Our third year of the pandemic might bring with it a sense of déjà vu. There are still the masks, the vaccines, the variants. But whilst things might seem like they’ve not really changed, the truth is that everything has.

That’s because we’ve been on a journey of continued adaptation. Rather than seek to return to the old normal, we’ve set our sights on the new, or even next, normal. And nowhere is this truer than in the workplace.

In Consultancy.co.uk, Lindsay Wall from Wongdoody wrote that “how [company culture] is being delivered has changed, if not just for the foreseeable future, then very possibly… forever.”

To go one step further, we see culture as always changing – a muscle that needs to be retrained. That’s because it is tied to our workforce, and to build a strong performance culture fit for the times we must look outwards, learn from what we see, and eliminate any blind spots that stop us from doing so. 

For Glovo, this realisation has been a personal one and came off the back of a period of huge growth for the company. Our rise, like a lot of eCommerce businesses recently, has been meteoric. 

Growth is good, but the faster things change, the tighter businesses must hold on to what matters most. Such was the rush to hire more people to cope with the demand, our own grip started to loosen on what mattered most to us – our culture.

We characterise our own culture as a trip to the moon and back on the fastest rocket. But when our employees told us there had been a little too much turbulence along the way, we realised we had developed blind spots to how they were feeling and their job satisfaction. 

We grew comfortable hearing positive feedback and slowed in how we rose to new challenges in line with a growing world and business. The blind spots needed to go.

And it might be a similar case for you. Because by eliminating them, businesses can consistently meet the same high standards their employees expect.

Below are four key areas that demand your attention. Not only are these hugely important to us as a company, but also for businesses setting the benchmark for the best working cultures worldwide.

Connection and inclusivity
Despite being on a trip to the moon, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realise connection is a key enabler of a healthy culture. Particularly when Covid has done so much to make us feel disconnected.

According to Glassdoor, 48% of employees have felt isolated from coworkers during the pandemic. Whilst ADP Research Institute found that US workers who felt strongly connected to their employee are 75 times more likely to be engaged than those who do not. Its benefits are versatile and span everything from employees’ wellbeing to motivation. 

Amidst recent growth, our culture attenuated in the wake of so many new people joining. Onboarding is so important because it’s not just about employees learning the nuances of the role, but those of the company. Done right, it can help recent hires  connect from the outset and feel an integral part of your community. 

In looking at how other companies prioritise connection, HubSpot, who recently placed second in Glassdoor’s Best Places to Work in the US, promotes an “inclusive community where every single person is able to bring their best, whole self.” 

Inclusivity is a huge part of connection. Businesses benefit from more diverse perspectives, whilst our workforce feels a crucial sense of belonging and inclusion. Without diversity at its core, a workplace is putting a cap on the matters its people can connect on, and is crucially exposing its own disconnect to the 21st century.

Inspiration
The more inspired an employee is, the stronger their bond with the organisation.

A company’s ambitions are integral to giving life to this. You want your employees to feel engaged with the mission you’re on, and aware of the ways in which they can contribute to it. Whether that’s hitting a certain sales goal, growth or something yet undefined which they can contribute to.

It’s about everyone feeling they can contribute to the impact you’re making and fostering a working culture where this sentiment isn’t lost. That means a connected workforce and ensuring your people have the time to raise their head above the parapet and see the company’s role in the wider world.

Parallel to this, recent events have ushered in a much-needed focus on authentic brand purpose and we have seen the benefits to companies showing what ambitions lie beyond their bottom line. Essentially, what positive impact they want to leave on the world. Our own passion for sustainability has meant becoming carbon neutral and working harder than ever to set high benchmarks to address climate change.

Adding this sort of breadth to your purpose will only stand to benefit your culture. Take UK energy-firm Octopus which is twenty-seventh on Glassdoor’s Best Places to Work in the UK. Their employees praised the company’s ability to communicate how they’re making a difference, including its evolving efforts to make energy greener. 

Transparency and visibility
One of the key reasons people feel inspired by a company’s culture is because it’s there to be seen and engaged with. And Covid has reset the level of visibility employees demand of their employers.

That’s because it cannot be enough for a company to say it is going to improve its diversity, or achieve carbon neutrality. It must outline how and measure.

Being vocal about progress is essential. Following COP26 and the #BlackLivesMatter movement, companies were quick to outline and publish policies or open letters, but goodwill generated by this will only last so long.

Employees do not expect to see results imminently, but a company cannot afford to lack momentum or go quiet. If these goals are in part to build your culture, then being obstructive or even misleading will only serve to undermine it. 

Take the example of META (formerly Facebook) who dropped to forty-seventh place in the US workplace standings, despite historically being around the top ten. Fast Company put this down to “a season of controversy that revealed a deliberate cover-up of its platform’s harmful effects on users.”

Being ‘people forward’
Culture is first and foremost about your people. It’s about their wellbeing and your ability to listen to them, and one of our key learnings is that we need to listen to our workforce in continually innovative ways.

We need to compare employee feedback to our own ambitious benchmarks to identify those culture drivers (like rewards, organisational growth and recognition) we need to improve.

From our own experience, we were happy to see positive scores but knew we had to hone in on those scores lagging behind our ambitions, with reward and workload needing particular attention.

Building a better culture is not about the most creative ways to put your head in the sand. As Glassdoor’s CEO Christian Sutherland-Wong notes, it’s about “reimagining the employee experience to truly put your people first.”

In the UK’s Best Places to Work list, second-placed AND Digital were praised for their “genuine desire to put people first and look after their wellbeing.” Whilst DELL, Diageo and Google were other companies providing development and professional progression. A smart move when Gartner says “building critical skills and competencies” is HR Leaders’ number-one priority in 2022.

The pandemic has led us to a better understanding of the workplace and we must take this onboard when thinking about our culture. Working from home was once viewed with suspicion, but now with the proper blend of connecting people face-to-face and fostering creativity and collaboration, it can be an ingredient in the recipe of success. 

Similarly, office working has taken on new significance as a social space that allows our workforce to talk and share in things – something truly valuable in a largely disconnected world. 

To build a strong performance culture fit for 2022, we must ensure it is compatible with however we work. The likely outcome is a hybrid model, with the greatest appetite shown for this post-pandemic. But it is still too early to say whether the hybrid approach is the one for your business and your people.

That’s because each organisation is unique. As much as you look to other companies or relevant and timely insights for inspiration, you’ll always have your own blind spots to eliminate in order to build the culture you want, and need.

It is a challenge, but also something that can offer huge rewards in both the performance and happiness of your workforce. Two things that are integral to reaching new heights in 2022.