Culture and retention go hand in hand, and while working environments are largely kick-started by leadership, they’re sustained with effective communication. However, many organisations have faced major challenges in recent years, including the pandemic and the subsequent growth in hybrid and remote working, which made it far more difficult for them to engage their workforces to the degree they once did. The employers that have overcome these issues despite their staff being based in multiple locations all have one factor in common: they leveraged the expertise of their internal communications teams to build high-performing, remote cultures.
Growth in Hybrid Models
Remote or hybrid models were already in place for some businesses pre-pandemic. However, from Spring 2020 onwards, there was a huge growth in the number of people working from home, which, for many professionals, has continued in the subsequent post-COVID years.
During the early stages of this period, internal teams played a critical role in managing the change and keeping employees and disparate teams connected. But, since then, their roles have shifted away from managing what was a crisis towards sustaining a culture of high performance in a new working reality.
The benefits of hybrid working are clear and have been discussed and debated in extensive detail. However, it also presents challenges. When operating on a physical basis, some of the best ideation and creativity happen in unplanned moments, from conversations over the coffee machine, a quick exchange after a meeting or even a passing remark that sparks an initial idea.
All of these conversations are challenging to replicate in virtual settings when interactions are more structured and intentional, which limits spontaneity. When professionals are spread over multiple locations, the sense of shared purpose that effective cultures are built on can begin to fade, and must be nurtured more carefully than in face-to-face environments.
How to Leverage Internal Communications to Build High-Performing Cultures in Remote Teams
The first port of call for any internal communications team looking to build an effective working culture is to utilise the platforms that allow for the type of effective communication that was in place in face-to-face environments. In practice, that means developing more ‘open’ forms of digital communications for less formal conversations than emails may offer. Platforms like Teams, Slack and Discord are all potential options and can enable the types of interactions that drive creativity, idea generation and problem-solving more effectively than individual professionals can in isolation. Implemented effectively, these tools can enable a shared digital location for less formal discussions and replicate the type of ‘water-cooler’ conversations that would have happened in an office.
Reinforce & Redefine Company Values
A high-performing culture also relies on strong values that are intertwined across teams. The best internal communications professionals will know how to reinforce the visions and values of any company across any and all platforms. Storytelling is crucial when it comes to ensuring that everyone lives and breathes the culture that the business wants, and that’s where comms professionals can really shine. Their ability to act as a narrator and take the rest of the business on the right journey, in the right way, will only strengthen the high-performing culture.
Crucially, though, they are the ones who will be closer to the dialogue and will be able to identify where values may be misaligned or taking a new direction, making them the front-line guards of the corporate culture.
Create New Communication Loops
Two-way dialogue is vital to ensuring that a business is not only guiding and informing its people, but also that they are hearing directly from those ‘on the ground’ (virtually in many cases) and acting on changes in sentiment or recommendations. Sometimes the biggest efficiencies can come from the smallest ideas, but if these aren’t reaching the right people, then opportunities will be missed.
Internal communications professionals act as the conduit across teams and departments, up and down the hierarchy. They will be best placed to inform and guide the company on what channels are driving meaningful engagement with employers in real-time. That, in turn, enables companies to react and adapt quickly, so that no opportunity to improve performance is missed. Crucially, this also ensures that people across the business feel listened to, further embedding that high-performance culture in the company.
Identify ‘Culture Carriers’
We mentioned earlier that internal communications teams are natural storytellers, and that means they are also adept at identifying the right people to act as narrators. A company’s culture is driven from the top down, but it’s also reinforced and nurtured by ‘culture carriers’ – or those who are the true embodiment of the corporate values.
The best comms professionals can not only help identify these individuals across the business, but also ensure they are able to connect with others in a remote world and become the ambassadors for high-performance cultures.
The above are just a few examples of how the skills of internal communications teams can be leveraged to support the growth of high-performing cultures. If your organisation is looking to source the best communications specialists to help develop this, get in touch with our team today.
