People-First Culture for Employee Retention and Results

Connection at work has become a mission-critical priority. Employees across industries are asking for more authenticity, empathy, and alignment between their personal values and their work experiences. Research consistently shows that words like engage, listen, authenticity, harmony, and empathy resonate deeply with today's workforce. For many people, those needs extend well beyond personal life and into the workplace, where they expect experiences that address well-being and their "whole selves."

Connection may not rank first for every individual, but the broader shift in priorities is undeniable. Recent research reinforced the scale of this change:

• 93% of people reflected over the last two-plus years on what was important to them

• 88% stated that they define success differently today than they previously did

What does a people-first culture mean?

An effective way to harness these shifting priorities, and improve employee engagement and retention, is to cultivate a people-first culture: an environment built around listening to and valuing the needs of employees. Many workers approach work differently now than they did before the pandemic began, and the workplace needs to reflect this change. Taking a people-first approach means actively creating a desirable work environment that considers and fulfills the needs of your most important organizational asset: your people. That starts with defining your culture as a 'North Star' by establishing or refreshing core values that reflect what matters most to your company and your people.

To remain competitive in the marketplace, organizations must make more genuine connections with employees, finding ways to provide their people with purpose, belonging, well-being, safety, and a sense of being valued.

The power has shifted from organizations to individuals. If individuals are not finding their needs met, they are voting with their feet and leaving for organizations that offer better alignment. By adopting people-first strategies, organizations are more likely to attract, engage, develop, and retain the talent needed to achieve world-class business outcomes.

How does a people-first culture help attract top talent?

Cultures that put their people first, fulfilling their individual needs, making decisions with their best interests in mind, and valuing them as people, can distinguish themselves as preferred employers in this competitive market for talent. By clearly articulating a people-first employee value proposition, organizations can entice top talent to join their ranks. That proposition should be grounded in clearly defined values that guide hiring, promotion, and daily behavior, giving both candidates and current employees a shared understanding of what the organization stands for. For example, recent data from LinkedIn highlights the distinctly personal priorities of Gen Z workers — a population poised to dominate the workforce in the years ahead — including better alignment with their values (80%), more opportunities to learn or practice new skills (76%), and more opportunities to move up or increase responsibilities (61%).

Perceptyx’s own research found that four of the top five factors prospective employees desire in new jobs today also emphasize the importance of fostering connections and putting their people first:

• Manager relationships that demonstrate empathy for individuals

• Well-being prioritized through policies and actions

• Flexibility and remote work to further improve well-being and autonomy

• Social responsibility to provide meaningful, positive connections with the broader community

When discussing strategies related to employee attraction, Atrium Health CHRO and Chief Experience Officer (CXO) Vishal Bhalla emphasized in a presentation that his organization has shifted from solely using a “time-to-fill” metric (that tracks how long a job requisition is open before the company fills it) to adopting a metric that tracks how long the applicant took from application to offer acceptance. For Bhalla’s company, people must be first and the conventional time-to-fill metric places the focus on the organization rather than the person: no applicant cares how long the organization has taken to fill the position, but they do care about the duration of their own experience in the hiring process.

By focusing on applicants first, Atrium Health has achieved major operational efficiencies: the average applicant apply-to-fill time is 48 hours for environmental services roles, with 97% of housekeeping positions filled within that time frame.

How does a people-first culture increase employee retention?

As the events of the past years have shown, individuals need to be prioritized within people-first organizational cultures or they will exercise their right to leave. Even though the percentage of workers looking for new roles with new companies has cooled off somewhat, Employ Inc.’s Job Seeker Nation Report found that 45% of surveyed workers are actively looking for a new job or plan to within the next year. (Grant Thornton’s State of Work in America survey places that figure at 40%.)

Perceptyx’s own retention study recommends putting relationships at the center of employee onboarding experiences (much as Atrium Health has done). Strong early connections between employees and peers as well as their managers will set the right tone for the rest of their tenure. But those relationships must extend beyond onboarding. Authentic, ongoing connections between individual contributors and senior leaders create a shared “in it together” perspective that fuels satisfaction and turns employees into ambassadors of the organization’s culture.

Within the healthcare industry, retention remains a top operational concern for hospital CEOs, even ranking ahead of financial performance. Perceptyx's field-tested best practices for increasing retention in this space center on four people-first themes — and are applicable across all industries:

• Promote trust, inclusion, and belonging

• Value contributions, opinions, and ideas

• Communicate a bright future

• Care about health and well-being

From a listening standpoint, the continuous listening and conversations at scale made possible by a listening partner such as Perceptyx provide the data-driven insights needed to orient the organization toward people-first action planning at all levels.

By frequently listening to employees, leaders are able to make evidence-based decisions with greater speed and confidence, taking action based on the feedback, opinions, and ideas of their employees. Culture can grow organically, but it requires deliberate action to blossom: programs, policies, and experiences shaped by what employees actually say they need.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does a people-first culture mean?

A people-first culture is a work environment built around actively listening to and meeting the needs of employees. Organizations that take this approach make decisions with their people in mind, prioritizing well-being, belonging, purpose, and safety at work. Rather than treating employees as interchangeable resources, people-first organizations recognize that their people are the most important driver of business performance. This means going beyond standard perks. It requires leaders to build genuine connections, act on employee feedback, and create conditions where every person feels heard and valued.

What are the core principles of a people-first culture?

People-first cultures share four consistent principles drawn from Perceptyx's retention research:

• Promote trust, inclusion, and belonging — employees need to feel safe, respected, and genuinely included

• Value contributions, opinions, and ideas — employees who feel heard are more likely to stay and perform

• Communicate a clear path forward — transparency about the organization's direction builds confidence and reduces uncertainty

• Care about health and well-being — well-being must show up in policies and daily manager behavior, not just in benefits brochures

These principles apply across industries. In healthcare, where retention ranked as the top operational concern for hospital CEOs, organizations that built cultures around these four pillars saw measurable improvements in both employee retention and patient experience outcomes.

How does a people-first culture affect business results?

Organizations that listen to employees and act on that feedback consistently outperform those that don't. Perceptyx's State of Employee Listening report, which surveyed 600 enterprise-level organizations, found that companies with active listening programs are:

• 3x more likely to meet or exceed financial targets

• 10x more likely to achieve high customer satisfaction

• 11x more likely to have high employee retention

• 20x more likely to say they adapt well to change

These results hold across industries. When leaders build a culture around listening and taking visible action on employee feedback, they create a cycle of trust that drives performance at every level of the organization.

How can Perceptyx help you build a people-first culture?

A continuous listening program builds agility into the organization, with regularly updated and easily accessible insights keeping pace with the needs of people in the organization both now and in years to come. Building a continuous listening program requires organizational commitment, but the return is measurable: organizations that regularly listen to and act on employee feedback are three times as likely to meet or exceed their financial targets.

Showing appreciation and providing for well-being are strong starting points, but today's job market demands that world-class organizations go further to meet the needs of their people. Perceptyx has helped these organizations create human-centered, people-first cultures by turning people and business data into targeted action through our People Activation System.