Building company culture in a hybrid workforce balances the well-being of employees with the goals of the company. Managers provide support and allow autonomy to help employees succeed and the company thrive.
With more organizations offering employees flexible working arrangements, building company culture in a hybrid workplace is increasingly important. The traditional work culture that works for a company with everyone in the office may not work with a hybrid model. A hybrid culture includes shared values, social norms, and behaviors. It guides collaboration and inspires innovation across remote and in-office teams.
With some employees working in-office and others remotely and on varying schedules, crafting a hybrid workforce based on inclusivity, trust, connection, and productivity is important. It can help to ensure everyone is engaged and aligned with the team and overall business goals.
Why Hybrid Company Culture Matters
Without consistent in-person interactions, building a hybrid work culture isn’t as straightforward as your traditional company culture. Because of the distance, employees may feel disconnected. This can tend to decrease collaboration and productivity over time.
When employees are connected, happy, and eager to collaborate with their team, there are many benefits. They’ll perform better at work, and you’ll have better retention rates across departments.
Building a Hybrid Work Culture from the Ground Up
There’s no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to building your hybrid work culture. Whether you’re just building company culture or rebranding, it starts by defining the company values.
Sophie Wade, author of Empathy Works: The Key to Competitive Advantage in the New Era of Work, advises, “You need a strong element to connect people and to make sure everyone understands what each person does that supports the overall objective of the company.”
“You also need to articulate the values of your company,” says Wade. “One company I work with picks a value of the week, such as respect, and everyone leans into that value. At the end of the week, every employee talks about how they lived that value, such as listening more carefully and not interrupting.”
Because principles and values are at the heart of any hybrid company culture, it’s essential to know what they are and how they drive the company. Understanding processes such as how employees communicate with one another and how they collaborate can help guide the company forward.
For Leaders
Leaders are at the forefront of any company culture, but can be especially important in a hybrid business workforce where team members need to come together.
“Lots of people could get away without being conscious of their company culture when everyone was in the office,” says Dorie Clark, a communication coach, executive education professor and the bestselling author of The Long Game: How to Be a Long-Term Thinker in a Short-Term World. “But now that people are working remotely or in a hybrid office, that forces leaders to be deliberate, even if they could skate before.”
Modeling expected behavior, then, is critical for creating a strong hybrid work culture. Some key ways for leaders to do this include:
- Showing up on time and prepared for hybrid meetings
- Promoting psychological safety
- Using inclusive language
Take key moments to help new team members during onboarding and training; this will help you understand how the hybrid team operates on a daily basis. Give new hires a shared culture experience to help them integrate into the company and allow them to feel more part of the team.
Ngan H. Nguyen, author of Self-Defined Success: You Already Have Everything It Takes and founder and executive director of Cintamani Group, an executive coaching and consulting firm, shares why this is important. “It takes an extra effort to give people their why and help them understand the broader picture of how their work fits into an overall project, brand or multi-year set of goals,” Nguyen explains. “It helps people’s morale to understand that connection, especially if they’re new to the company.”
Some beneficial ways to introduce a positive hybrid company culture during onboarding include:
- Virtual coffee chats
- Welcome lunches on-site for those who can travel to the office
- Virtual mental breaks as a team
For Employees
Employees are also a powerful part of building company culture. Lia Garvin, a former senior team operations leader at Google and the author of Unstuck: Reframe Your Thinking to Free Yourself from the Patterns and People That Hold You Back, provides some insight. Garvin shares that a strong sense of trust is needed when people don’t see their boss all the time. Managers can provide clarity around goals and offer freedom for people to do their work however they want. “We need to reframe accountability away from micromanaging to an ownership mentality that gives people the power to be successful,” Garvin says.
Knowing the company goals, values, and other key details can help ensure everyone is aligned. Employees can also communicate things that are unclear or where improvements can be made. Everyone can work together to collaborate, celebrate wins, and create a positive culture as well.
Hybrid Work Environment Best Practices for Connection
Learning how to build a strong hybrid team culture takes some effort, but following a few simple best practices can help.
Staying connected, for example, is essential for any team, but especially a team where not all employees are in the same office. Communication when working within a hybrid company also needs to be purposeful. This helps to ensure that you’re closing the distance between employees and leadership.
Daily Standups
Implementing short, focused team meetings keeps everyone in the loop on progress and priorities. It’s also a great way to keep everyone connected.
These can be via video calls so everyone can see and hear one another, creating a sense of connectedness. Nguyen recommends weekly team calls where people share what they’re working on. Team or full-company meetings, depending on the size of the business, can give everyone a chance to talk about what they’re working on. They can also share what’s going well and what’s not. This practice also promotes cross-communication by connecting employees who can help each other. If you have team members across time zones, consider alternating time zones so everyone feels included and thought about.
Messaging Platforms
There are plenty of messaging platforms that can be used to connect your hybrid team, like Microsoft Teams or Slack. These are vital so everyone can communicate in the same space. These spaces can also encourage people to speak with one another privately or in shared channels. You can create channels dedicated to specific tasks, work projects, or even professional yet fun channels to build a sense of community.
Open Calendars
Allowing an open calendar policy helps create transparency within the workplace. This is important in a hybrid culture with remote and in-office employees working various schedules.
Transparency From Leadership
Last but not least, transparency from leadership is essential to the entire operation. Be sure to share frequent updates, address concerns promptly, and celebrate wins with your employees. This can help foster trust. It lets employees know their hard work has meaning and is valued.
How to Sustain Company Culture in a Hybrid Work Model
Building company culture comes through intentional actions every day and making changes when necessary. Once you craft the company culture you want in your hybrid work model, you’ll need to put forth the effort to sustain it.
Use these tips on hybrid workforce management to sustain a positive culture.
Acknowledge Contributions
It’s important to acknowledge the wins within your company, whether they’re big or small. It helps employees feel involved. It also shows that their efforts are making a difference towards both company and team goals.
The most important thing an organization can do is identify what they aspire to be and then look for organic examples of this among their employees, Clark advises. “Recognize your employees for lived values and make them heroes to their colleagues. That’s powerful validation for them and powerful for their coworkers to see that anyone can and will receive recognition for showing the company’s values,” she continues.
Garvin says, “People need to know they’re valued and that they’re not invisible even if they’re not in the office. “You have to develop a language of appreciation that works for each employee,” she continues, “whether that’s a one-on-one conversation or public recognition in a weekly email or a monthly newsletter.”
Align Your Teams
Align your teams around shared goals. This will help support a long-term hybrid culture that is effective, productive, and keeps everyone happy. When everyone works together towards the same goal, collaboration tends to increase and to-do tasks shrink. Consider making goals visible so people can track them and celebrate milestones together.
Value-Based Leadership
Leadership is critical in sustaining a hybrid culture. If one of your company values is the well-being and success of your employees, make sure that you’re listening to the needs of your employees and doing your part to ensure they’re coming to work ready to give it their all.
If collaboration is a core value, make sure that all remote or hybrid employees have what they need. Make sure they have opportunities to sit in on discussions and decision-making.
Feedback Loops
No business gets its company culture right on the first try. There will be times when you’ll have to modify your approach and try new tactics to ensure your culture is something you’re proud of. Include feedback loops, one-on-one meetings with employees, and pulse checks.
Hybrid Work Model Best Practices for Engagement
Engagement is one of the best ways to fuel productivity in a hybrid work model. Incorporating collaborative platforms such as Google Workspace, Miro, Notion or others, can build upon the flexibility offered by a hybrid workspace, offering employees a way to share ideas in real time—no matter where they’re working from.
Hybrid-Friendly Meetings
Try to coordinate meetings so that remote employees can attend and feel properly included. This includes things like:
- Video conferencing
- Shared documents
- Clear agendas
Allowing for a rotating schedule of meeting presenters can help facilitate participation and get everyone on the same page.
Employers should ask their staff how they prefer to communicate and how often, says Deb Boelkes, a business development leader and author of The WOW Factor Workplace: How to Create a Best Place to Work Culture. “It’s the manager’s job to remove the roadblocks and meet people where they are. That could be a weekly phone call, an in-person lunch or a bimonthly Zoom.”
Virtual Events
Fun virtual events are a convenient way for employees who aren’t local to headquarters or are not in the office to get to know one another in a more casual setting. Leaders can plan events such as:
- Virtual happy hours
- Lunch and learns
- Virtual bingo
Allow for Freedom and Autonomy
Empower your employees to have autonomy and work from the location they think is best. When people are happier, their productivity increases. Depending on the industry you’re in and what your deadlines are, you may be able to allow more autonomy and flexibility than other companies.
Nguyen recommends setting expectations based on performance goals rather than hours and letting people clarify for themselves how they can reach those goals. Find what works best for employees and see how it can help in reaching company goals.
Building Culture in a Hybrid Workplace for the Long Term
When it comes to building a hybrid workplace culture, you’ll need consistent attention and intention. It’s not something you’ll do one time and forget about it. You’ll need to work at it, utilize your employees’ feedback, and continue to improve on anything that is causing issues and preventing your company culture from being the best it can be.
Make sure to define your company values, model behavior from the top down, prioritize connection, invest in hybrid work environment best practices and empower your hybrid employees with autonomy and flexibility.
With a strong hybrid workplace culture, your productivity will grow, and your company will achieve its short and long-term goals. Put these strategies to the test to start building a more resilient and connected hybrid workforce.
This article was updated August 2025. Photo by Meeko Media/Shutterstock
