Hybrid Cultures – Here or Anywhere
For years we have discussed organisational culture as something we live and breathe within the setting of our workplace. Leaders and their teams often refer to their organisational culture as, “the way we do things around here”. For years, implying and perceiving culture as what we experience, feel, and observe when we are physically in the workplace. With hybrid working becoming our “norm” and teams working with great agility and flexibility, how do organisations create, re-create, and maintain desired and aspired cultures?
Through inspiring leadership and engaged employees.
An organisation’s leadership and culture have been interdependent for as long as I have been working and for as long as I have been a part of any team – workplace, sport, education, and social affiliations. Many of the choices I have made around my career path have been based on the leader I would be working with and the culture/aspired culture of the organisation I would be “devoting my soul” to. On that basis, I have always taken the position that it’s just as much my choice to work within a certain environment as it is for an organisation to select me as their successful candidate. My work is one driver of job satisfaction, but the sense of belonging to a purpose and being inspired by my peers, leaders and clients is paramount to who I work with and who I work for.
Now, more than ever, leaders have their work cut out for them. Leading in times of uncertainty, where teams are working both in the office, and in many situations, virtually. Since covid 19, leaders have had to dig deep to strongly encourage their teams to return to the workplace with the intense hope of resurging that sense of belonging, purpose, and team connectivity, perpetuating their desired culture. So…. does this shift in our work landscape lend itself to building and maintaining a culture of performance and desirability? Absolutely it does! Not without hard work from organisational leaders, a clear sense of purpose, planning, creativity, and strong team connections.
An organisations and team’s purpose are becoming more critical than ever before. With agile and virtual workspaces becoming the “norm,’ employers need to be clear about their purpose and employees need to feel valued and aligned with the purpose and its meaning. After all, it is the enduring reason why an organisation exists, provides teams with a clear context for daily decision making and unifies and motivates relevant stakeholders. Ensure you live and breathe your purpose at every opportunity and embed it into the everyday culture of your organisation, through exceptional role modelling, strategy, execution, and systems.
Planning has always been critical to any successful business, but the hybrid environment has called for a shift in our planning processes, on multiple fronts. Identifying critical occasions when your teams should ideally be together, ensuring your clients and stakeholders have accessibility to their providers both virtually and face to face is imperative. Ensuring that leaders are present at the most crucial times and for the most important, engaging, and influential conversations. Establishing a presence for new employees and re-designing appropriate orientations for hybrid environments and make certain your employees and teams are present to not only collaborate, but to connect with one another and as “one team”. Furthermore, staggering your employee’s days in the workplace so you have the appropriate seating availability is important. Identifying and planning for these critical milestones, deadlines, hurdles, expectations, and celebrations will be the difference between mediocracy and an outstanding delivery and collegiate experience.
Working throughout the pandemic has certainly proven how adaptable organisations have been with creating flexible and agile work arrangements. These changes to the way we work have also proven that many employees can be more productive working remotely and prefer it to routinely working within the office space. Consequently, many organisations have found it challenging to entice their employees to physically return to the workplace. Creativity is the key to re-engaging the return of your employees to the office. Creative! How? Make the days that you would like your employees to be present in the office exciting, meaningful, educational, and opportunistic. Initiatives such as team meetings and events, morning teas, wellbeing services, pet friendly days, collaborative lunch events, creative ideas, and brainstorming sessions. The key is to make these events fun, engaging, productive and something that employees wouldn’t typically engage in remotely.
Finally, strong team connections will be essential to nurturing a thriving culture. More specifically, over the past 12 -24 months, employees have reported that whilst hybrid working has most certainly supported flexibility and has been conducive to collaboration between peers, leaders, stakeholders, and clients, it is the human connection that has been sorely missed. It is those spontaneous corridor chats and the huddles around a workstation, discussing key client issues, project management challenges, brainstorming ideas or just catching up on “life outside work” that is so obviously missing. Studies have shown that around 2-3 days of remote working is palatable across employees, but anything more than that has shown decreased levels in productivity and a sense of disconnection to their employer, team members and stakeholders. Whilst this factor alone is not enough for an employer to rely on, to entice an employee to return to the office, it is one important factor.
Combine the need for strong human connections with a creative environment, a commitment to planning and a strong sense of purpose, employers will attract and retain employees who will prosper in a strong hybrid culture.
The “new normal” is nothing like we have seen before. Something about that statement is unsettling, but incredibly exciting! The tide is turning and creating sustainable and desirable cultures is an impelling story we will eagerly follow, construct, critique, admire and reflect upon in years to come.
Belinda Fairfax
Director
Bel people solutions