You are not alone if you’re feeling challenged managing a hybrid workforce, building culture, and motivating employees to bring their best selves to work – whether on-site or remotely. This Wharton Knowledge article, Succeeding with Hybrid Work: Focus on Five Cs,suggests a meaningful framework for business leaders to pursue for timely change management and culture building in the age of the hybrid work.
At Tangoe, we recently embraced a permanent remote work model for a majority of our workforce. Through ourglobal network of employees and expert partners, we are delivering the best customer experiences worldwide.
As the Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) here at Tangoe, I’m particularly interested in building a strong, connected, inclusive global culture. I’ve found the five “Cs” defined by MartineHaas, professor of management at Wharton and Director of the Joseph H. Lauder Institute for Management and International Studies, is a great place to start. Haas identifies the “five Cs” as – Communication, Coordination, Connection, Creativity, and Culture. As I read the article, I was struck by this revelation:
“One senior manager who analyzed his team using the five Cs checklist told me he had a real ‘lightbulb moment,’” when he thought hard about connection and realized that the higher turnover he’d been seeing on his team wasn’t just due to pandemic burnout or the prospect of higher pay elsewhere, but to the reality that team members’ social connections to each other had frayed over the last two years, diminishing their sense of commitment to the team and belonging to the company.”
Although many remote employees note a feeling of a “frayed” sense of commitment and belonging, here at Tangoe, our remote and hybrid work cultures are stronger than ever. We are maximizing the benefit of our team members being able to work from home and supporting work-life integration and, through that, we are building a stronger employee community. Giving employees a reason to believe in their organization and a feeling of belonging can be a strong motivator to stay and recommit. That’s why we’ve taken steps to create a stronger, more connected working culture for our employees and our customers, exemplifying the five Cs.
Communication is key. Since transitioning to an almost entirely remote work model, we have amplified our internal communications to new heights. A few months back, we redefined our company values, highlighting the importance of continuous Transparency. We want every member of Team Tangoe to feel like they’re always in the loop, which is why we are looking into developing open forum sessions. These sessions will be a new place for employees to ask any questions they have and get honest and accurate answers, helping foster even more transparency and accountability.
Tangoe has always and will always be a collaborative workplace, but we know that creativity can be stunted in a remote environment. In order to combat fatigue and create a culture of creativity, many of our team leaders have adjusted the way they host brainstorming and creative working sessions, ensuring everyone who wants it is given an equal platform and voice. Hitting on the Connection and Creativity C’s, our executives have also started coordinating in-person sessions, where entire teams embark on short trips to one central location for in-person creative and brainstorming sessions. Just last month, our Chief Marketing Officer hosted a marketing all-hands meeting at her home in Texas, creating an opportunity for team members to meet each other – some for the first time – and brainstorm for the year ahead.
Creating a positive, inclusive culture among employees has always been a top priority of mine. We want people to be proud to work at Tangoe. We recently hosted Connect, our own virtual conference that brought together employees, customers and partners to share industry trends and highlight Tangoe initiatives. We brought in ZK Research Founder and Principal Zeus Kerravalla to showcase new research that shares a common interest among all three audiences.
With the rise of hybrid work, digital transformation, and security threats, we know that IT departments everywhere are more taxed than ever before. In fact, 44% of IT departments increased headcount by 10%, according to a recent ZK Research report, and even then the high rate of churn and increased headcount leads to an unsettled employment environment.
Tangoe, is a software company, employing artificial intelligence (AI) and insights through our technology expense and asset management solution. We help businesses simplify, manage, and optimize spend and resources across the information technology that runs their business and connects people and processes. It’s not lost on me that our complete solution pairs innovative and engaged subject matter experts and thought leaders with our technology. In fact, by helping our customers optimize efficiencies and cut costs, we also help them raise employee satisfaction and increase revenue.
In other words, our solution typically saves customers 60% by finding smart cost cutting initiatives for IT. Imagine – or reimagine if you will – how that money could be reinvested in your people and building a stronger culture through the five Cs.
If you’d like to collaborate with me to build a stronger culture for your organization, let’s connect on LinkedIn, or email me directly at [email protected].