Taking Our Culture’s Temperature

As you all know, culture is something that is very important to Greenleaf Trust. It defines us and differentiates us. One of our founding goals in 1998 was to find really talented teammates and create a culture that would engage and inspire them. If we could do that, then just think about what that team could do for our clients.

Because our culture is so important to us, it’s a critical component of our long-term strategic plan and something we work hard at every day. We also carefully and continuously take its temperature. One of the ways we do this is through our behavioral science partner Humanex. Every year, we provide our teammates with an anonymous survey to inquire about what is important to them and how they feel about their role, the support from their manager, their team, and the Greenleaf Trust organization as a whole. Response rates are high because teammates believe in the importance of the culture we have created together. This year’s response rate was over 90%.

I am extremely proud to share with you the five questions with the highest scores (1-5, with 5 being the highest) from our survey this year and the percentage of teammates that answered either “agree” or “strongly agree.”

1. I am committed to achieving my potential through
learning and growing. 77 (98.3%)
2. I take complete ownership for my attitude and effort
in embracing a growth mindset. 76 (97.8%)
3. I support our organization’s mission. 76 (98.9%)
4. I am driven to contribute to the success of our organization.
 4.75 (95.5%)
5. In the past three months, my supervisor has discussed my
successes and progress with me. 75 (96.1%)

When analyzing the scores from all 180 questions, we can get a gauge for the percentage of our team that is highly engaged. According to Gallup, a global analytics and advisory company that has conducted employee engagement studies for years, 32% of full- and part-time employees working for organizations in the United States are engaged, while 18% are actively disengaged. Engagement is also on a downward trend from 2020. Engaged employees, based on their definition, are involved and enthusiastic about their work and workplace. We would agree with that definition. Our results are a little different though. More than 87% of our team is highly engaged and that trend is up from 2020.

As previously mentioned, this is the type of team and culture we wanted to build, nurture, and grow from the beginning 25 years ago. A strong culture and highly engaged team are beneficial from an organizational perspective. In addition to the client service benefits, organizations also experience increased productivity, improved recruiting, a louder brand identity, better retention, and even enhanced profitability. Those are all impactful benefits from a long-term success perspective and support the ability to serve clients from generation to generation.