The Challenge of Maintaining a Strong Company Culture During Covid-19

Like many other successful SME businesses one of the key ingredients of building a great company is the development and evolution of a fantastic company culture.

I will save what a great company culture looks and feels like for another post, but a key challenge of Covid-19 for a business, beyond the obvious ones, is the ability to maintain the hard-fought company culture when we are now forced to work remotely. Notwithstanding, we must also consider the opportunities that Covid-19 can also bring in terms of changes to cultures and practices that build up over a period of time in a company that could be improved upon.

Within one of the businesses I co-own, Avamore Capital, the culture we have built up has in many ways evolved because of how physically close the team has been to each other in the office. As a company that has bootstrapped its way to where it is, decisions have been taken along the way to take smaller offices to save money. We once fit 10 desks into a space that was sold for 4-6 and we sought the smallest available desks we could find to maximise occupancy (if anyone knows a stockist of 1000mm desks in Greater London please do let me know!) and now find ourselves with an office that was designed for 12, with 18 occupants (we still currently plan to move into a 25 person office in late June, Corona-permitting)

This close proximity to ones' co-workers is a central ingredient to the culture that has formed. Everyone knows everyone else's business; personal and professional. Communal snacks and treats shared generously daily (a habit so strong I suspect even in a sanitary obsessed post-Covid world will still continue). In a productive manner, it also exposes junior staff members to the conversations of their senior peers, both inside and outside their departments, with wisdoms being absorbed osmotically as a consequence. Another time for example, the office comes to a silent standstill as two Directors engage in a key strategic debate as the rest of the office floor listens intently. And so on...

Subsequently, the office has become a source of energy for the team, an empty office lacking the same buzz as an office filled to the brim. Salespeople, who aren't required to be in the office every day, would come in even if they didn't have to. Even as colleagues were given the option of working from home pre-lockdown, most chose to come into the office because of the working vibrancy they experienced. This is to be expected when team members, purely out of choice, feel the love for the office atmosphere that they would often stay far later in the workplace than they are expected or required to.

Individual relationships seem to be as strong as previously, in some cases better than before, but as a collective, it's hard to replicate the sense of unity and collective mission that we had a month or so ago. 

With such a culture, with a team that derived such vigour from being physically so close, inevitably moving to a remote working setup will put a strain on the culture of the business. When lockdown measures were put in place at first, attempts were made to have a core Zoom gallery where all the team could be visually and auditory engaged with as if they were in the office as normal. However, with many of the team having to engage in intra-departmental Zoom chats or telephone calls, these Company-wide Zooms designed to replicate the office floor died out quickly and we have transitioned to short calls, 2-3 times per week as a full business. Naturally, it isn't the same as it was before. Individual relationships seem to be as strong as previously, in some cases better than before, but as a collective, it's hard to replicate the sense of unity and collective mission that we had a month or so ago.

We are looking to find ways of navigating this. This week we will have a team quiz on Friday afternoon, we're setting up book and film clubs, but if you can't, for example, pop out and grab coffee/lunch with your pal or go to the pub on a Thursday night with your team, it's very hard to compensate for it. The culture of the business will probably change permanently as a result of all of this when we're eventually allowed back into the office. After all the hard work we've done to foster a great culture and working environment this is a frustrating prospect. But does it matter?

Working environments and cultures change, they evolve in a myriad of new ways. Is clinging onto the old way things were the right thing to do anyway? I see the following cultural benefits which we might expect to see once we are allowed "out" again after lockdown restrictions are lifted:

1. We're going to be a lot more open to remote working. We can see people can be as, if not more productive working at home than in the office and will encourage it more. I still expect the majority of the team to come in to the workplace voluntarily, but knowing that they have the freedom to work where they feel they can operate best. Not having to spend up to 2.5 hours every day commuting means staff can spend more time doing things they love whilst still having a bit more time daily to work in lieu of their commute. Plus they can work at more times that suit when they are individually more productive. Win.
2. Greater Ownership. Without the ability to ask bosses what to do every 5 minutes, team members are going to have to take more ownership of their activities and learn to think for themselves more. This means they will be more accomplished and complete professionals in the months and years to come. Net benefit in the medium term will be enhanced productivity.
3. Increased Trust. Managers will have adjusted to not being able to look over their team's shoulders and will see junior colleagues carrying out tasks effectively during lockdown. This means trust will grow within the team between bosses and staff.
4. Better Management. If you can't tell your charges what to do every 5 minutes to the smallest of details due to the practical challenges of doing so in the current environment, you have to be clearer in advising your team in what you want them to do, why you need them to do it and when you need it to be done for. This will result in developing better managers, which in turn leads to happier and more productive teams. Excellent.
5. Fewer Distractions. With a less densely occupied office on our return (with many staff opting to continue to work from home), interactions on the office floor are, statistically at least, less likely. But with team members unused to being distracted by other people after months of working at home and less likely to distract others, the habit of starting off an office chat about the latest Netflix series will most likely have fallen away. Although it is one that's hard to see staying away forever...until then a net productivity benefit awaits.
6. Fewer Face-to-Face Interactions. Speaking from personal experience, I can spend whole weeks without seeing the main office floor, due to the sheer volume of meetings I can be subjected to, both internally and externally. This new experience we have thanks to Covid-19 means that external meetings only should be taking place if absolutely necessary, being replaced with Zoom calls and with the trend to remote working for some members of staff, internal meetings can also take place by way of videoconference. The net result should mean greater productivity and geographical flexibility.
7. Being Together Will Mean Even More to Us. With both our experience of working remotely as a firm under lockdown and the likelihood that given we are a dense occupier of space at the best of times, and that we'll be unable to all work in the office when lockdown restrictions are eased, us congregating as a company will be less frequent. So when we do all gather together as one, it will really mean something because it will genuinely be an out of the ordinary thing to do, due to how rare it is likely to be for the coming months. Hopefully that means that during these times we can really embrace and feel that sense of togetherness, common goal and mission.
8. More Efficiencies. Changing the location of the workplace isn't the only thing likely to change. Working habits and norms are going to change. No longer bound by the usual day-to-day, the team will have time to think about how they go about doing things and will find ways to eliminate or limit repetitive or unnecessary tasks. Lockdown is already forcing the company to find new ways of doing business in a more modern way, adopting Docusign technology, being more flexible around wet ink signatures for contracts, digital ID verification and KYC procedures etc. All things we can carry into life post Lockdown that will make transactions and jobs easier, faster and reduce friction with customers. Additionally, the team and crucially Managers will be forced into using apps/technology more than ever before (in a real estate focused lender no less!). Net result should be greater productivity and job satisfaction.
9. Opportunities to Promote. Aligned with the themes around trust and ownership will come a chance to give rising stars a moment to prove themselves. We have been encouraging team members at all levels to take greater responsibility and demonstrate leadership both internally and externally. Some of that has been senior people in the business (myself included), stepping aside and creating space for others in the business to have their voices and ideas heard. Net result should be greater job satisfaction and more leaders within the team.
10. Better Communication. As managers we can't pull staff members to one side whenever the need arises to relay a message. Team members may live alone worried about the future and feel isolated and detached from the rest of their colleagues. We have had to be very clear as managers both verbally on video calls (multiple) and in written communications to allay fears or concerns and to provide clarity around strategy and message to the market (even if the message isn't sunshine and rainbows). From an upwards management perspective, team members have also had to be better at communicating messages from the market, vendors and providing feedback as to their capacity to work on projects. Understandably, improvements in communication will be for the long term benefit of the organisation.

These few benefits may merely scratch the surface. But on reflection, whilst a change to the company culture is inevitable as a result of nothing more than the experience of spending what looks like it will exceed a month in "lockdown", it doesn't have to be a negative. If we can retain many of the positive qualities we had before, such as the care and concern for our colleagues, shared work ethic and mission combined with the positive changes brought about listed above, then this company can emerge from the Covid-19 crisis a stronger one.

I am sure that others in other companies will identify other positive cultural improvements. I look forward to hearing about them in due course. If you have any experiences you would like to share please feel free to comment. Alternatively email [email protected] with your thoughts or to discuss any aspect of this piece.

About the Author: Michael Dean is an Entrepreneur, Investor, Non-Executive Advisor and Business Consultant with over 16 years of experience in technology, healthcare, financial services, hospitality and real estate