It makes sense that leaders are worried about how remote and hybrid work may affect corporate culture. After all, how can new hires pick up on established work practices if they aren’t seated next to each other? If employees no longer cross paths in the workplace, how can you strengthen shaky bonds between them? Furthermore, given that remote workers in various time zones are “always on,” how can you promote a healthier work-life balance?
However, a lot of workers who worked remotely during the epidemic want to keep their remote freedom and flexibility, and with the competitive labor market, they can usually find new employers that will allow it. Therefore, while thinking about going back to work, how could management draw in and keep top talent?
The good news is that “healthy company culture” and “remote work” can coexist together. This is actually a game-changing moment: managers have a rare chance to reconsider flexible work arrangements and establish a productive workplace independent of employees’ whereabouts. Organizations must intentionally design their culture and implement technologies and processes that facilitate teamwork, rather than relying on individual workers to figure it out on their own.
What Is Company Culture?
However, let’s start with the fundamentals before discussing remote work culture: what does “company culture” actually mean? According to our definition, culture is an emergent aspect of human interaction that is influenced by the environment, goals, tactics, systems, and structures of the organization. Let’s dissect that:
Cultures are organic and are an emergent trait. They appear. However, they can also be purposefully constructed. When it comes to their shared behaviors, values, attitudes, beliefs, and presumptions, people may and should be deliberate, responsible, and considerate. This implies that individuals can be empowered to create the culture they desire, but they must adopt a comprehensive perspective.
Additionally, businesses may have subcultures that reflect various norms, values, and beliefs. This diversity, in our opinion, is essential and valued—your legal team should act differently than, for example, a creative discipline. Promoting constructive communication and cooperation between various cultures is essential.
Of interpersonal interaction: Your employees’ interactions with one another are the primary factor that creates your culture. Naturally, everything from corporate policy (implicit or explicit) to society conventions affects how they interact.
Creating a Culture That Supports Office Work, Remote Work, and Everything Else
Employees generally struggle with specific sorts of tasks and skill sets required for remote work, according to a closer examination of the “Systems” domain—again, the meetings, decision-making procedures, tools, and conventions that employees adopt to get things done. The most difficult tasks for remote working are those that call for innovation or teamwork, or, to put it another way, arguments and disputes. Even if these conversations are essential to advancing the work, remote workers often avoid them because they lack the technology and conventions to have them. However, working remotely can still create other business-related tasks just as well and actually allow for more attention and concentration.
Restoring Social Contact When Face-to-Face Communication Is Unfeasible
System adaptation is a useful but insufficient step in creating a better corporate culture. Going back to how we defined culture, we can see that it is an emerging characteristic of social interaction. The fact that employees are frequently expected to build professional relationships with persons they have never met in person presents managers with a unique challenge these days. Even while compensation is feasible, virtual collaboration, celebrations, and onboarding are challenging enough. Those stressful but crucial times in a team’s life, such as conflict, harsh criticism, or painful discussions about structural problems, are the most difficult.
What Qualifies as an Effective Remote Culture?
More businesses will be receptive to flexible and alternative work arrangements now that executives are aware after using Controlio that workers can work from home while maintaining, if not increasing, trust and productivity. However, CEOs who have spent their whole professional careers in an office setting may find it most difficult to break old behaviors. You must carefully and consciously evaluate your culture and choose how your company should change if you want to make the most employees happy at work.