Invest in your workplace culture and strengthen your business’s sustainability – A Business Solutions feature piece from our Spring 2025 issue of the Lancaster Thriving Publication.

By Rebecca Kasparek, Marketing Manager at Everence
rebecca.kasparek@everence.com

Employees are your business’s most valuable resource and investing in them bolsters your long-term sustainability. The challenge today is recruiting, cultivating and retaining employees.

When it comes to retention, a 2024 SHRM report on workplace culture found that employees who are highly satisfied with workplace culture are significantly more productive and more likely to stay, with only 15% of employees saying they are actively or will soon be looking for a new job. The percentage scrambling for the exits jumps to 57% when employees give an organization poor marks for workplace culture.

Whatever your current culture, you can take action to foster the five key elements of a healthy culture, which SHRM identifies as: “Honest and unbiased management, civil behavior, meaningful work and opportunities, open communication, and empathy.” Here are a few steps you can implement.  

Listen to your employees to foster trust and open communication

• Take a reality check of your employee engagement – An industry standard like the Gallup Employee Engagement survey can give you a snapshot to compare over time.
• Devote specific forums to open communication – Designate time away from daily tasks to generate deeper conversations. At Everence Financial^®, the Central Pennsylvania leadership team holds annual listening tours in each location to consider the team’s culture. Employee input from these forums has shaped developments like a new leader’s job description and strategic planning.

Invest in leaders

If you want honest and unbiased leaders, invest in their development. The Everence Federal Credit Union has an Emerging Leaders Program for newer employees who are in positions of increasing leadership. Everence also invests in training and coaching for supervisors.

Encourage understanding, empathy and civility

Make your learning actionable. Strengths-based assessment tools for employees – like Clifton Strengths – can help them not only develop their own strengths but also understand and extend empathy to colleagues as well. Clifton Strengths can complement employee engagement surveys and focus on development that targets areas of lower engagement. Everence is intentional about investing in employee development through Gallup Employee Engagement surveys and Clifton Strengths trainings.  

Emphasize meaning in work through shared service

Your mission – its meaning and impact – guide your business and provide a common language to consider your work. You can extend that meaning through shared community service. When Everence employees engage in service, the organization will match paid time off to encourage employees to serve their communities.

Benefits that promote employee wellness

Creative benefits are tangible ways employers express care. Not only does Everence offer competitive benefits to employees – including wellness hours, health and retirement – but Everence also offers employee benefits as a service to other businesses – crafting benefits packages that meet employers’ and employees’ needs to contribute to retention. Everence can offer distinctive benefits like financial wellness resources and creative solutions like Lifestyle Spending Accounts.

A positive workplace culture can be one of your greatest strengths. The 2024 SHRM report positions it as a “competitive advantage.” Your investment in employees is an investment in your business’s long-term sustainability and strength.

Everence helps individuals, businesses, and organizations integrate faith with finances through a national team of financial professionals. Everence offers retirement and financial planning, employee benefits, wealth management, banking, Medicare education and financial services with community benefits and stewardship education. Everence also provides cost-effective organization services as a partner for your business or nonprofit. Our financial professionals can help your organization make financial decisions that reflect your goals and values, while also investing in your employees’ wellbeing.

You can join us for the Everence Benefits Conference on June 4-5, 2025, and learn more about how Everence can help you, your employees, and your organization thrive. The virtual conference is designed for HR professionals and organizational leaders seeking innovative solutions to empower, equip and encourage their workplace.

To learn more about Everence and how we can help you meet your goals, visit everence.com/centralpenn, email centralpenn@everence.com or call (717) 652-6662.

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