Corporate Culture as a Driver of Attraction, Retention, and Engagement
This paradigm has begun to transcend the boundaries of personal life, with the democratization of remote work and the creation of 'Work from anywhere' policies. Employees of the same organization can converse via screens, no matter where they are in the world, with just a few clicks. However, the engagement of a person in these daily interactions is shaped around a crucial element that is still too often overlooked: corporate culture. Let's focus on the best practices in this area.
Understanding the Foundations of Corporate Culture
In an era where teams are physically decentralized due to remote work, it is essential to consider how to nurture a sense of belonging and well-being among your collaborators. Corporate culture plays a key role here: it is a set of principles, codes, and values that make up the very essence of your identity. Beyond simple policies, culture is lived and shared. In times of labor shortages, as we are currently experiencing, it is clear that it plays a major role in attracting a new generation of talent. The stronger and more well-established it is, the easier it will be to elevate a brand and its talents.
Culture is the distinguishing factor between you and other companies, allowing your teams to feel fulfilled, contributing to talent retention. Although intangible, it has the ability to convey your personality, highlight your DNA, and reveal the very essence of your brand. However, it’s not about writing values on a piece of paper and expecting your employees to adhere to them. Culture goes beyond this preconceived idea by allowing your teams to evolve in the direction you wish to take. While it influences the speed and efficiency with which a company manages change, culture can also be influenced. Indeed, the various behaviors adopted by team members nuance the perception one has of a company and its identity. This is particularly true if these collective habits are deeply ingrained in daily life.
Certainly, it can seem challenging to keep your teams engaged—especially when everyone is working from home—because after all, your culture extends beyond monthly afterwork events and is lived both in-person and remotely, in real-time as well as asynchronously. Understanding this can make a difference in both your talent attraction and retention efforts. It’s not enough to rely on a certain level of notoriety; you must also know how to engage and mobilize. You could have the best recruitment strategy, but it is culture that will drive it forward and propel your business.
4 Ways to Bring Your Culture to Life Online
Invite Your Teams to Share Their Thoughts on Various Topics
Want to gauge your colleagues’ interest in an activity proposed by your social club? Need to take the pulse on training needs? Looking to share information easily with everyone? Whether you use Teams, Slack, Discord, or another platform, you can create a channel for every topic you can think of: the Trends channel (to stay up-to-date on the latest happenings), the Corporate channel (for easy access to policies and company updates), or the Watercooler channel (to share the latest GIF that made you laugh)...
Organize Key Events for Team Cohesion
You might be surprised to learn that it’s possible to organize remote and online 'teambuilding' activities. Host a quiz, celebrate your latest team success with a virtual happy hour, take a group yoga class, or join a creativity workshop. The possibilities are endless.
Establish Rituals, Including Some Where You Talk About Everything Except Work
Hallway chats or coffee breaks may no longer be part of daily life, but that’s no excuse to neglect the social aspect of work. Organize a virtual coffee break every two weeks or a weekly lunch to catch up with colleagues, talk about weekend plans, or share a new recipe you’ve tried... All topics are fair game, except work!
Share All of This Online
Your corporate culture is much more than a tool for attracting and retaining talent. It’s also a tool for brand recognition and customer loyalty. Indeed, for anyone who invests in a company (whether in time or money), culture is a significant factor. Many people invest in collaboration and work out of passion, but when companies truly embody these values, they stand out, becoming more memorable in the minds of consumers or investors.
How do you make your culture shine when the entire team is remote? To this question, we would answer that hubs, those post-COVID intranets, are certainly a solution to consider for keeping your talents informed and engaged.
