Hybrid working? Strengthen the organisational culture!
Organisational culture is demonstrated by how your employees interact, but what if hybrid working has severely limited such interactions? Watering down your organisational culture isn’t an option of course, so instead use these 8 tips to help get started on making your organisational culture stronger and more explicit.
Organisational culture is about the way your organization does things: how the employees interact with one another, how decisions are made, what’s important, what isn’t. The collective mindset. How does it feel to work and walk around there? Such feelings primarily come from conversations, stories and behavior.
Strong organisational culture
Having a strong organisational culture ensures that the organistion has the right DNA and remains attractive to applicants, that a tighter bond exists between employees and the organisation, and that the strategic mission, vision, values, goals and outcomes constitute a logical, coherent whole. A good match ensures that employees can perform and grow to the best of their abilities, just like the organisation.
Hybrid working
What should you do if hybrid working makes all of this more difficult? If there are fewer opportunities for culture-transfers? If employees meet less frequently and their online interactions have become superficial and workaday? And if the glue threatens to come unstuck and the organisation to start separating like so many grains of sand? In such cases you must make the organisational culture stronger and more explicit.
Organisational culture stronger and more explicit: 8 tips
1.Clearly establish culture cornerstones and ‘walk the talk’
Step one is to check whether your culture cornerstones – purpose, vision, core values, customer promise – are clear and translate into behavior. Are these cornerstones actually being pursued? ‘Walk the talk’ starts at the top of the organisation, with hybrid working allowing it to spread a bit wider.
You must frequently reaffirm the culture cornerstones in communications, job vacancy texts, messages from the CEO and during onboarding. One example is to combine moments of appreciation for employees with some inspirational writings about the organisation’s values. Introduce variety to activities that are given extra attention and meaning and create surprising effects.
Let emotions be felt
Culture is also ‘how it feels’. How do want employees to feel when engaging with the organisation? Appreciated? Challenged? Respected or proud? Compared to competitors, how does your organisation want to be unique and known? Translate that into behavior and actions suitable for your colleagues.
Explicit employership
What kind of employer do you want to be? What reputation do you want to have on the job market? Why do employees work for your organisation and not competitors? How would you like former employees to remember your organisation? Put extra focus on this in your HR policies and employment conditions. And be sure to measure it.
Celebrate successes
By celebrating successes you make it explicitly clear what your organisation values and deems worthy of celebration. Even small successes should be celebrated. Are these the successes you want to focus on? Do you celebrate them in ways the employees like? Do something that’s surprising, that employees will remember for a long time to come.
Build a community
Organisations with strong cultures focus on developing shared emotional connections and on giving employees the feeling they’re part of a community. A (digital) community can only be developed around strong common interests or (life) events.
When creating a community, let your target audience take much of the initiative. Do they value the personal interaction? Does it help them answer burning questions? Do they find it fun and entertaining? Can they express their opinions or ask questions about current issues? Let a small group take the lead. When initiatives succeed, you then continue building together.
Pride in the organisation
Pride in the organistion is a great culture enhancer, whether it be the products or services, customer or employee appreciation, or the organisation’s contributions to society. What can your organisation’s employees be proud of? Are you devoting enough attention to this topic?
Give managers leading roles
As with any change, the role leaders play is crucial to making hybrid working successful. In strong organisational cultures, leadership styles align seamlessly with culture cornerstones. Is this the case?
Do managers exemplify the core values, and do they convey confidence in and give space to hybrid working? Do they have a coaching style of leadership suitable for hybrid working?
Are newcomers given enough attention? Do the employees who come to the office feel welcome and engaged? Are employees valued? Is there enough opportunity for interaction, creativity and innovation?
Are managers and employees held accountable for undesirable behavior? After all, you cannot build a strong organistional culture if it is undermined by the leadership style.
Organize the office according to the culture
To strengthen the organisational culture, ensure that the design of the office serves as the culture’s calling card. The office space is a manifestation of what your company stands for, serving to reinforce that message. Consequently, interiors should express your purpose, your core values should be noticeable there, your logo accentuated and featured, and your products incorporated.
Have conversations
For the organisational culture to remain strong it must be assessed periodically, which can be done via surveys of course, but preferably in conversations with employees. Listen to their insights and use their ideas as culture enhancers.
