Culture vs. Engagement: Culture is the Input; Engagement is the Output
Employee engagement has long been the go-to measure for organisations wanting to understand how their people feel about work. Engagement surveys, conducted year after year, often deliver a lot of activity and some incremental changes, but are not designed to identify root causes or options for impactful systemic changes. That is because engagement—a measure of morale and motivation—is a lagging indicator. In a fast-paced business environment, it is no longer good enough to lead with lagging indicators. Jump to Key BVC’s Key Take Aways
At Barrett Values Centre (BVC), we believe culture is the input and engagement is the output. Engagement reflects what employees are experiencing day-to-day, while culture reveals the deeper why behind those experiences, and more importantly, the "so what and now what?"
Below, we do a deeper dive into the limitations of engagement surveys and why culture goes deeper.
The Limits of Engagement Surveys
Engagement surveys can be useful, but they rarely get to the root cause of issues.
They measure symptoms, such as dissatisfaction with a manager or access to benefits, without revealing the underlying systemic drivers behind them.
They often inspire surface-level fixes (a Monday huddle, monthly newsletters, explaining current processes and procedures), which may temporarily boost scores, but fail to address deeper misalignments.
They start at the bottom of the organisation, attempting to push change upward, without linking the recommendations to business strategy and critical success factors.
Lynn Bennett, FCMC, Director of Analytics & Advisory Services at BVC, shared some insight from one of her recent engagements with a Canadian client looking for answers:
"Before, they were treating the symptoms. With engagement surveys, leadership knew something was wrong, but they couldn't figure out what it was. After a culture assessment, they could see the clear cause and had deeper conversations about what they as leaders needed to do, as leaders and as the leadership team."
Why Culture Goes Deeper
BVC's Culture assessments go beyond scores to explore the values, beliefs, and behaviors shaping an organisation. Instead of numbers on a scale, our surveys guide employees to identify words that represent:
What's most important to them personally
What they experience in the current culture
What they desire for the future
These words open a richer, nonjudgmental conversation, allowing employees to tell their stories. From there, leaders can identify commonalities, and together they can see what truly matters. And what levers of change are available to them?
Our assessments reveal real insights: the values that drive behaviors, the patterns that shape belonging, and the culture that either accelerates or hinders strategy and outcomes.
Unlike engagement surveys, culture assessments begin at the top. They anchor to executive-level strategy and cascade down, connecting culture directly to business goals and performance.
This shift from working in the business (day-to-day engagement) to working on the business (strategic culture) is what drives lasting change.
The Shift from Engagement to Culture
Across industries, organisations are making the pivot. Here is what we are seeing:
Engagement surveys can stagnate, offering limited new insights year after year.
Culture assessments are on the rise, providing leaders with the behavioral insights needed to make deeper, systematic changes throughout the organisation.
In some sectors, engagement surveys remain a regulatory requirement, but leaders are supplementing them with culture assessments to unlock what numbers alone can't explain.
"People were able to share their story. The executive team could collectively start a conversation. And from there, they finally had the tools to move forward." - Lynn Bennett, FCMC
Culture as the True Input
Ultimately, employee engagement is an output that reveals the current state, and that is valuable. Culture, on the other hand, is the input that reveals what's shaping those outcomes and how to realign culture with business strategy and leadership's approach.
When leaders invest in culture:
They uncover the "underbelly" of the organisation.
They create a sense of belonging by ensuring people feel seen, heard, and understood.
They transition from incremental tweaks to more profound system and organisational transformations.
Engagement is important, but culture is essential. If engagement is the pulse, culture is the lifeblood. And when culture aligns with strategy and leadership, engagement becomes not just a metric, but a natural outcome of a thriving organisation.
Key Takeaways:
Culture is the input, and engagement is the output.
It's okay to measure engagement, but to truly understand the 'so what' and shape a robust 'now what,' it's essential to include culture.
Culture assessments uncover the "underbelly" of the organisation.
To drive real change, shift your focus from working in the business to working on the business.
Learn more about BVC's Culture Assessment tools and Whole System Transformations:
