Revitalizing Culture in the World of Hybrid Work

 Two-plus years into the pandemic, many leaders worry that remote and hybrid work are undermining their organizations’ culture. Their concerns aren’t entirely misplaced: A 2022 global study by the research and advisory firm Gartner found that just 25% of remote or hybrid knowledge workers feel connected to their company’s culture. But forcing employees back to the office is risky, as CEOs including Elon Musk and Jamie Dimon have discovered firsthand. Companies should take another tack.

“I find it ironic when leaders say they need to bring workers back to the office because of culture,” says Alexia Cambon, a research director in Gartner’s HR practice and a principal author of the study. “They’re going to get the opposite of what they hope for. Instead of viewing hybrid work as a disruption to the cultural experience, leaders should see it as an opportunity to build culture differently.”

Culture can be evaluated on the basis of two components, Cambon explains: alignment (meaning that employees know what the culture is and believe that it is right for the firm) and connect­edness (they identify with and care about the culture). A Gartner survey of more than 4,500 knowledge workers and 200 HR leaders showed that in-​office mandates drove connectedness sharply down. Among employees with “radical flexibility” (defined as considerable freedom over location, schedule, work volume, team, and projects), 53% reported a high degree of connectedness, whereas just 18% of those with low flexibility did so.

That’s important, the research shows, because more-connected workers perform at a higher level than others (by as much as 37%) and are 36% more likely to stay with the organization. In another Gartner survey, half of knowledge workers said they would jump ship if their company rescinded their Covid-era flexibility. “Some CEOs may think that workers will grumble a bit but eventually habituate to a full-time return,” Cambon says. “Without a sense of connectedness, though, they have nothing to stop them from going to a less-rigid company.”

Before the pandemic, firms tended to focus their culture-building efforts on alignment, trusting that connectedness would occur more or less by osmosis. “Leaders hoped that the way offices were designed and decorated and the frequent interactions among workers would foster an emotional connection with the organization,” Cambon says. That approach had limitations even before the pandemic, she adds, and it is obviously insufficient in a world where employees spend 65% less time in offices than they did before the pandemic.