Right now, 7/10 employees are unengaged and unhappy at work. This disconnected workforce is also costing businesses up to $550 billion in lost productivity each year. If you want to increase and improve employee engagement in your organization, that little black spot in the middle of my drawing has to get bigger. What employees expect and what companies offer is too often very different--and it’s why that overlap is so small.

The reason? Corporate cultures of many organizations are outdated. These cultures come from a different era that was dominated by manufacturing and rigid hierarchies; and not a world dominated by knowledge work, digitization, and an opinionated globally distributed workforce.  More often than not, companies let culture just happen or they don’t take the time to reshape a culture inherited from a bygone era

Ask anybody working in a large organization today and you’ll realize that the culture employees desire is a very different culture from the norm. It’s time to not just let culture happen. Companies need to design and manage their corporate culture systematically. They need to ask questions such as, how and where do people want to work? What motivates people and gets them engaged? How do they want to be rewarded? What’s getting in their way and blocking their ability to contribute great work?

Companies that want to succeed in the 21st century need to make corporate culture a strategic priority. Companies have to increase the overlap between what people desire and what the organization delivers if they’re serious about attracting and retaining the best talent in the job market. Remember: there is no “right” or “wrong” culture. It’s about matching the culture you offer to what the people you hire desire.