Business Is Changing. Get on Board or Get Left Behind

Many business leaders are looking forward to a returning to the office. This is the chance to get things back on track, restore company culture, and put the madness of the pandemic behind us. However, employees are not on board. The vast majority want to stay remote in some form or fashion and are willing to abandon their roles if employers are not accommodating. So, what will save culture? How can a company culture exist with decentralized workers? The simple answer? Managers. Leadership is responsible for connecting individuals to the company culture, no matter if that individual is in a cubicle or a home office across the country. Into the new normal, it’s important that business leaders blaze a worker-centered trail in their path forward. Before the pandemic, “leaders assumed everyone really enjoyed coming into an office and extensive human interaction,” Derek Avery, a researcher and University of Houston professor in industrial and organizational psychology says. “We’ve learned through the pandemic that, yes, there’s some truth to that. But it’s possible people don’t want as much of that as they had before.” Instead of forcing employees to work in ways they no longer need to, adapt policies —and by extension, culture—to reflect these notions. “There’s lots of nuance, and the best employers will be the ones that generalize the things they can but also take the time and invest energy and efforts into finding out what specifically is different for their employees.”