How to Build a Sustainable Performance Culture in 2025
5th March 2025
Insights
This article was originally published at givenagency.com
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Table of Contents
- What 2025 Means for Business Culture
- Step 1: Define a Powerful Purpose
- Step 2: Embed Purpose
- Step 3: Empower Your Employees
- Step 4: Communicate with Clarity
- Step 5: Evaluate Impact
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As we head further into 2025, businesses are facing new challenges, from talent retention and employee engagement to balancing sustainability and profitability. But don’t worry, we’re here to guide you through the latest developments, innovations and new approaches around business strategy and leadership.
What does 2025 mean for business culture?
In the first few months of the year, around one in ten of your workforce may be looking for new jobs. That’s according to research from Totaljobs. So what has that got to do with purpose and culture?
According to the Purpose Gap research from Given – part of Anthesis – nearly half of employees would consider leaving their jobs if their employer failed to live up to their stated values and purpose. As the old saying goes: Culture eats strategy for breakfast.
But what does it take to have a good business culture, and what role does purpose have in creating the culture that attracts – and retains – talent?
Cultural shift
Embracing the idea of ‘sustainable performance’ requires a cultural shift. And the great news is that data shows us that a sustainable performance approach resonates with employees. In fact, according to PwC’s Workforce of the Future survey, nearly 90% of millennials want to work for companies whose purpose and values align with their own.
As a result, businesses embracing this shift find it easier to attract, engage, and retain top talent. As Mitch Oliver, Global VP of Brand & Purpose at Mars, told us on Given’s Purposing podcast, she found it led to a huge increase in employee engagement: “Associates who believe we’re acting in line with our purpose are likely to be up to 12 times more engaged,” she told us.
Put simply: purpose is good for business
So, how can organisations create a culture that attracts and retains top talent while delivering on business objectives? Here are five actionable steps to help you embed purpose at the heart of your business culture in 2025.
Step 1: define a powerful purpose
There’s a big difference between having a purpose statement and being a truly purpose-driven business. Your purpose should resonate deeply with employees and customers alike.
We worked together with Claire Hawkins, Director of Corporate Affairs at Phoenix Group. She highlights the importance of clarity:
To define purpose effectively:
- Recognise that defining your purpose is only the beginning, and you need a plan to make sure it’s lived in every part of the business.
- Involve your entire organisation in the definition of your purpose. For a purpose to be lived, it needs to be owned by everyone and that comes through co-creation.
- But make sure your executive team sees themselves as the ultimate owners – they need to be able to talk about and act with confidence and conviction. This involves making dedicated time for their engagement, individually and collectively.
Step 2: embed purpose into culture and business strategy
Purpose shouldn’t sit on the sidelines; it should guide decision-making, strategic priorities, and daily activities. Chris Jackson, People Director at Centrica, puts it simply:
How to change your culture:
- Make sure you think about both hard-wiring and soft-wiring your purpose into your business
- Think holistically – this is about governance and decision-making, products, services and innovation, brand and customer experience, your policies and operating system, leadership & engagement and partnerships & advocacy.
- Remember that this is a multi-year journey – it takes time and effort!
Step 3: empower your employees
Employees need to not only understand your business purpose but actively contribute to delivering it. After all, if the values and culture you’re trying to instil don’t resonate with them, how are employees meant to live and breathe it?
As Stephen Beechey, from Wates Group, explains:
How to empower employees through purpose:
- Incorporate purpose into recruitment and onboarding processes to set expectations from day one.
- Empower employees to lead internal and external purpose-driven initiatives, with the right skills, tools and opportunities.
- Reward team members who embody the organisation’s purpose and values. This could be linked to bonus as well as wider recognition programmes.
Step 4: communicate purpose with clarity
Clear and consistent communication builds trust and accountability around purpose, both internally and externally. Claire Hawkins reinforces this:
To embed purpose into communications:
- Share authentic stories internally that highlight how your business lives its purpose.
- Ensure leadership consistently uses purpose as a reference point in both internal and external conversations.
- Consider how your purpose shows up in the stories you tell externally – it’s always more powerful when it’s integrated, rather than stand-alone content.
Step 5: evaluate impact
Progress builds momentum, reinforcing a sustainable performance culture. Tracking and sharing the impact of purpose-led initiatives ensures continuous improvement and credibility.
Kimberly-Clark’s Marketing Director, Alma Alejandro, gave us a great example of how she defined and measured one aspect of their social impact – by toilet rolls donated.
They used this as a way of measuring the number of lives they had positively impacted in line with their social impact goals. Alma said:
How to approach this:
- Think about what success looks like and how to measure it. It’s a good idea to start with the different roles your business can play in creating change and identify the KPIs from there
- Don’t shy away from linking to commercial goals – a well-executed purpose can and should drive performance
- Share regular updates on progress, challenges, and future plans to keep the momentum going.
In order to achieve a sustainable performance culture this year you need to:
- Define a powerful purpose
- Embed it into your culture and business strategy
- Empower your employees
- Communicate clearly, and
- Evaluate your impact
If you can do all this you’ll have a resilient, future-ready business, focused on impact and growth.
What’s more, you’ll be able to attract – and keep – the best talent; foster a culture of innovation; and achieve long-term profitability. All this means you’ve arrived at sustainable performance.
As we move further into 2025, embedding your purpose into your business culture is no longer a nice-to-have. It’s a strategic imperative for organisations looking to thrive in a rapidly evolving world.
At Anthesis, we’re here to help businesses unleash the power of purpose to drive business performance and positive impact.
From leadership transformation to integrated marketing strategies, our brand and communications solutions are geared towards delivering the salience, emotion, and meaning that brands need to grow.
