The True Cost of Workplace Incivility: What HR Leaders Must Know

There’s an increased focus on organizational culture, and specifically on workplace incivility, in business today.

The best explanation of an organization’s culture is “the daily behaviors experienced by its employees, partners, and customers.”

Your company culture influences every person, process, and result, and a culture where incivility is tolerated has a tremendous impact, in all the wrong ways.

Historically, EEO compliance (or lack thereof) has been the most common way to document culture — and behavior-related impact in financial terms, with an estimated expense to businesses of $1.6 billion a year in legal and settlement costs.

Documented Business Costs of Workplace Incivility

While legal compliance will always be a major priority for organizations, legal but workplace incivility is increasingly hurting operations — and balance sheets — in ways you might not expect:

• Retention risk: Toxic Culture is Driving the Great Resignation (MIT Sloan Management Review, Jan 2023)
• Safety risk: NASA discovered that teams with high rates of incivility were 3.4 times more likely to miss critical safety checks (NASA Internal Studies, 2019-2021)
• Productivity loss: Incivility costs organizations $2 billion a day in lost productivity (SHRM Civility Index, Aug 2024)

Perhaps more than any other functional area, HR stakeholders are well aware of how workplace incivility can negatively impact operations. With this newfound emphasis on its financial impact, senior leadership is increasingly supporting efforts to ensure a civil, respectful and productive workplace for all.

Keys to Preventing Incivility at Work: Simplicity and Practice

To combat workplace incivility, the most effective way to set and sustain civil behavioral standards is to be clear, consistent and practical.

Start with a universal framework that applies across roles, making it relevant for all employees. Establish a few core principles (hint: your organization’s values are a great starting place), then provide tools that help embed those behaviors into daily routines.

Equip teams with non-confrontational strategies for addressing incivility issues early. This helps prevent lingering tension and reduces the risk of recurring conflict. If problems persist, ensure there’s a documented process to escalate appropriately.

One-time training isn’t enough. Repetition matters. Incorporate adult learning techniques like micro-training and just-in-time resources.

Reinforcing key behaviors within the flow of work and across audiences is essential for building a culture of civility and reducing organizational risk.

Like Any Change Initiative: Leadership’s Role is Crucial

Promoting civil, respectful behavior isn’t just an HR or legal responsibility — it must start at the top. Senior leaders set the tone, and their actions guide employee behavior.

That means visibly supporting the effort, setting clear expectations and modeling the standards themselves. If leaders don’t truly embrace and model these efforts, employees will quickly see it’s not a priority.

Engaged leadership is one of the most effective, low-cost ways to drive real change as you roll out behavioral standards and training across the organization.

An Investment that Pays Off

The above guidance on instilling civil behaviors requires more than just resolve; it takes a dedicated investment in time and resources.

Fortunately, just as incivility takes its toll on financial performance, the data shows that efforts to increase civil behaviors can yield surprising financial benefits:

• Microsoft reports that reducing workplace incivility led to a 32% increase in innovation metrics and an 8% reduction in attrition (Microsoft Workplace Analytics, 2022)
• Ochsner Health System documented a 31% reduction in medication errors and $4.2M in savings from reduced malpractice claims following incivility interventions (OHS Organizational Study, 2022)
• Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins publicly attributed $36M in annual savings to their civility initiative that reduced toxic workplace behaviors (Cisco Case Study, 2023)

While the above metrics reflect the direct impact of a civil workplace, HR leadership, as well as members of the C-suite, can also appreciate the less direct — but no less beneficial — results of having a positive workplace culture.

Employee engagement and satisfaction, talent development and recruitment, and even Glassdoor ratings are all improved by a workplace that prioritizes respectful engagement and actively addresses incivility such as bullying, rudeness, dismissiveness and other unwelcome behaviors.

Externally, the trend of positive impact from a civil workplace continues through improved feedback on social media and can even be traced to increased brand engagement.

The HR Imperative: Turning Insight into Action

For any organization’s decision makers, the data is clear: incivility is not just a people issue — it’s a business issue.

But that also means HR is uniquely positioned to lead the charge in shifting workplace behavior from reactive to proactive, from tolerated to intentional.

By aligning behavioral standards with organizational values and business priorities, embedding civil practices into daily workflows, and engaging leaders as culture stewards, HR can turn what was once an intangible challenge into a strategic advantage.

A culture of civility isn’t just good HR – it’s smart business. With clear standards, embedded behavioral practices and strong leadership support, HR can transform workplace conduct from a liability into a competitive edge.