The working world has seen a lot of change over the past few years. Being in the office full time has changed to a hybrid model of working – with some teams at home and some in the office. The challenge now is keeping a remote workforce engaged, not only
for a great company culture, but also to retain and attract new and diverse talent.
We know we can work remotely. We have been doing it for the past couple of years. People are accustomed to Zoom calls, chatting over Slack or Teams, and organising their time around their work days. We have the tools we need to communicate and work no matter
where we are.
This has also given us the flexibility to have a better work-life balance. However, now we see some employees going into the office a few days a week, while others stay at home. This creates a bit of a culture divide – how do you keep everyone engaged while
we are all in different places, using different mediums (from in-person to over Zoom) to communicate?
It all comes down to how we communicate. The ceremonies we hold with the whole company and being understanding of how each of us work is (and always has been) important. Consequently, we have to work on maintaining and updating our company cultures for a
hybrid-working perspective.
How we communicate
Now that we are allowed to live our lives outside again, the challenge we face as people teams is to not only maintain the flexibility working from home brought, but also juggling a hybrid world. We need to make sure everyone is still included and communicating.
We do this by maintaining an essence of our culture. Even if the way we work – from in-person, to remote and now on to hybrid working – who we are, what we want to achieve, and how we treat each other remains important.
Firstly, there needs to be a strong culture in place. It’s easier to build from a strong foundation, through the various different changes, than to try and create one as we move through this hybrid world. No matter the size of the organisation, culture needs
to be collaborative, open, and supportive with low ego and low politics.
It’s very important that we rely on leaders to be close to their teams and give them autonomy on how they work. Our approach helps to create multidisciplinary teams and cross-team work, which means people from different areas of the business get to work
with each other.
We have also maintained a certain level of flexibility and remote working to help our team in establishing a healthy work-life balance. Personal well-being cannot be understated. At the end of the day, we are all people and have lives outside of work – and
sometimes those lives overlap. Being open, understanding, and supportive of that helps our culture grow.
Even now, with some people at home and some in the office, our teams still make sure to get together to talk - and it isn’t always work-related. Having a virtual coffee with a teammate or catching up about the latest Netflix show is as important as talking
about projects and work to be done.
Ultimately, we need to remember the ‘human’ element to work. Even if we can’t go for lunch or catch up in the kitchen, there are ways to connect with others. For example, we use Slack and there are a lot of different communities on there, from cooking channels,
to books and shows, and even sharing pictures and funny videos of people’s pets.
Keeping the ceremonies going
We should not underestimate the power of a ceremony. An all-company meeting where we can talk about our wins, lessons, and our future plans is important to keeping everyone in the loop. It gives people a space to ask questions, raise concerns, and learn
about other teams’ work. As much as those in-person get-togethers, watercooler moments, and team outings are an important part of any company culture, there is a way to maintain that virtually.
These ceremonies are now more important than ever. We don’t all work together all the time. Someone in the product team might not interact with the fincrime team, for example, and this is a way to remind us that we are not alone. We have team members and
wonderful colleagues who still strive for a common goal even if we don’t share the same space.
This helps to foster a culture of collaboration and openness. Hearing about the amazing work marketing is doing, or the new features product is building, or even the team get-together people are planning is a great way to include everyone. We are all working
towards the same goal – but sometimes that gets lost when we’re all working in separate teams. This is important in a hybrid working world.
Even though companies have gone through a lot of changes the past few years – from having to get a fully remote setup ready, to slowly coming back to the office again – hybrid working can work. It all starts with culture. Being able to listen to your employees,
understand their needs and how you can help goes a long way in maintaining and growing that culture. With the willingness to openly communicate and collaborate, any company, no matter their size, can succeed.