Businesses are dealing with severe economic uncertainty amid the global pandemic, while adapting to a new hybrid reality of in-office and remote-based teams. Company culture has never been more important for navigating through change and uniting employees under a common mission. By using data and technology, leaders have an opportunity to strengthen culture across an organisation, driving business outcomes while putting their people front and centre.
Master the hybrid working model with metrics-focused training
Empowering people to be their best through learning and development is essential to a strong company culture. In this regard, lockdown measures posed a particular challenge for business leaders: how do you onboard and train people when none of your team are in the same place?
Training doesn’t necessarily need to be delivered in person if the goal is to positively impact employee behaviour. It just has to be engaging, interactive and effective in driving measurable change.
Data and technology can help; by taking a measurable approach to virtual training, businesses can understand who’s completing their courses, how they’re working differently, and what kind of results they’re delivering after the training is finished. KPIs should be set for both digital and physical interactions. This allows you to track employee learning and development in a way that supports staff operating in hybrid working environments.
Use collaboration platforms to unlock team expertise
Remote working exposed another potential weakness holding back teams from realising their potential – employee expertise that isn’t being shared. Under the lockdown, many companies realised that knowledge and experience within their workforce were highly concentrated within specific offices, regions, teams, or employees. How can these valuable insights be shared seamlessly across internal networks?
A truly collaborative company culture must go beyond limited solutions, such as excessive video calls, which run the risk of burning people out. Collaboration tools that support culture have to be chosen based on their effectiveness at improving interactions, bridging gaps and simplifying knowledge sharing.
How to maintain collaboration during lockdown
For example, collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams and Zoom have seen a dramatic surge in adoption throughout 2020. While these platforms are now table stakes for all-remote or hybrid work environments, businesses looking to drive a more deeply collaborative culture must invest in tools purpose-built for closing information gaps. Knowledge can best scale across a business when it comes from a single source of truth, and when it’s paired with guidance. Platforms that provide strategic guidance alongside content equip customer-facing teams with what they need to know, say, and show in every unique customer interaction. This type of preparation helps drive real behaviour change and supports a company culture of continuous learning.
Invest in technology as a tool to empower employees
While revamping strategies in recent months, many companies have started to prioritise customer retention and expansion over new customer acquisition, given the state of the economy. Data and technology can help employees adapt to this transition.
Investing in tools that empower employees gives them the confidence, knowledge and skills they need to deliver maximum customer value. This in turn boosts customer satisfaction as staff deliver an engaging and consistent experience each time they connect.
Empowering managers with data is also an effective way to enhance a people-first culture. In a time of crisis, these individuals are the ones driving culture as the first point of contact for problem solving and leadership for the wider workforce. With data at their fingertips, managers can adapt their teams’ goals in an agile way – ensuring KPIs are suited to current skills, interests and working behaviours. This data-driven approach goes a long way towards keeping your people front of mind.
How trusted data is driving resilience and transformation beyond Covid-19
Strong culture turns difficulty into opportunity
Building a strong company culture will help businesses weather the remainder of 2020 and get off to a good start in the new year. The crisis has brought many challenges, but has also provided opportunities. Data and technology can help empower teams, drive behaviour change, boost collaboration and deliver great customer experiences. This enables business leaders to make the most of the new hybrid working environment and promote a robust company culture – one that sets people up for success for the long term, no matter where they are.
