How Southampton Football Club have built an outstanding culture

About Southampton FC

Southampton Football Club, known to fans as the Saints, is a professional football club with a long history and a strong reputation for developing talent.

Behind the scenes, the club has also invested heavily in its people experience. As part of this work, Southampton FC set out to build a stronger, more connected internal culture through “The Southampton Way”, a values-led approach designed to bring people together around a shared mission, clear behaviours and a consistent way of working.

The challenge: turning values into everyday behaviour

Southampton FC had developed a clear set of values: respect, unity, accountability, creativity and aspiration.

The next step was making sure those values were more than words. The club wanted to embed them across the employee experience, from recruitment and induction to development, communication, performance conversations and leadership.

The team also wanted to measure whether the values were landing in practice. They needed to understand how employees experienced the culture, whether people understood the strategic vision and where further action was needed to support employee engagement, wellbeing and performance.

Two people-related goals formed part of the club’s wider strategy:

• Maintain employee engagement above 90%
• Progress towards Investors in People Platinum accreditation

What Southampton FC did

Southampton FC took a practical, joined-up approach to embedding “The Southampton Way”.

The team reviewed key moments across the employee journey and looked at how the club’s values could be reflected more clearly in day-to-day working life. This included values-based recruitment questions, a two-day induction programme and activities that helped employees understand what each value looked like in practice.

The club also developed behaviours linked to the values, using them in probation reviews and ongoing performance and development reviews. This helped employees connect their individual objectives to the wider strategy and understand how their work contributed to the club’s mission.

Communication played an important role too. Senior leaders launched the strategic vision to the whole staff group and reinforced it through staff meetings, internal updates and “Team Talk Live”, the club’s intranet.

To support development and progression, Southampton FC launched the Staff Academy, offering training across areas such as people management, recruitment and selection, equality and diversity, communication and mental health and wellbeing at work.

How People Insight helped

People Insight supported Southampton FC by helping the club listen to employees, measure progress and turn feedback into clear priorities for action.

The employee survey programme helped Southampton FC:

• Measure, compare and analyse employee engagement
• Understand how well the values were being embedded
• Track employees’ understanding of the strategic vision
• Explore work-life balance, wellbeing and potential stress risks
• Identify the people-related opportunities that needed further attention
• Use insight to inform the club’s wider five-year strategy

This gave Southampton FC a clearer picture of what was working well and where to focus next.

Rather than treating the survey as a standalone exercise, the club used the results as part of a wider culture and strategy programme. That made the insight more meaningful, because it was connected directly to leadership priorities, employee experience and organisational performance.

The results: strong engagement and clear belief in action

Southampton FC’s “Our Score” survey showed strong levels of trust in the listening process and high levels of employee engagement.

The 90% engagement score placed Southampton FC among People Insight’s top-performing clients.

The results also showed that the club’s work to communicate its vision and embed its values was having a clear impact.

The results gave Southampton FC evidence that its values were understood, relevant and visible across the organisation. They also showed that employees felt positively about career development, wellbeing and the support available to them.

Turning insight into action

Southampton FC used the survey findings to understand what was working and where further action would make the biggest difference.

The insight helped the club explore important areas such as work-life balance, stress risk, development opportunities and belief in the organisation’s direction. This meant the team could focus action where it was most needed, rather than relying on assumptions.

The survey also gave Southampton FC a way to measure cultural progress over time. By tracking engagement, values alignment and belief in action, the club could see whether its people strategy was making a meaningful difference.

Wider impact

Southampton FC’s work to build a stronger employee experience contributed to wider organisational success.

These results show the value of connecting employee listening with culture, development, wellbeing and action.

Recognition for Southampton FC’s culture work

Southampton FC’s programme was recognised with the Employee Engagement Company of the Year Award.

What other organisations can learn from Southampton FC

Southampton FC’s story shows that values become more powerful when they are connected to action.

The club did not simply define a set of values and leave them to sit in a strategy document. It embedded them into recruitment, induction, performance, development, communication and leadership. It then used employee listening to measure whether that work was making a difference.

For organisations looking to strengthen culture, the lesson is clear: employee surveys are most valuable when they are connected to a bigger action plan. They help leaders understand what people are experiencing, where progress is being made and what needs to happen next.

How People Insight supports employee listening

People Insight helps organisations capture employee feedback, understand what the results are really saying and turn insight into meaningful action.

Our employee surveys help organisations measure engagement, culture and the wider employee experience. With expert support, clear reporting and practical action planning, we help leaders move from feedback to focused improvement.

Ready to get more from your employee listening? Speak to the People Insight team