As companies embrace hybrid and remote work, human resource departments have begun to reorganize their priorities. When asked what they saw as their primary role in their organizations in 2021, 65 percent of HR professionals pointed to “keeping employees engaged and building a supportive company culture,” according to a recent survey. This represents a 21 percent increase from 2020.
HR teams are desperate
to protect and maintain company culture because it’s a direct reflection of an organization’s core values. These values define reputation within the industry and among potential clients. To create an authentic culture and improve employee engagement, a company must actively support the values it advertises, rather than just tossing them around as buzzwords.
The remote work experience hasn’t been universal. Some employees have found themselves working from home alongside partners, children and pets. Others have gone months living and working in isolation. Recently, some companies have started reopening their physical offices. But while some workers have returned to their cubicles, others are still working remotely. In short, employees are not inhabiting the same physical space or sharing the same external or personal factors.
This lack of common
ground can cause employees to feel unmoored and disconnected from not only their teammates, but their company as a whole. Companies must adopt greater flexibility, transparency, and empathy to provide each employee with the unique support their circumstances demand.
HR professionals can start by asking questions like “How are you doing?” and “What can our company do to better support you?” They should take care to actively listen to the answers. The next step – taking action to drive overseas data change – may seem daunting, but unified communications (UC) tools can be harnessed to build an inclusive and authentic work culture independent of a physical location.
Replacing the Physical Workplace with a Collaborative Space
What’s the first thing that comes to detailed research into keywords mind when attempting to define “corporate culture”? The physical office looms large in the conversation. Historically, the workplace environment has had an outsized influence on corporate identity, employee productivity, job satisfaction and morale.
Offices with snazzy perks like ping pong tables and lunch time sports leagues encouraged a fun company culture, where employees could make connections through some light-hearted competition. Some companies equipped their spaces with nap vietnam data rooms and yoga studios, thus promising a company culture based on wellness and mental health.
Yet, organizations transitioning
to hybrid or even fully remote work can’t rely on physical spaces and in-person activities to create company culture anymore. But that doesn’t mean supporting employee happiness or wellness should fall by the wayside.
Realistically, an authentic company culture today looks very different from the pre-pandemic one. The needs and values of employees have evolved. Rather than speculating on ways to revive the old culture and re-create it, companies should be using employee input to visualize and create a new culture that transcends the confines of physical space.
How to Create an Authentic Company Culture using UC
Of the organizations that indicated significant transformation since the beginning of 2020, 75 percent reported they expect to be significantly more reliant on remote work, according to a recent survey. Not surprisingly, 69 percent also said they expect to be significantly more reliant on technology for internal collaboration. Unified communications tools can help companies achieve workplace equitability in a hybrid work environment by providing all employees, regardless of location, with equal opportunities to collaborate, thereby supporting an inclusive company culture.