See how you’re feeling about your culture by using this pulse check. Also, receive a free downloadable guide with some tips and practices in some key areas (Leadership, Inclusion, Wellbeing, Work Structure, Employee Experience, Change, and Technology). We defined these areas based on recent research and experience in growing cultures that are ready for hybrid work.
“Hybrid Work,” refers to an environment that allows flexibility in how and where work takes place. The “Hybrid Culture,” is about the behaviors, practices, values and structures that will help people feel connected, valued, and free to be their best.
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To support teams and grow a thriving culture, leaders should start or continue:
Inviting many voices in decision making instead of making decisions alone
Embracing an agile/entrepreneurial “change can start anywhere” model
Making sure values and purpose are at the root of all decisions and behaviors
Having regular empathetic conversations with employees
Avoiding being gatekeepers of information
Re-evaluating how to measure what truly matters
A more diverse and remote workforce is seeking new ways to feel valued, seen, and heard. This requires:
Creating conditions for belonging and psychological safety
Practice inclusion in daily actions and behaviors (ex. Inviting people into informal conversations; including in decision-making, etc.)
Making sure business processes are inclusive (planning, design, delivery, measurement)
Regularly celebrating and supporting differences both publicly and privately
Going beyond diversity and inclusion training by having frequent conversations with employees about what's working and what can change
Creating equal opportunities for career development, promotion, and recognition
Burnout and wellbeing were a key focus before and during the pandemic. Teams and leaders need to be responsible for:
Learning skills and behaviors (eg. empathy) to recognize and address mental health issues (burnout, stress, depression, and anxiety)
Supporting people’s whole lives inside and outside of work
Making work flexible wherever possible (designing work around life instead of life around work)
Truly appreciating that wellbeing includes physical, mental, and emotional health
The way work is structured and performed is being redefined for a hybrid/virtual technology environment by:
Defining what work can be done remotely, and what should be done in person
Using technology to support work tracking no matter where it’s done
Creating new agreements on the ways teams communicate with each other (how, when, where, why)
Developing a learning mindset to experiment with new ways of working
Re-designing new work processes to assume people aren't in the office together
To attract, grow, and retain the best talent, organizations are evaluating what it means to create a great employee experience by:
Creating a connection to meaning (purpose, mission, vision, and values) going into the future
Designing work so that employees can balance their personal and professional lives
Identifying key moments that shape an employees experience from recruitment to exit
Going beyond helping employees to do their jobs well, by focusing on growth, transparency, inclusion, and wellbeing
Constantly inviting and listening to employees about their experience using formal and informal techniques
Constant change will require the engagement of everyone to experiment, design, and innovate by:
Recognizing that change is a dynamic and ongoing condition that business will need to adapt to
Realizing change can start anywhere with anyone with no set beginning and end
Letting go of the ideas that change only happens from the top down
Realizing that growing through change requires us to try, learn, and pivot our way forward.
Embracing change when the intentions are right instead of resisting it
Believing that change works when we do more than just hold people accountable
Technology will improve and be used in new ways to connect, collaborate, communicate and perform work. It means:
Using technology to support the way people want to work
Forming, testing, and revising agreements among teams on the best ways to use technology together
Welcoming chances to test out new technology instead of resisting it
Staying in synch, which becomes much easier, because technology is used consistently
Leaving behind band-aid approaches to technology