THERE has been a lot of talk about culture in the last few months, as we emerge from the pandemic and begin to reflect on what we want our culture to be in this new hybrid environment.
This is a subject McKinsey has been examining as well; and in this article I reflect on its perspective, and also share what some of our clients have been doing.
What is clear from all angles, is that the pandemic has provided us with an opportunity to review the challenges and opportunities presented by the pandemic-driven, work from home experience and to shape the inevitable hybrid workplace.
Now is the perfect time for all organisations to rethink, reshape and improve their culture.
Organisation culture is a shared set of attitudes and behaviours that affect how people interact at work. Workplace culture has a huge impact on an organisation’s effectiveness.
Healthy cultures create tremendous corporate value — including up to threefold higher returns to shareholders than earned by companies with unhealthy cultures – according to McKinsey research.
The question is not whether a corporate culture is strong, but whether it serves the employees and the business.
Before Covid, many cultures emphasised the firm’s work above all. The pandemic created an
opening for businesses to experiment and adapt their policies and practices to a new environment.
During this major global disruption, healthy cultures prioritised the needs and well-being of their employees, while helping them to continue to meet their production and profit goals. And we saw that both were possible.
As employees’ personal and professional lives converged during the pandemic they reconsidered their priorities and values. Working from home highlighted the challenges of work-life balance.
It also reveals which elements of the in-person workplace matter most to employees, and which are dispensable or, like long commutes, even detrimental. Remote work has enabled workers to reconsider the meaning and purpose of their jobs.
Employers now have the opportunity to help employees see how their jobs can align with their values. Leaders who emphasise their organisation’s values, need to pay attention to their individual employee’s aspirations, and remain clear and transparent about how goals and processes can reap major rewards, including greater employee retention, loyalty and productivity.
The future of the hybrid workplace must emerge from dialogue between employees and leaders. Employees now want a say in decisions about the balance among returning to the office environment, working remotely or having a hybrid combination.
Leaders should solicit and carefully consider employee feedback about the advantages and disadvantages of in-office and remote work.
Working from home offers great benefits for many, but may pose significant challenges to new hires or those learning new skills as part of a professional skills training programme, where a lot of the learning is on the job and spontaneous.
Now is the time to reshape hybrid workplace policies and corporate culture to accommodate what works best, technologically and socially, for the business and its people. Leaders should model these best practices and clearly communicate their rationale and purpose
The hybrid workplace is here to stay. Leaders must adopt new, appropriate managerial approaches. The days of wandering through an office and getting a feel for the vibe of the place — intuitively assessing body language and interpersonal interactions — are over.
Managers need to acquire tools and skills that can help them evaluate employee productivity and relationships, but that do not rely exclusively on in-person observation.
Going forward, companies have to get this right. A healthy hybrid culture is an overall plus for employees and for the bottom line.
:: Patrick Gallen is people and change consulting partner at Grant Thornton Ireland
