The pandemic has created a bit of a dilemma when it comes to company culture. We are in the middle of the largest ‘quit’ phase in the USA with employees leaving companies and joining others, quite often due to whether or not they can work in a hybrid or even remote manner. The problem is that employees have stated their number one reason for working for a company in the first place is the company culture. And yet in a hybrid or remote work world, it’s very hard to build company culture.
And corporate and startup leaders are taking differing points of view, some demanding employees come back to work on a corporate campus, others are saying employees can stay remote for the foreseeable future. What no one understands at this moment is the impact of a hybrid/remote employee on the company culture.
Going to be an interesting few years as we sort this all out. Listed below, are some of the mistakes to avoid or be aware of in a hybrid or fully remote working world.The first potential culture-killer is your everyday internal meeting. After living on Zoom and/or Teams for over a year, we all know how to hold virtual meetings. Now, consider a meeting where half the participants are in the office, and half are at home.
you have a way to quickly pull more people into a spontaneous conversation? If some people simply aren’t available, how will you communicate with them afterwards? Or will they simply feel left out?Looking beyond day-to-day meetings, your overall team- and relationship-building strategies also might need reevaluation. Nine months into the pandemic, afound that 65% of employees felt less connected to their coworkers. Less connected employees tend to quit.
Behind the photos there’s obviously plenty of hard work, open conflict, and all the other facets of a normal company that aren’t so photogenic. But your remote team does not see this side, and they start to invent their own ‘shadow version’ of the company’s culture, one that is entirely separate from both them and reality. At that point, there’s no scenario that does not leave that employee feeling disconnected and dissatisfied. And so, they might become less loyal and just quit.
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