Top 10+ Trending Workplace Culture Speakers To Book Ranked by Popularity

It is widely accepted that the success of a company is largely determined by the ability to hire and retain the best possible staff for each function.  According to a Deloitte study, 88% of employees believe that well-defined workplace culture is instrumental to commercial success.

The term workplace culture refers to the set of beliefs, behaviours, communication, reward and value systems held by the people within the organisation. It is sometimes referred to as the ‘personality’ of a business, or “how it feels to be at work” – positive workplace culture provides the backbone of a successful organisation.

Characteristics of Toxic Workplace Culture

It is not always easy to spot a toxic work environment, but here are some signs you can look out for:

• Confusion and dysfunction over roles and responsibilities
• High employee turnover
• Persistent internal conflict
• Constant fear of failure among employees

Characteristics of a Positive Workplace Culture

Setting a positive workplace culture is not an easy challenge, but there are many resources that can help HR managers and senior executives. Some traits often found in positive work environments include:

• Employees feel safe if they make a mistake
• Clarity in roles, responsibilities and rewards
• Healthy discussions over disagreements
• Employees feel that their individual differences are valued and appreciated

Booking a workplace culture speaker is one way to accelerate the development of a positive workplace culture; these speakers have decades of experience from some of the leading companies in the world and academia.

Top Booked Workplace Culture Speakers

The Motivational Speakers Agency has compiled an official list of the top workplace culture speaker to book based on in-depth survey feedback. Our booking agents asked thousands of clients who their favourite workplace culture speakers were and why, valuable event data that allowed us to create this list!

• Lauren Paton 9.7
• Tim Campbell 9.9/10
• Bruce Daisley 9.8/10
• Herminia Ibarra 9.6/10
• Karen Blackett 9.5/10
• Matt Dunsmore 9.5/10
• Damian Hughes 9.4/10
• Dr. Lynda Gratton 9.3/10
• Tom Goodwin 9.1/10
• Lucy Adams 9.2/10
• Alain Goudsmet 8.9/10

Lauren Paton 9.7/10

Following a successful career at Amazon, Lauren Paton is now an influential and compelling workplace culture speaker. She specialises in visibility and impact in business, topics that Lauren discusses as a speaker and the founder of Unleashed. Podcast host, writer and LinkedIn's Top Voice, Lauren is a highly regarded authority on workplace culture. Learn from the likes of Amazon and Walt Disney, with Lauren Paton.

Testimonial for Lauren:

Lauren joined us for a session with a group of young female engineers, to discuss imposter syndrome. It was a very interesting and engaging session, which made us all think about imposter syndrome. Really looking forward to working with Lauren again soon! - Barclays

Tim Campbell 9.9/10

Tim Campbell is most famous for winning the first series of the apprentice. He is currently the Trading Futures Lead and Regional Head for OSTC ltd and also a Strategic Diversity and Inclusion Advisor for AMS. As a workplace culture speaker, he delivers talks on building high level teams at the start-up stage and setting the workplace culture from inception through to growth stages of a business.

Testimonial for Tim:

Tim was an excellent speaker. Very interesting story and clearly passionate about what he does - Centre for Business

Bruce Daisley 9.8/10

Former EMEA Vice President for Twitter, Bruce Daisley is an industry veteran having held various sales and directorial roles at some of the most innovative organisations in the world, including Google and the charity, Comic Relief. His book ‘The Joy of Work’ is focused on achieving workplace culture and was listed as a Sunday Times Number One Business Bestseller. Bruce is widely known as one of the Top 10 Most Important People in Digital by The Drum. He is considered an authority on building thriving workplace cultures, particularly within tech-focussed organisations. 

Testimonial for Bruce: 

He was fantastic! He is a very compelling speaker and the audience feedback was that they could take away some real action items. People really enjoyed the talk - Lovita, SSCinc

Herminia Ibarra 9.6/10

Leading academic, Herminia Ibarra, is a specialist in organisational behaviour at the London Business School. She developed the ground-breaking Leadership Transition Executive Programme which set out a path for employees to pursue leadership roles. Herminia is extremely educated, she completed her PhD in Organisational Behaviour at Yale University and spent 13 years as a professor at Harvard Business School. For workplace culture, she is not only a seasoned practitioner but a hugely credible academic.

Karen Blackett 9.5/10

Karen Blackett is one of the most sought-after speakers from the advertising industry. She is the former CEO and Chairwoman at MediaCom with over 20 years' experience with over 1100 people under her management. She has direct experience in setting the workplace culture as a senior leader. Karen is particularly focused on diversity and inclusion practices, as the president of NABS she is focused on health, wellbeing, and diversity in the workplace.

Testimonial for Karen: 

Karen is an impressive force to be reckoned with. She's strategically sound, insightful, talented and an absolute joy to work with - Shirley

Matt Dunsmore 9.5/10

Future of work expert Matt Dunsmore is the Founder and Chief Vision officer of Octopy.io. Matt is a corporate culture innovator with a unique approach to setting workplace culture, advocating for a human-focused approach in which workplaces prioritise the needs of the individuals. When booked as a speaker, Matt is light-hearted and clear in distilling his methods, giving audiences practical advice to take away and implement themselves.

Damian Hughes 9.4/10

Damian Hughes is a world-renowned psychologist with a long history of supporting corporate clients in developing high functioning, high-performance workplace cultures. Previously HR Director of Unilever, Damian has a wealth of professional experience in people management. He is also the author of best-selling Liquid Thinking and Liquid Leadership. With ringing endorsements from the likes of Sir Richard Branson, Damian is a fantastic speaker on setting high-performance workplace cultures.

Testimonial for Damian: 

I would recommend that you adopt Damian Hughes's lessons and go ahead, take the plunge and become a fellow Liquid Thinker - Sir Richard Branson

Dr. Lynda Gratton 9.3/10

Professor of Management Practice at London Business School, Dr Lynda Gratton is widely recognised as a leading authority on human resources, a businesswoman, author and keynote speaker. She has delivered programmes to organisations such as Microsoft and the World Economic Forum. She has brilliant academic and professional experience in setting positive workplace cultures and regularly delivers talks to top organisations on the subject. Her book, ‘The Shift’, was awarded Business Book of the Year in 2012, when it comes to workplace culture Dr Lynda Gratton is a highly credible voice.

Testimonial for Lynda: 

Insightful and thought-provoking, we've had great feedback from delegates - Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association

Tom Goodwin 9.1/10

Former Publicis Group head, Tom Goodwin is a marketing titan with decades of experience in traditional and digital marketing. Tom has worked at companies such as Pedigree, Nivea and Nokia, leading teams in business development and marketing for over a decade. Booked as a speaker, he shares his findings on setting the workplace culture for marketing teams.

Lucy Adams 9.2/10

Experienced former BBC HR Director, Lucy Adams has a tremendous reputation in human resource management. During her time at the BBC, her innovative approach to the role resulting in her producing a £25 million per year reduction in costs., Lucy has vast experience in managing teams of various sizes and developing a workplace culture that is continually successful. Lucy’s presentations are entertaining and educational, leaving the audience with thought-provoking takeaways.

Testimonial for Lucy: 

"The whole group found her to be inspirational" - American Express

Alain Goudsmet 8.9/10

One of the most highly regarded speakers in the world on the subject of workplace culture. Having worked with the likes of Shell, IBM and Unilever, Alain Goudsmet has years of experience supporting some of the largest organisations in the world. He is said to have a revolutionary approach to mental coaching helping companies set optimal performance-enhancing culture at scale.

Testimonial for Alain: 

I had the opportunity to work with Alain as an executive team coach, he was just amazing: quickly capturing the team dynamics, with a rich toolbox, he spontaneously finds the right way to guide the team and to challenge each individual, making it a great valuable team and individual exercise - Anne

Book a workplace culture speaker today!

If you are interested in supporting a positive workplace culture within your organisation book one of our workplace culture speakers today! To book a speaker, get in contact with one of our booking agents by calling 0207 0787 876 or by filling out our online contact form.