Establishing and sustaining culture is the new challenge in a hybrid workplace. There is, however, an

enormous opportunity to remake culture and it is rare in a leader’s lifetime to have such a clean opportunity

to reshape how things run in your organization. Unfortunately, this is all new ground with very few

reference books or experts to refer to. You are on your own.

I have heard from many organizational leaders that they feel that their organizational culture has been

significantly impacted since the pandemic in that it has been changing since people have been away from

the office. An expressed concern was, “How can we cultivate and sustain our culture when people don’t

live in the culture?”

Some leaders are thinking about what a new culture and a new way of working might look like, and how to

perpetuate a desired culture in a primarily hybrid world. Others are saying that they need everybody back in

the office to preserve their culture. There is some truth to this in that environment shapes behavior and

while many organizations have had a mix of remote and in-office workers for some time, the pandemic has

shifted the environment quite dramatically. You can’t assume you’ll return to the same culture that existed

pre-pandemic. There’s been too much change, both at the individual level and at the organizational level.

To understand what hybrid workplace culture is, it’s important to take a step back and re-iterate what we

mean by organizational culture. Culture is the set of shared values, beliefs, attitudes, behaviours and habits

that contribute to the way people feel about their work. Organizational culture is formed organically over

time through

•  Top-down communication of organizational values, goals and expectations

•  Informal and formal interactions between employees

•  Policies, processes and rules implemented by management

•  Candid feedback about what’s working, and what isn’t

•  Providing opportunities for people to socialize both at and outside of work

Historically, all of the above culture-building activities have taken take place within a workplace setting.

Culture building happened organically from day-to-day interactions between in-office staff. In other words,

culture is both created and spread between individuals and teams due to close proximity. Remote and hybrid

work has disrupted the traditional culture building process. In a hybrid workplace, culture must be formed

and nurtured in a setting where employees are working in-office, at home, or some combination of the two.

Typical organic relationships, therefore, are not always possible, or may be disrupted due to people being in

physically different locations. This means that organizations who are looking to adopt a hybrid workplace

desired culture will need to find ways to mimic these processes in a decentralized work setting. They will

need to find new ways to communicate, nurture, and spread cultural values either via virtual channels or

during the short periods of time when people are actually in-office.

Organizations now have to account for many different “types” or employees, whereas before they just had

one or two (in-office or remote). Employees may now be in-office, remote, half in-office and half remote,

one quarter in-office, three-quarters remote, and so on. The concern with all of these different types of

workers is that they begin to think and act differently from their peers due to their workplace arrangement.

This can cause different factions within the organization to form their own cultures or vision of what the

organization is and can also cause friction in processes and workflows.

The challenge is figuring out how to create a unified “experience” for all employees, regardless of their work

arrangement, that achieves a single vision and goals for the organization and the sum of its parts. The

following are some suggested approaches for leaders as they look to build and support culture in the new

hybrid model.

1. Communicate About Culture from the Top

The first step in ensuring that culture doesn’t fall by the wayside in a hybrid workplace is to not shy away

from the issue. Culture will shift, it will look different than before, and it will require attention from

leadership. As a leader you need to engage in open conversations about how culture is or has been impacted

by the shift to hybrid, and what can be done to facilitate a smoother transition. Emphasize the importance

of culture and share your vision for the future. Organizational culture is driven by the employee

experience you offer. And while hybrid workforces experience their organization in a variety of different

ways, creating a systematic approach to nurturing employees and creating meaningful experiences at work

is key when people are distributed. Strategies for effectively leading in a hybrid environment need to be a

topic of conversation across leadership teams at all levels.

2. Create and Communicate a Shared Purpose

Purpose has always been key to organizational performance, but with hybrid work it is especially critical.

When people are in the office, they can feel the energy of being together and experience a sense of common

purpose by running into colleagues and chatting about strategy, customers or what’s new with the

organization. When people are separated, some of this may still occur virtually, but it will be drastically

reduced. You will need to be intentional about articulating purpose, discussing the big picture of the overall

goals and ensuring people feel their work is uniquely connected and necessary to the success of the

organization.

In my experience the happiest employees are people whose individual purpose in life meshes with that of

the organization. A higher purpose goes beyond economic gain. It reflects something more personal and

aspirational. It helps the people involved with an organization feel like they are making a difference, giving

them a sense of meaning and cementing their support while in a hybrid working model. What drives people

personally and professionally can be complicated, but you are in a position to encourage people to step out

of their comfort zone and explore how their purpose can be met at work. When both individual and

organizational purpose meet in the middle, a workforce can experience positive outcomes such as retention,

motivation, satisfaction, engagement, and productivity.

3. Provide Clarity of Expectations

The foremost reason that employees do not deliver or behave as expected or needed, regardless of whether

they are in the office or working remotely, is that their leaders have not adequately defined and

communicated their expectations. In the absence of clearly defined expectations, employees do what they

think is required or what they want to do, not what you want from them. With remote workers this situation

is magnified. It’s vital that leaders communicate clearly defined expectations — not only at an individual level

but at the team level as well. You need to clearly communicate the required results and deliverables as well

as behavioural expectations. In the new hybrid world, many corporate policies will need to be revisited and

revised to reflect the new dynamics and expectations related to desired culture. This includes everything

from hours of work, in-office presence times, performance and status reporting, availability and even dress

codes. Employees need clarity of expectations.

4. Hold People Accountable

Leaders who want to be sensitive to employee needs or challenges can sometimes go too far in providing

“space” for them to work through issues. While people certainly need empathy and understanding, they also

need to be held accountable for results, deliverables and behaviours. Accountability is key to an effective

culture because it reminds people their work matters, and it reminds them how important it is to the

organization and the team. If purpose is the big picture of how things matter, accountability is the mechanism

which operationalizes how the work matters. Effective hybrid cultures must ensure performance for the

benefit of individuals and teams as well as the organization.

As organizations give employees more freedom over when and where they work, accountability to outcomes

and results become increasingly important. Being in the office every day is no longer an indicator that an

employee is doing their job well, meaning the focus shifts to what kind of results that person is contributing.

Once result, output and behavioural expectations are clearly defined, you need to follow up to ensure

consistency of interpretation and you need to track the productivity and performance. With remote workers

you will need to increase the frequency of personal check-ins and you will need to ask specifically about

progress and potential challenges to achievement. Hybrid workplaces increase the need for leaders to

increase the rigor of performance monitoring and check-ins.

5. Ensure There is Real and Recognized Fairness in How People are Treated

Closely related to accountability is the topic of fairness. If people do not have a sense of equity and justice,

they will quickly lose motivation. It is important to acknowledge, however, that fairness does not necessarily

equate to equal for all. Practices need to be seen as ‘fair’ even though they may result in different practices

for different people. For example, not everyone will be able to work remotely on a full or part time basis.

Some roles require people to be present in a specific location to be able to do their job. While this is not

equal treatment the rationale needs to be seen and accepted as fair.

When people aren’t in the office, they may not have as many opportunities to learn about the goings-on of

the organization—the subtleties of who gets rewarded (literally or figuratively) or held to account. In hybrid

work models there is a risk of two organizational cultures emerging: one with strong in-person collaboration

and interaction, and another for employees who might feel isolated and where their sense of belonging and

purpose within the organization is lost.

It will be important to ensure you’re not unintentionally setting up “have” and “have nots.” For example, if

some members of the team come into the office more than others, be sure they’re not seen as favorites. Or

if some people are away from the office more, ensure they’re not perceived as getting more of the

technological goodies which will help them connect. Pay attention to your language as well: While “working

remote” may be an accurate description of where someone is working, you don’t want to inadvertently

communicate they are a “remote” teammate. Find ways to be especially sensitive and inclusive about how

you refer to team members and treat them.

During meetings if some colleagues are in the same room on a shared camera, it may change the dynamics

for those working remotely. Video chats are something of a grand democratizer of interactions; if we shift to

a hybrid model, we don’t want to hinder the gains we’ve made on inclusivity. Set norms so that people who

are not in the office feel included. For example, make sure everybody in a conference room is on their own

individual video screen.

6. Ensure Opportunities to Meet in Person

Just because portions of your workforce work remotely or primarily at home doesn’t mean they can’t find

time to interact in person. In fact, this should be a priority for any hybrid workforce. Remote or off-site

employees should be encouraged and have opportunities to meet their co-workers in person. This includes

regular times in the office when employees live in proximity to an office location or it could be quarterly

retreats, or more regular in-person meetings. The goal with these meetups is to create closer connections

between co-workers on an informal and formal basis. There must be time for casual chats and opportunities

to create team building experiences. Doing so regularly will help to create closer bonds between teammates,

which will help to make up for the lost in-person connections associated with hybrid work. You need to think

of the office as the new off-site, the place you get together to collaborate, think about the future and build

relationships.

In-office interactions should be well thought out, just like an off-site. Going in for the sake of going in is not

valuable and could be resented. People now see that they can be wildly productive at home. We need to

incentivize people to come back for a specific purpose, and to drive toward a specific outcome. Think about

location as less about control and more about events—so when staff are brought into the office, they know

that being there matters. It’s not just going to a cubicle and staring at a screen. Plan for carefully orchestrated

interactions, as well as for interactions that are less structured. Think about building sessions that bring

together different groups to try to uncover new ideas and new thinking, as well as to develop new

relationships.

When possible it is best to create a hybrid working schedule where staff are required to be in the office at

certain times. You should consider cohort schedules in which groups of employees work particular days,

staggered schedules in which not every employee’s start and finish times overlap and custom schedules in

which managers set a schedule depending on the team’s need to be on-site that week, or employees

choose their schedule.

7. Encourage Constructive Conflict

Successful cultures are not without conflict. People will always see things differently and it’s critical to provide

the opportunity to discuss and debate various points of view. With people at a distance, cultures run the risk

of conflict becoming less constructive. Issues may be buried because people choose to avoid them—creating

greater problems in the long run. Or issues may be blown out of proportion because people make

assumptions without adequate information—based on their distance from each other. With hybrid working,

leaders and team members will need to be attuned to potential differences and reinforce the need for

healthy disagreement—which is civil and respectful and can move thinking forward. Establishing protocols

for disagreement and making room for differences of opinion are good places to start. You may need to

encourage conflict by asking tough and sometimes sensitive questions that you know could elicit a negative

response but will get issues on the table for constructive dialogue.

8. Be Visible and Accessible as a Leader

One of the most important elements of effective leadership is when leaders are perceived as present and

accessible. This is harder to accomplish virtually, but even more important in a hybrid model. Visibility is key.

Often when leaders do not see employees on a regular basis they can be “out of sight and out of mind.” Keep

a visible list of employees in front of you to remind yourself to check in with each of them. Be intentional

about being personally accessible. Check in with team members regularly. Also encourage team members to

have close relationships with each other by pairing them on tasks and assigning collaborative projects.

Closely related to visibility and accessibility is the need for plenty of open communication and transparency.

When people aren’t in the office, they won’t have the automatic opportunities to pick up on what’s

happening—through hallway conversations or by running into colleagues in the work café. As a leader, be

sure you’re keeping people in the loop, sharing constantly and making a point to ensure your team members

are in the know about as much as possible—the good, the bad and the ugly. This openness is a primary

ingredient of trust which is critical to constructive cultures.

9. Develop the Capability of Hybrid Leaders

Leading a hybrid workforce requires a different set of skills and capability than traditional in-office leadership.

You will need to ensure that remote managers and managers of remote staff are trained in how to supervise,

manage, and coach from a distance, along with remote team-building skills. Leaders need to understand the

needs and expectations of remote staff and to recognize the legitimacy of what they may see us unusual or

unexpected.

Leaders are often shocked to learn of the high turnover levels that are being experienced and they are

confused as to why this is happening. Leaders in a hybrid workplace need to focus more time and energy

into proactively listening to what people need and want. They need to be listening to their people, asking

about what is working for them and what it not. People need to be heard and understood. They don’t always

expect to get everything they ask for, but they want to be heard.

One of the silver linings from the pandemic is that we’ve brought a lot of innovation to the way we think

about employees, their needs, what gives them meaning, and how that connects back to the organization.

It’s exciting—despite all the difficulties and challenges we’re going through. Create development

opportunities to help leaders develop the capability required to effectively lead in this new world.

10. Create Networks

Strong cultures have an intricate webbing of social capital—the networks of people across the organization.

Another of the casualties of the pandemic has been social capital. People are having trouble building it if they

are new to an organization or a role, and they are challenged to maintain it when they don’t see colleagues

in person.. To maintain positive cultures in hybrid working situations, leaders will need to be intentional

about encouraging people to build their networks. They can do this by connecting people across

departments, providing for cross-functional learning opportunities and creating time for people to have

virtual coffee or networking discussions with colleagues across the organization. For new employees is may

be a good idea to establish a ‘buddy’ system, someone to show them around. It is more difficult and takes

much longer to meet colleagues around the organization when people are in the office, remote or hybrid

and a buddy could expedite the process.

The most important thing to realize about hybrid working is the intentionality and effort necessary to

maintain culture. Nothing will be automatic, and it will be nearly impossible to have a positive culture by

default. Culture has always been a challenge to strengthen and sustain, but with hybrid work models, the

level of difficulty will be increased many-fold. It won’t be easy, but it will be worth it.

11. Enable Effective Communication Technology

Communication is at the center of culture building. As mentioned, traditional communication has been

disrupted due to hybrid workplaces, and replaced by a combination of in-person and virtual collaboration.

It’s critical that any organization that adopts a hybrid workplace model is able to maintain the same level and

frequency of formal and informal communication. To do so, you need the right communication technology

in place. Ensure that you have robust enough video conferencing, chat, email, file sharing, and storage suites

in place that allow employees to quickly, and seamlessly communicate and share their work.

12. Support Remote Employees in Their Workplace

Supporting hybrid and work from home employees is not as simple as just allowing people to choose their

working environment. It’s about creating an effective work environment for them. While most organizations

have allowed staff to bring equipment home, you will also need to consider paying for internet usage, home

phone usage, office furniture and remote technology. You should ensure your remote workers have

everything they need to work comfortably at home. You may have to reconsider your training methods to

allow remote workers to gain the same level of onboarding and upskilling as in-office workers.