Creating, maintaining and developing a workplace culture is difficult enough when your team are physically all together but as new ways of working have evolved how do you go about fostering a workplace culture in a remote working world?
What is workplace culture?
If you read our blog last week you’ll know that we looked at two different definitions of workplace culture. In the Harvard Business Review Vasundhara Sawhney defined it as, “Simply put, culture is an organisation’s DNA. It is the shared values, goals, attitudes, and practices that characterise a workplace”. Marvin Bower in his book, ‘The Will to Manage’, also described it as, “The way we do things around here”. Both of those definitions indicate that staff are actually working physically together, so what happens now that the workplace has moved online for many?
What is the challenge?
Back in early spring 2020 the working environment for many shifted dramatically. Statistics show that pre-pandemic 1.7 million workers in the UK worked primarily from home. Factoring in those who spent part of their working time at home increases that figure to 4 million. When you consider though that the active working population at the time was 32.6 million then it is clear that for the overwhelming majority of people the change to working from home was a significant change. ONS data from May 2023 showed that 39% of workers still wholly or partly worked from home. Given those figures it is clear that the traditional workplace environment no longer exists as we previously knew it and consequently neither does workplace culture. In their article, ‘WFH Doesn’t Have To Dilute Your Corporate Culture’, the Harvard Business Review set out the choice facing employers and business leaders when it comes to how they tackle workplace culture in a remote working environment, “leaders have a stark choice to make: do nothing, work to craft new ways of reinforcing the existing culture, or capitalize on the shift to remote work to profoundly reset the culture”. The challenge then is for employers to decide on the best approach to take for their business. That decision may not be easy though and there are numerous factors to consider.
Rip it up and start again?
Before making any rash decisions, it is important for employers to take a step back, assess the situation in their business and come to a considered outcome.
Do nothing. This could be risky or could in fact be the most sensible option. It’s been over three and a half years since the shift to remote working and if you have staff who either fully or partly work at home and there has been no discernible shift in culture then why change something if it isn’t broken? It could be argued that you haven’t noticed a shift because of remote working and not actually seeing staff face to face. By the same token your culture could be that strong and deep rooted that no matter where staff physically carry out their work, the culture you have established will endure regardless. It would be useful to carry out some form of staff engagement survey to gather feedback on culture but if you believe that your culture is strong, if business is going well and staff tell you that they are engaged and bought into the culture then it makes sense to leave things as they are.
Reinforce your culture in new ways. A company’s culture will be made up of a number of factors and by reinforcing elements of your culture in different ways to reflect the change in working environment you can ensure that you maintain a strong culture. If your culture has a focus on wellbeing and you previously had office buddies, mental health first aiders and other wellbeing initiatives in the workplace then they can all be replicated and continued in a remote working environment with some simple adjustments. Many company cultures are founded on open and honest communication. In a typical office environment when people are physically present that happens either naturally as people encounter each other or through structured team meetings or company briefings. Those touch points can be reproduced remotely with designated time in the working day for staff to come together informally online. That might be to share work related information or just as a social opportunity to chat about their weekend or other personal news. If there is specific information to share then employers should be explicit in the purpose of the meeting and it is good practice to allow time for questions and follow up the meeting with slides, notes and details of any actions. Employers can also invest in various apps and software that allows their teams to collaborate remotely and that helps to maintain a sense of team and a readily available means of communicating and working together. An area of concern for many employers is how to convey culture to new starters. Again, some employers have invested in technology to help with onboarding. They have created quizzes, videos and set up interactive sessions with colleagues, key contacts and sometimes a one to one with the CEO or Managing Director so that the cultural norms are shared and new hires are quickly and effectively inducted.
Reset the culture. Employers have usually worked hard over a sustained period to establish their culture and so fundamentally changing that and starting afresh is a huge step. It is a process that requires time, thought and investment. Consulting with staff will be vital if this is the route that an employer takes. Employers will no doubt have their own ideas and opinions about what needs to change and why, but seeking feedback from staff on what has changed, what the culture was, now is and why will be informative and should ensure a smoother transition if the decision is made to reset. Some element of trial and error may be required and creating and embedding a new culture will not happen overnight. Employers who decide to take this more radical step must be prepared for staff to leave as there will be some who for whatever reason feel that they don’t fit into the new culture and it is no longer for them. That’s fine and perfectly normal, it is essential though when recruiting replacements that the new cultural values and behaviours form part of the selection process so that new hires demonstrate that they are able to integrate easily.
What next?
How businesses work and the environment in which they operate will continue to evolve and this evolution will keep on presenting challenges for workplace culture. It is therefore crucial that employers recognise this and have an appreciation that they need to pay attention to their culture and not just let it drift. If the last few years have taught us anything at all it is that we often have no idea what is around the corner. Business owners therefore need to be agile, be open minded and having a willingness and an ability to flex their culture in order for it to survive and underpin a successful company.
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Why not also check out our blog on a similar topic How To Measure Employee Engagement
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