Maintaining Company Culture in the new Hybrid Work Model

After almost a year of employees working remotely, many companies are moving towards permanently offering employees the option of working from home some or all of the time.  On the other side of this COVID crisis, a hybrid work model that includes the best of both remote and office-based work awaits many workers and companies.  What does this shift mean to your organization’s culture?
We know that company culture plays a significant role in bonding current employees and leaders, and in attracting potential employees. And company culture doesn’t somehow go away just because you’ve moved to a remote or hybrid setting. But it does change … now non-work factors can influence culture as well.  So, in a remote or hybrid setting, how do you maintain your culture?  The answer is a simple one – by reimagining routines and systems that were previously established in the office so that they now cover both employees working in the office as well as those working remotely.  These systems need to bridge all employees so that the understanding of the company culture is compatible across these employee groups.
 Leaders are critical in setting the tone for company culture.  They model behaviors and values to their employees, which are easier to see when physically together (like through dress codes and the physical settings that are fostered such as open office space or ping pong tables) but which can be harder to detect when remote.  They are also pivotal in maintaining or resetting the company culture during the shift to a hybrid work model.  For example, leaders at Infosys value a culture of concern for employee welfare so early on in the pandemic, they announced that there would be no workforce reductions tied to company performance … employees’ jobs were safe.  Leaders at Alibaba’s US Lab, value community and collective activity so they shifted their historic annual day long culture building activities to online and hosted a remote quilt making event for employees to come together and create.
Equally important to reimaging routines and systems, Leaders also need to create more touch points with employees. Research shows that not having the face-to-face office interaction creates a gap in a meaningful connection and that it might be harder to establish shared understanding. In order to safeguard against this drifting, leaders should be reaching out to employees more often, through regular events that prompt engagement and collaborative activities.

And let’s not forget new employees.  For them, the onboarding process dramatically changed.  While companies historically had onboarding programs for new hires that allowed for in person engagement, most new employees are coming into companies “virtually”, with learning videos and online meetings. Having discussions of your company culture values and norms in interactive sessions with leaders and teammates will help integrate new employees, helping them feel welcomed and gain understanding of the company and its culture.

The COVID crisis will end one day, but the future of work will forever be changed. A Future Forum study of knowledge workers across six major countries found that most employees want flexibility — while only 16% want to be fully remote, only 12% want to return to working in the office five days a week. A clear majority of 72% want the option of working within a hybrid remote-office model. They want to avoid the commute and have better work-life balance. We need to recognize that culture is evolving despite being remote and companies need to invest time and energy to keeping their culture “on track” or steering them in a new direction. 

As a leader, you will need to start thinking about how you want your employees to “re-enter” the office environment and what your culture will look like. See how Renewed HR can help you build and maintain a strong culture for your employees as we begin to prepare for the “new normal” work setting.