Have you heard of people strategy?
It’s your company’s plan for how you’ll leverage your people to grow your business and achieve business goals.
One of the most critical parts of your people strategy is creating a positive culture that drives the engagement and productivity that’s essential for business success. We call this a people-first culture.
What is a people-first culture?
Let’s take a closer look at what it really means to put people first.

A people-first culture is an organizational approach that prioritizes employees by:
- Promoting their wellbeing
- Fostering a safe, inclusive environment
- Taking actions to strengthen employee engagement and morale
- Supporting personal and professional needs and growth
- Encouraging the best performance and highest productivity from your people
- Making them feel heard, valued and appreciated
- Carefully evaluating how each business decision impacts the workforce
But, lest you be tempted to take this to extremes, there is a happy medium between taking your people into account and being a pushover.
To be clear, a people-first culture is about:
- Approaching employees as genuine partners in your business success
- Recognizing each person’s inherent value, unique perspective and unlimited potential to drive growth and innovation
- Balancing employee wellbeing with the customer experience and business goals
- Fostering open, two-way communication
- Treating others with genuine care and respect
- Focusing on the delivery of an outstanding employee experience
A people-first culture is not about:
- Fulfilling every employee request on demand
- Spending money indiscriminately
- Offering employee benefits and perks without meaningful intent
Why a people-first culture matters
People are your company’s most valuable asset.
They can make or break your success—enhancing your competitiveness or leaving you stagnant and falling behind, drawing in customers or pushing them away, advocating for your business to prospective employees or warning them off, sticking with you when times get tough or fleeing to new opportunities at the first chance.
When you invest more in their satisfaction, wellbeing and growth, they invest more in your company with their time, efforts, enthusiasm, knowledge and skills.
Companies that create a people-first culture tend to enjoy better business outcomes in the form of:
- Easier and more efficient recruiting
- Increased retention
- Lower absenteeism
- Higher productivity
- Better customer experience
- More innovation
- Greater profitability
- Sustainable growth
How do you create a people-first culture?
A people-first culture doesn’t just happen – your team needs to cultivate it through thoughtful planning and deliberate actions. Here’s how you can move your organization’s culture in the right direction: toward a more caring and supportive environment for your people that engages and empowers them.
1. Let your mission, vision and values guide you
Your mission, vision and values are the foundation for everything your business does, including how you engage with your people and make decisions that impact them. As examples, your values may include:
- Respect
- Integrity
- Servant leadership
- Empathy
- Accountability
- Continuous improvement
Whatever your ideals are, communicate these to your workforce and let every action you take be aligned with your mission and vision and rooted in at least one value.
2. Engage in transparency
Transparency is the key that unlocks employee trust and loyalty.
As a sign of respect and courtesy to employees, company leaders should be willing to clearly and regularly communicate the company’s direction, strategies, business realities and any news and updates. The more informed employees are, the more they feel valued, trust in leadership and remain engaged in the company’s mission. It demonstrates to employees that they’re part of a team and creates a sense of belonging.
3. Connect employees with the bigger picture
Helping employees understand how their role fits into the big picture not only bestows purpose and meaning onto their work, but it clarifies expectations around performance and strengthens their connection to the workplace.
So, explain to employees the impact they’re making – within the company and even externally. To show them how they support the larger business strategy, break down company goals into team-specific and individual targets. When employees see how their day-to-day efforts affect outcomes, they become more engaged, motivated and productive.
This also aligns everyone around the same goals, which improves team cohesion and fosters a sense of belonging.
4. Build up the right leaders
It’s essential to have the right leaders in place to serve as culture architects. They should embody your company’s values and model them for their team members.
Leaders, as the face of the company to your people, should also demonstrate a modern leadership style, often defined by being:
- Emotionally intelligent and empathetic
- Present and engaged
- Available and accessible
- Adaptable and flexible
- A coach and mentor
5. Show that you care
Give everyone on your team the tools, resources and support they need to be successful personally and professionally. This demonstrates to your people that you care about them and appreciate their contributions.
Most often, this support falls into two main categories: employee wellbeing and growth and development.
Employee wellbeing
Implement initiatives that positively impact all aspects of employee health and wellness. As examples, these could include:
- Wellness programs
- Workplace changes to allow for greater flexibility and improved work/life balance (such as flexible scheduling or remote/hybrid work)
- Expansion of more generous benefits in alignment with budgets and employee expectations
These initiatives help to:
- Mitigate external stressors and distractions
- Reduce absenteeism
- Help your employees bring the best version of themselves to work each day so they can be productive and perform high-quality work
- Strengthen loyalty as employees feel cared for in a holistic manner
Employee growth and development
Collaborate with your people to help them achieve their professional goals and keep their knowledge and skills up to date.
This includes:
- Training and development programs
- Career pathing
- Mentorships
- One-on-one check-ins with managers to review goals and progress
But, it can also extend further by:
- Fostering an environment that encourages people to use their voice and speak up
- Giving people more autonomy and ownership of their work
- Letting them take on new projects and responsibilities
6. Get feedback
Do you employees agree with you that your workplace has a people-first culture?
Ask your employees how they feel about the workplace culture and any changes you’ve implemented recently. Climate surveys and engagement surveys are great ways to find out what employees think.
However, make sure you can act on the responses you collect, whether that’s:
- Enacting changes based on the information employees provide.
- Communicating with employees why certain changes can’t be made, but assuring them they were heard.
Ignoring employees’ feedback can be even more damaging than never soliciting their input to begin with.
Ideally, employee feedback leads to positive change and lets your people know their voices matter!
Capturing feedback from departing employees during an exit interview is another great way to get honest and candid feedback – and, depending on how you handle this process, cement a positive lasting impression that could benefit your business down the line.
7. Measure success
How do you know if your culture really puts people first and is getting the results you expect?
Track key metrics associated with the engagement, productivity and satisfaction of your people as well as the overall success of your business, such as:
- Productivity rate
- Goal achievement rate
- Performance review ratings
- Manager feedback
- Employee engagement surveys/scores
- Attendance/absenteeism
- Turnover rates
- Retention rates
- Exit interview analysis
- External reviews
- Employee net promoter score
Some changes can take awhile to make an impact, so don’t expect big results immediately.
Use the insights you glean from these sources to refine your people-first approach.
How a PEO can help
Feeling overwhelmed? It’s understandable – business and HR leaders have so many pressing, time-consuming responsibilities to focus on each day that a people-first culture can seem too daunting and “big” to tackle right now.
But, with a professional employer organization (PEO), your company doesn’t have to go it alone. You can outsource some or all your employer responsibilities to a PEO.
PEOs take on a comprehensive range of HR services, from helping you with basic HR administration all the way up to future-focused, value-add initiatives (both tactical and strategic HR). This includes offering the tools, resources, guidance and expertise your company needs to build a people-first culture and grow your business.
Relevant services offered by PEOs include:
- Benefits selection and administration
- Recruiting, interviewing and hiring
- Onboarding
- Talent management
- Employee relations/communications
- Leadership and employee training and development
- Change management
- Offboarding and exit interviews
Summing it all up
An integral part of your people strategy, a people-first culture puts your employees at the forefront of organizational decision-making and encourages you to prioritize their wellbeing – to the fullest extent possible, in balance with consideration of goals, budgets and other factors. This matters because your peoples’ satisfaction and engagement matter. When they feel supported and valued, they perform better, are more loyal advocates for your company and stay longer. This all has a direct impact on your ability to achieve business goals and sustainable growth. Should you need assistance getting started implementing a people-first culture, a PEO can be an efficient resource.
For more information on how to develop a culture that’ll get your organization on track for business success, download our free magazine: The Insperity guide to fostering a people-first culture.