Considerable job insecurities coupled with work uncertainty has nudged companies to revamp and remodel their workplace culture so as to meet employees’ new needs, priorities, and expectations. According to 94% of executives and 88% of employees polled in a Deloitte study, corporate culture is crucial to a company's success. The poll also revealed that 76% of these workers opined of a "clearly defined business strategy" as intrinsic to the development of a healthy culture.

‘Culture’ an encompassing term provides the opportunity to define the core values and behaviors, while facilitating the way we take decisions, guiding our ability to include and integrate voice of our employees, and ultimately enables the creation of progressive policies, programs, making it the ultimate differentiator for a potential employee at the point of choosing to join the organization or leave. Culture addresses behavior at the core, which in turn helps organizations interact internally and with customers rather uniquely.  A fundamental reality is that every organization inherently and organically holds a culture of its own, the question therefore lies that if there is a need to define a culture. Multiple scenarios indicate the fact that having a pronounced & well-defined culture helps bring people together towards a similar common vision and help in their understanding of how they can successfully operate in a given ecosystem. Knowing one’s company culture establishes a brand strength – which hones long term success and organizational pride driven by its people.

If anything, the pandemic has taught us, it would be wise to rethink our priorities and reimagine our metrics of happiness, while keeping a check on our mental health. The same has spilled over to the corporate lives and for all the right reasons, with employees looking for a good work life balance more than ever before. In fact, as a matter of fact, candidates looking out for jobs today do consider a safe, inclusive, and flexible work environment as one of their top priorities. A survey by Zogby Analytics suggests that 86% of job searchers believe workplace culture to be very important, and 49% of them ask employers during interviews about their plans for promoting diversity in the workplace. Nearly 74 percent of the job seekers questioned said that the availability of remote work plays a significant role in their choice to accept or reject a job offer and 42 percent of respondents said they would reject a job offer if the company lacked diversity or established objectives for enhancing diversity in hiring.

As the pandemic life is gradually receding, employers and employees both are in the midst of a moment of reckoning while coping with the impacts of ‘The Great Resignation.’ Resignations have surged rapidly across the globe since 2021, ranging from top corporations to IT companies and many smaller firms across various sectors. It is important however to note that all such movements are not just a result of compensation factors. The Great Resignation saw people quitting their jobs in line with new priorities that came into focus during the pandemic, with many questioning their identity and what matters to them. According to a study by the MIT Sloan School of Management, a toxic work environment was a significant factor in 2021 in the decision of many employees to leave their jobs. At the start of 2021, more than 40% of all employees, according to the research, were considering quitting their jobs. The rising individualism and self-prioritization underlined by a “me over we” mentality has profound implications for organizations in how they lead their employees, their workplace culture, how they shape a new employee value proposition, and how they nurture their relationships with colleagues. The most important learning that the pandemic has bestowed on organizations is the importance of adopting people-first approach and focus on building responsible and resilient workplaces. Even if the Great Resignation is slowing down, the Great Disconnect is only now getting started. Responsible and resilient workplaces are strongly associated with effective employee engagement, job satisfaction, and strong organizational commitment. In 2022, SHRM performed a global culture poll and concluded categorically that "workplace culture will spell the difference between success and failure in a post-pandemic world." More than ever, attention must be paid to the components of a positive workplace culture that puts workers first. In addition, the SHRM survey reveals that 45% of workers worldwide have considered quitting their present employer because of toxic work environments. 

It is of utmost importance thus to create a healthy workplace culture which promotes growth both inwards and outwards. This can be achieved by deploying different strategies like highlighting one’s company's vision and mission to encourage strategic risk-taking, taking actions to solve any collaboration or communication bottlenecks, encouraging feedback processes, and setting smart goals around building an adaptable culture. Adoption of empathetic behavior is what will primarily define a good workplace going forward.

The next question now becomes, what will culture change look like? Culture, being an evolving theme, shifts while changing, keeping the core strength of the organization in place, along with allowing it to address customer, market realities and social expectations. Companies are at a juncture, where, to create longer tenure and interesting careers for their people, they need to create an emotional connect with their employees and largely culture will facilitate this tremendously. Culture also is seen to be overly standardized, so we are at a time when global organisations and growing companies need to rethink this approach and move far more to a Glocalised approach where varying identities have an equal space and yet can adopt a similar way of doing work in their organizations. 

The rise of hustle culture in recent years was met almost as swiftly with a backlash. Many employees learned during the epidemic that remote work and flexible hours improve work/life balance, and they like it. Now that culture is changing all around us, leaders must assess if their present culture is keeping up. The feeling that they are valued as people first, and as employees second, is becoming more and more vital to employees. Companies should work on introducing gender neutral policies to establish a sense of respect and understanding between peers and employers. According to Michael Page’s Talent Trends 2022 The Great X report, 55% of employers surveyed believe that when acknowledgment, appreciation, and thankfulness are part of the company culture, employees produce better work and skip fewer days of work. 

Hence, HR leaders around the world need to constantly keep their culture canvas like a fresh slate, which can be stroked  with a renewed paint brush time and again. Change is constant and so human emotions & needs will be on a constant evolving stage at different timeframes. Employee work culture being intrinsically corelated to humans will hence need to be regularly modified and redesigned so as to suit best with needs of both the company and its human assets For this to happen effectively companies will need to be agile, resilient and be cognizant of the fruits that active listening does bring in. Similarly HR Leaders will have to be flexible, emotionally intelligent and propel organisations which cheer their human resources.