Maintaining and Improving Firm Culture in the Time of Coronavirus

The coronavirus pandemic has changed just about every aspect of our day to day lives, both at work and at home. This spring, the global business world was faced with an unexpected and massive challenge for which there was no playbook. As offices emptied out, entire workforces became remote employees overnight, and companies were, in essence, forced into an unplanned experiment on the feasibility of running their entire business without a central location.

Through it all, as team meetings became Zoom calls and office banter was relegated to Slack chat, firms found themselves expanding and reimagining what culture means to the organization, and seeing in a new light how the care and attention they paid to culture before the pandemic have paid off during the crisis. 

"Our investment in culture really prepared us for this moment. We tell our clients all the time that it's really important to be clear and intentional about your culture, and we've taken our own advice as an organization," says Tracey Keele, KPMG's Culture Transformation Co-Lead.