Speaking last night at an event organised by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) in central London, Cheese talked about the importance of understanding corporate values. He added that, if culture is to change within business, then "it must begin with senior management".
"They [values] must be understood by the whole organisation, so if a senior manager went to four or five employees and asked about the culture of the business, they would be able to say their leaders are living to those core values," Cheese said.
At the City and the Common Good: What kind of City do we want event, Cheese also talked about the importance of "employee voice", which he said had been "suppressed".
"We've got to build a mechanism around employee voice that allows us to have our finger on the pulse of what really matters," Cheese said.
"The HR profession should have a huge amount to say on [corporate culture] – understanding corporate behaviours, corporate training, leadership, reward and performance measures.
"There is an absolute joined-up agenda with the finance profession to figure out some of these measures."
He added: "We are living in a period of time when trust in business has never been so damaged."
Also speaking at the event was Tanya Barman, head of ethics at CIMA, who told HR magazine it's going to need "another crisis like 2008" to make business realise it needs to "change its culture" and "become more ethical".
"Until the public see people face criminal charges and get locked up, their perceptions of the City will not change," Barman said.
She added: "It begins at the top and it comes down to what [Barclays chief executive] Antony Jenkins said, 'for a culture to change, people must change'."
