That’s the way your culture crumbles

The humble biscuit. Who would have thought that a simple treat could cause such a stir amongst employees.  

So, here’s the scenario. The company needs to save money…

Well, there’s a surprise I hear you say. The answer, or part of the answer was – remove all biscuits from the training academy.

Now even I’m quite partial to a chocolate digestive with a cuppa, but I never envisaged witnessing such a reaction. Employees enjoyed attending the training academy, not only was it modern venue with great facilities, but they would also get a biscuit with their cuppa whilst having the opportunity to enhance their personal development. A small employee luxury.

What resulted was employee uproar! They didn’t mind so much that the resident Koi Carp from the water feature had to be sold off; taking away their biscuits was a step too far. It was the talk of the office and the first thing people spoke about in the corridors, “have you heard they’ve taken away the biscuits?!”

It takes an age to build a great reputation but a second to lose. All the good work to improve employee engagement was undone, or crumbled, by a cost saving decision about biscuits. 

The moral of the story here is a simple one. What may seem a sensible decision, could result in sending controversial cultural ripples through your organisation impacting on employee engagement, productivity and even well being. Ultimately, that’s how culture can crumble and in the grand scheme of things, a simple biscuit has the ability to make people happy… that’s priceless.