After analyzing multiple organizations through our 2025 Destination Workplace™ Culture Audits, one truth stands out:

👉 Culture isn’t defined by what leaders say; it’s defined by what employees experience.

And most leaders are dangerously out of touch.

Here are the top 5 insights from our 2025 culture audits, and what they reveal about what’s really happening inside your culture:

1. Leaders Think Culture Is Clear. Employees Don’t.

📈53% of employees believe upper management is disconnected from what the culture is actually like.

👉Translation: you can’t improve what you don’t experience.

💡 Strategy: Use a third-party Culture Audit to get honest feedback, and baseline the real experience at every level. (Make sure it measures potential flight risks, your company’s overall destination workplace score, and the 5 main pillars of the employee experience: culture, leadership, growth opportunities, team, and well-being.)

2. Burnout Isn’t Just High. It’s Hidden.

📈49% of Gen Z report high burnout, but only 26% of managers notice it.

👉This mismatch leads to productivity drops, mental health issues, and flight risk.

💡 Strategy: Train leaders to recognize burnout before it becomes turnover, and provide burnout training programs for your staff.

3. Trust Is the Make-or-Break Factor.

📈57% of employees say poor leadership trust drives them to leave.

👉Culture can’t fix retention without leadership trust.

💡 Strategy: Build leadership trust through transparency, accountability, and follow-through. Train leaders on the essential leadership skills that are critical for today’s workforce. (Coaching, delegation, time management, conflict/resolution, team-building, etc)

4. Recognition Is Rare, and It’s Costing You.

📈Only 36% of employees say their efforts are recognized.

👉Recognition is now considered one of the top retention tools.

💡 Strategy: Build recognition into your feedback rhythm. Weekly. Not quarterly.

5. Purpose Still Outranks a Paycheck.

📈80% of workers say purpose drives job satisfaction. 

👉Yet only 65% feel their company actually lives its values.

💡 Strategy: Connect roles to mission and tasks to the core values. Every department. Every leader. Every week.

🔗 Download a copy of the  Destination Workplace™ Culture Audit Insights!

If you want to become a Destination Workplace™, start with the real data. Your culture already exists. The question is: do you know what it really feels like to work there?

The Destination Workplace™ Culture Audit measures gaps in leadership trust, employee engagement, retention/flight risks, leadership alignment, well-being, growth opportunities, culture and purpose, and sense of team. Contact us to learn more about the culture audit!

Discover how to create a workplace people run to, not from.

🔗 Download a copy of the  Destination Workplace™ Culture Audit Insights!

Backed by Data. Delivered with Energy. Built for Results.

Speaking: [https://www.betsyallenmanning.com]
Workforce: [https://destinationworkplace.com]

>>> Featured on FOX, CBS, NBC, and ABC, Betsy Allen-Manning is a leadership keynote speaker and high-performance expert who works with executives, managers, and teams to ignite commitment, elevate excellence & infuse purpose into their culture. Her C.O.M.M.I.T. Framework™ and ‘DNA for Success’  keynote series deliver data-backed, high-energy presentations that strengthen leadership, enhance team performance, and build resilient cultures where people thrive and stay. Betsy is also the founder of Destination Workplace™,  an award-winning leadership training company in Dallas, recognized for advancing leadership excellence and driving a culture of high performance in some of the world’s most respected organizations.