From Surveys to Signals: Measuring Culture Beyond Engagement.

The Paradox of Engagement

In most organizations today, engagement surveys are a familiar ritual. Conducted annually or twice a year, they promise to capture the voice of the employee. Leaders track them with the seriousness of a balance sheet, chasing incremental gains in percentage points as if these were true measures of cultural health.

The truth is, surveys — while useful — don’t tell the whole story. Culture is lived daily, in choices, conversations, and signals that rarely show up in a scorecard. To build cultures that truly fuel performance, leaders must go beyond measurement by numbers and start looking at what those numbers often miss.

Clearly, the way we are measuring culture isn’t translating into meaningful progress. The real question is not how engaged employees say they feel — but whether the culture is enabling the business to deliver on its strategy.

That’s where the REAL Culture Check comes in: a simple lens to move from scores to signals.

Why Engagement Scores Fall Short

Engagement surveys are not without value. They provide signals, patterns, and in some cases early warnings of dissatisfaction. But they are also limited in three ways:

1. They measure sentiment, not system. High engagement scores may reflect satisfaction, but they rarely reveal whether work structures and leadership practices support execution.

2. They risk becoming vanity metrics. Leaders sometimes obsess over improving scores without addressing the real blockers of performance. A team might report high pride in the brand but still struggle with silos that derail delivery.

3. They miss the business link. Engagement is often tracked in isolation, disconnected from outcomes like innovation, speed, or retention of critical talent.

This is why so many leaders privately admit: We measure a lot, but we don’t always know what to do with it.

The REAL Culture Check

To shift from vanity metrics to meaningful indicators, leaders can use a simple frame: the REAL Culture Check.

REAL = Relevant, Executional, Adaptive, Lasting.

• Relevant: Are we measuring aspects of culture directly linked to our strategy? • Trust and psychological safety are relevant for any knowledge-driven business. Yet only 30% of employees globally say they feel safe to speak up (Gitnux, 2025). Without trust, employees may be “engaged” on paper but silent on risks or ideas that matter.

• Executional: Do our measures show whether culture helps or hinders getting work done? • Accountability is one of the clearest signals. How an organization manages low performers — and stretches top performers — tells you more about culture than any survey item. Tolerance of mediocrity remains one of the biggest hidden costs.

• Adaptive: Are we tracking signals of future readiness? • Growth and learning are cultural currencies. Yet 65% of employees report feeling burnt out at least once a week (CultureBot, 2025), while few feel they are building future-ready skills. Internal mobility — the rate at which key roles are filled from within — is a sharper indicator of adaptability than annual engagement sentiment.

• Lasting: Are our culture strengths consistent under stress? • Collaboration often looks healthy until pressure rises. The true test is whether functions can work together at speed without constant escalation. Cycle time from idea to execution, especially across silos, is one of the most revealing measures of cultural resilience.

Unlike a 50-question survey, REAL focuses on four lenses that connect culture to business impact.

Why This Shift Matters Now

The case for moving beyond surveys has never been stronger. According to Deloitte’s 2024 Human Capital Trends, 61% of executives believe their organization struggles to act on employee feedback quickly enough to impact business outcomes. Similarly, a 2024 Gallup study found that while global engagement scores remain flat at around 23%, organizations that actively measure and respond to culture signals see up to 70% higher productivity.

The message is clear: measuring once a year is no longer enough. In a volatile context, agility in spotting and acting on cultural signals is what separates organizations that adapt and thrive from those that lag.

A Reflection Tool for Leaders

To make this practical, leaders can use the REAL framework as a quick dipstick for cultural health:

If a leader cannot answer these with confidence, the engagement score — no matter how high — is telling only part of the story.

Closing Reflection

Engagement scores will continue to have a place. They are valuable as a dipstick, capturing how employees feel in the moment. But leaders must resist treating them as the ultimate measure of cultural health.

Culture is not built on scores; it is built on the everyday choices leaders and teams make. Engagement surveys can be a useful signal, but they are not the full story. What matters is how those signals are interpreted, connected, and acted upon in ways that align with purpose and performance. That is where culture either becomes a catalyst — or a constraint.

The REAL Culture Check is meant to spark reflection, not provide all the answers. In my work, I’ve seen how even small shifts in Recognizing reality, Examining routines, Aligning signals, or Linking outcomes can change how culture fuels results. If you’d like a thought partner to explore this in your context, I’d be glad to connect.

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