The Company Culture Builder - Remote & Hybrid Edition

Hey everybody! It's Alex Grande here to talk around the idea of hybrid culture playbook that drives engagement and high performance. So, we're going to be talking about how you can build a thriving culture, no matter where your staff live. I want to know where you live. Where are you at, and who do you work for? Put it in the chat. I'm really excited to have everyone here. This is a topic that I'm really passionate about.

I've been working remotely slash hybrid for over 10 years, and I'm really excited to talk about the idea of building a hybrid culture playbook that can drive performance. So we're going to get into that.

While you're sharing where you are and what you do, I'll share a little bit about myself. Right now, I'm actually in Portland. I'm progressively moving towards the digital nomad lifestyle, where if you have a great office and solid internet, you really can work from anywhere with the right tools and processes.

And we're going to walk away today in this 30 to 45 minute session with 5 things you can do starting today. We're also going to talk about a wide-ranging topic of ideas around hybrid culture, and we're going to go through around 22 slides.

A little bit about me: I am a web developer technologist with a background in psychology, so I've always been very passionate about motivation, unconscious bias, things like that. So I'm really excited to go into this topic.

I'm now the CEO of Recognize, an employee recognition and rewards software company. Excuse me, my voice is a little bit hoarse today, but I'm so passionate I said we're going to keep talking about this and make sure this happens this Thursday.

But yeah, great to see everyone coming in from Canada, BC, love BC, our northern neighbor. Florida, good to see you there. Kansas City, Nova Scotia, San Diego. Great to have everyone here talking about hybrid culture. It's so important.

So why is it important? It is the new normal. The hybrid landscape is something you definitely want to be considering if you're not already doing it.

Around 78% of companies now are embracing hybrid culture, so it is less of a differentiator. You are expected now to have a hybrid culture. It allows your team to be more productive, ultimately, and provides better flexibility and productivity rather than an office-only environment.

On top of that, we're looking at the idea of how we can transform total rewards. We're going to talk more about that. If people are in different places, total rewards needs to travel.

This can help you evolve your talent strategy by creating new magnets, as we say in the Entrepreneurial Operating System, EOS. One of the ideas is having your rocks, your boulders. What are you trying to accomplish this quarter?

I love that analogy, because if you think about a large boulder, you think about big projects. In the same way, in your talent strategy, you want to have your magnet—what really draws people to stay and continue working at your organization.

And with people now mobile and hybrid, having an on-site gym or expensive on-site perks may not be as beneficial as other perks that can travel.

So great to see people coming in from Denver, Egypt—love that.

All right, let's keep it going. In the first poll we want to do, let's put that up. I'm curious: what is fading away at your org? What is happening less than it used to be?

While people are pulling that up, some things we're seeing include on-site perks. For example, the on-site gym. Legacy flexibility, where telework was more ad hoc, is now becoming formalized into processes. Some of those nice-to-haves we used to have are changing, especially since COVID.

Dependent care FSAs, if childcare is unavailable or too expensive, or if you're working from home and with your child, those benefits may not be as useful as they once were.

We see about 40% of people seeing a decrease in physical HQ perks. That doesn't mean we just remove that budget—we can redistribute it.

I love seeing the 5 to 9 sync being one of them as well. That’s really interesting. I’m going to grab a screenshot of that.

So with hybrid culture, we have to consider that if we don't adapt, culture will drift away. We need to adapt and make changes. This is true of any time period—we want to be serving a feedback loop.

Some things you might be experiencing: if another company offers hybrid and you're not, you could lose top talent. Leadership always cares about performance, and retention of top performers is critical.

Another challenge is needing more documentation and processes. That will naturally happen, but the faster you build a wiki and knowledge base, the better.

We recently implemented a chatbot connected to our wiki, so I can ask it questions like “what is the most important document?” and it will respond.

You want to build team mentality no matter where people work.

Another issue is feeling disconnected or invisible. We’ll talk more about that.

Some employees experience burnout, constantly working and never disconnecting. Others may underwork or take advantage of work-from-home flexibility.

So you need balance. You want people to disconnect—but not disengage.

One candidate once told me they wanted to work here because they wanted to work from home. That’s like saying you want a job because there’s free lunch. It’s a perk, not the purpose.

You don’t want draconian monitoring like tracking green dots. Instead, build trust through one-on-ones and clarity.

Work-from-home can actually increase productivity when structured well.

Some things to watch out for include applying old systems to new realities, like replicating in-office perks.

Managers also often don’t know what to do. We need to train them better, especially for remote environments.

One of the worst situations is a manager who doesn’t know what employees are doing. That creates stress and micromanagement.

So we need clear playbooks in the wiki.

Ultimately, the goal is a trust-based, high-performing culture.

We can build a competitive advantage through hybrid culture.

We also need to ensure employees feel seen, heard, and valued. That’s why recognition programs matter.

Playbooks are essential in hybrid environments.

We’re also seeing increases in locality-based compensation adjustments, paid parental leave policies, and wellness and flexibility benefits.

Quick meme break—there are two memes here. I’m definitely guilty of the one on the right where I feel like I need to be productive even in meetings.

So how do we improve?

Focus on outcomes over proximity. Don’t measure people by visibility—measure impact.

Encourage feedback loops, AMA sessions, and better communication norms.

Reduce information silos and improve transparency.

Total rewards that travel are critical: home office stipends, wellness programs, gym reimbursements, etc.

Recognition is extremely important. Visibility is the currency of remote work.

You can build digital high-five programs using Slack, Teams, Zapier, or tools like Recognize.

Codify your culture in a wiki. Make values and norms accessible and reinforced daily.

Listening to employees is essential. Use surveys, one-on-ones, suggestion boxes, and town halls.

Jess: we have two questions in the chat.

Tammy is asking: is an in-facility culture builder available? I work in manufacturing HR and need a game plan.

Yes—connect with people on the floor using bulletin boards, kiosks, TVs, iPads, printed awards, and safety challenges.

Second question is about wikis. A wiki is a knowledge base. Tools include Confluence, Notion, or SharePoint.

Notion is especially popular.

Wikis must be searchable and part of onboarding.

Again, listen to employees using surveys, AMA sessions, and anonymous tools.

Wrapping up: key themes include recognition, codified values, listening, updated performance measurement, and clarity of roles.

Five actions you can take now:

Eliminate an unnecessary meeting

Create a peer-to-peer recognition channel

Train managers continuously

Standardize work-from-home rules

Use AI tools to support workflows

Thanks everyone for joining.