Why company culture is under threat from remote working

Organisations that do not understand what is driving their culture will face a dip in performance, says Gallop’s Jake Herway in this exclusive interview with WORKTECH Academy

Company culture is under threat in the new virtual environment we all are working in, according to American analyst Jake Herway of Gallup, who advises organisations on cultural strategy.

‘When you’re physically dislocated, you’re emotionally dislocated…’

Herway told WORKTECH Academy that culture and performance is today more intricately connected than ever. ‘Culture drives engagement which in turn drives productivity’, he explained. ‘When you’re physically dislocated, you’re emotionally dislocated.’

Gallup has been tracking employee engagement globally since 2000. Engagement levels dipped dramatically in summer 2020 before recovering in the autumn. Fresh lockdowns suggest future dips. Herway told WORKTECH that we are 10 per cent less likely to feel cared for or recognised in a virtual environment, and 5 per cent less likely to feel our opinions count. The cost to employers of actively disengaged staff is estimated at 17 per cent of total salary by Gallup. This adds up to huge sums of money in large organisations.

Herway’s advice to companies seeking to get serious about improving engagement is to take a more rigorous approach to promoting managers into team leadership roles – they should look for innate ability to lead rather than just technical competence. Companies should also ask what is really driving their culture. Often they invest in the wrong areas and miss the top factors that give employees a sense of belonging. In 2021, such mistakes will be very expensive.

Watch the full interview with Jake Herway of Gallup here.