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.
"We're leading a culture transformation effort, being really intentional and defining and reinforcing what it looks like, which is really important when there's a lot of change and uncertainty in the environment. We've been helping our leaders know what it means to walk the talk, and evolving our underlying systems and really keeping our values front and center in the organization," she says.
Creative Solutions to Stave Off Disengagement
It can be argued that it's easy to maintain a strong firm culture during the best of times, and that it's when the chips are down where those efforts are really put to the test. The pandemic certainly qualifies under the latter category, and the firms we spoke to have gotten creative in not only keeping their employees safe, but ensuring their connection to the company, clients, and each other remained intact.
"We are all feeling the challenge of less connection during this time. Our familial culture means that we truly enjoy getting together to build relationships, problem-solve challenges, and maintain camaraderie," says Mike Gunter, Partner at The Gunter Group.
"We have provided many connection points for support and feedback, increased our communication and transparency, and our Culture Leads have been checking in with each employee individually. Our firm's leadership team has also made themselves readily available to support needs as they've arisen," he says.
That support has run the gamut, from providing enhanced mental health and wellness resources to the team, stipends for dependent care, even sending now-remote employees a biweekly "breakroom-in-a-bag" including coffee or tea and customized snacks.
These efforts are intended to keep workers feeling engaged and cared for, and remind them that they're part of an organization which values their contributions, and understands their own sacrifices they've had to make juggling home life and work during very uncertain times.
Despite their best efforts, many workers still report feeling disengaged, and have expressed frustration at the increased difficulty in collaboration. Keele says a KPMG study from this summer surveyed over 1,400 workers from various industries, one-third of whom said their ability to collaborate and overall level of engagement have declined.
"We haven't been immune to that," says Keele.
"Being the kind of organization we are, we're really people-based, we're really team-driven, we do our best work when we're connected with each other and our clients. A big part of that comes from the place you're in and being able to be physically together. With that taken away we've had to do more and be creative along the way," she says.
Looking for the Silver Lining
The pandemic is seen as being responsible for accelerating certain business trends that were emerging before the crisis, such as digitization, telecommuting, and telemedicine. It's compelled many companies to transform their entire business models. It's also led firms to take a good, hard look at the culture they've cultivated and really reflect on what matters most: their people.
"In many ways, the pandemic will likely have positive effects on culture for many organizations," says The Gunter Group Partner, Ashleigh Gunter.
"We are seeing companies who have greatly lacked a focus on employee engagement suddenly finding it imperative to start listening to their team's wants and needs. For us, a team that greatly values employee engagement, we are thrilled to see this shift in other organizations. We're hopeful that the flexibility the pandemic has required us all to have is something that we see carried forward. The ability to work remotely, spend more time with family, and have greater schedule variability are all things that have been positive effects of the pandemic for many people," she says.
The Road Ahead
Since we're still very much in the midst of the pandemic crisis, we don't yet know the long-term impacts on how firm culture as a concept will change in its wake. But companies are actively taking notes on what they're seeing during this ultimate culture stress test, and plan to apply those learnings going forward.
"I think there's a lot of lessons coming from this period of disruption, and it can make us stronger and more resilient and more impactful in the future. I hope in terms of lasting effects, organizations will get how important culture is. That it's something they'll focus on in a more intentional way. Culture happens whether you like it or not, whether you're shaping it or not," says Keele.
Part of preparing for the next major disruption involves readying the team now, and ensuring they have the skills and resilience to weather whatever comes.
"If this year has taught us anything, it is that we can't predict the future. As such, it is imperative that we focus on the development of our people to enable us to be as agile and flexible as possible as the world changes around us. We almost tripled our spending on formal external training and we ramped up on internal knowledge sharing and mentoring," says Ashleigh Gunter.
The pandemic won't last forever, and there are hopeful signs on the horizon that we may be nearing the end of it. When the dust settles, however, the firms that prioritized their people and instilled in their organization a sense of shared responsibility will be the ones best positioned to move forward knowing their team felt cared for during the worst of it, and that's not easily forgotten.
"One of the things I think we're all going to remember from this period in our history is how we felt and how we were made to feel. I think as an organization we're asking ourselves how we want to be remembered in this moment. I think it underscores the importance of culture and the significant impact culture has on organizational resiliency, but also your brand and reputation and whether people want to work with you," says Keele.
"I think those organizations that really get it go beyond the transactional interactions to drive connection with all of their stakeholders will be more successful."
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