Building community: Workplace culture and how it can be developed

A great place to work is often the dream, but to create that space for employees, one has to take into account all types of factors. For an organisation like Hummingbird Bioscience, which spans three continents, a consistent, great workplace culture is all thanks to heavy communication, understanding, and developing community.

Cultivating workplace culture, with a strong emphasis of engagement from employees is an uphill task because of the ever-changing needs of employees in the workplace, especially with more returning to work onsite in the office. It is then commendable when an organisation like Hummingbird Bioscience, a clinical stage biotechnology company looking to develop a broad pipeline of novel, precision therapeutics for the treatment of cancer and autoimmune disease, is recognised for their work in providing an engaging workplace environment for their employees. At HR Tech Festival Awards 2023, Hummingbird Bioscience received the Best Workplace Culture & Engagement for any organisation with under 500 employees.

For Hummingbird Bioscience, this new title is a significant one for them. Speaking with HRM Magazine Asia, Annie Lim, Vice President of Human Resources at Hummingbird Bioscience, attributed the award to the employees who have worked tirelessly to make sure any initiative regarding engaging and workplace culture is a success. “We drive a positive workplace culture to empower, engage and develop our employees at all levels, with commitment to our core values: Intellectual Integrity, Determination, Excellence, Audacity, and Teamwork,” said Lim.

These values, she added, are a continuous pursuit of intellectual excellence, and they continuously integrate their company core values into their employee experience to focus on building a high-trust workplace. Hummingbird Bioscience also looks to reward employees for their contributions via a three-pronged approach: recognition, engagement, and training. Firstly, the organisation recognises the employees with mission patches and accolades through various employee appreciation activities.

“We have a robust talent management cycle process to review, listen, provide constructive feedback, and reward performance,” explained Lim. Hummingbird Bioscience also embraces employee engagement with the use of company-wide meetings and activities that help encourage bonding, such as on-site lunches every day. The organisation also encourages their employees to develop a feeling of charity and social responsibilities via their corporate initiatives that give back to society. They finally look to develop their employees via relevant and essential skills-based training, with opportunities like overseas conferences, and various learning and development initiatives.

With such a strong commitment to ensuring a strong workplace culture, Hummingbird Bioscience takes time and effort to maintain consistency through three different continents through three key components: building community, strong communication, as well as understanding and empathy. Different groups within the company, for example, must know that teamwork is key, and a shared culture is then built through company-wide events, or shared afterwards with the rest of the company via memos or newsletters. Communication is necessary to ensure that employees understand the full extent of the company’s mission and then have a shared goal to work towards.

And lastly, due to the challenges of working across time zones, compromise and communication must be emphasised to prevent possible communication issues, especially between different cultures and geographies. This can include sharing information about the different public holidays between different locations so there is a better appreciation and understanding about the lives of employees through all locations.

READ MORE: HR Tech Fest Connect 2023: Building an engaged and resilient workforce

All in all, the initiatives put in place by companies like Hummingbird Bioscience to create a great and engaging workplace for all involves a tremendous amount of clear communication between HR teams and their employees. By building a sense of belonging and purpose within everyone in the organisation and empowering employees with opportunities to better themselves for their futures, it is clear that Hummingbird Bioscience has found a winning formula to create a workplace culture embraced by all employees.