Adapting your culture in a hybrid world
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Culture can mean something different from company to company but at the core of it you’ll find everyone working towards a common goal, a common goal surrounded by values, beliefs and attitudes. The difference between a positive and negative culture in the workplace is vast and those companies who are able to connect their brand with a positive culture are going to find themselves at the front of the queue for the top talent.
Culture is an ever-evolving core focus for a company and like everything else in the last couple of years, the pandemic has had its influence. What often felt like a shared value, belief or attitude before the pandemic quickly became more isolated as employees experienced a different way of working. Suddenly the workplace culture included the employee’s home and their family and for some, this newly discovered work-life balance would be a hard one to ignore.
As life steadily returns to that experienced pre-pandemic, we are seeing three groups emerge. There are employees who are excited to return to the office full time, there are those who want to remain as home workers and then there are the employees who want to have flexibility around how often they are in the office. From a culture perspective, this presents a new challenge for employers and there will not be a perfect solution for everyone.
While there will not be a perfect solution, the benefits of having a positive culture are clear. The positivity it brings can lead to increased performance, retention, morale, productivity and so much more. In contrast, a negative culture can lead to increased stress, anxiety, poor performance and high turnover rates.
Culture is an incredibly important part of every companies employee value proposition (EVP) and if employees are unable to connect at the base level of the EVP, they will not be able to share the same values, beliefs and attitudes to work towards the common goal.
As an employer, it benefits you to have a clear vision of what you want your culture to be and to communicate it effectively. Often the direction of culture comes from the top of the organisation and so a belief in the vision is an absolute must from the c-suite. Employees buy into cultures that align with their values, a place where they feel trusted and treated fairly. Any ambiguity or a lack of clear focus in any cultural vision can lead to new talent disregarding the business or lead to existing talent looking for the exit.
Losing talent can be difficult but if both the employee and the employer aren’t able to connect and share the same value or purpose, there is always going to be that cultural disconnect and both could benefit by finding someone or somewhere respectively that aligns with their cultural vision.
Building a culture requires buy in from everyone and below are some ideas on how to reach as many of the workforce as possible in the face of new challenges:
Communication
Make sure to communicate to your employees regularly. Sharing positive news from around the company, whatever that might be, makes employees feel included in the success story of the company. Top areas of interest currently include diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and environmental, social and governance (ESG) so be sure to communicate all efforts in these areas.
Digital
Investing in technology to ensure you can communicate via a number of methods has never been so important. Not everyone will be in the office or on site all of the time so there needs to be avenues for those who can’t attend meetings or access the same information. This can include intranets, benefit platforms, webinars, regular business update online meetings or social apps.
Promote Purpose
Be sure to promote your cultural vision. Making employees feel they are part of something bigger can help drive performance by giving their role a greater sense of purpose. Seek input from various working groups within the business so they feel a stronger connection to that purpose.
Innovate
Loss of innovation is probably the greatest fear companies have when it comes to the hybrid-working model. Clear and regular innovation sessions or focuses should be high on agendas so creative thinkers can continue to operate at expected levels.
Progression
The opportunity to progress via clear pathways should always be present for employees, never more so than when employees are working in different locations and leader visibility is reduced. Key measurements of performance should be installed and discussed regularly so progression is not hindered.