By Jo Geraghty, Co-founder & Director at Culture Consultancy

Before embarking on a culture audit, organisations must thoughtfully prepare to ensure meaningful insights and impactful outcomes. A well-executed audit not only diagnoses current cultural strengths and gaps but also lays the groundwork for genuine transformation. Here’s what to keep in mind:

1) Get Genuine Commitment from Leadership

The foundation of a successful culture audit lies in authentic leadership buy-in—not just verbal agreement but active, visible commitment. Leaders need to demonstrate their dedication through concrete actions, including allocating resources for implementing post-audit changes and engaging transparently with employees throughout the process. Leaders should model the behaviours they wish to see, showing they’re not just asking for feedback but ready to act on it.

Establishing accountability is crucial: nothing erodes organisational trust faster than asking for honest feedback only to ignore or sideline it. Employees invest time and vulnerability in providing genuine insights, so they expect – and deserve – a meaningful response and action. A culture audit without follow-through isn’t just ineffective; it can actively damage morale and trust within the organisation.

2) Look for Root Causes, Not Just Surface Issues

Observable behaviours, decisions, and attitudes are only the visible aspects of culture; effective audits dive deeper to uncover the fundamental drivers. This requires examining the underlying beliefs, values, and assumptions that shape employee behaviour and decision-making. It’s about identifying the “unwritten rules” that influence interactions, the power dynamics that shape decisions, and the stories or myths that drive collective identity.

Without understanding these core drivers, attempts at culture change risk being superficial or short-lived. A thorough analysis of these factors establishes a clear starting point, from which to then drive sustainable change, creating a culture that is aligned with long-term organisational goals.

3) Segment Your Employees Carefully 

To gain meaningful insights, segment your employee population thoughtfully, ensuring you capture diverse perspectives. Effective segmentation goes beyond basic demographic categories; consider hierarchy, tenure, team functions, geographical locations, and even role responsibilities. Identify unique subcultures within the organisation – certain teams may have vastly different cultural experiences than others, and these distinctions are critical.

Granular segmentation helps you spot patterns and identify subcultures, enabling more targeted interventions. It’s not just about collecting data for the sake of it, this approach ensures your audit uncovers specific areas for improvement, helping you prioritise and make targeted, impactful changes.

4) Set Clear Goals for the Audit 

Before launching your audit, you must clearly articulate your end goal. Are you assessing current culture to establish a baseline? Perhaps you’re conducting a gap analysis against a desired future state. You might be evaluating cultural alignment during a merger or acquisition, or measuring the impact of previous culture initiatives.

Your objective will determine your methodology, metrics, and stakeholder engagement strategy. Without this clarity of purpose, you risk collecting data that, whilst interesting, may not serve your organisation’s needs.

5) Communicate Clearly & Openly – What You’re Doing and Why

Your culture change journey will impact and involve your people. Why not set out as you mean to go on ? Before you start the audit process, engage people, let them know why this important and what you’re hoping to achieve. Start the process of empowering them early by inviting their input – how do they feel about the current culture and what might they want to change ? Your employees’ insights may surprise you and will certainly add value at an early stage of the audit process.

Having involved them proactively from the start, you will likely have an easier job of engaging and enabling them later in creating meaningful, sustainable change.

6) Use the Data You Already Have 

Most organisations already possess valuable cultural insights through various channels. This might include previous employee engagement surveys, exit interviews, performance reviews, customer feedback, internal communication impacts, and previous cultural assessments can also provide rich insights.

Reviewing this existing data before starting a new audit can help you spot patterns, saving time and resources. Using this information can give you a head start, so your audit builds on what you already know rather than starting from scratch. This way, you get a fuller picture of your culture without extra effort.

Moving Forward: Taking Action on Your Audit

A well-executed culture audit can lead to real, positive changes in your organisation – but only if considered planning takes place. These six steps will help you avoid common pitfalls, encourage honest participation, and generate actionable insights that drive real change.

Remember that culture change isn’t a sprint; it’s a marathon. The time invested in preparation will pay dividends in the quality and impact of your cultural transformation journey. By ensuring these six points are firmly in place, you’ll be well-positioned to conduct a culture audit that delivers meaningful, actionable insights that can truly benefit your organisation by enabling greater cultural alignment with your strategic objectives.