Key Insights
- People, especially younger employees, want a mixed working environment.
- It is crucial to establish a strong relationship with your employees in order to achieve long-term success.
- COVID has altered the workplace, but it shouldn’t have an adverse impact on the team culture.
COVID created a more common online work environment. This changed how we interact with one another.
I have had the privilege of working with some of the most prominent Fortune 500 companies. Giselle KovaryPresident of n-gen People Performance, aims at helping organizations integrate culture, knowledge and high performance. To build a future of happy and successful employees, it is essential to listen to and communicate with others. n-gen People Performance can help you do that.
Read Giselle’s Thoughts:
Hello, I’m just Giselle Kovary, President of n-gen People Performance. We are a learning organization that assists clients in closing the knowledge gaps and ensuring high-performance teams. We’ve worked with 20 of the top Fortune 500 companies globally and I’ve trained over 65,000 people over the last 25 years in this space.
And I’m really interested in excited to be talking about what we can be doing in a hybrid environment to ensure that our organizational cultures are as successful as possible. And one of the challenges that I’m finding organizations are facing right now is that it’s really difficult for the executive leadership teams, in particular, to have their finger on the pulse of the organizational culture when people are still working from home.
So I’m hearing all the time from CEOs and executive teams and boards saying: Do we really understand how well our people are doing? Are they dealing with mental health issues or are they thriving? What’s happening around the connection? And especially when we think about all of the individuals that have been hired during COVID, that they were onboarded virtually, they’ve been working virtually, and they haven’t had a chance to come back together.
Organizations can reintegrate teams into an office, and come up with a variety of hybrid work environments. This is crucial for maintaining the organizational culture. We really do have an inflection point at organizations now and it’s a great opportunity to connect.
It’s also about figuring out what that right balance is for your organization, between at-home work and in-office work. While some organizations may choose to go one way or another, the majority of people prefer a hybrid environment. It is important to think about what employers should do right now, as there are many things they can do.
We talk with our clients about a TRP model: transparency, responsiveness and partnership. And if leaders and the organization focus on those three things, they’re really able to solidify relationship with employees that’s sticky. Engagement can be increased by focusing on these three things. Transparency is being more transparent, honest, and open about your organization’s motives and intentions. Responsiveness means asking employees for their opinions and getting their ideas. Partnering is really about recognizing that each employee in an organization chooses to invest their time and energy within your organization.
So how do we make sure that it’s a win-win? And so part of what’s happening right now, as we experience this great resignation or great migration, is that we have challenges in being able to make sure that we can retain the right people. To ensure that we can increase engagement and connection, as well as give people flexibility and choice, we must double down on transparency, responsiveness and partnership.
And I think a final piece to consider, when we think about how can we have this engaging culture in a new hybrid work environment, is making sure that we don’t overlook the generational differences. This is an area that I love. I’ve been researching and writing in this space for almost 20 years. We want to return to the office, especially for the early-in-career talent we have worked with, say, over the past year and a quarter, or two years. We want to be back in the office, even though we may not be able to work full-time every week.
They are eager to get feedback and coaching. They’re eager to connect with people and have social. And we want to make sure that when they’re in the office, it’s the right things that are happening. They’re having an opportunity to connect with senior leaders, that they have a chance to have some social engagement with people, that it’s fun when they’re in the office. They are able to focus their at-home time on completing the work they need. Also, developing the skills necessary to work independently. So this is great blend and connection, but we don’t want to overlook the early in-career talent and making sure that they have a great set up for success for their careers.
I’m really excited to be talking about this topic at a number of different places moving forward. I’ll be at some conferences in May and June. If you’re at the ATD ConferenceConnect with me, and you will find me. That’s May 13th to 16th. It’s May 13-16th. 26th. Yeah, so on May 26th I’ll be speaking at the campus recruitment forum.
Then in June, June 13th-15th, I will be at this location New Orleans: SHRM conference and I will be speaking on the morning of June 14th and I’ll be speaking about and presenting some content and some research around how do you evolve your culture in this hybrid work environment to make sure that it’s really engaging and, and, um, involving everyone.
I’m going to be speaking at a number of different events in the next couple of months, I’ll be at the ATD Conference, which is May 16th to 18th. I’ll be speaking at the campus recruitment forum, uh, virtually on May 25th and then I’ll also be at the SHRM Conference in New Orleans in June. So I think that’s June 13th to 15th. I’ll be in the morning, speaking in the morning of June 14th. My presentation will focus on the research and content surrounding how to create a workplace culture that fosters collaboration. I look forward to meeting you there and connecting.