Remote work and company culture: defining your values
Remote work and its effect on company culture is an important topic for companies deciding whether to include remote work options for their employees. After a year of ad hoc work from home, companies are feeling the impact on the company culture. It’s no surprise that one of my most requested workshops is about this topic: How can we protect our company culture in a remote environment?
The truth is, you can’t protect your company culture.
With new work realities, your company culture will necessarily shift. Focus on your values instead, to make sure the shift reflects these values.
Culture is what people do and feel, how they interact and what they share. The physical environment has a huge influence on these activities. Hence, moving from in-office to hybrid or fully remote will necessarily change how people relate, how they work, and how they interact. This is expected. You'll need to find alternatives for those routines and habits that are anchored to the office. Instead of protecting the office, create new habits and ideas that continue to reflect your company values.
Values manifest through company culture
The question, then, is not how to protect company culture. The real question is how to adapt company culture so that your values continue to be represented. The same applies to your leadership values, or even to your work values.
Values like openness or transparency might translate into an open office and shared lunch breaks. A value like productivity or work-life balance might manifest as flexible start hours, or the policy for everyone to leave by a certain hour. Social connection as a value might be strengthened through after work activities or a creative break room at work.
Values are expressed in activities, and these activities need to adapt.
What are your values, personally, and on a company level? How can you create an environment that is conducive to expressing these values? If you value the strong connection between people, create spaces where they can get to know each other (the hot seat is an example). If you value openness, start sharing your ideas on an internal blog or messaging board, and invite others to follow suit. Culture is something we create together. Make sure to create a framework that enhances the values you believe in.