In September’s first Friday webinar we were joined by Jennie Rogers, Senior Channel Marketing Manager at SentinelOne and Emmeline Bester, Global Senior Alliance Marketing Manager (Cisco) at NTT Ltd. We had an insightful and collaborative discussion about company culture, nurturing talent and how the ways of working have changed over the past 10 years.
How is culture more prevalent in the workplace now?
Harriet Beckett-Trevor, Customer Success Director here at Coterie, led the webinar and first asked our panel about culture, why it’s important and how it’s changed.
Jennie raised the point that when she started out in her career, the most important thing to an employer was if a candidate had the skills. ‘Now I think employers are looking more for candidates that are the right fit for the company. Culture is really important; they want someone that will fit in.’ Jennie adds.
She also went on to say that employees favour companies for their culture too, stating that they make life easier, are more enjoyable to work with and often want to collaborate and get things done.
Emmeline echoed Jennie’s thoughts and added that the way we work has changed over the past 10 years, but exponentially over the past 3 to 4 years as we now have the flexibility to work remotely. She also commented on the influx of Gen Z and younger Millennials ‘Gen Zs are a whole different kettle of fish, and they are digital natives. They want the ability to step into an organisation. Culture is important to them. They will try and find an organisation that has a culture that resonates with their own values and their own objectives. They are very, very particular in choosing and aligning themselves with a company that meets that objective.’
Emmeline noted that Gen Z employees like to work in organisations that facilitate their ability not only to work remotely and seamlessly but also to collaborate in the same way. She says ‘You see them becoming very frustrated when they are bogged down by process or antiquated technology. You then tend to lose that talent that you’re trying to retain just through frustration. Being too hierarchical stifles that ability to explore the option to be entrepreneurial’
Harriet agreed that when she started her career there was a ‘work hard, play hard’ mentality and you had to be in the office every day for hours, which suited her then but wouldn’t work for her now as a mother of two. ‘I’m really lucky that the world did change and adapt, and it has aligned kind of perfectly with me moving from being in my 20s to, being married, starting a family and having a young family.’ she adds.
How else have workplace dynamics changed over the past 10 years?
Although the subject was covered in part in the first question, the group then went on to discuss other changes, and particularly how different generations respond to them.
Clare Ritchie, CMO at UMA joined the conversation to say that she believes that some Gen Z employees may not know the boundaries when it comes to flexibility, to which Jean-Pascal Goninet, Senior Director, Strategic Global Partners at Riverbed Technology replied this may be because they only started their career during or after COVID, when it was the norm to work remotely, and more flexibly.
Jennie commented that ‘COVID has forced organisations to accelerate their digital transformation, which in turn has allowed organisations to be more flexible in terms of working hours but I think what I personally miss is that that in person connection. I still want to go to the partner’s office and brainstorm ideas. I don’t want to communicate all the time over e-mail or slack or teams. I like to have physical conversations with people.’
The group were in agreement that some tasks are better done remotely but some things produce better results when the team comes together in person. Jean-Paul believes that it’s down to management to dictate which tasks require which approach. Everyone agreed that management plays a big part in ensuring that flexible working is carried out fairly. Claire noted that if certain members of the team are taking advantage of remote working and flexible hours, that other team members will feel they are being treated unfairly. ‘It’s about trust’ she says. Jennie said that she feels management may lose credibility if they don’t step in to rectify cases like this. She then went on to add that it’s important for remote workers to be ‘team players’.
We then discussed whether the attitude to flexible working is a generational thing with input from Harriet (who’s a Millennial) and Victoria, Customer Success Executive at Coterie (who’s a Gen Z). Although they are both in agreement that they prefer to work with people most of the time, but with certain tasks being done remotely and on their own, Victoria raised the point that she believes others in her generation may feel entitled to flexible working. Barnaby Wood, Director of Product Management at Veritas built upon this to say that lots of the younger generation see their parents working remotely and expect the same from their career, whereas older generations have earned the right to work flexibly and see it as a privilege.
Pooja Golechha Partner Marketing Manager at Pega Systems, added ‘Gen Z needs to understand, with great power comes great responsibility. So as long as you’re making sure you’re showing up on time and fully present for group meetings, getting work done, making time for these in person, workshop sessions, flexible working will work like a win win for all.’
Jason Jenkinson joined the conversation to say that he works for a global organisation that is entirely remote, and the ethos within the company is as long as the work is done well management don’t mind how it’s done. He also raised the point that having that flexible way of working allows companies to hire the best talent from around the world, rather than being limited to just the local area.
In Conclusion
After an insightful discussion with input from a lot of the members, it was clear that this was a hot topic! Harriet wrapped up the webinar by concluding ‘we’ve discussed culture, generational differences, COVID, remote working and different ways of working and company and managerial structures. But I think what stands out for me is that really to be truly successful in partner marketing, you need to have this growth mindset and people need to be willing to learn, change, collaborate, imbibe the new, and then also learn from experience at the same time.
And at the forefront of anything are the people and the relationships that are being built at all times with everything that we do.