How is it that so many companies try to achieve company culture, but so few rarely do? The lesson may lie in real organic culture, the petri dish kind. It grows from the bottom, forming slowly, building on itself, finally, naturally becoming what it’s meant to be. The truth of most corporate culture is that it’s applied, usually from the top. Memo: To all employees. Please follow the stated guidelines associated with thinking and feeling and if we participate, we’ll have excellent company culture! Which is a noble team-building idea in theory except the company is essentially asking all of its employees to rally around one idea and be in emotional lock step, leaving very little room for nuance or interpretation or any of the fantastic things that make us all unique human beings. For less sheep-like employees, it means either not buying in to the proposed cultural decree and getting tagged for it accordingly or complying by hiding glazed- over eyeballs during awkward team-building events. Which, according to studies, most employees do. Indeed, the ADP Leadership institute published a global survey looking under the hood of employee engagement, and what it discovered was that “corporate values had a very limited impact on employee experience.” It seems what really adrenalizes employees is to be managed well and have collegiality in the immediate group with which they work. Which, in the most basic way, makes perfect sense. If an employee genuinely likes her boss and the team of workers with whom she most associates, chances are what we have here is a happy employee. If you have a company full of happy employees, geographically centric or not, then chances are you’ve got a culture that you can be proud of. What lies beneath that layer of happiness is probably the most important strand of cultural DNA — trust. If your manager trusts you, you carry the weight of her expectations more easily. If you are trusted by your co- workers, you’ve earned their respect and feel viable in their company. Which leads to synchronicity and effi- ciencies, and smart teams which in turn make the whole organization run more smoothly. And while building trust is no easy task, it perhaps should be a higher priority for management than is found in most companies. Which brings us to another objection that management often has about remote work: If I can’t stop by their office to check in, how do I know my workers are really working? Can you, as a manager, actually trust your employees? And here’s a good corollary for those same
employees: You’ve been granted a heretofore unheard-of- in-work-history amount of freedom. Can you be trusted? Like the culture in the petri dish, the big fat caveat for any potential flex work arrangement is that it takes time to become its natural self. Employees will need their work area dialed in for office-like efficiency, and time to find their rhythm. They’ll require a full understand- ing of what’s expected of them including work product, deadlines and KPIs — and management has to be crystal clear on communicating those expectations, even more so than before. Calendar coordination takes on a whole new level of importance. Employees must now schedule at-home distractions like child care and school pick-up while ensuring management that just because they can’t stop by your office for a sidebar, it doesn’t mean you’re parked on the couch watching Netflix. Employers have to trust flex workers to responsibly choose their non-9-5 hours. Employees have to ensure they’re allowing themselves plenty of time — not just to get their work done, but to remain engaged and collegial. They’ll also have to trust that because they’re telework- ing from home that they’re not falling prey to “proximity bias” — a relatively new phenomenon where their in-office colleagues benefit from greater time spent around company leadership, providing them greater advance- ment opportunities just for showing up five days a week. In other words, if you really want to climb the company ladder, do you have to be in the company office to do it? And what about your colleagues? Do you trust them not to take advantage of your absence? Do you trust your boss to clearly see your value, even if you’re working remotely? Pretty clear that in the New Work Order, trust cuts both ways. To overcome that bias, management should be very intentional about including remote workers in all office activities to make sure that out of sight doesn’t mean out of mind. Virtual happy hours and water cooler events are really helpful as long as they’re scheduled well in advance so flex workers can plan accordingly. Indeed, research has shown that for successful remote work companies, beyond virtual social events, there are common practices that contribute. Employers who take the time to put together information, remote work protocols and need-to-knows in a handbook for remote employees cuts down on confusion and the fear of asking questions that may appear out of touch. Another successful practice is for companies to pair their flex workers with in-office colleagues from other sectors of the company, which encourages open and
38 Harbert Business, Fall 2022
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