Importance of Culture: During and Post-Pandemic Work
Now that people are working mostly remotely, is Culture important to build?
The answer to the above question is a resounding YES in my view.
However, I will not be doing justice to this article and neither to you my dear reader without taking you through my reasoning of why it's never been more important for Organisations to focus on Culture even when their employees are working remotely.
Let’s first try to understand what Culture means, the textbook or rather the Google definition -
To sum up, from the definition above and several such definitions, culture is associated with the following keywords —
Behaviours
Way of life
Beliefs
Ideas
Customs
Social Behavior
Habits
Pre-COVID, it was fairly easy to see what kind of Culture is being built and course-correct, where required, as the outcome of the Culture, was evident when people were in office.
It was easy to see how people behaved, what habits they had, what were their beliefs and so on. You could sense what’s the mood in a particular bay, what’s the mood in a particular team, what’s the mood in meetings.
Human beings are social animals, this has been proven in the last 2.5 years when everyone longed for social connection outside their homes. When travel was opened, airlines were going full, hotels were going full even though the Pandemic was not over (even now officially Pandemic is still on). Remember the word “Revenge Travel”. It was a reality.
I remember when I used to go to the office and at times when I was having a bad day my Manager used to ask me — without me telling him — if everything was ok. It felt comforting to be asked. One cannot hide emotions when you are in person.
Managers caring for their team members, became a culture.
Starting the work day at a particular time, became a culture.
Not setting meetings during lunchtime, became a culture.
Not setting meetings which go on beyond 6:30 PM, became a culture.
Celebrating special occasions, became a culture.
Being at the office 5-days a week, became a culture.
Building relationships took precedence over being transactional.
Resolving conflicts and keeping win-win for all, became a culture.
But…
After 23rd March’2020 when the first lockdown was announced and overnight everyone became WFH (many till this date), the culture which everyone was used to, no longer existed.
It’s evident beyond a reasonable doubt that —
Workers are getting burn-out more rapidly.
Longer working hours even though commute time has come down.
Feeling of isolation.
Disconnect with work/Manager/Team.
Money no longer became the sole reason to work.
Climbing ladders was not the only purpose of being at work.
People craved connection.
People craved social meaning.
And eventually…
Quiet-quitting which lead to Great Resignation
You ask anyone who is even remotely connected to Hiring, that losing an employee and hiring all over is a massive cost, a cost which companies typically try to avoid.
Earlier the culture supported and restricted churn to an extent, but now in absence of a definite culture, there is actually nothing stopping people from leaving.
Earlier there were teammates, friends, and acquaintances…this was one good reason to come to the office.
But in WFH, everyone is alone.
You no longer could turn left or right or backward and speak to your peers. You no longer could have a water-cooler conversation.
You no longer could invite someone for a conversation over chai/coffee.
You no longer saw familiar faces in WFH.
You no longer had someone to talk to.
Your birthday was no longer remembered by your teammates and peers.
From my own experience, sometimes it used to take days or weeks to be able to talk to someone even if it was for a 5-min work conversation. Forget the luxury of small talk as everyone seemed to be on calls all the time. Forget those times when you could walk down and discuss work or discuss life, even if it was for 5 mins, it was effective.
It was not unusual that beyond work-related calls, people didn’t casually speak to their peers for days.
And this is not natural to us human beings.
And then things started to change..what was spoken in hush-hush became widespread… this cannot go on forever.
Something had to be done.
Culture had to be re-defined and nurtured even though people were not in the office and working remotely.
Regular weekly team meetings were set up.
Regular 1:1s for setup.
Cultural activities (entirely online) were begun to be set up.
Celebrations happened on a Teams call.
No meeting days were scheduled so that people can use that day to connect with their peers.
Birthdays were remembered and celebrated.
People were put first instead of work.
Boundaries were set up just like old days.
It was far from normal but closer to normal than before.
It all boils down to where I started—
Behaviours
Way of life
Beliefs
Ideas
Customs
Social Behavior
Habits
A good culture breeds happy employees. Happy employees are more likely to create products and services which leads to happy Customers. Happy customers are good for any Company’s top line and bottom-line. For this reason alone, Culture is STILL very much important.
In conclusion,
For Organisations which truly value People and their well-being, value People staying with them, value loyalty, see work beyond transactions and more of an exchange of energies…Culture has never been more important than now!
Culture is walking the talk!
Would like to hear your views on Culture in this post-pandemic world!
