Improving Workplace Culture with Behavioral Intelligence
But why do employees quit? Many executives falsely assume that it is about compensation or benefits. but studies show that there is more to it. In fact, company culture plays a massive role in the equation. According to SHRM, 57% of employees who rate their organizational culture poorly say they are actively or soon will be looking for another job.
When it comes to retaining and gaining top talent—company culture is a key factor.
The question is: how do organizations go about improving culture? Our answer is a combination of relatable content, behavioral science, and actionable insights.
Knowledge is Only Part of Effective Learning
If you ask an organizational learning and development (L&D) professional why their company provides training to employees, the typical answer is likely to be: "To enable workers to build new knowledge or learn new skills."
Either way, the ultimate goal is for employees to apply their newfound knowledge and skills on the job, not only to foster more positive interactions with others but also to enhance and sustain productivity.
In turn, better individual performance means better team performance which leads to improvements in business results like engagement, retention, and risk reduction—tangible evidence of return on investment in training.
For L&D professionals and others responsible for positively impacting performance and culture, the critical insight is that success requires a two-fold process. Employees must learn new knowledge or skills and they must apply their new abilities to their work. Their behaviors must change.
Knowledge Training + Behavioral Intelligence =
New Behaviors at Work
The idea that new behaviors are the ultimate goal of organizational training initiatives isn’t new. Yet, the design of training programs has traditionally focused on knowledge acquisition, viewing the behavior-change part of the learning equation as something to hope for, with little or no way of measuring if it happens.
Reaping real returns on learning investments means bridging the gap between knowledge acquisition and application of new behaviors on the job.
And it isn't a matter of throwing out design principles that work. It's time to supercharge them. Knowledge and skill-building lay the perfect foundation for the addition of behavioral intelligence components that identify and address factors that influence an employee's motivation to apply target behaviors, including potential barriers hiding under the surface or cultural blind spots.
Knowledge and skill-building lay the perfect foundation for the addition of behavioral intelligence components that identify and address factors that influence an employee’s motivation to apply target behaviors.
Atana combines decades of expertise, an award-winning content library, and a breakthrough behavioral intelligence platform to offer the only training that's backed by science and able to directly link investments in training to improvements in critical KPIs.
- Courses use relatable video scenarios that engage employees, support learning transfer and promote critical thinking.
- Behavioral science questions are embedded at relevant learning moments to capture how employees think and what actions they're likely to take.
- Based on this behavioral data, the Organizational Insights dashboard and Belle AI assistant reveal where policies may be misunderstood, where confidence is breaking down, and where perception of cultural expectations varies by team, role, or location. Data-informed playbooks provide recommendations for strategic intervention.
- From attitudes to abilities, every insight we track is directly linked to KPIs related to enterprise risk, employee engagement, innovation, and productivity.
By enabling organizations to address employee hesitancies—and reinforce employee motivation—we help ensure desired workplace behaviors are applied on the job.
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Atana partners with organizations that understand culture change is not just about training—it's about measurable behavioral impact. Across industries, customers rely on Atana to provide proof that their investments in risk reduction and culture transformation are leading to real behavior change, not just hopeful assumptions.
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About the Author
Amanda Hagman, Ph.D., Chief Scientist: Behavioral Data Science
Dr. Hagman is an expert in behavior change and intervention science, adept at turning data into practical solutions that drive meaningful change in workplace behaviors. With a background in program evaluation and learning analytics, she uses predictive insights to foster positive behavioral outcomes on a large scale. As head of research at Atana, Dr. Hagman integrates behavioral change principles into training courses tackling common workplace issues. Her work targeting critical behavioral goals is designed to deliver concrete and lasting improvements for organizations.
