Why cultivating a positive culture can be so challenging

In the face of diverse political systems, cultural backgrounds, languages, time zones, and leadership styles across different regions, creating and maintaining a collegiate, optimistic environment across a global workforce can be arduous.

In conversation with HR Leader, Amrita Das, the head of HR (APC growth markets) at HCLTech, reflected on the challenges that businesses with global workforces have in cultivating positive work cultures in the post-pandemic market.

There are several trends, she explained, that are making it more challenging to cultivate a strong organisational culture, most notably in an age of remote and hybrid work.

“This complicates communication and how we go about maintaining a strong organisational identity as face-to-face interactions are often replaced by less personal, virtual ones,” she said.

“In these cases, interactions between an organisation and their employees can become transactional rather than relational if they aren’t careful.”

Her business has observed, Das continued, online trends such as “quiet quitting” and “resenteeism” gain traction since the pandemic, which can contribute to a lack of enthusiasm at work.

“Research has found that 59 per cent of the global workforce falls into the ‘quiet quitting’ category, where employees fulfil only base level requirements and don’t put effort into cultivating a positive culture. It comes as we’re seeing a rise [in] ‘resenteeism’ where employees remain in unsuitable jobs due to job insecurity,” she said.

“These issues can lead to decreased enthusiasm and productivity, as well as vocal dissatisfaction that affects other colleagues.”

These challenges highlight, Das proclaimed, how important it is for organisations to adapt their culture and “not simply rely on old ways of doing things”.

“Communication has changed vastly, and there is still a lot of work to be done for organisations to bring people together in a similar manner to pre-pandemic,” she said.

“While post-pandemic challenges remain in cultivating positive work cultures, the shift to remote and hybrid work has been a welcomed change.”

“It provides increased flexibility, which means that we can attract and retain a more varied workforce, encouraging a greater diversity of thought and innovation.”

HCLTech, Das outlined, is a company that operates across nearly 60 countries and countless cultures, and as such, cultivating a strong company culture presents unique challenges.

“This is particularly prevalent given the diverse political systems, cultural backgrounds, languages, time zones, and leadership styles across the different regions. While each market faces [its] own specific cultural hurdles, the core challenges remain similar,” she said.

HR professionals will thus have to remember that “company culture plays a crucial role in unifying diverse ethnic backgrounds and belief systems within a global organisation”, and thus, it must be prioritised.