The rapid take-up of remote working during the COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally impacted the culture of creative workplaces and the way they operate on a day-to-day basis. Leaders, especially in places such as agencies and marketing firms, must learn to embrace a hybrid model of work and greater flexibility to thrive in the post-COVID age.

This was the central message from CEO of Culture Garden, Karl Treacher, CEO of Pedestrian Group, Matt Rowley, and Founder of Boost Juice, Janine Allis, at Nine’s Big Ideas Store panel on the subject of “Cultural Conversation: Creating a culture of creativity and innovation in the hybrid workplace”.

For an organisation that thrives on collaboration and “unfiltered creativity”, Rowley said the snap shift to remote working during lockdown and communicating solely online posed significant challenges.

“In the first 10 to 15 years of your working life you learn so much and really lay the foundations of the rest of your career. It’s very, very hard to learn soft skills from people you admire, and it’s very hard to build a network by Zoom. Being face-to-face is going to be very important.

“If you’re in the business of creating or selling ideas, which we all are, then you’re going to have an advantage of doing that face-to-face. It might be a few per cent – say 10 to 15 per cent – but imagine missing your targets by 10 to 15 per cent or more. That’s the difference.”

Karl Treacher explained to attendees that face-to-face interaction was a trait all workplaces with high performing cultures shared. This is a concept called “murmuring”, whereby people take in information and bond with those physically within five metres of them, and it’s critical to building a creative, collaborative culture and ultimately to selling ideas.

This does not mean, however, that leaders in agencies and marketing firms should reimpose the five-day working week from the office. It’s now about embracing flexibility and incorporating the lessons of COVID while continuing to innovate, create and move forward. For many creative organisations this is a hybrid model, where employees are in the office three to four days a week to collaborate and brainstorm, while still enjoying the flexibility and efficiency of working remotely for the other one or two days.

Reflecting on where creative organisations now sit in their journey towards this hybrid model, Rowley said: “It feels like we’re almost out the other end of it. We’ve got used to the blend we have, and it feels less of a big thing now. For us, we’re at least three-two, as in three days in, two days at home, or four-one, and that tends to be the norm. Then Tuesdays to Thursdays in the office, it’s humming.”

The panel agreed that there were still some employees reluctant to return to the office in order to not lose the “new wins” they feel they’ve achieved by working remotely.

Janine Allis said: “What people are finding, whether it’s cultural or not, is staff saying ‘I don’t want to go back to work, I like it at home.’ Well, you know sometimes that’s bad luck. There is a capability for how you need to work [in the office] as well.”

Allis says a balance needs to be found between working remotely and collaborating and generating ideas in the office, which creative businesses need to strike to thrive in the post-COVID world.

“Five years from now we’ll look back at this time and think wow – for Australia, I think there’ll be so many positives out of it. People are re-evaluating their lives, people are re-evaluating how they work, but I think the reality is that businesses still need to have people face-to-face.

“With Zoom, you get on and you don’t have any pre or post-discussions, you just get in there and say it. But it’s the walking to the kitchen where you have a conversation and have a great idea that’s all getting lost. So I think it’s the adjustment of how a culture comes back to a hybrid model.”

This can be difficult for leaders managing people who feel the return to the office one or more days a week means they can’t be trusted to work remotely. Matt Rowley says this is not the case.

“There are some people who say ‘Don’t you trust me?,’ and absolutely I do. Everyone worked their arses off during COVID, so I trust them to be more efficient and what people are calling productive. But I don’t necessarily think that’s going to make them more effective, especially over the longer term. I think you can cram more in and tick off more tasks, but I don’t think we can build a culture as well, or come up with and sell our ideas as well by working remotely like that.”

This is where strong leadership is important. Managers need to balance the needs and preferences of employees while making the decisions that are best for the business, however unpopular they may be.

“A lot of getting people back into the office is like exercise if you haven’t done it for a long time. No one wants to hit the gym the first time, but then you get into, it and before you know it you even get a little bit addicted to it. There are benefits that pay off,” said Rowley.

And while he acknowledged he is a “going back to work advocate”, Rowley admitted he also appreciates the benefits of the hybrid model, working from home himself on Mondays to ease back into the week and get task done that are harder to do in the office.

The panel offered advice for leaders on implementing the hybrid model in their own creative workplaces, saying cultural change cannot be effective unless it starts at the top and has the full commitment of the board, CEO and leadership team.

“Culture is this extremely complex concept, governed by simple rules. So getting very clear on what your culture is and communicating that through every instance and every interaction is critical,” Rowley added.