Impacts of Covid-19:
The Pillars of a company culture

We are all aware of how our daily lives have changed as a result of Covid-19, however few of us were aware of how this would isolate us from our colleagues. In a very short amount of time, we have all had to completely change our approach to how to balance our home and work life and there was no rule book.

You will have often heard any business say “our biggest asset is our people” and yet over the past 3 months planned and unplanned collaborations, the informal coffee machine conversations, that were the pillars that defined and reinforced the company culture all stopped in an instance. Without these physical interactions a company’s culture is at risk of being eroded and managers need to actively boost their soft skills.

Managers need to continue to develop and retaining their staff but now need to learn to do so remotely. Online 1:1’s, mentoring programmes over video conferencing, making time to call and ask about an employee’s wellbeing, providing their team with continued training opportunities and learning how to bring together their remote team to feel like they are still a cohesive unit is all part of what a manager should now being focused on.

It is not about micro-managing your people but taking the time to show concern and support during these tough and uncertain times without definite end.

There are a number of technologies that can help bridge this gap we are aware of most of them Zoom, Teams, Facetime, however it is not the technology itself that will enable this culture change, but the application of how it is used. For example, your company could deploy a “camera always on” policy pushing your organisation to see not just hear its team members. Another example is an end of day meeting, via Zoom. This is not, as you may think, to make sure everyone is still working, but to make sure people STOP work. Recent studies haves shown people are working longer hours as they no longer have that physical break at the end of a day to go home.

Technology is an important part of addressing the isolation that Covid-19 has brought, but it is the application of the right technologies that can help keep the pillars of our company culture thriving.