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It’s easy to let company culture slip when you adopt a hybrid work model. You may have some people working from home, while others travel the world or work from the luxury of Melbourne serviced offices. Everyone’s schedules differ, and all that flexibility is marvelous, but how do you keep everyone on the same page culture-wise?
The following tips have been designed with precisely these challenges in mind, helping you maintain a healthy company culture, even if you rarely share the same office.
1. Clarify your vision and goals
Your company’s mission and core goals are the guiding force of your culture, so it’s crucial that your team is aligned with them. Explain how you hope to achieve your vision and reach your goals, and get your team’s buy-in and suggestions. Include them in the goal-building process, and ensure they can see their place in what you plan to achieve. They will, for example, feel far more involved in your goal to increase profits by 15% over the next year if you’ve worked pay increases or other employee benefits into the milestone.
2. Avoid the lazy option of tacky team-building exercises
Digital happy hour drinks and team-building games might sound like a good idea in theory, but few people actually want to take part in them. Even real-life work drinks can be a drain, especially for team members who avoid alcohol for health reasons.
If your company culture already has such things woven into its fabric, then by all means, continue. Otherwise, it’s better to give your team some agency and allow them to brainstorm what they’d like to do to remain connected. They’ll likely come up with some brilliant ideas that reflect who they are as individuals and how they complement each other as colleagues.
3. Let your team take the lead
If you’ve hired a diverse crew of talented people who all vibe with your mission and goals, then you already have the perfect ingredients for a thriving company culture. All you have to do is give them some cues and then let them take the lead.
Those cues could come in the form of surveys, one-on-one meetings, or team brainstorming sessions centering around the kind of culture they want for their hybrid workforce. Giving people agency like this is culture-creating in and of itself, encouraging your team to be creative, proactive, and engaged.
4. Put their ideas into action
Of course, if you drop the ball, all that engagement will soon dissipate. So, once you’ve collected their ideas, find a way to weave them into your structures, policies, and practices. Every team is unique, so this could mean adding virtual catch-ups and a buddy system to your weekly schedules, upgrading to a better communication platform, or any number of other things.
5. Find your place in the wider community
This can be a little trickier for large remote teams with members spread across the globe. However, it’s still possible to have a meaningful impact on your local communities. For example, you could use social procurement strategies to support small businesses around your head office. You could donate to causes that are important to certain members of your team or get involved in clean-up efforts after natural disasters. By caring for the communities around you and the causes that hit close to home for your team, you can develop a greater sense of cohesion and a strong and supportive company culture.
Armed with these tips, you can keep your company culture alive without imposing on your team’s free time.
