Blueprints for tomorrow's workplace culture

By Dr Raman Ramachandran

Published: Sep 6, 2024 10:47:20 AM IST

Updated: Sep 16, 2024 01:55:25 PM IST

Behind every successfully implemented initiative is a CEO or a leader who is fully committed. Image: Shutterstock

An organisation's work culture defines how employees interact, communicate, make decisions, and approach their tasks and responsibilities. A positive work culture includes higher employee engagement, retention, increased productivity, and customer-centric behaviours, which translates into profitable growth. Workplace initiatives may range from transformational efforts aimed at improving organisational design and culture to more specific initiatives like flexible work. Corporations must explore innovative initiatives to shape their workplace culture and develop strategies that enhance overall success.

Transformational change initiatives have a better chance of success if based on employees' feedback or insights. A brief qualitative survey with questions on motivation to work, frustrations at work, and desired changes can provide valuable insights into improving workplace dynamics. Typical issues are mostly related to leadership, collaboration, communication, transparency, meritocracy, and responsiveness to internal and external stakeholders. Any workplace initiative needs to be championed and led by the CEO or the highest leadership level and delegated to the HR department or Chief Transformation Officer. Initiatives must also be designed to hardwire specific behaviours. For instance, if responsiveness to internal and external stakeholders is the identified issue, targets for response should be set, measured, and rewarded.

From an HOD perspective, conversations with customers and employees about what has changed for them after the launch of an initiative were useful in measuring 'stickiness'. Change initiative is an ongoing process that includes modification based on continuous formal and informal feedback. Employee town hall being the common forum to address discussion topics can make the forum more engaging. It carries the risk of treading on uncomfortable topics, but with confidence and authenticity, a leader can leverage this forum to create a higher level of trust and engagement. The sincerity of intent and level of involvement of the leader is the key to the success of such change initiatives.

Also read: Why culture is the mediator for all things business

The recent initiative is reshaping workplaces, which gives employees the liberty to work from anywhere and not be stuck in the same cabinet for years. With the help of Digital Transformation, coordinating a hybrid workplace is easy, plus it gives an advantage to employees to work from a place of comfort. Successful digital transformations must be embedded in the overall business strategy with the commitment of financial and technical resources and a roadmap for transformation. The gap between business and technology teams' understanding of business needs is often key to failure. Technology teams often focus purely on functionality, while businesses may need to factor in compliance, sales teams, and customer adoption. Digital transformations fail when legacy systems run parallel due to inadequate training and general resistance to adopting new technology.

Organisations prioritising work-life balance and providing flexible timing have seen increased productivity, employee satisfaction and retention. Business leaders now focus on creating policies that adapt to diverse employee needs. Fostering a culture of Inclusion and Diversity is no longer an option but a necessity. Beyond metrics, fostering an inclusive culture makes employees feel valued and heard. The trend of new initiatives has now turned from digital facilities to mental well-being and giving back to society. Many organisations have made special arrangements to take care of their employees' mental health and well-being. Screaming rooms, relaxing rooms, and psychological sessions are part of such initiatives. In the constantly changing market, continuous learning has emerged to be a critical aspect of workplace culture. While working on the skills and developing the mental health of the employees, it's essential to align the organisational values with social responsibility.

Also read: How to combat an "always on" work culture

The imperative for adopting sustainable business practices is increasing, driven by regulators, investors, customers, employees, and other stakeholders. It is no longer a differentiator but a key to the long-term survival of an organisation. In India, organisations are starting to realise that sustainability is not just CSR activity but now needs to be integrated into business strategy. Many organisations have launched sustainability initiatives but struggle to translate them into results. Such initiatives largely focus on the environment, health and safety in manufacturing, energy, and R&D – at the technology level. While these are important, organisations should equally focus on inculcating sustainable practices as a 'movement' at the workplace. If employees are truly passionate about sustainability and climate change, it will translate to the success of bigger initiatives. Initiatives that inform and encourage employees to avoid bottled water in meeting rooms or print only when it is a must and to switch off lights when you leave a room when embedded well will prepare organisations better to adopt larger technological initiatives. Charity begins at home, as they say. However, even these simple changes are very difficult to hardwire in organisations, in my experience.

Also read: Creating a culture of belonging

Initiatives that shape work culture are key to improving employee engagement, meeting stakeholder expectations, leveraging the latest in technology, and preparing organisations to better survive and thrive in a dynamic world. Behind every successfully implemented initiative is a CEO or a leader who is fully committed and leads the initiative from the front by setting clear expectations, role-modelling behaviours, and inspirational communication. The role of Paul Polman, who embedded sustainability into the core of Unilever's business; Vineet Nayar, who elevated employee engagement with "Employee first & Customer second" in HCL; Satya Nadella, who fostered innovation and growth mindset in Microsoft, underscores the crucial role of the CEO/leader in any change management initiative.

Raman Ramachandran Ph.D, Dean & Director, K J Somaiya Institute of Management

This article has been published with permission from K J Somaiya Institute of Management. https://kjsim.somaiya.edu/en/