2020 was a year in which the business world had to learn to develop company culture online. We all know that virtual love and organic love do not taste the same. But sometimes lovers have to fall apart in order to meet again. During that time they have to feed their relationship with the energy of love to sustain understanding and maintain the wellbeing of the relationship. So, it’s quite alike in the business world. With the remote workplace, companies started to think about new ways to engage employees. Creating and maintaining a company culture is an ongoing process. At this point, the hybrid workplace stands out.
Getting their coffee before a presentation and a small talk in the kitchen or entering the office with “good morning” sounds all around are uplifting atmosphere both for employees and leaders. Or celebrating and congratulating after solving a challenging problem is a glue that keeps together the company and satisfies social desires. When leaders and peers support each other socially, this is the main subject that determines job satisfaction according to the research of Maria Helena Almeida, Alejandro Orgambídez Ramos and Carina Martinho Santos. After the shock of the pandemic, before getting adapted to it, the business world met a new problem called “digital fatigue” and with it, companies started to think about new ways to develop happy and peaceful workplaces, both for remote and co-located employees.
When imparting the company culture and core values of the company’s culture via laptops, webcams and e-mails superiors are in an uncertain exploration area and they have to think about the size of the investment of both time and money. Culture is willingly built and takes lots of effort to sustain in companies. New ways of working remotely may continue to an extent during 2021. At the same time, companies will probably have to find hybrid ways of injecting the culture both for co-located and remotely worked employees. This means leaders should find innovative ways and think outside of the box. When in an internet relationship it is good to have and give physical gifts like flowers and chocolates and notes attached to them for nourishing the relationship. It is the same for the company-employee relationship. When building and maintaining the company culture, superiors can fringe benefits like a meal order delivery from a popular restaurant for the whole crew and eat together in an online meeting. Or very basically taking a selfie during an online meeting and pinning it for cherishing the core values like togetherness. The office and the home-office employees are a melting pot. Choosing the employee of the month both from co-located employees and remotely worked ones, or arranging eccentric nominations like “The Most Traveling Remote Employee” may be fun solutions.
And when the pandemic circumstances are over with the help of the vaccine, employees who continue to work remotely should be encouraged to attain the physical office at least twice a month. We are certainly in fast-changing and dazzling times. To jump on the bandwagon, all the leaders and employees have responsibilities. As we said before, creating a company culture and adapting it to the time is an ongoing never-ending process.