Organisational culture can be notoriously difficult to create and change. The coronavirus pandemic of 2020 has served as a unique catalyst for organisational culture change, but do organisations feel this change has been positive or negative, and why?
To find the answer, the Australian Human Resources Institute (AHRI) surveyed 233 human resources practitioners from around Australia asking what impact COVID-19 had on the culture of their workplace. While the results varied, almost 85 per cent of respondents agreed COVID-19 forced their organisations to “see, think, feel, plan and act differently.”
While it would be natural to expect a crisis to make a significant negative impact, there was an even split among respondents on whether the effect on organisational culture was positive (42%) or negative (38%). It is clear employee wellbeing took a hit, with social isolation (64%) then job insecurity (47%) being the largest contributors. Not surprisingly, more than half of the respondents also agreed that morale had been negatively impacted.
What is interesting is the key influencers of organisational culture—organisational courage, values and purpose—were the least impacted. The theme of the comments from respondents indicates that although this has been an incredibly challenging time, it has also required people to band together, be more in tune with each other, examine their purposes, adapt, and live the organisation’s values in a way they previously had not. Additionally, while it is a challenge to maintain and build culture remotely, more than half of respondents noted employees were connecting in a “more genuine way” than pre-pandemic.
The other key theme emerging from the survey is that the care and empathy of the organisation’s leadership makes an impact on the extent and type of impact COVID-19 has on the organisation. Where leaders live the values and demonstrate flexibility through their own actions, employees feel empowered to follow.
One thing we can learn from this survey is that despite isolation and insecurity we have opportunities to strengthen or mould our company culture. Opportunities to be creative with our flexible working practices and to form more genuine relationships with each other. Yes, COVID-19 has brought multiple setbacks but as organisations we can also choose to use this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for growth.