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Newspage RawSource: Kate Underwood, Kate Underwood HR & Training

Bosses think they are inclusive but their staff don't, research finds

ended 23. October 2026

New Onvero research found 69% of leaders rate their culture four or five out of five, but only 55% of employees agree, and people in the least inclusive workplaces leave around three years sooner. That gap isn’t a feelings problem. It’s a recruitment bill. https://www.personneltoday.com/hr/employees-six-times-more-likely-to-leave-non-inclusive-workplaces/

Questions for Newspagers

  1. Why do bosses and staff see the same workplace so differently?
  2. Is “inclusion” something a ten-person firm can actually do, or a big-company luxury?
  3. What’s the one thing that makes someone stay?

5 responses from the Newspage community

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Kate UnderwoodVerified
Founder & Chief People Strategist at Kate Underwood HR & Training
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I will say to small business bosses, your quiet staff aren’t happy. They’re just quiet. In a firm of eight there’s no HR department to spot it, so it’s on you. Inclusion isn’t a strategy deck. It’s three habits. Ask the person who never speaks in meetings what they think, then actually wait for the answer. Notice who the banter is aimed at, and if it’s always the same person, stop it. And look at your socials. If everything happens at the pub on a Friday, you’ve built a fan club, not a team. Do a lunch in work time instead. Then do the cheapest thing in HR. Every few months, sit down one to one and ask two questions. What would make you stay? What would make you leave? Silence isn’t loyalty. It’s a resignation letter you haven’t been handed yet. Replacing a good person costs months of wages and a lot of stress. Asking one question costs nothing.
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Jennie PrewettVerified
Founder and Trustee at Incredible Kids
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Most inclusion is lip service. A small organisation can be inclusive by listening, making real adjustments and thinking differently about your staff's talents. Half of our staff and volunteers have additional needs. There will always be challenges but it has to be genuine inclusion.
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Harvey DhillonVerified
Founder & CEO at Zmartly
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Bosses and staff see the workplace differently because the boss knows why a decision was made, while staff see who got the pay rise or the interesting work. Unexplained decisions leave room for people to suspect favourites. Yes, a ten-person firm can be inclusive: write down how pay rises and training places are decided, and let everyone see the opportunities before choosing someone. Our team works across the UK, the Philippines and Pakistan. For a team spread like ours, access to the boss must not decide access to better work. My pick for what makes someone stay is a fair chance to progress. In a small firm that might mean learning to manage a client account, with more pay for the responsibility. If the only route to a pay rise is threatening to leave, the business is teaching people to look elsewhere.
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Amelia BrookeVerified
Career Coach at Amelia Brooke Career Vision
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I see this disconnect constantly in my coaching. Even after helping clients negotiate flexible working aligned with their health, wellbeing and other life commitments, backed by value-driven evidence, they still hit brick walls with knee-jerk rejections like “term-time only will never work or "we don't want to be setting a precedent.” It just proves how rarely a company’s grand cultural ambitions actually translate into everyday management decisions. This, to me, is an open-mindedness issue, not a budget issue.
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Kelly SmallcombeVerified
Fractional Chief People Officer at Meliorem HR Consultancy
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EDI has a bad reputation because too many businesses treat it as a tick box. Used properly, inclusion is a growth strategy. If you want to build something innovative, you need people who think differently. If you just need someone to press a button all day, you probably don’t. Diversity matters in places people overlook. Architects who plan for access from the start avoid costly retrofits. Engineers who design only for men produce products that fail women. The gap between how leaders and staff rate culture is a recruitment bill, not a feelings problem. Leaders think they are inclusive, staff disagree, and then staff leave. So don’t claim inclusion you haven’t built. Own where you are, because overclaiming is what drives the turnover.