“Corporate culture is not a slogan on a bulletin board; it’s the way we operate every day, how we collaborate, what we tolerate, and what we don’t,” says Marta Fabiánová from TCC online in an interview for HRtv

Corporate culture is not about mottos in hallways or colorful presentations at meetings. It shows in everyday situations: in communication, decision-making, teamwork, and how conflicts are handled. “Corporate culture is not created by statements, but by living it,” says Marta Fabiánová, Managing Director of TCC online, which helps companies better understand, measure, and intentionally develop this invisible but crucial component of the work environment.

“I like to say that we are a psycho-socio-technological company,” says Marta Fabiánová. “We develop online psychodiagnostics and a range of feedback tools that help measure what is otherwise hard to gauge in companies — mood, culture, or employee feedback. With our tools, organizations can gain a clearer understanding of what’s going on inside the company and respond to it effectively.”

Measuring corporate culture is a complex task, but it can provide essential insights. Hard data such as turnover, absenteeism, and performance can reflect aspects of the culture, but to get the full picture and deeper understanding, it is necessary to go into greater detail and assess elements that are harder to quantify, such as collaboration quality, communication, mood, and sentiment. With the help of various online tools, it becomes relatively easy to map the current atmosphere in the company and capture what is otherwise intangible.

Corporate culture can’t just be guessed

One of the main tools currently used to measure corporate culture are various types of employee surveys. “With surveys, you can see what the culture truly is and whether it matches the one you want. That’s always a great starting point, especially if you want to track whether your culture is evolving,” says Marta Fabiánová.

Experience from international projects, such as the one for People in Need, confirms that measurement is essential, especially in larger structures. “As Šimon Pánek says, once a company reaches a certain size, you can’t simply estimate its culture. It needs to be measured,” adds Marta Fabiánová.

Data alone is not enough

Marta Fabiánová also points out that measurement itself is not enough. “What matters is what you do with the data. If employees see no follow-up after a survey, they lose the motivation to participate in the future.” She recommends focusing on one or two priorities, ideally based on specific feedback, and addressing them in depth.

It is equally important to know how to ask questions well. “When you ask about values in very general terms, people neither perceive them as particularly positive nor as a high priority. But when you ask about specific behaviors, such as ‘In our company, we can trust each other — promises are kept,’people suddenly see it as fundamental. They might rate it highly or, on the contrary, criticise it. In that case, you need to have a discussion about where and why trust is lacking, and what would help restore it.”

It is precisely in these discussions when TCC online’s partners step into the process, following up on surveys and helping companies take the next steps. “We no longer aspire to be consultants who lead a company for six months. Our role is to provide high-quality tools and materials. The rest is handled either by internal HR or external experts,” says Marta Fabiánová.

Feedback that makes sense

For a long time, TCC online has also been working with feedback tools at both the individual and team levels. One of them is 360° feedback. According to Marta Fabiánová, neither technological developments nor the advent of artificial intelligence have reduced its importance — quite the opposite.

“It has turned out that those who predicted its end were wrong. 360° feedback still has its place. It helps in situations where regular feedback is lacking,” adds Marta Fabiánová.

Although TCC online’s surveys show that direct managers are usually rated most positively, paradoxically, around 30% of employees still do not receive feedback from their managers. Tools like 360° feedback provide a safe, anonymous, and asynchronous way to exchange reflections.

The importance of alignment with corporate culture starts at recruitment

As corporate culture is becoming more important, so is value alignment, and it’s best to verify this as early as the recruitment stage.

“Our clients tell us that they used to hire mainly based on a candidate’s education and experience, and sometimes also on personality traits. Today, they want to know what type of culture the person prefers — whether they want structure or freedom, collaboration or competition. And this can be mapped easily, without assumptions or snap judgments. For example, the Culture Fit questionnaire takes only ten minutes to complete and tells the company whether the candidate is a good fit not only professionally, but also in terms of values,” says Marta Fabiánová.

An important factor is where the candidate falls on various scales — for example, whether they prefer formality or informality, an innovative or traditional environment, or team orientation versus individual performance. When a company knows where a person stands on these scales and compares it with the existing corporate culture, it can quickly determine whether the new employee is likely to fit in or not.

TCC online is now an important player in the field of corporate culture. It develops and supplies feedback and psychodiagnostic tools that help not only HR professionals and managers, but also consulting and advisory agencies to understand, measure, and meaningfully develop corporate culture.