As a new Cultiv8tiv partner, Rebecca Cooper – Founder of This Kind of HR – brings a practical, evidence-based approach to helping organisations understand the realities of their workplace culture and turn insight into meaningful action.
In this conversation with our CEO and Founder – James Leavesley – Rebecca shares why culture is often the deciding factor in successful scale-ups, the leadership behaviours that drive high performance, and how objective culture measurement can help organisations retain top talent, navigate change, and build workplaces where both people and businesses thrive.
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Culture as a Growth Enabler
You’ve worked extensively across STEM sectors including engineering, medical devices, manufacturing, technology and nuclear industries. In your experience, what role does organisational culture play in determining whether a fast-scaling business succeeds or struggles during periods of rapid growth?
Periods of significant growth and change can be exciting, but they also create uncertainty. When a business looks to scale quickly, the experience shines a spotlight on the best and worst aspects of an organisation’s culture. The things that have contributed to ‘how things work’ and what it feels like to work in the business in the past can accelerate the progress of a fast-scaling business, or they can significantly derail them.
This has two significant impacts. Firstly, there is an impact on performance. For example, a business that operates with a culture of accountability, has strong leadership, a clear purpose, and welcomes new ideas and challenge will be successful in navigating new territory and achieving its deliverables. People will be pulling in the same direction and know where the business is going and how they contribute. A fast scaling business without these things will see frustration, people pulling in different directions, and protracted decision making, which all impact the bottom line.
The second impact is on employee retention. It’s natural to see some turnover when an organisation changes shape rapidly. Those that are attracted to a start-up environment, may not wish to work in a larger organisation – it feels and works differently. However, a business that has a culture that starts with mutual respect, trust and two way communication will be in a much better place to retain its employees through uncertainty, through the ‘growing pains’ and attract new talent. Those that decide to move on will do so in a positive way that leaves the door open and they will share their positive experience with others in the marketplace. A business that doesn’t have a culture high in respect and trust will lose talented people, struggle to recruit and the impact on the employees that stay will be detrimental to their wellbeing and their performance.
Culture has more of an impact on the success of scaling up than any process, tool or system.
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The Hidden Cost of Scaling
Many scaling organisations focus heavily on commercial growth, systems and recruitment. What are the biggest cultural mistakes you see leadership teams make when headcount grows quickly, and what are the long-term consequences of getting culture wrong?
There are three key themes I have seen:
Firstly, a lack of development and support for people leaders, especially those in the middle. Technical specialists are often promoted or given larger teams to manage. A software engineer that was once a team of three, is given a promotion, a specific area of focus and a budget to recruit a team of 15. They may never have recruited before, held a performance conversation, or dealt with an absence issue. The way all of those things are handled, reflect the culture and values of an organisation. Managers that aren’t given this development will create their own way of doing things.. Or they may feel unprepared, lack confidence and avoid dealing with them altogether, leaving the business with costly issues that escalate unnecessarily and a lack of leadership.
The second theme I talk to leadership teams about a lot is communication. It sounds obvious but, when so much change is happening, reiterating a shared purpose, celebrating successes, sharing learnings, and ensuring everyone understands what is happening are critical. Without this, silos are created, rumours run rife, people become disengaged, leadership lose trust and the culture can become toxic. In the long term, the reputation of a business becomes damaged and attracting and retaining talent becomes even harder.
The third theme is thinking that everything is the same, just bigger! When a business scales, there are naturally groups of people with differing perspectives and experiences: those that have been with the business since the beginning, those that have been there a little while and the constant intake of new people. It’s critical to acknowledge the different experiences across the business, whilst ensuring the core values of the business are well understood. Values help to create a common language and shared understanding. This doesn’t happen just because the values are on the wall and it takes deliberate effort in ensuring they are meaningful and part of the day to day. Without being mindful of the differences, an ‘us and them’ culture can start to form and collaboration that a business relies on to grow, doesn’t happen.
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Retaining Top STEM Talent
Competition for highly skilled STEM talent has never been greater. Beyond salary and benefits, what cultural factors do you believe have the greatest influence on attracting and retaining exceptional people in technical industries?
When I ask engaged people why they stay and what they like about working at their company I repeatedly hear people say ‘it’s the people I work with’. What does that mean? When I ask, it’s things like ‘people treat each other with respect’, ‘I’m recognised for the work I do’, ‘My ideas are listened to’, ‘People help me when I need it’, ‘I like my manager’. When people feel that they belong, that they are seen as a person, valued and respected, this has a greater impact on retention than anything else. And in small industries or communities where the war for talent is real and referrals are important, word of mouth about what it’s like to work somewhere is extremely powerful, regardless of what the company website says.
Opportunities for development are also extremely important. When people have applied for an internal promotion, if they don’t get it but they were given the opportunity to apply, received proper feedback, a development plan, some training, or maybe a mentor, they don’t tend to look elsewhere. They look when the culture is poor, when they feel like no one cares, when they don’t feel that they can have an honest conversation about their career.
Being competitive and reviewing salary and benefit packages is important. But high pay and poor culture is a short term hiring strategy that doesn’t pay off.
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Leadership’s Impact on Culture
A core part of your work involves leadership development. How much of an organisation’s culture is ultimately shaped by its leaders, and what behaviours distinguish leaders who create high-performing, engaged teams from those who unintentionally undermine culture?
Leadership is arguably the biggest contributor to shaping an organisation’s culture. It starts from the top, and I’ll talk about leaders and managers separately.
Leaders that create high performing and engaged teams do so by creating trust. Leaders create trust from employees when they listen, create a shared sense of purpose and role model the values in place. They also empower their direct reports, the managers in the business, to make decisions and they trust them to do so. And this is key. I have worked in and with businesses where managers feel they need to ask permission before making decisions, they escalate everything out of fear of doing the wrong thing, or they escalate nothing because they don’t want to be seen. The leadership teams in this instance haven’t set out to create this behaviour, they usually just want to ensure they are kept in the loop and know what’s going on. But it can undermine culture and impact how successful their management team can be.
Managers create high-performing engaged teams when they have conversations early, they create space for two-way dialogue, they listen. They communicate clearly and help people see the connection between what they do on a daily basis and the overarching purpose. They recognise good performance. More importantly, when having difficult conversations with their team members, they show empathy and curiosity. Whilst training on policies and procedures are helpful for managers, those that follow them to the letter can undermine culture without meaning to. It’s the human approach alongside it, the mutual respect, that encourages engagement and performance.
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Change Management in Technical Environments
STEM organisations often face constant innovation, transformation and regulatory change. How can businesses build cultures that embrace change rather than resist it, particularly when employees are navigating uncertainty?
STEM-led businesses have the core skills to do this well as, when it comes to learning new skills, technologies and regulations and developing new products or services, they are often at the forefront of innovation. Change, in this respect, is seen as good. However, the businesses that build cultures that really embrace change and support their people through periods of uncertainty, start by talking about change as a constant, rather than something that happens over a defined period of time. For example, in this VUCA world of ours the goals that we set 12 months ago, may no longer be relevant 6 months later.
The businesses that have moved towards continuous conversations instead of rigid annual performance reviews are better placed to adapt and change, to focus and prioritise. The companies that can embrace change are able to be more agile in their thinking and in their approach. This isn’t just about having a performance management approach or system that’s agile. It’s about the fundamental elements of culture that enable this, such as two way feedback, leaders that share progress and why things are changing, trust that the business is focused on the right things, motivated team members that understand the long term strategy.
The businesses that are more resilient and support their team members, are those that understand the impact that change, large or small, can have on people. They invest in the development of their people leaders and their wellbeing strategy, and create a sense of community where people can ask for support and have meaningful conversations with their line manager.
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Measuring Culture Rather Than Assuming It
Many leaders believe they have a strong culture, but often rely on anecdotal feedback rather than evidence. Why do you think it’s important to measure culture objectively, and what insights can organisations uncover when they start listening to employees in a more structured way?
A lot of what I do is about getting to the root cause of a problem, challenge or situation. I don’t believe in doing something for the sake of it or as a tick box exercise. That’s why measuring culture objectively is important, if a business is serious about working toward having the best culture it can have. It’s a great way to test a hypothesis. If a business leader feels they have a great culture, let’s see how and why. This way, awareness and knowledge can be empowering in deliberately maintaining what’s great. If there are concerns or perceived issues, where do they come from, what’s driving them? Being able to review objective data removes any potential blind spots. It helps uncover the root cause, rather than the symptoms that people are feeling.
Everyone will have their own experiences of a business’s culture and an objective assessment will provide insights from across the organisation. This data and the story it tells can give business leaders a real advantage.
Using a structured and anonymous approach to listen to employees removes bias and assumptions that we all have. It helps to think about culture and understand the elements of it, rather than seeing culture as an ‘elusive thing’ that we feel but can’t quite describe. Data and insights about how people perceive leadership, whether people respect each other and how motivated team members are help identify what’s actually happening, what’s going well, what may be holding the business back, and generate tangible actions to implement. It also provides a benchmark, a way to measure continuous improvement.
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Building High-Performing Teams
You work with organisations to create healthier, higher-performing teams. What are the key cultural characteristics you consistently see in teams that outperform their peers, particularly within STEM businesses?
High performing teams in STEM businesses tend to have two things in common.
Firstly they have a shared purpose and a clear direction. In businesses where innovation is core to what they do, which is the case in most STEM-led businesses, the goal and purpose are both aspirational and relatable. I previously worked in a world leading women’s health business and each person, whether they worked in the labs, the warehouse, the quality team or the management team connected the work that was being done to helping someone’s mother, someone’s daughter, wife, sister etc. The shared goal was important and was talked about in day to day meetings. It brought people together through a shared goal and shared values.
Secondly, they encourage and welcome ideas and challenges. The healthiest and most successful teams I have worked with are those that can have open conversations and provide feedback on ideas, question, and explore different perspectives. In STEM, learning is career-long and creating a space for people to challenge (respectfully) supports continuous improvement. Businesses where people don’t feel that they can speak up or question a method, practice, or ask for more information see higher levels of disengagement where minimal effort is applied.
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Why Partner with Cultiv8tiv?
What initially attracted you to partnering with Cultiv8tiv, and how does culture measurement complement the work you’re already doing in change management, leadership development and HR consulting?
I was attracted to Cultiv8tiv because they offer a full assessment. It’s not just an engagement survey that tells you how engaged people are, the assessment looks at 12 fundamental aspects of culture and provides really clear insights. Leveraging AI means that the reports are truly anonymous and participants can be honest, which means the actions will be meaningful. The speed at which the results are received is also a big plus because it means that momentum and pace in action can be achieved and my clients will want to see the data and the results as soon as possible.
Being able to measure and assess culture in a business is a real advantage to any HR Consultant or Business Leader that wants to be successful. In my role, a culture assessment can provide really insightful data and intelligence before embarking on a change management project such as a reorganisation or supporting a business with growth plans. It helps me understand the business’s readiness for what’s to come. If I’m working with a business and they are looking to implement a whole new way of working, but the culture assessment tells me that employee motivation and trust in leadership is low, I know that this needs to be carefully considered in the communication plan and the support managers will need to engage people in the process. I can anticipate some of the challenges that may need to be overcome and provide feedback and coaching to the leadership team. I can also look at supporting the longer term investments and help the business identify the opportunities and actions where they will see a real impact.
A culture assessment is also a great way to get to the root cause of what’s really happening. I talk to leaders who have had a peak in employee relations issues, are struggling to retain key people, or where performance isn’t where it needs to be. Rather than guess what’s happening, measuring culture through the 12 key areas that Cultiv8tiv assesses means that the insights provide clear direction on where to focus and what actions will have the most impact.
Similarly, it’s a great way to assess where things are at after a change or initiative has been implemented. Once you have a benchmark, you can really see what makes a difference and focus on incremental changes that improve culture and business performance over time.
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Turning Insight into Action
How do you envisage using Cultiv8tiv Assessments with your clients? What opportunities do you see for helping leadership teams move beyond assumptions and make more informed people and culture decisions?
I envisage using Cultiv8tiv assessments with my clients in a number of ways, but primarily I see it as a way to enable leaders to move forward with confidence and clarity that the actions being taken are relevant and as result of evidence-based decisions.
For the organisations that are growing, it’s an opportunity to see whether the cultural foundations are going to help or hinder their growth and why. These opportunities are about readiness and about identifying ways to accelerate growth whilst keeping a healthy culture.
For the organisations that are going through change, it’s an opportunity to understand how the change might be received and work with employees and managers to navigate it as effectively as possible to get to where they need to be, bringing their people with them. These opportunities are about creating a sustainable change that lasts.
For the organisations that are experiencing challenges, such as high turnover, accidents, absences, poor performance and grievances, it’s an opportunity to take a longer term proactive step to improve culture, rather than live in reactive processes and procedures that take time, cost money and impact wellbeing. These opportunities are about managing risk and creating a healthier, higher performing team and a better working environment for all.
By understanding the assessment, we can be specific about where to focus energy and achieve the business objectives.
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Looking Ahead
As STEM organisations continue to evolve and scale, what do you believe will be the defining cultural challenges of the next five years, and how can leaders prepare now to create workplaces where both people and businesses thrive?
The defining cultural challenges of the next five years will largely align with the industry challenges and how well businesses navigate them.
With AI becoming more embedded in the workplace, it won’t replace specialist or niche skill sets but people will need to learn to collaborate with AI and it will change the shape of work. People in general are nervous about what it means for them. In innovation, this presents an exciting opportunity but people will be asking for guidance on how AI should be used, what this means for inventions, IP and how they can utilise AI to enhance or improve their work. Similarly, all businesses in STEM will need to keep up with the pace of change and AI skills will need to be invested in. The capability required today will not be the same that’s required in 5 years. From a cultural perspective, it’s therefore critical for there to be a shared purpose, clear direction and for leaders to share what the future looks like so that employees can be part of that conversation. For people and businesses to thrive, there needs to be two way communication and trust in leadership as the increasing use of AI changes the way in which businesses operate. If this conversation isn’t already happening, leaders need to open it up and listen to the concerns and questions their employees have as, when people feel like something happens to them, culture takes a hit.
Retention of talent and creating cultures that are truly inclusive will determine which businesses will be successful and those that won’t. For example, underrepresentation of women in STEM is not a new conversation but, with changes in legislation (Employment Rights Act 2025, Menopause Plan), people working longer, and expecting better working experiences, it is a very real workplace issue. 1 in 10 women leave work due to menopause symptoms. In industries where women don’t make up a large percentage of the workforce to start with, companies will lose their experienced talent and find it hard (and costly) to replace. Of course, this is just one area of underrepresentation but those that decide to work on creating a culture where there is a real sense of community, support, inclusivity and mutual respect will win the fight for talent, retain experience and be seen as an employer of choice.
Finally, investment in leadership and manager capability remains a top priority. For both people and businesses to thrive, developing people leaders is the key to developing and maintaining a positive culture. We all know the saying that people don’t leave jobs, they leave managers. Managers impact every aspect of the employee lifecycle and how they do this will shape culture and employee experience. Investing in this will help businesses and their people navigate the uncertainties businesses are facing in the coming years.
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Finally…
If you could give one piece of advice to a founder or leadership team scaling from 50 to 500 employees, what would it be when it comes to protecting and strengthening culture as the organisation grows?
My advice would be to step back and listen. Use the data and intelligence available to you. Then make evidence-based decisions. As a founder or a leadership team, you should quite rightly be proud of what you’ve built. Leading a business with 50 people, you will have learned how to be careful with the investments you make and the people you hire. If the business is scaling 10x, you have been good at it. You have probably created a business that works because people help each other out, they are committed to you as the founder/leadership team and there is a sense of community. Your business and the reason people have delivered to get to this point will be because there are positive aspects of your culture. It’s likely that there are some things that don’t work quite so well, but it hasn’t impacted your success yet because you’re still a small business and things still get done. To maintain and protect the great parts of your culture, you need to identify them. These could be your differentiator, the DNA of your business that helps you to be successful. To find out what might hold you back, slow you down and cause growing pains when you get to a 100 person, 250 person, 500 person business, you need to objectively take a look and find out what they are.
Doing a cultural assessment should be part of your business planning approach. Take people and culture as seriously as you take the technology you invest in, your sales pipeline, the premises you lease and the partnerships you create. None of these will matter if you struggle to attract and retain your employees and no one is performing.