Purpose-led scan design
Combine standard items with organization-specific questions for goals such as human capital management, purpose, sustainability, and culture.
SALT: features, use, and implementation
Explore scan items, analysis, use cases, implementation, and operation for human capital management, purpose, sustainability engagement, and employee engagement.
Support organizational adoption of your vision from multiple perspectives
SALT core capabilities
Understand organizational direction, each person’s values and preferences, and the current state; connect their overlap with everyday communication and activities; and continue to observe change.
Preferences and values
Make it easier to see the values each person may prioritize, the social themes that interest them, and the ways they may naturally contribute.
Overlap with organizational direction
Explore connections between the organization’s purpose, people strategy, and sustainability priorities and each person’s preferences and interests.
Understanding, resonance, and action
Separate awareness, personal relevance, and each person’s way of taking part to understand how they connect.
Connect with everyday communication and activities
Build connections between purpose or material themes and each person’s work and interests through everyday dialogue, information sharing, learning, projects, and activities.
Re-scan and review change
Compare before and after an initiative to review changes in understanding, resonance, action, and overlap over time.
SALT supports a continuous process that goes beyond diagnosis and analysis to build organizational connections through everyday dialogue, information sharing, and activities, then review subsequent change.
What is happening now
The challenge of internal engagement
As more organizations communicate sustainability and purpose externally, there remains room to deepen internal understanding and its connection with each person’s role.SALT looks beyond communication to examine meaning and action separately.
Why, then, is communication alone not enough?
The following three research findings inform the design.
22%
Most employees understand the importance of sustainability and recognize their own role
Source: Shedal, Survey on Corporate Sustainability Promotion, 2024 ↗52.2%
Respondents citing employee and frontline understanding as a sustainability implementation challenge
Source: Toyo Keizai, 2026 CSR Survey and Evaluation Briefing ↗01
Awareness and meaning are different
Research treats awareness of organizational purpose and a sense of meaning in one’s work and choices as related but distinct concepts. Communication matters, but so does seeing personal relevance.
SALT uses this insight to examine purpose awareness separately from personal relevance.
Reference: Jasinenko & Steuber (2023), Journal of Management Studies. DOI ↗02
A gap can exist between intent, resonance, and action
Behavioral research has repeatedly identified a gap between intention or agreement and actual behavior. SALT therefore looks at understanding, resonance, and action separately rather than reducing them to one average.
SALT uses this insight to examine understanding, resonance, and action separately to see where progress stops.
Reference: Webb & Sheeran (2006), Psychological Bulletin. A general behavioral-science meta-analysis of 47 experimental studies. DOI ↗03
Specific plans can support action
Goal-achievement research indicates that specifying when, where, and how can support action. Rather than only showing findings,SALT includes consideration of what to try next as a core design principle.
SALT uses this insight to use the findings as a starting point for considering dialogue, communication, learning, and other next steps.
Reference: Gollwitzer & Sheeran (2006), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology. A general goal-achievement meta-analysis of 94 independent tests. DOI ↗How we use this research:The studies above informSALT’s design. They are general research and survey evidence and do not show thatSALT will produce the same effects when introduced.SALT’s own effects should be evaluated for each implementation through before-and-after scans and operational evidence.
Complement your existing systems
SALT’s role
SALT does not replace engagement, talent or skills management, or people systems. Alongside the workplace conditions and capabilities covered by existing solutions,SALT examines the connection between business and purpose and what people find meaningful, complementing dialogue, action design, and ongoing review.
Organizational foundations and ways of working
Connection to business and strategy
Values, meaning, and preferences
Engagement / EX / organizational surveysEmployee experience, trust and attachment, and workplace conditions
Organizational direction × personal meaningConnections between purpose, business, sustainability, and people’s values, interests, and preferences.
Skills and capabilities
People systems and capability developmentFoundations for development, placement, roles, and capability building
Talent / skills managementVisibility, placement, and development of skills and experience needed by the business
Adapt it to your purpose
SALT use cases
Select the information, scan items, and analysis perspective for goals such as human capital management, purpose, sustainability engagement, or organizational growth.
Purpose and values adoption
Rather than broadcasting new language one way, explore current awareness, understanding, resonance, and overlap with what matters to each person.
Inputs
Purpose, mission, vision, values, and existing materials
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SALT examines
Understanding, resonance, preferences, and overlap
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Next step
Communication, dialogue themes, and re-scan
Sustainability engagement
Explore connections between priority themes and each person’s interests in and response to social issues.
Inputs
Material topics, priorities, and existing initiatives
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SALT examines
Interest themes, understanding, resonance, and overlap
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Next step
Communication, learning, dialogue, and participation
Employee engagement and culture
As the organization grows and teams change, develop a shared identity by understanding both common ground and difference.
Inputs
Behavior principles, culture materials, and approved existing data
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SALT examines
Values, responses, and differences across the organization
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Next step
Onboarding, dialogue, and ways of sharing
Find clues for what to do next
Key analysis and outputs
Review organization–individual overlap, differences across groups, awareness, understanding, resonance, action, possible initiatives, and changes over time.
Current understanding, resonance, and actionSee how naturally the stages connect.
Overlap between individual preferences and the organizationSee connections with purpose and priority themes.
Differences in how people receive the directionSee patterns by team and response state.
Options for what to try nextOffers a starting point for considering dialogue, communication, and learning.
Change through re-assessmentCompare before and after an initiative.
Illustrative screenLatest
SALT INSIGHT
Findings and action options
View scan findings alongside approved existing information.
Understanding78%
Resonance64%
Action41%
What the organization aims for
Priority themes
Priority themes
Connection
Individual preferences
Values and interests
Values and interests
Next actions
Share more relevant examplesRefine dialogue themesTailor information by interest
Start with the scope you need
Implementation and operating process
Set the initial scope to match your goals and internal capacity, from design using existing materials to a focused scan or a scan combined with dialogue. Operation follows a cycle of design and scope, scan and analysis, action, and re-scan and review.
Design and scopeSet the goal, audience, and inputs
Scan and analyzeUnderstand the current state and overlap
Take actionRun dialogue, communication, or learning
Re-scan and reviewReview change and inform the next cycle
Ways to begin
You do not need to start company-wide or with every feature. Begin with the scope that fits your goals, audience, and internal capacity.
Expand the scope in stages while balancing the level of analysis you need with internal effort.
Connect insights to your existing initiatives
Examples of combining SALT with existing initiatives
Workshops, recognition, training, and people systems each serve different purposes. Reviewing the current state and points of overlap can make it easier to consider the right audience, themes, and approach.
01Workshops and dialogue
Supports deeper dialogue and shared understanding
Can require considerable time, facilitation, and participant capacity
Use the scan to focus the topic and audience so dialogue time is used well
02Rewards and recognition
Can create an initial reason to participate or act
A uniform approach may resonate with some people but not others
Design participation around differences in interests and responses
03Training and internal communication
Can communicate knowledge and direction at scale
May stop at awareness without creating personal relevance or action
Adapt the content to whether the gap is in understanding, resonance, or action
04People systems and evaluation
Can connect behavior with formal systems and operations
Introducing it too early may create resistance or increase evaluator workload
Connect it gradually where needed after checking the issue and readiness
CONTACT
Discuss implementation and use
We would be glad to work with you to consider the scan scope, information used, and links to action around your current priorities, audience, and internal capacity.