Changed cultures await employees returning to work

Changed cultures await employees returning to work – This was the consensus arrived at by thought leaders and HR heads who were a part of the TMC-CIMA-CMI webinar partnered with Daily FT held on 26 October. 

Joining the discussion were TMC Founder and President Emeritus Fayaz Saleem, CMI President Kaushal Rajapaksa, CMI and TMC Past President Murali Prakash, CIMA Country Manager Zahara Ansary, FCMA, CGMA, Unilever Sri Lanka Country HR Director Ananya Sabharwal, John Keells Holdings PLC Chief People Officer/EVP Isuru Gunasekara and moderated by Daily FT Editor Nisthar Cassim. 

In commencing moderating the session Cassim stated it was a privilege to be a part of this landmark session as it was organised by three organisations with passion to improve and promote excellence in management. A lot of interesting perspectives were discussed at the session with all the panellists bringing in diverse views on the theme ‘Impact of the pandemic on the corporate culture of organisations’.

Saleem in his remarks stated that the corporate culture of an organisation was intangible and unseen but had an enormous impact on the success of the organisations, and this haD been proved several times. Larger organisations have succeeded in building and maintaining it so that it may be that their very names evoke interest and curiosity yet very sadly there are many large and midsize companies that have not realised the power of corporate culture. He stated that he feels that it's the culture that drives the success of organisations and that the leadership is responsible to create a positive and attractive organisational culture.

Rajapakse stated working patterns had obviously changed and it was time for management to see how they could work forward by implementing flexibility, which would in return give adaptability and improvement. 

Ansary stated that CIMA as an organisation had a culture that was transforming due to the formation of the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants and that they were ready and supported to deal with concerns/crisis brought on by the pandemic. Technology was an enabler and the focus were on flexibility, employee wellbeing and agility and thus the team was able to help their students, members and various stakeholders thus moving forward despite the disruptions. She also mentioned how rather than redundancies the organisation repurposed roles and thrived despite the pandemic increasing their student intakes as well. 

Prakash mentioned that as a business leader in multiple industries, he had seen the rapid change in the business world and digitisation was forcing employers to look at things very differently, as to how you want to respond to the changes of the customer. He felt that culture was changing and would continue to change more. He also mentioned that what was done over the last 18–20 months would say a lot about employers – in terms of how their employees were treated – whether their mental well-being was looked at and whether they were treated fairly. 

“You know, a lot of research recently has been done, they say it's less important to look at the purpose and strategic focus, but more important to look at the employee well-being and morale safety, etc. Then, also the second aspect that we have to be mindful least the macro factors that are influencing this whole thing – digital natives and digital immigrants account for about 60% of our employees and customers and now they have very different values like how entities deal with social causes , so they're not afraid to change as well, in fact.”

Sabharwal brought on her experience at the global giant Unilever and shared how culture is one of the most powerful forces on the planet, quoting Google to Navy SEALs. 

“A strong culture is the common factor amongst teams in organisations, or even families – and is the intangible force that really drives not just organisations, but also humans – families, individuals. I think talking closer home at Unilever, where I have almost been born and raised as a professional we operate across 190 countries with a 150,000 employees and 400 brands and I have had the fortune of having a globally diverse career across you know four or five different geographies and what I can tell you, with absolute certainty is that amidst all the diversity in this organisation across geographies and cultures, the three words that connect us all Unilever rights are human, purposeful and accountable and that's essentially the summary of our culture at Unilever globally across the countries that we operate in, and I say these three words with a lot of pride.”

She mentioned how they ran a ‘Discover Your Purpose’ workshop for the Unilever SL staff and this helped the employees, where they could truly get in touch with what makes them tick and understand their unique calling in life, and that has gone a very long way. They had also transformed about 33% of their employees to be mental health champions which means they can spot signs of depression, anxiety and have a conversation to help their fellow employees.

Gunasekara spoke of how it would take some time to really understand the full impact because all their businesses over the years have developed cultures – that they recognise and take pride in, and of course that they are driven by their people, their working interactions, behaviour and value systems.

“So culture generally takes a very long-term development change, but having said that, the speed of how our interactions changed overnight, as a result of this pandemic. This time it might really be quicker to happen and quicker to fail and it might in fact be a step change. Generally speaking, for employees, you know the culture of an organisation has a lot to do with their personal motivation and continue to be a part of the company. And for the organisation, it is really an interesting means of attraction and retention. According to a glass door survey which I saw recently almost 60% of employees globally said that a good workplace culture is more important than salary.”

He also mentioned that those who joined a company during a time when remote work had taken over culture were possibly affected the most.

The panel also spoke about Gen Y and Gen Z joining the work force and how their expectations were different to the older ones. Prakash reiterated that customer and employee safety would take precedence over productivity. “Because of the nature of the customers and employees, they will just change jobs, if necessary, if they are not happy – if their values are not in sync so you need to understand this corporate profit at any cost might not be seen as the way forward, rather, together we build great collaborative value stakeholder value might be the way forward.”

Ansary also mentioned how they worked towards helping their corporate partners and top employers reskill their employees. CIMA had ensured their students and members were well skilled to deal with the requirements of the new world (this was helped by the fact that CIMA had done a comprehensive research on the future of finance and the resultant syllabus change in 2019) and thus they were able to support not just their community but other Sri Lankan companies as well with digital skills trainings, finance in the new world, etc. They had also focused on the emotional and wellbeing of their corporate community by conducting various sessions on those. 

On the final question whether it was leadership or employees responsible for a corporate’s culture – there was an interesting debate as some panellists felt it was leadership, some felt it was the lower level employees and some stated it was the middle management. 

These series of webinars are due to continue with the next one set for January 2022.