The Harvard Business Review defines work culture as “an organisation’s DNA…the shared values, goals, attitudes, and practices that characterise a workplace. It is reflected in how people behave, interact with each other, make decisions, and do their work.”
There is little disagreement about the importance of work culture. Most of the conversations today are around building a healthy one instead.
Jacob Morgan, for example, has published four best-selling books on the future of work, and is also a regular contributor to publications such as The Wall Street Journal, NPR, and the Harvard Business Review. In one article, Jacob describes work culture as a kind of emergent property of the office.
“It exists regardless of whether the organisation realises it or decides to create it,” he writes. “This is the only environment that you feel. That feeling is the pit in your stomach when you don't want to go to work or the excitement and butterflies you get from wanting to go to work."
But, in our current era of remote work, the cultural shape of a workplace is more closely linked to technology than ever before. And so, while there are many drivers of culture in a company, the right technology helps to provide a foundation in our contemporary context.
The impact of work culture
Work culture has always been important. But this culture now needs to be a potent enough force to overcome any physical distance or a lack of face-to-face interactions. As research from the Office of National Statistics suggests, remote working is now a permanent fixture of professional life.
In the UK, 38% of employees engage in some blend of working from home and from the office. Many of us now work in teams where many of the members are in different locations but employed by the same company.
In such arrangements, technology can be a means to deliberately shape culture, to encourage communication, to facilitate productivity, and, by allowing us to work anywhere and by accommodating life outside of work.
For employers, this deliberate shaping of company culture – by technology and by other means – is worthwhile. For one point of context, 70% of employees said that their sense of purpose is defined by their work, according to McKinsey.
The best cultures allow us to define ourselves in a way that is satisfying. But, even speaking in strictly commercial terms, a healthy culture is worth the squeeze.
88% of employees believe that a healthy culture is vital for the business to succeed, according to one Deloitte survey. Surveys also reveal that many of us (as much as 65%) feel more productive working from home. Another McKinsey study found that, in the wake of the pandemic, 52% of employees would prefer their organisation to adopt more flexible hybrid work models. These preferences matter as, according to one study from Oxford University, happy employees are 13% more productive than unhappy ones.
The first takeaway here is that employees crave meaning from their job. The second would be that employees derive the most satisfaction when they’re allowed to do their job flexibly, in whichever way they feel most productive.
Compounding the need to offer flexibility, employees who are forced to come into work report lower levels of satisfaction than those who can contribute in a hybridised setting, according to a recent report from PWC. Therefore, companies that can cater to our preferences – and empower us to work from anywhere – will reap the benefits. A company that leans into its technology to facilitate more interactions, more collaboration, and a stronger culture will cultivate happier employees.
But technology can do more than connect us when we’re remote.
Emma Parsons, a neuroscientist at MIT, says that multitasking can reduce employee productivity by up to 40%. Of course, It is widely known that multitasking can reduce efficiency, but few of us can avoid needing to do more than one thing at a time. And we also need to be able to switch from having divided attention to being fully immersed in a task that demands total focus.
Under the right conditions, however, companies can make it easier to multitask more efficiently. Businesses today need to design a fluid working culture that facilitates multi-tasking, collaboration, and focused work—and all this is heavily dependent on the technology behind the people.
If the technology behind your business is set up the right way, the result is happier employees, improved retention, better productivity, and a more connected company culture (even when working apart).
What ‘working from anywhere’ means for IT
For most of the 20th century, working in an office during the nine to five meant that, to get away from the office, you needed a good excuse. Most office work meant being tethered to desks.