Anand is the CEO & Product Owner at Amoeboids.
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The challenges faced by organizations due to the sudden shift to remote work in 2020 were unprecedented across industries. It resulted in a lot of trial and error, with plenty of issues to be addressed in terms of connectivity and maintaining business as usual. The most important of them all was maintaining the culture of the organization.
According to a Glassdoor survey from 2019, 58% of respondents said that organizational culture is important to them and rated it higher in importance than salary raises. No wonder organizations were losing their night’s sleep to establish their culture in exceptional circumstances.
What Is Culture?
Culture is the identity of an organization — it stems from a shared set of goals, values and missions. It exemplifies what the organization does, how it goes about the job and the reasons behind its existence. Culture is defined by the attitude of leaders in the organization, across all levels.
More than defining what culture is, taking a look at what it isn’t can shed light on the state of affairs in an organization. The dress code of the organization is not its culture, and it isn’t attendance or attrition rate (although attrition rate might inform about the state of the organization). It’s about the ways in which interpersonal conflicts are handled, how employees celebrate successes (their own and that of their team members) and how setbacks are handled.
The chances of organizations with strong culture succeeding are quite high, as their employees are positive, motivated and engaged.
Challenges Of Building Culture Remotely
Remote work has made it difficult for an organizational culture to take hold. According to the recent global CHRO study by my organization, the Upraise Research Council, over 62% of organizations claim to have reworked their policies to meet the requirements of the new normal. We also found that the ability to work remotely is one of the most important concerns among the employees surveyed.
Managers (or leaders in particular) need to overcome the differences that cause rifts in teams and inspire everyone on their team to work toward common goals — and they have to do this in remote situations. The physical distance, however, amplifies the personal differences and the workloads of managers.
Laying The Foundation With Good Communication
Workplace communication is not something that has historically been paid much attention to, and statistics don't paint a pretty picture. In fact, according to a 2021 report by Pumble, 86% of employees stated that a lack of effective communication was the primary cause of failures in the organization. The survey also found that workers who were effective in communications were likely to increase their productivity by as much as 25%.
But the situation isn't dire. Solutions to the common problems posed by remote work are as ubiquitous as the problems themselves. Starting with improving the frequency and quality of communication helps in overcoming issues and improving collaboration.
'Tech' The Right Way To Communicate
When it comes to adopting the right technology, you need to consider the nature of the workplace (e.g., 100% remote, hybrid or only remote by request) to the tools employees use and are familiar with. Managers have to consider many aspects before making a decision. Apart from the technical changes, here are a few steps that managers can take to empower their employees and culture:
• Help team members tie their goals to those of the organization. This can be done with the help of a robust goal-setting mechanism and OKRs. By helping the team members understand what the organization does and why, managers can spur their employees to find better ways of meeting those goals.
• Ensure regular touchpoints with stakeholders in the organization. This matters a lot more in remote working environments, as employees worry about the visibility of their work. Increasing one-on-ones with team members and making them a regular occurrence can uncover issues and opportunities.
• Prove organization-related updates to employees. This can be in the form of weekly or monthly communications that provide a bird’s eye view to employees. This way employees can discuss any pertaining points with their managers during town halls, daily meetings or one-on-ones. This strengthens the layer of approachability and helps managers understand the needs of their workforce.
• Enable employees to connect across teams. Create a culture that fosters inclusivity and learning. Including a sales team member in feature development calls can show what features developers need to target, which in turn, allows sales teams to understand the solution better (and subsequently market it better).
• Ensure benefits are equally distributed. This shows employees that their managers care about uniformity and treating everyone equally. Providing extra break time for those who have to attend to family matters during the day and scheduling meetings so that it is convenient for everyone are important because it lets employees know that their wishes and needs are being respected.
• Open up feedback channels to promote dialogue between leadership and employees. Collecting employee feedback regularly is essential for the growth of managers. A dedicated time can be set during one-on-one meetings for employees to give feedback about their managers.
• Start recruits with the "remote-but-engaged" culture. Managers can share the benefits offered by the organization with the new hires and emphasize the need to be engaged. Helping them understand the values and goals of the organization, making casual introductions to team members, etc. can also ease the pressure on those who are new.
Executing The Remote Success Protocol
Navigating remote work is equally difficult for everyone in the workforce — the number of variables and the chances of problems developing are high if it isn't done properly. There isn't a need to be alarmed, as the fundamentals of success for an organization are still the same.
However, the added flexibility of remote work provides a significant upside. A location-agnostic culture that is oriented toward success, can offer a lot more than work-life balance to top talent. It indicates an opportunity to grow along with the organization, and it can be achieved with a few adjustments to current practices.
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