The Organisation’s culture is the ‘soul’ of an organisation.Though it’s intangible and soft, a positive and strong culture has an enormous direct impact on how employees and businesses perform and achieve success. 

On the other hand, we would all agree a weak or negative culture can lead to low morale, high attrition and poor performance.  That’s why it’s important for companies to be visionaries in moulding healthy organizational culture from time-to-time.   

No-one can deny that the world has been irreversibly altered by the unprecedented COVID- 19. The pandemic was a thunderstorm that struck the whole world across industries, causing many radical changes that we began to call as the ‘Post-Pandemic Life’or ‘The New Normal’. Numerous leaders had hoped that the old normal might one-day return however, it’s been more than three years and it’s come clear that some aspects of our life have changed forever.  

How is ‘The New Normal’ impacting Organizational Culture?  

COVID-19's biggest impact on organizational culture happened in early 2020, when teams across the globe had to switch to remote work almost overnight. Most experts anticipated that this would be temporary, and that everyone would ultimately return to the office full- time soon and virtual collaboration tools would not be sustainable in the long run.

However today employees’ perception of and expectations from work have drastically changed, and they aren’t happy to settle in the old ways of working. This led to ‘The Great Resignation’, as employees across industries decided they would rather quit than work in a culture that now didn’t suit them.   

It’s surprising that the future of work has arrived faster than we ever expected, along with its challenges—many of them potentially multiplied—such as Moonlighting, Multi-generational workforce, Gig workers, and the Scarcity of talent. 

For all of us as Human Resources Professionals, it's the right time toReflect, Re-evaluate & Re-engineer on our Organisation’s Culture. A few aspects that I consider paramount:  

Prioritising a Balanced & Authentic Life:

The ‘Pandemic Epiphany’ has led to people questioning their existences and actual needs in life. Employees today are reflecting on the time they spent at work vis-à-via on their personal life. Over the past three years, we ’ve all spent maximum time at home than we ever did before and for the vast majority of employees the pandemic has shifted the work-life balance well and truly in favour of a more balanced, authentic and holistic life.

Today employee’s well-being is a priority for all organisations and investing in it is a Win-Win for both.

The Future of Work is Open, Transparent and Humane which brings an end to the ‘9- to-5 Working’:

Successful companies have seen how work from anywhere and flexible cultures have allowed employees to thrive, and this genie isn’t going back in the bottle. The brick-and-mortar office will rise again, but it will never again be thought of as the only place where “the real work” gets done.

While all of us enjoy having chai-pe-charchas, water cooler gossips, corridor laughter and the joy of seeing the entire team in-person, however we do not want to lose the freedom we have gained while working from home. ‘What we all want is the best of both.’

Technology: A essential ingredient to the Future of Work 

Organisation’s always wanted technology to be a big part of the workplace; but the pandemic unleashed it’s true potential and the role it would play in the post-pandemic world is very crucial.  

Zoom, the various OTT platforms and ChatGPT have not just changed our ‘Ways of Working’, but also our ‘Ways of Living’. 

And while these might have been seen as temporary fixes three years ago, they are here to stay and are a permanent part of our life now.

Shift from ‘Customer-First’ to ‘Employee-First’

Many of us would know that at Amazon Jeff Bezos, leaves an empty chair to represent the Customer’s' voice during the company’s most important meetings. In today’s times one needs to keep two empty chairs i.e. – the Customers and the Employees. 

Howard Schultz, the former CEO and president of Starbucks said," We aren't in the coffee business serving people, but in the people business serving coffee." 

Simply, to treat your Employees with the same respect and passion as you would a Customer.

In the post-pandemic, the employee value proposition must centre every strategy and company decision. Organisation’s must foster a shift from ‘Employees work for me’to ‘Employees work with me’. This shift will inspire membership, not followership. Followers take on a subordinate role, while membership is about having an owner's mindset—being contributors and co-builders of the vision.

Some may believe that culture as something that happens and builds on it’s own as people work together whereas I truly believed that one can be intentional and methodical about building and moulding a culture consciously as one would be about the rest of their business functions.