The Future of Work: More Human Than Ever Expected
If there was an award show about business trends for the last decade, the award for “Biggest Influences on the Future of Work” would be handed to the duo of AI and Automation; that is until March 2020 hit. At that moment, Kanye West jumped on stage and declared that “Yo A & A, I’m really happy for you, I’ll let you finish, but Remote Workforce is one of the most important influences of all time.”
While A & A are still very hot on the scene, news outlets and organizational groupies alike are zeroing in on what it means to have successful and engaged employees for the long haul. A recent IBM report indicates 83% of currently remote employees would like to at least partially remain working from home, with 58% of people wanting it to be the primary way.
I spent the last few months diving deep into all aspects of fostering company culture in these times of ambiguity as part of my time with Tale VP, a seed-fund focused on investing in startups focused on culture. This included gathering insights from tech summits, webinars, and articles all trying to develop responses to the newly changing tide of the workplace. To add, I interviewed over 30 startup founders and leaders about their take on building and maintaining successful culture, which led me to develop at least one rock solid conclusion:
Culture always exists, even if not on purpose.
That fact rings true for companies that implement any type of remote workplace; a culture will develop no matter what, and it’s up to leadership to be mindful and deliberate to ensure it forms in the way that is best for the company and employees.
To address this, I have summarized four key areas that merit deep consideration as companies think about adapting culture to the most popular new starlet of Future of Work awards — going remote.
Focus on Who Keeps the Culture
Earlier this year, I discussed the concept of “culture keepers” with Ohlay Culture Consulting, and they explained how so many people within a company that define the culture are usually not paid or hired to do so. This can include both informal positions (e.g. a person that regularly encourages lunch outings), or more formal opportunities such as company ERG (employee resource group) leadership. One founder discussed how they have volunteers on a “culture committee” that ideate and plan engagement activities. As remote culture becomes more prevalent while also being more foreign, leaders must equip these invaluable employees to include elements of remote and updated necessities of culture-keeping.
Not only is it important to update job descriptions with a focus on bolstering culture, new roles may have to be created to solely focus on ensuring success among teams and leadership within the new normal. For example, one remote startup founder I spoke with hired a Chief-of-Staff early in their growth to monitor employee needs and communication, which has smoothed all internal processes from their inception. GitHub has a “Head of Remote” title, and their sole focus is ensuring smooth digital operations and interpersonal engagements. In fact, Harvard Business Review mapped out 21 brand new roles that may emerge within HR/People over the coming 10 years to align with future-of-work needs. Keeping track and planning early for these emerging roles will ensure many of these newly necessary areas of focus won’t go overlooked.
Even the Events Playing Field
As stay-at-home orders lift, in-person events will likely re-emerge as a way for colleagues to connect, even if people are fully working from home; this can include major gatherings like holiday parties or company retreats, or smaller events like happy hours or team dinners. Considering the shift into remote, leaders must be careful to remain cognizant more than ever whether or not these events may spark a divide within the company. In order to maintain an inclusive culture, leaders have to take into consideration how leaning on in-person events can create a divided culture for some remote employees.
Having exclusive bonding events is a trend that has existed far before the shift in working conditions; as someone who stopped drinking several years ago, I consistently skipped on social happy hours until I realized that no other events existed that allowed me to form meaningful relationships like the ones over a beer pong table. One founder, for example, talked about how core their communal lunch table was to employees building and maintaining meaningful relationships. However, what does it mean when people can’t join in for a drink or quite literally, have a seat at the table?
This means that remote or hybrid connection and bonding experiences have to remain as robust and meaningful as ones in person. These can include trivia or bingo events, sponsored small-group remote lunches, and even common-interest groups meetings like book clubs. To add, special attention must be paid to whether there’s a splitting between those who attend remote versus in-person events. Hybrid events are one way to help mitigate a bifurcation; for example, having an in-person bingo game where remote employees can video-in and similarly interact with the team. This way, in-person-only events are just a few of many options, and there is less of a disconnected feeling within the company.
Lean Into Impact and Community
Over the last several months, the entire world was completely shaken on several levels. Not only did the pandemic unveil many instabilities and inequities in our society, economy, and healthcare systems, but the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, among many others illuminated a spotlight on racial injustice that had been overlooked by a majority of people for too long.
These moments of extreme stress and hardship have also shown a rise in philanthropic giving, and demands for social responsibility have pushed corporations to make major shifts to support equitable workplaces and racial justice. Under extreme times of stress, employees’ motivation comes not only from understanding their own impact within the company, but the company’s impact as part of the bigger picture.
One founder I interviewed discussed how his 800+ employee firm was particularly invigorated during the recent months by doubling-down on community giving, especially considering they provide an essential service during the pandemic. This has given clarity for employees to connect how their roles were part of the larger mission of providing accessibility for health products, since the company’s values were already centered on “building the business in service of the mission.” The reinforcement has made “culture stronger than ever before,” as stakes are particularly high now around accessible health for our country.
One way to move forward thoughtfully is to engage and learn from employees via surveys, group discussions, or interviews about the causes and impact spaces which resonate most. Not every company can be engaged in all socially responsible initiatives, so understanding what matters most to the people already at the firm is a great place to explore. Not only will this make employees feel more aligned with a bigger picture mission, but this will also give rise to opportunities for more meaningful connections within the company and to outside organizations that people feel passionate about.
New Spotlight on Leadership
One of the most resonating themes I heard throughout my interviews was around how imperative it is to “model the behavior and culture you expect from your employees.” Since the stay-at-home order, domestic obligations and rising mental health risks are layered atop lacking open floor plans and glass offices; this means modeling of behavior and expectations requires more strategic planning and emotional intelligence than ever. One CEO liked to “walk around the office and talk to different teams and individuals,” which is something he can’t easily mimic through the digital tools. Casual interactions require planning and time that is harder and harder to come by recently.
This means that behavior modeling and culture affirmation relies more heavily than ever on intermediary leaders and people-managers. Addressing this requires a two-pronged approach: first is identifying gaps and equipping leaders with the necessary tools and methodologies for ensuring adequate levels of EQ (emotional intelligence) and AQ (handling adversity), second is finding avenues to demonstrate these qualities among employees. It’s no surprise that building EQ and AQ requires more extensive coaching and practice; investing in leadership development for managers within the organization will better prepare them for handling uncertainties and potential friction within their teams, and bolsters the message that these skills are worthy of investment and attention.
When leaders and managers are equipped with the knowledge and skills to act in alignment with the needs of the overall employee population, demonstrating these skills and recognizing them widely through digital channels will help achieve a similar effect as when employees are in-person. Small gestures such as starting remote meetings with pulse-checks (a method I particularly liked from our facilitator this summer was the red-yellow-green scale) or giving Slack shout-outs for desired behaviors can demonstrate values more than hanging them inside the office walls.
The Future is Uncertain - Better to Prepare
The overwhelming shifts in culture due to remote work may not last forever, and on the other hand they may be much more extreme than anyone predicts. It has been glaringly evident from my own experience how impactful this transition can be; I am in the final week of a summer fellowship with PledgeLA that was meant to host in-person training, happy hours, and cohort bonding activities. Instead, we socialized and learned through Zoom calls and Slack. Nevertheless, much of the experience was incredibly meaningful and enlightening. This was primarily due to how thoughtful the organizers were in ensuring success, along with excitement among our cohort to earnestly engage around shared goals.
One thing is clear — leaders can best understand and adapt to changing trends through having a constant radar on employee needs through collecting and responding to feedback. We are all in this transition together, and now that uncontrollable circumstances have caused the world to take a pause and make a shift, it’s up to leaders to navigate what part of the future-of-work they want to occupy.
