Hybrid Work Will Be an Adjustment—Here's How to Keep Your Company Culture Alive

Editor’s note: This piece is part of our Columnist Network series, which explores the tactical thoughts and actions from Adweek’s community of high-level experts. Today, Intersection CMO Esther Raphael reflects on a recent team event and shares her takeaways for a new standard of hybrid work. A few weeks ago, we gathered the senior leadership team at Intersection for the first time in person since the pandemic began. Colleagues flew in from all over the country to our offices at Hudson Yards. For those of you who are longing for the day you get to do the same, I thought I’d share some learnings and experiences that apply to the big return to office, or the special events leading up to it, and how managers can keep these lessons going even after the excitement of the initial return has passed. Allow time to settle in and feel feelings I sat at my desk that morning, anxious to see my teammates. But as they started to arrive, I was overwhelmed with sensory overload. The concourse was filled with laughter and people buzzing around, and it’s been awhile since so many voices surrounded me. As we welcomed the familiar faces, confusion set in regarding the appropriate greeting. Are we doing handshakes or elbow bumps these days? Once we adjusted, the excitement of being back set in, and it felt amazing to reconnect with the people I had missed most. I had all those feelings in the first 60 minutes alone. My advice is to start the day off slow. Instead of jumping right into meetings, allow the physical and mental space to ease into it. Keep it going: Make sure you’re keeping employees' needs top of mind, whether they’re at home or in the office. It will be an adjustment. Be mindful of schedules, celebrate accomplishments big and small, and encourage a healthy balance between work and personal schedules. Don't forget about those hired virtually On the eve of our first work session, we held a happy hour for everyone in our New York office, plus those who had flown in for the meetings. I realized there were many faces that seemed new to me. We may want to forget the past 21 months, but we can't forget that we hired many people in a virtual world. Without the luxury of an office environment, people in other departments may not have had a chance to meet. Integrating these employees into the broader team can be done in several ways, such as executives reaching out directly to HR teams to schedule meet and greets on a regular basis. Relationships are so key to success within any organization, and you can only build relationships with those you have the pleasure of meeting. Keep it going: This is an opportunity for HR departments or cultural leads to revolutionize and develop forward-thinking training programs with the hybrid model in mind. Some things are just better in person The next few days were spent in super productive sessions where we brainstormed ideas and challenged ourselves to make or break things that would move our business forward. It became crystal clear that some things are just better in person, like workshopping and debating. Being live is incomparable to what you can express or accomplish on the screen alone. Whether your company is planning a hybrid return or no return at all, I encourage you to plan live strategy sessions when possible and when you feel safe. It is hard to match the energy you can feed off of in a crowd. Keep it going: The key to success here will be as simple as synching schedules and identifying shared collaboration days. Make those days in the office work with team meetings, workshops and live events. Highlight what makes your team great We carved out time to socialize and had so much fun together. We enjoyed dinner at a New York hot spot and went to a cooking class where pizza making somehow turned into a competitive sport. That is one of the things that makes this team so special: We want to win at everything we do. Find what makes your team unique and let it flourish. This time together allowed us to reprioritize the relationships we’ve built in the office and make new memories we’ll talk about until the 2022 offsite. We reignited the company culture over these three days, and we’re determined to bring it to life throughout all levels of the company. Keep it going: Fun shouldn't be reserved for outings. Create moments of collaboration and unity when in the office, from themed lunches to game nights. Repeat With CES 2022 coming up, I’m looking forward to broader industry gatherings and anticipate meeting many more of my peers. Now that we've done it once, I want more. You will, too.