Cultural Disruption: How to Build Culture in the Hybrid Workplace

Culture can be defined as “the tacit social order of an organisation: It shapes attitudes and behaviours and defines what is encouraged, discouraged, accepted, or rejected within a group”.

When company culture aligns with its employees’ personal values, drivers, and needs, culture can unleash tremendous energy, discretionary effort, and organisational success1. Companies with healthy culture, including engagement, purpose and vision, have three times greater returns to their shareholders2.

It’s a company’s job to get employees to fall in love with the experience of working there. It is not the job of the employees to fall in love with the company. Misalignment with culture, values, or behaviours, feeling under-valued or seeing others being under-valued, erode the company culture and are key factors in diminishing employee engagement and retention. In the new world of hybrid working with less face-to-face contact, how do we build culture and trust? This article explores this rare opportunity to re-shape culture.

Culture Change is a “Muscle That Requires Building”

Some of the biggest names in the corporate world have declared that they’re radically changing their way of working in response to the changes we are facing because of the pandemic. Microsoft, Twitter, Spotify, Facebook and Atlassian are just a few of the high-profile companies that are moving to a culture of choice in terms of where people base themselves. Many companies have experienced the benefits of remote working whilst others function better in an office setting. There is no one-size fits-all solution and we are seeing organisations explore the optimal mix that suits their business, whether this is remote, office based or a hybrid working arrangement.

Resilient organisations that thrived through the shift to remote working and now with hybrid working, are being described as a “new muscle that must be developed rather than a plan with a fixed timeline”3. At ChapmanCG that analogy is resonating. Developing an approach on where and when work gets done is much like our physical health in that we are all in various stages and a work in progress. There is no playbook for managing this change with many approaching the challenge with a continuous improvement mindset, or one that involves constantly building organisational muscle.

Building the best culture for an organisation requires a people and culture strategy that pays attention to the opportunities and risks arising from hybrid working4.

Top 5 Opportunities for Cultural Transformation