People say you are what you eat, and while doctors tend to agree with this, this methodology is seldom applied to the corporate world. Especially in the wake of the pandemic, corporate culture has taken a major hit both virtually and in-person. It is more important now than ever to place the emphasis back on how employees act with one another, and how their environment affects their overall quality of work.

Businesses always tend to shy away from spending and investing on corporate infrastructure. They rely on long established corporate hierarchy to instill the values of their companies into future employees creating a broken feedback loop that leads to fractured company relationships and less than satisfied employees. But, investments in corporate culture have had proven effects on the bottom line. Companies with a strong corporate culture have increases in revenue, stock price and net income.

With increases in major areas of financial gains like that it is hard to deny that companies need to begin their increased focus on strengthening their focus on their corporate culture. While this is a worthy job, it is not one that is going to be easy. This past year created a gaping disconnect between workers and the work that they do. So much so that the word “burnout” has become one of the most popular words in the English language.

Over the past year we have not connected with our work due to confusion about our work situation, and just a general air of distraction. But studies show that workers who connect to the work they do helps them raise their productivity, enlighten their innovative spirit and also strengthens their engagement within their company. This can only mean good things for companies because when you increase those three areas you can increase the spirit of a business as a whole.

However, employees can resist change because they initially don’t see it as positive. When companies use words like “restructuring” or “morale changes” these words trigger panic in employees’ minds. They are commonly associated with layoffs or negative changes within the corporate community. While corporate culture changes are good for employees, businesses need to use extreme caution when trying to enact a corporate culture change.

Another issue with corporate culture changes, is that often when there are changes employees receive more obligations and responsibilities. While employees are willing and ready to handle some additional responsibilities, these responsibilities often far outweigh what they signed up for in their job descriptions and often come without a pay increase. Companies need to be specific and intentional with the changes that they enact, doing so increases the chances that changes in company culture will be effective.

All in all, companies do have to make a shift to corporate culture sooner rather than later. Otherwise, we will see major deficits in the quality of work that employees are outputting. Even more, employees will gravitate towards non-traditional corporate spheres in order to maintain the lifestyle that they have known and grown to love.