Written by Kim Rohrer

Kim Rohrer is a veteran people leader, writer, speaker, and advisor with over 15 years of experience building human-centered cultures at high-growth companies. She is the founder of Patchwork Portfolio, author of the I Care Too Much newsletter, and co-host of the HR Confessions podcast. Today, Kim shapes the future of work through a portfolio of roles — from executive coaching to impactful communications to community architecture at Oyster® — and serves as a trusted advisor to forward-thinking HR teams.

Connect with Kim on LinkedIn.

Over the years, I’ve seen a lot of well-intentioned attempts to make employees feel valued: craft cocktail classes, branded swag, virtual talent shows, team-building off-sites. While these perks can be fun, they’re often mistaken for culture itself. And if caring for your employees is a part of your culture, you have to understand what it means to listen.

Creating a real culture of care isn’t performative. It’s not buying pizza during a layoff or launching a marketing campaign about how much you love your employees.

If you ask people what makes them feel truly cared for at work, you’ll hear a different story — one grounded in operational integrity, trust, and respect.

Actions speak louder than words

The most fundamental way to show employees you value them is simple: do what you say you’re going to do.

• Pay people accurately and on time.
• Communicate clearly and consistently.
• Handle performance issues with respect.
• Follow through on your commitments.

Lean on your company values to make (and explain!) decisions, and tie your overall strategy and direction back into the mission. Stay accountable to who you’ve told employees you are as a company, with clearly defined competencies, priorities, and communications — from leadership to the front line. 

If you say you value Teamwork, make sure you’re clearly defining team roles and responsibilities so people know how to work together as a team. If you value Kindness, think about how you are incorporating Kindness into your product, customer service, performance reviews, and manager training. Clarify what good looks like, what bad looks like, and how the company supports developing values-based skills, so that your employees know both what you mean and that you mean it.

If your company values are just words on a wall, no amount of kombucha taps or virtual trivia can make up for the experience of feeling misled. Showing that you care is about everyday actions, from how you run stand-ups to who gets to speak at your all-hands meetings to how you handle an accidental payroll delay. 

Care is operational. If you can’t rely on the basics, everything else feels hollow.

Autonomy and trust over micromanagement

One of the most powerful signals of respect is giving people the freedom to do their work without unnecessary oversight.

Especially in remote and hybrid environments, some companies have responded to uncertainty by clamping down: tracking mouse movements, requiring daily check-ins, measuring productivity in shallow metrics.

But surveillance doesn’t build engagement; it erodes trust. When you give people autonomy, you show them you believe in their judgment and value their contributions. 

I’m not saying there can’t be guardrails. In fact, autonomy requires them! Clear parameters and a unified direction mean that people can do their work in the way that helps them perform at their best. Thoughtful opportunities for collaboration and feedback keep the entire team aligned without treating employees like children.

And my own personal pet peeve: When a manager gives feedback that an employee is taking “too much” unlimited PTO, it’s rarely actually about the number of days they’re taking, but about the impact on their work or team performance. Focus on what you can see, not on the stories you’re telling yourself (or that others are telling you … we all have hidden biases that come out to play when we least expect them). If you want to create a culture of care, start by caring less about optics and more about output.

Care looks like flexible schedules, clear goals, and the assumption that adults can be treated like adults. 

People-first perks

Another shift I’ve advocated for is moving beyond one-size-fits-all perks to offerings that actually meet people where they are.

Think about flexible stipends that employees can use how they see fit, whether that’s for caregiving, professional development, or their home office (ahem, I might have a vendor to recommend). Especially in distributed environments, recognize that your employees have different needs. Some might have expansive homes with room for an office, while others might benefit from the use of a coworking location outside the home. A gym membership might be perfect for one employee, while another would prefer a massage. Industry conferences might not be the perfect place for skill development … or they might be! But there are not likely to be many perks that are right for every single employee — and you could be paying for things that go unused and unappreciated. 

Also, remember that we are living in repeatedly-unprecedentedly difficult times, and your employees are feeling the weight of the world. Offer mental health support that goes beyond an EAP phone number buried in the handbook. Consider providing access to flexible telehealth and nontraditional medicine, offering compassionate leave policies, and checking in to ensure that your benefits and work culture allow people to care for themselves and those in their lives.

Care is acknowledging that people have different needs and trusting them to decide what support looks like.

Consistency and equity

If employees can’t trust that systems are fair, no amount of perks will fix the underlying disillusionment.

• Is PTO approval fair, or does it depend on who asks?
• Are accommodations accessible, or buried in red tape?
• Does recognition go to the same loud voices, or is it equitable?

I love documentation — but I also know that people are not always going to read every beautifully-formatted Notion page I write. Keep your HR information consistent *and* equitable by varying the delivery (written, video, live, async) and letting people know how to provide feedback. 

Even (especially!) if you’re sharing updates you’ve made to increase equity, remember that honesty is best. Let people know if you’ve made changes based on feedback or internal audits, and help them understand when they’ll be revisited again. 

A good practice for communicating HR policies, practices, and programs is:

• Share what you’re going to do.
• Share that you’re doing it.
• Share what you’ve done.
• Repeat.

Care is also about ensuring consistent and equitable policies, effective communication, and predictable expectations.

Final thought

It’s tempting to think of culture as something you can buy: an impressive office, cool merch, quirky Slack channels. And that stuff is absolutely fun, and can create elements of your culture that employees will love.

But you’ll have more lasting success when you build systems that treat people like people. 

Care means being clear and consistent, equitable and accessible, communicative and compassionate.