Industry Perspectives

The Pandemic Workplace Survey measured the impact of remote work on team culture, recruitment and retention. The survey revealed the glimmer of a silver lining which has became a reality: remote work offers flexibility that contributes to greater productivity and job satisfaction. It also opens access to a broader talent pool when relocation is off the table as a requirement for employment.

But at the same time, the findings exposed significant and concerning deterioration in camaraderie and culture-enhancing activities like building critical relationships, onboarding, training, mentoring and coaching.

The takeaway? Leaders will need to tune-up their recruitment and retention practices in this new reality to:

• • Effectively evaluate cultural fit in new hires
  • Develop better onboarding processes
  • Help their teams build camaraderie and critical relationships
  • Facilitate growth opportunities for team members

When it comes to evaluating potential new hires, the new “work-from-home” reality makes it more important than ever to be intentional in assessing fit.

Evaluate these five Issues:

1. 1. Do you have an objective view of your team culture and how remote work has changed it?
   2. Have you assessed what qualities and attributes you value in team members now that your team is dispersed?
   3. Have you previously relied on the onsite interview to provide the a “gut-level” sense of fit?
   4. Is your current reference checking process cursory or robust enough to probe for candidate fit?
   5. Are you aware of new talent pools that have opened now that relocation is may no longer be a deciding factor in whom you hire?

The path forward is unlikely to lead back to the pre-pandemic workplace. Hybrid models with greater flexibility and remote work options will become much more common in many organizations.

At a deeper level, the pandemic workplace points out that leadership skills must evolve. Organizations will need to reconsider and redefine the skills and qualities of the people who are managing teams. These leaders will need to cultivate relationships and build a strong, compatible culture, even when their team is dispersed most of the time.

After the pandemic subsides, the challenge will remain: Even if people can do their work from home productively, can they build their careers strategically? Can companies build high-performing teams and cultures?

Contact us to talk about navigating the challenges and opportunities ahead as you recruit, retain and build team culture in the new work-from-home reality.