We are often asked by clients how organisations are successfully building and maintaining culture with a hybrid workforce. Our answer is universally “if you relied on water cooler conversations to build culture pre covid, chances are that your culture wasn’t as strong as you thought it might have been”.
A strong culture is important in any organisation, but it’s even more crucial when your employees are hybrid working. We have placed a lot of emphasis on supporting employees in a hybrid context, but in many cases, leaders have largely been unsupported in developing new leadership capabilities needed to lead a hybrid workforce.
Recent Gallup research found that employees who strongly agree that they feel connected to their culture are:
- 7x as likely to be engaged at work
- 2x as likely to recommend their organization as a great place to work
- 37% more likely to be thriving
- 68% less likely to feel burned out at work
- 55% less likely to be looking for a job
Leaders need to be more deliberate in how they lead and engage a hybrid workforce. Here are our top tips to assist managers in building culture and engagement in hybrid teams:
- The best way to create a strong culture is to be intentional about it from the start. This has not changed since the pandemic. Define what you want your culture to be and make sure that everything you do – from the way you select and on-board new hires, to the way you performance plan and collaborate – supports your aspirational culture. This also requires making explicit what a manager’s role is and what their responsibilities are.
- Leaders need new skills in leading a hybrid workforce. Learning these skills does not happen by chance. Leaders require new ways to communicate, reinforce team norms and to effectively collaborate. One way is to create safe spaces for managers to connect and collaborate with their peers to learn the new skills. Managers need to be skilled and confident in asking their teams what they want and need to feel engaged and connected. Managers cannot assume to know all the answers and co-designing new ways of working with their team is critical.
- The communication “rule of seven” applies even more so in hybrid teams. What are the key messages all leaders need to cascade. How do leaders cascade these through different mediums and technologies that are available to them? KISS (Keep it Simply Stated) applies to these messages. Don’t make them overly complicated. People are fatigued and need well written, clear and succinct communication. Make sure managers are skilled in communication before starting.
- Driving engagement involves connecting work to the organisation’s purpose. How do managers ensure that the purpose is brought to life in daily work? How do they link daily work to the purpose? How can managers intentionally bring to life the purpose, so it becomes integral in their teams’ ways of working and role. Making work meaningful to each and every team member is critical to keep employees engaged and retained.
- Successful hybrid workplaces differentiate the work done when the team comes together, compared to what is done remotely. There is a focus on what the employee experience is when coming together – how people collaborate, the spaces that are set aside for collaboration, establishing specific times to focus on collaboration. Bringing people into the office to answer emails or write reports will only leave people asking what the point was in coming together. It is important to involve the team in setting the agenda for these days.
- Create performance plans that include specific goals and focus on outputs that do not require micromanagement. Start with a mindset of trusting your team to deliver their work. Do this “with” not “to” your teams. Involving staff in setting priorities will improve engagement, particularly when you are focussing on the “what” rather than the “how”. This will support the employee’s wellbeing when they feel they have control and input over setting priorities and work.
- Career development and having regular career conversations about career aspirations and development needs is even more important than ever to attract and retain talent. Being intentional, that is, setting specific time aside to have these conversations is critical. Too often these conversations happen once a year and are bolted on to a performance conversation. Career conversations are organic, and staff need to feel that they have opportunities for growth and career development. The more often the conversations are held, the more that they will feel it is authentic and that managers are supporting their development. Gallup research has found that globally one in three employees strongly agree that they have had opportunities to work and learn and grow (p299). Starting with the managers means that they learn from higher up managers.
Gallup found that the single most profound, distinct and clarifying finding – ever – is that 70% of the variance in team engagement is determined solely by the manager (p12). Ask yourself if your organisational has done enough to develop the capability of the people that have the most direct impact on engagement?
Be intentional. Remember, keep it Simply Stated and don’t over complicate the solution.
Why choose deliberatepractice as your HR consulting firm?
deliberatepractice is an HR consulting firm dedicated to providing organisations with practical advice and insights into aligning culture to an organisation’s purpose and strategy.
We offer practical solutions that make a difference. More than ever, as HR advisors, we need to create cultures where people can be their best and feel supported and appreciated by their organisation.
Contact us today to start a discussion about culture and developing leadership capability in your organisation.