Employees want flexibility. Employers want productivity. Employees want wellbeing. Employers want performance.
At least, that’s how the headlines would have it.
We seem determined to turn work into a tug of war between the organisation and the people in it.
‘Here’s what organisations must do to keep their staff happy’.
‘Here’s what employees need from their employers’.
Yet no where do titles like these suggest that both employers and employees can and should be on the same team, fighting for the same cause.
And that’s where organisational culture comes in.
Making the Complex, Binary
The problem is the assumption that what works for people and what works for organisations are opposing forces. They often aren’t.
People need clarity, good leadership, useful relationships, autonomy and the right conditions to do their best work. Organisations need people who can make good decisions, collaborate effectively, solve problems and execute the strategy. There is a considerable amount of overlap there. An employee having greater clarity about what is expected of them isn’t an employee perk. It’s good for the business, too.
Start With the Work, Not the Policy
The real question, then, isn’t simply what employees want or what employers need. It’s what people need to do their best work in this organisation, in pursuit of this strategy. There isn’t a universal answer because there shouldn’t be. The answer depends on the work that needs to be done.
Hybrid working is a prime example. As Ranya Nehmeh argues, the question shouldn’t be how many days people spend in the office, but what they actually do better together. Mentoring, problem-solving, relationship-building and learning may all benefit from being together, but simply putting people in the same building doesn’t make any of those things happen.
And this is where the employee-versus-organisation narrative starts to fall apart. Those aren’t simply things employees want from their employer. They’re things organisations need if they’re serious about developing people, sharing knowledge, solving problems and delivering their strategy.
The Role of Leaders
That puts the responsibility firmly with leadership. Rather than importing a fashionable way of working and hoping it solves a problem, leaders need to understand their strategy, their people and the conditions required to bring the two together.
That’s where culture becomes important.
Culture isn’t an employee benefit or a set of perks designed to keep people happy. It’s the environment leaders create that shapes how people actually work, make decisions and behave when the strategy meets reality.
Culture Isn’t a Trade-Off
We don’t need to choose between a workplace that works for people and one that works for the organisation. We need to stop pretending they’re naturally at odds. When the conditions are right, helping people do their best work is one of the best ways an organisation can perform at its best, too.
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At Coode, we look at strategy through a human lens because success depends on how people work together. When leadership teams achieve real alignment in how they lead, they unlock performance that may have been present all along but not yet fully realised.
To explore how Coode helps leaders define culture and align it with their strategy and context, visit our services page or get in touch here.
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