Hybrid Work: 4 Ways To Maintain A Positive Company Culture
As many companies navigate hybrid work models, another challenge is figuring out how to maintain a positive company culture. Without the ability to truly be in the same building or in the same room with your team, creating this culture can be difficult.
The good news is, that it’s not impossible. In fact, many companies are spearheading what this new hybrid culture will look like. One company, Zappos, has decided to be fully remote for all employees. Despite everyone in their company living almost anywhere in the world, they have built a positive company culture that their employees love and other businesses strive to emulate.
There are a few things to consider when creating a positive company culture within the hybrid work model.
- Does the company have an agreed-upon corporate culture?
- How is the company culture reinforced for the employees?
- Do employees know what the core values of the company are?
- Does the company have easily recognizable core values?
- Do all initiatives center around the company culture?
Think about the answers to these questions. This will help create, cultivate, and maintain a positive company culture all while working within a hybrid work model. A great tip is that every team can have its own unique culture and vibe too!
Here are four ways to continuously maintain a positive company culture
1. Communicate Effectively
It starts with building a good and clear foundational team communications culture. There are a few ways to ensure that clear and effective communication is transpiring no matter where your team is.
Designate your communication channels – whether you plan to have a zoom meeting every Monday morning at 9am or have a daily Slack check-in. Make sure everyone knows the how and where for communications.
Schedule regular check-ins – You may not see co-workers in-person for weeks on end. You may also not see your team members, so be sure to schedule regular check-ins. This will give you all a chance to catch up on no only work, but life!
Gather your information – If you are a team leader or simply a part of a team, you will want to ensure that when you are communicating, you’ve gathered all of the correct information. Part of this is simply connecting with other team leaders or co-workers so you are all on the same page.
Craft Your Message – Be sure to craft your message in a way that everyone who reads it or hears it will receive it the way you intended.
2. Be Authentic
Maintaining a positive company culture is dependent upon good business communications skills. And that communication must be authentic.
For most people, it is very obvious if someone, including co-workers or team leaders, are not being authentic.
Authenticity inspires loyalty and engagement.
Here are a few ways to ensure you are always bringing your authentic self in a hybrid work:
Engaging – Engage with others despite being in separate places! Don’t just put your head down and do the work. You need both performance and engagement.
Invest Your Team – Do you know your team? Do you know your co-workers? What they like or dislike? Part of knowing people is simply listening to them. This is even more difficult with hybrid work as you won’t be able to simply walk past someone’s desk on a daily basis to chat. So when you do get the chance to engage, be sure to listen more than you speak.
Emotional Intelligence or EQ – Having a strong EQ is one of the most desired soft skills that employers are looking for. So it is no surprise that a strong EQ will help you be more authentic.
In This Together – One challenge of hybrid work is that many people can feel like their part doesn’t matter because of this idea of being out of sight, out of mind. But, reminding your team that you are in this together is a great way to inspire and build close comradery. Sharing your difficulties and wins will help your team feel a part of something larger.
Authenticity will keep your team working together and can help maintain that positive company or team culture.
3. Connection Matters
In this time of hybrid work, many people can feel disconnected. Disconnection can lead to apathy which could mean less effort, but it can also lead to a high turnover. This is why it is so important to create a culture of connection. When you have a positive company culture, your teams, and your co-workers, and you will feel a connection to each other and to the company.
Starts At The Top – It is important for executives to know that regularly engaging with their teams can lead to more efficiency and a much lower turnover. Positive company culture must be shared by everyone. Having regular town halls can be a great platform.
Stay Positive – Part of having a positive company culture is to actually stay positive. There will be many obstacles that each company faces, but if you let doubt and skepticism seep in, it can turn a once positive place toxic. This doesn’t mean pretending, you can be positive AND realistic.
Systems and Initiatives – When planning out your work systems and initiatives, find ways that you can implement them with connectivity in mind.
Celebrations – Remember the days when everyone gathered around the breakroom for a celebration?
Whether it be a birthday or a new baby, it’s important to still celebrate.
This can still be done in a hybrid working model. You can use a zoom call to congratulate someone, or you can even put out a team e-mail.
Keeping you and your team connected will help you maintain a positive company culture. Not only is connection important for the culture, but it is also important for the daily work tasks. Remember, when you are focused on excellent communication, everyone will feel more connected.
4. Support Services
Hybrid work can leave a lot of employees feeling a mental strain. And many companies are listening to their employees and implementing support services.
Part of maintaining positive company culture is showing your employees that you care. And not just that you care about the work being done, but that you actually care about each and every person working for the company.
Finding simple ways to support mental health will go a long way. But the most important thing is to ensure others know about these support services. If your employees, co-workers, or team members are unaware of the support they can receive, it doesn’t do them any good. And furthermore, if they can’t easily access or share these resources, it truly doesn’t help anyone.
The key is having a strategic communications strategy in place for important resources if they’re available. Again, this is even more important for hybrid work.
Entering into a hybrid work model can feel overwhelming. It is still so important to create a positive company culture to ensure employee satisfaction and keep the company productive and moving forward.
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