Coming back to the office can be hard for employees.
After nearly 16 months of wearing yoga pants with suit jackets, simple things like finding pants that still fit and match your tops can be trying. Add on the commute, uncertainty around safety, and a shift on what work / life balance looks like, well, your employees are probably stressed.
Great corporate culture is a key component to retaining great employees.
A healthy culture requires trust and connection to thrive. It requires knowing your teammates and having a sense of belonging.
As much as we have been effective wearing the aforementioned yoga pants and meeting over video, some things have suffered … culture may have been one of them.
So how can a hybrid work environment help build culture?
Many employees have moved, have a different agreement with their families on how work / life balance plays out, and may have found a sweet spot for getting work done which looks nothing like it did before.
Don’t negotiate on results but be flexible on the means of getting the results done. Having hoteling stations in office where an employee can work Monday, Wednesday, and Friday while someone else utilizes the space on Tuesday and Thursday creates efficiency and still allows an employee to share the afterschool pick up with their partner and still get their work done.
If your company requires less desks by having a hybrid working model, you can provide specific spaces for brainstorming in small groups, focused work such as writing, designing, or coding. Working from home doesn’t always allow for an employee to be able to have time and space that is completely quiet or designed for the work they need to accomplish.
By providing activity-based workplace solutions, you empower your employees to deliver great results, on time and unencumber them from the hassles of trying to create a productive space at home while their cat not-so-subtly walks across their keyboard.
People need people. As people return to office, ensure that your meeting spaces are open, allow for social distancing but still create social opportunities. People will most likely want to rebuild work friendships and create new friendships with the people who were hired over the pandemic.
The in-between spaces matter. The soft seating that provides comfort, social distance, and the ability to chat about weekend plans while drinking coffee on a break matters more than we realize. The small moments of connection add up to create a fabric of unified culture. When you know someone, and understand what they care about, culture is deepened.
Taking the time to ask your employees what they need in the post-pandemic era and creating a space that meets both their needs and your needs will be an important cornerstone piece of your culture as you come back to the office.
As Peter Drucker once said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast!”
Having an aligned, high-performance team of employees who have the flexibility to work from office, telecommute, and work from home while focused on the needs of your company will only produce great results.Want to start exploring what a hybrid model looks like in your context? Give us a call 1.888.230.2280 or pop us an email at customerservice@cdispaces.ca to talk about how we can help!
