Creating Cultural Connectedness in Hybrid Workplaces

How do organisations achieve the right balance within a distributed workforce?

Keeping people deeply connected and aligned to the organisation is key.  Cultural connection in a hybrid working world is difficult and hosting the occasional ‘staff’ lunch won’t bring people back to the office or foster enduring cultural connection.

Most people thrive when the environments they are working in provide the uniquely aligned balance between intelligence and emotion – the intellectual quotient providing the right functional foundations of resource and knowledge to effectively and efficiently get work done and emotional quotient being the component for inspiration, motivation, value alignment and emotional and human connection.

With remote and distributed teams and spasmodic day to day office populations there are fewer personal touch points.  Cultural triggers previously picked up by osmosis or observation and ability to overhear, listen or pick up on the climate within an organisation has been removed or certainly diluted through hybrid work.  These simple opportunities for shared messaging have historically played a big role in cultural connectedness.

Organisations are now becoming increasingly intentional in communicating with employees – amplifying communication platforms to instil deeper richer organisational connection, reinforcing messaging that might a few years ago been transferred through ad hoc engagement in office corridors.   Carefully planned and tailored, leaders are adopting intentional communication to build and sustain deeper employee relationships.  Business and marketing plans reinforced with detailed communication plans new communication platforms and channels – an aligned investment equal to rethinking the physical workspace. 

We all seek cultural connectedness – shared emotional connection and a shared sense of purpose. The hybrid work world has ignited and requires a heightened empathy of leaders.

Consistency of engaging communication to maintain relationships and build trust and promote open regular dialogue between and amongst employees. 

Workplace strategies which optimise opportunity to create deeper richer organisational connection through both the physical environment and through leadership intentional in consistent, open, transparent communication are successfully achieving deeper organisational connection across hybrid workforce.

What are the 3 key considerations in creating cultural connectedness in a hybrid work world?

Fostering Community

The physical environment plays an important role in fostering community. Hybrid workplaces benefit and draw inspiration from the community areas we love and want to be in.  It’s important they provide “social infrastructure” — the places where people gather and build connections and places where leadership is accessible. Spaces which naturally support unplanned and planned cross functional connection from all parts of a business.  

Strong social infrastructure fosters contact, mutual support, and collaboration – they are the intangible benefits of office life.   Great community places have a diverse range of private and public spaces, creating an energy that supports our basic human need to feel a sense of belonging and purpose.  

Coupled with physical space, businesses are investing in the development of their human side and acting in more caring, empathetic and personable ways towards employees.  

Space Diversity

Hybrid workplaces incorporate diversity of spaces designed to support the needs of both individuals and groups and allow people to easily transition between both.  Cohesive environments that support collaborative and individual work styles where choice in the office (and not just between office or home) is an integral success of the hybrid offering.

Diversity of physical spaces reinforce opportunity for accidental exchange—the unscheduled conversations and chance encounters that often identify new opportunity.

There will be more collaboration in open spaces because of their inherent flexibility. Meanwhile, people want more control over their boundaries, and need more access to private and shielded spaces especially with the prevalence of video calls.

Less emphasis on fixed architecture and furnishings, and more focus on ways to easily adapt spaces, and be more fluid.  Enabling real time user led configuration and personalisation of space – allowing people to work in a way that suits them best.

Technology 

This is ultimately what the hybrid workplace is all about. Technology and space need to be considered holistically because that’s how work will happen.  

Creating intuitive easy to navigate technology platforms that provide an equality of experience for users regardless of location or space setting.  Whilst not replacing the value of face-to-face connection, technology platforms are facilitating connection and opportunity to build business community based on common interests and shared work experiences. 

People will only be willing to come to the office for the promise of community, relationships, and factors that enrich their careers.

(Accenture Life Trends 2023)