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Organizational Culture Quality Assessment
The Organizational Culture Quality Assessment (OCQA) is a powerful, annual assessment designed to help organizations uncover the true state of their culture by measuring employee perceptions across social, ideological, and operational dimensions. By gathering comprehensive data and analyzing cultural nuances, the OCQA provides actionable insights that enable organizations to align their permitted culture with their intended culture, fostering an inclusive culture of belonging capable of driving organizational success.
complex cultures require
Nuanced evaluation
Comprehensive Data Collection for Nuanced Insights
Our proprietary assessment goes beyond surface-level metrics, capturing the unique perspectives of employees across all levels and demographics within your organization. The OCQA is a carefully crafted survey instrument that combines validated questions that measure culture against our SIO Culture Model and 9 Principles of Employee Care frameworks, ensuring the most relevant and actionable aspects of organizational culture are assessed.
Participants are asked a series of balanced, forced-choice statements that evaluate both functional and dysfunctional qualities of each cultural element, providing a solid foundation for understanding the current state of your organization's culture. The assessment is administered through a user-friendly, mobile-optimized online platform, with alternative options like on-site kiosks and paper surveys available to ensure maximum accessibility and participation.
What The OCQA Measures
The Organizational Culture Quality Assessment (OCQA) leverages two proprietary frameworks to provide a comprehensive, nuanced understanding of your organization's culture: the SIO Culture Model and the 9 Principles of Employee Care.
By combining these two frameworks, the OCQA offers a holistic view of your culture, identifying strengths and opportunities within each dimension and principle. This nuanced understanding enables targeted, evidence-based interventions that drive meaningful, sustainable culture change.
The SIO Culture Model examines workplace culture across three interconnected dimensions
Social
Culture
Focuses on inclusion, belonging, and psychological safety.
Ideological
Culture
Encompasses values, beliefs, and norms that shape behavior and decision-making.
Operational
Culture
Covers day-to-day aspects of how work gets done, such as communication, collaboration, and performance management.
The 9 Principles of Employee Care assess how well your organization supports and empowers employees across nine key areas
Human Recognition
Human Readiness
Human Relationships
Human Respect
Human Relevance
Human Responsibility
Human Routines
Human Records
Human Representation
Benefits of the OCQA
The Organizational Culture Quality Assessment (OCQA) offers a range of compelling benefits for organizations looking to improve their culture and drive better business outcomes. Some of the key benefits include:
Comprehensive Cultural Insights
The OCQA provides a comprehensive, nuanced view of your organization's culture, covering key dimensions such as social dynamics, ideological alignment, and operational effectiveness. By gathering data across these multiple dimensions, the OCQA offers a comprehensive and nuanced picture of your culture than traditional engagement or satisfaction surveys.
Identification of Strengths and Opportunities
Through rigorous data analysis and reporting, the OCQA helps you identify your organization's key cultural strengths and areas for improvement. This allows you to celebrate and build upon what's working well, while also focusing your improvement efforts where they will have the greatest impact.
Alignment with Business Goals
By understanding how your culture impacts key business outcomes, such as employee engagement, retention, and productivity, the OCQA helps you align your cultural initiatives with your broader business goals. This ensures that your cultural efforts are not just "nice to have," but are actually driving meaningful business results.
Foster Collaboration and teamwork
When employees feel they matter to their coworkers, they are more likely to collaborate effectively, share ideas, and support one another. This creates a positive team environment and enhances overall performance.
Benchmarking and Progress Tracking
The OCQA allows you to benchmark your culture against your own aspirations and goals, and to track progress over time. By conducting the assessment annually, you can monitor the impact of your cultural initiatives and make data-driven adjustments as needed.
Employee Engagement and Buy-In
The OCQA is designed to be an inclusive, participatory process that engages employees at all levels of the organization. By giving everyone a voice in the cultural assessment process, the OCQA helps to build employee buy-in and ownership of the resulting cultural initiatives.
Focused Action Planning
The OCQA provides specific, actionable recommendations for improving your organization's culture, based on the unique insights gathered through the assessment. This allows you to focus your efforts on the most impactful interventions, rather than taking a scattershot approach to culture change.
Leadership Alignment and Accountability
By providing a clear, data-driven picture of your organization's culture, the OCQA helps to align leaders around a shared understanding of the current state and desired future state of your culture. This alignment is critical for driving accountability and ensuring that everyone is working towards the same cultural goals.
Competitive Advantage
In today's business environment, culture is increasingly recognized as a key source of competitive advantage. By leveraging the OCQA to build a strong, healthy culture that aligns with your business goals, you can differentiate yourself from competitors and attract and retain top talent.
Risk Mitigation
A dysfunctional or toxic organizational culture can pose significant risks to your business, from reputational damage to legal liability. By proactively assessing and improving your culture through the OCQA, you can mitigate these risks and create a more positive, compliant, and values-aligned workplace.
Continuous Improvement
Finally, the OCQA is not a one-time event, but rather a tool for continuous cultural improvement. By embedding the OCQA into your organization's regular processes and rhythms, you can create a culture of ongoing assessment, learning, and adaptation that helps you stay ahead of the curve in an ever-changing business landscape.
Don't leave your culture to chance
Whether you're looking to diagnose cultural challenges, align your culture with your strategy, or engage your employees in a shared vision for the future, the OCQA is your key to unlocking the full potential of your organization's culture.
Contact us today to learn more about how the OCQA can benefit your organization. Our team of culture experts is ready to partner with you every step of the way, from survey design and administration to data analysis, reporting, and action planning.