounding areas.
In 2019, BSHS was ready for change after a period of high leadership turnover. The organisation’s People matter survey results suggested a real need for focus on wellbeing and engagement, and leaders worked with their board and all levels of the organisation to prevent and address negative behaviours including workplace bullying – which 30% of staff were reporting.
Trusted and transparent leadership was key to cultural transformation. BSHS leaders developed a new strategic plan – to support staff’s understanding of the organisation’s role and where they fitted in.
They established and made widely visible ‘above and below the line’ behaviours so staff clearly understood the conduct and behaviours expected of them.
They also supported staff to speak up safely, took reports of bullying and harassment seriously, and where necessary exited staff whose behaviours did not accord with the code of conduct. While recruiting new staff in a small rural community can be extremely challenging, leaders at BSHS did not let this dissuade them from taking appropriate action.
By 2023, the staff engagement index had increased greatly, turnover plummeted and the vast majority of employees felt their manager treated them with dignity and respect.
Coliban Water operates across a large footprint in Central and Northern Victoria, providing essential water services to almost 50 towns. In 2021 while facing practical and cultural issues internally as well as challenges of climate change, population growth and ageing assets, the leadership team decided to transform the organisation and its culture by improving infrastructure and investing in staff.
Leadership worked to improve staff morale by focusing on solving legacy problems, removing hierarchies and deliberately ‘walking the talk’ of the organisation they wanted to create. Between 2022-2024 Coliban Water’s People matter survey results have increased and safety climate and perceptions of senior leadership have risen by 16% and 18% respectively.
This has been achieved through a range of interventions including the introduction of a refreshed employee value proposition and offering flexible work as the norm. Coliban also invested in its safety team ahead of its significant infrastructure upgrades, increasing resourcing from 1.5 to 4.8 FTE. This included employing a dedicated wellbeing officer to build capability within the workforce and consider safety and wellbeing in new and innovative ways. Coliban also increased resourcing for change management to support staff through organisational transformation.
A regular safety showcase was introduced where employees run demonstrations on safety and are awarded a golden hardhat for the best safety initiative or success. This initiative reinforces the importance of workplace safety in a light-hearted and engaging way. While initially mandatory and introduced as part of Performance Development Plan requirements, attendance is now optional but the sessions are better attended than ever. The success of these events has improved the workplace safety culture and prompted further opportunities to promote safety and wellbeing, including a wellbeing awards program. These are regular opportunities to recognise and reward the right workplace behaviours and increased Coliban’s integrity results.
People matter survey response rates reached 83% in 2024 providing a rich source of data to track employee experience and continue to design interventions. Coliban Water has understood its challenges and worked to transform its organisation, uplifting staff safety and wellbeing and is embracing a positive future.
Wellbeing: fostering employee wellbeing
While employees are responsible for managing their own health, the workplace has a responsibility to create an environment that supports their health and wellbeing.
This helps foster a positive workplace culture and prevent negative impacts on employees’ health.
The leaders of high-performing organisations we spoke to foster wellbeing by:
demonstrating and promoting work-life balance for themselves and all employees and respecting the boundaries of in-hours work
providing opportunities for honest conversations. For example, scheduling regular ‘wellbeing check ins’ that focus on protecting wellbeing and preventing harm
encouraging people to bring their whole selves to work and to speak up if they need support. This can reduce the risk of stress, burnout or fatigue
acknowledging the impact of stressful circumstances on employees and providing avenues for debriefs or reflection. For example, during emergency situations or major organisational changes.
actively monitoring the measures of wellbeing and finding opportunities for improvement.
Cenitex provides shared Information and Communication Technology services to 46,000 public servants across a range of departments and agencies.
Cenitex has worked to create a positive workplace culture where the mental health and wellbeing of all employees can be discussed freely. They see mental health and wellbeing as a shared responsibility between leaders and their staff.
Leaders used that same mindset when procuring a new employee assistance program who they consider to be a ‘wellbeing partner’. They engaged an app-based provider, that could meet the holistic wellbeing needs of the organisation, as well as being a good fit for their tech savvy workforce.
The number of employees who accessed the wellbeing program dramatically increased when the app was introduced and Cenitex saw improvements in their People matter survey results.
Cenitex leaders are positive about this outcome – viewing an increase in uptake as a success of the program, and a preventative health mechanism, rather than a sign of a problem.
Cenitex has also recently updated its Employee Value Proposition to foster experiences which help people to thrive and deliver on its’ purpose. The Cenitex People Promise is based around shared purpose, inclusive environment, flexibility, deeper connections, interesting work and personal growth with wellbeing at the core to deliver on these. Through this, Cenitex’s employees report feeling supported, autonomous, invested, understood, engaged and valued which contributes to their wellbeing.
The Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DECCA) is focused on creating a liveable, inclusive and sustainable Victoria with thriving natural environments. DEECA employs over 6,000 people in over 86 locations across metropolitan and regional Victoria.
DEECA has developed a Psychological Health Framework to support its staff and leaders to continue providing a psychologically healthy and safe workplace. The Framework brings together existing departmental approaches to embed psychological health into departmental processes and systems, and uplift staff capability to support the identification and management of psychosocial risks. The Framework is accompanied by a Toolkit that includes the rollout of a series of accessible psychological health and safety videos and posters, a mental health continuum tool, and a psychological health language guide
Dedicated resourcing has been allocated in the Health and Wellbeing team to lead the development and implementation of the DEECA framework and supporting tools and resources.
DEECA’s Framework is designed to complement its other programs including DEECA’s Leadership Model, which is a unified set of principles and habits for leaders to support a healthy workplace, including understanding and managing psychosocial risks and hazards. The Framework is also informing the review of learning and development offerings to reflect best-practice approaches to psychological health.
DEECA has a Safe and Respectful Workplaces program that also incorporates psychological health and safety and psychological first aid to embed a strong, safe and respectful culture. Under the program, staff can make reports via an anonymous reporting pathway that provides a positive and trauma-informed approach. Staff can also make reports via an internal reporting system to enable tailored interventions.
DEECA’s Framework also considers the day-to-day issues facing staff, such as workload management, and links strongly to DEECA’s workload sustainability program. It aims to reduce stress by encouraging regular conversations around workload, wellbeing and capacity in 1:1 and team meetings, and role modelling behaviours that support workload sustainability. The Framework will be accessible and applicable for all staff across DEECA’s broad and diverse service and delivery portfolios in a range of work environments, office locations, and operational contexts. It provides the tools and resources to support all DEECA staff in identifying and managing diverse psychosocial risks across the organisation.
