Building Culture in a Hybrid or Remote Workplace

I’ve seen many leaders bemoan the lack of in-person interactions at their companies over the past year and a half. According to them, interactions at the office were almost magical, leading to increased collaboration, better communication, and high productivity. But I think if you took a poll of everyone not in management positions in 2019, you’d hear a very different story. Even pre-pandemic, many workers found the open office layouts, the constant meetings and email interruptions, and complicated political hierarchies in the office to be distracting and detrimental to productivity.

Now that the pandemic has radically changed work-from-home policies, what can managers and executives do to drive team culture and productivity?

First, set clear metrics for tracking productivity. If you’re concerned that employees will lose productivity without you constantly watching over them, perhaps you need to change the way you track productivity and distribute the workload. In most of today’s “knowledge work,” output is more important than hours sitting at the computer. Once you recognize what really matters for company productivity, set metrics around that. Employees who feel like their work is valued, and not just the number of hours they were logged in to Slack or the number of emails they sent each day, are more likely to stick around and produce quality work, benefitting the company’s bottom line.

Second, give your employees what they need to succeed. When working in the office, everyone had access to the same computers, internet speed, and IT support. Now, your employees’ WFH situations can differ wildly, impacting productivity and well-being. If you haven’t already, set aside money for things like comfortable office chairs, standing desks, faster internet, etc. for employees to spend to upgrade their WFH space. This was a benefit that many companies offered early in the pandemic, but it should be standard when hiring new remote employees as well. If you provided chairs, desks, computers, etc. for employees at the office, why wouldn’t you do the same for remote employees?

Third, trust your employees. A little bit of trust goes a long way. And if you can’t trust your employees to work without watching over them every minute, why’d you hire them? Remember that your employees are humans with vast capacities for creativity and problem-solving, not robots programmed to produce a certain number of widgets each day. Set clear guidelines, metrics, standards, and goals, and trust your employees to perform the job they were hired for without watching their every move.

With what many have termed the “Great Resignation” upon us, having smart, flexible, and supportive WFH policies is a must to keep employees engaged and happy.