Purpose in a Hybrid World: How to Strengthen Culture, Belonging, and Connection
It’s fair to say that the pandemic changed our workplaces forever. But the nuances of those changes are dynamic and continuously shifting as companies around the globe grapple with decisions about the “future of work”.
We are living through the next big shift in work. Employees are learning how to work in new ways, draw boundaries and find what is meaningful for them. And companies are navigating new territories as they collectively draw the map for a new way of working.
“Success in a hybrid work environment requires employers to move beyond viewing remote or hybrid environments as a temporary or short-term strategy and to treat it as an opportunity.”
Three years out from the pandemic and now hybrid work is outpacing remote, according to Gallup’s key indicators. As of February 2023, 52% of employees in remote-capable jobs are working hybrid. So, it looks like hybrid is here to stay, at least for now, and leaders around the globe are putting stakes in the ground to get clear about what “hybrid” means for them.
3M implemented a “Work Your Way” policy giving employees a choice to work remotely, in the office, or hybrid.
Google has been clear that they want employees to work from the office, but it has also given employees four weeks of “work from anywhere” time to support flexible work schedules.
And other companies are starting to dictate a specific number of days employees need to be “in the office”, each taking a different stance.
There is no clear pathway for what is “right” - only a trial and error of discovery to try and balance the right mix of remote and in-office work.
There are, however, some distinct universal truths about the benefits and challenges of hybrid work.
For all of the benefits of increased remote working – flexibility, decreased commutes, greater autonomy, democratized workplaces, broader talent pools, and greater opportunities for DEI – there are also some unique challenges coming to the forefront as more companies move into a hybrid environment that aims to pull the best of both worlds.
Gallup also lays out the benefits and challenges employees and leaders are facing as they continue along this hybrid working journey.
Several of the challenges reported in the analysis mirror what we hear from our clients and employees we talk with during Purpose discovery listening sessions. And the bottom line is, people are missing real connections and being part of a strong company culture. Employees want to build strong relationships with colleagues, but that is hard to do when everyone comes to the office at different times and on different days. Gimmicks to get employees in the office aren’t working because people have also learned they value their personal time and want to fill it with meaningful activities. Employees want to be part of a thriving culture, but it’s hard to tangibly feel that culture over Zoom, and for new employees, getting plugged in and connected inside the company takes far longer than it did in the days of in-person new hire orientation.
Purpose as a Center-Piece for the Future of Work
Even with its challenges, hybrid work, and our great expedition in creating the future of work holds with it an opportunity to reinvent what good looks like in terms of culture, connection, and interpersonal relationships.
We have worked to advance Purpose Transformation alongside clients throughout the pandemic and today as they navigate the hybrid journey.
Through our work, we have identified four ways that strengthening your employees’ connection to Purpose can address the key challenges of hybrid work.
1. Define Your Reason for Existing & Engage Everyone in It – Purpose Transformation
At an organizational level, discovering your Purpose, or your reason for existing, is a critical part of providing employees a sense of meaning in their work, yet it isn’t enough to simply have a Purpose statement. Through our work, we have uncovered that to strengthen employees’ sense of connection to the organization, Purpose must be activated across the organization in meaningful, tangible ways that employees can grab onto.
When you provide employees with this sense of connection and clarity, it also helps employees weather the uncertainty of workplace changes, like new hybrid policies. Without a core meaning to their work or a central Purpose to anchor them to the organization, you run the risk of losing great employees who leave in search of greater meaning or a stronger connection to a Purpose-driven organization. When employees feel part of something bigger than themselves, they are more patient with changing dynamics.
2. Unify Employees with a Purpose-Driven Culture
Rather than focusing on “what isn’t the same” or “what we are missing” in a hybrid world - think about what hybrid work makes possible for your culture and your Purpose. For three years, employees have been in a stop-and-go pattern with remote and hybrid work. When will we return to work? How many days do I need to “go in”? Will we be remote? The conversations have centered around the office as a critical component of culture. Through our work, we witness the power Purpose has in strengthening a company culture – regardless of where people are working.
When you put Purpose at the center of culture, you can decrease everyone’s reliance on the office as a necessary driver of culture. Getting really clear on “why you exist” and “why you serve” and anchoring employees to this Purpose helps ground them and enables everyone to weather the stop-and-go experiment of the future of work.
Adding to this, when Purpose is at the center of your culture, the conversation you have with employees about your hybrid strategy can also shift. Instead of anchoring hybrid policies to an idea of what it means to be in an office – let employees know how your hybrid strategy feeds the company’s higher Purpose: Decreasing commute times means less carbon in the air. Creating new opportunities for people to connect globally means more junior staff have access to senior leaders. Bringing your employees together around a shared Purpose can strengthen your culture globally – for all employees – in ways an office never could.
3. Uncover Personal Purpose to Strengthen Belonging
Over the past three years, Gartner has been tracking employee sentiment around the desire for a greater Purpose and meaning in their work. And employees continue to be clear: they want to connect to something bigger than themselves, and they want to be seen and respected as humans.
One of the best ways you can let your employees know you see and value them is to understand what Purpose means to them. Many of our clients have started to shift the development conversation to put Purpose at the center of an employee’s career path by finding connections between their personal Purpose and the company’s Purpose. This goes beyond finding opportunities for them to volunteer for causes they support or matching donations. Managers who have a deeper understanding of what motivates or drives their team members can build stronger interpersonal relationships and are better prepared to retain top talent and help talent mobilize across the organization in ways that meet the business need and the employees’ personal need. We help clients design programs that leverage a hybrid environment to create an engaging, immersive experience that helps employees uncover their own Purpose and its connection to the company’s Purpose. These have shown us, and our clients, the power of digital experiences in the workplace and their ability to create connections, unlock innovation, and help employees find a deeper meaning in their work.
4. Create Shared Connections + Innovation through Purpose Doing
We often counsel our clients that Purpose is more than volunteering and philanthropy. It’s about putting your key strengths as a business to work in service of something bigger. It's about Purpose becoming the fabric of your organization – how people think, act, feel and DO. The hybrid work environment has created new opportunities to connect employees in service of Purpose in new and different ways, that go beyond volunteerism. It used to be that everyone needed to live in the same city or make a flight to build for Habitat for Humanity. It used to be employees needed an invite to brainstorm in a creative room at headquarters to be part of innovating. Today, the channels and technology for innovation have democratized employees’ access and created new seats at the table for employees of all levels, experiences, and backgrounds to put forward ideas that could catapult the company's Purpose and spark new growth opportunities. Consider hosting a virtual “Shark Tank” tied to a key problem at the center of your Purpose work. Or create virtual, cross-functional, think tanks that bring together the best minds – across geographies – to develop a moonshot. We’ve helped large global organizations unlock the power of these kinds of connections and even more than innovating for Purpose, employees have said time and again – I feel more connected just participating in this with people I’d never have had the opportunity to meet otherwise.
The Power of Purpose for Hybrid
As organizations and employees continue to live through this next big shift in work, anchoring to the common, meaningful ground will help companies find their way through uncertainty and continued shifts as we learn more about what the future of work will bring. Specifically, when organizations anchor to a strong Purpose that is activated across the employee experience and delivered through meaningful, connective actions that employees can truly connect to, it strengthens what is possible for your organization in the future of work.
If you’d like to learn more about what we can do for you, please contact us at purpose@conspiracyoflove.co.
