Establishing a strong remote work culture is integral to your team’s ability to work together seamlessly. These days, such a culture is becoming a standard part of everyday life. We hope these seven ideas have given you some food for thought. But don’t stop there – keep evolving and growing your remote work culture as your team and company change.
A talent management expert, HR consultant, and writer, Melanie Haniph shares an interesting perspective on the role of communication tools in building the perfect remote employee experience. Even the most self-sufficient remote employees need occasional guidance and face-to-face time with managers. Holding regular virtual one on one meetings enables immediate communication between supervisors and reports. These meetings also allow both parties the ability to talk through goals and break down steps in processes. Booking virtual team building events gives employees the chance for face-to-face time with coworkers, allowing opportunities to bond and socialize online outside of working hours. Hiring aspirational candidates — people fresh out of school, or doing this type of work for the first time — doesn’t work well on remote teams.
Melissa highlights the importance of a virtual open-door policy to maintain communication across the organization. Patagonia rewards their employees daily by prioritizing https://remotemode.net/ their wellness and encouraging them to take time off whenever needed. These two communication methods do wonders in a remote setting like never before.
Methods for building work culture remotely include doing virtual employee engagement activities, planning culture building activities, and reading books on company culture. You can gain further insights by referencing remote work statistics and this guide to toxic workplaces. Your company culture should be built around a strong mission and values that bring the team together. By sharing the company’s mission statement often it will be embedded in the minds of your team and they will carry it with them in all they do for the company. It should also be clearly articulated to new hires right from day one.
Employers should take accountability for helping employees manage the division between home and work environments as it’s essential to business productivity and employee well-being. As mentioned, virtual team building efforts also bridge gaps between remote workers. To optimize organizational bonding, split the group into teams that mix departments and build in time for discussion and close interaction. To save time during gatherings, use a team generator to randomize employees and pre-assign staff in breakout rooms.
It also integrates with popular CRMs such as Salesforce and Zendesk, meaning that companies can keep track of their customer interactions and data safely and easily. That not only makes your employees more productive, but it lets them focus on more engaging tasks as well. An occasional face-to-face meeting work from home experience helps build a culture of remote work. Zoom is a great choice for companies that need to conduct webinars on a regular basis. It’s easy to use and offers a variety of features, such as screen sharing and recording. This is one of the most popular communication tools for businesses, and for good reason.
It’s also simple to download player submissions (photos, videos, etc.) for you to share internally. Create exceptional and fun experiences for your remote team, wherever they are in the world! GooseChase is a scavenger hunt vendor that brings teams together to compete in scavenger hunt-like games to make a lasting impact on company culture and retention. As people answer questions, they’re also learning about co-workers, gaining the kind of knowledge and understanding that helps remote culture thrive. When remote employees demonstrate enthusiastic involvement in meeting common goals for your business, this encourages a remote work culture of professional growth, creativity, and collaboration. In today’s competitive business landscape, a company’s culture is more important than ever.
A fake remote culture won’t get you the buy-in you’re looking for as opposed to displaying a fresh image that doesn’t simply repeat a boring list of values everyone is trying to stick to. Maybe you were one of the first companies to rely solely on asynchronous communication or you have a one-of-a-kind cause you’re already contributing too to some extent. Zappos builds company-worker trust by allowing its employees to self-manage their work by getting limited supervision that allows them to showcase their full creativity at their own pace. They build trust by making all salaries public, offering insights into their revenue, and even showing customers where every cent of the price they pay goes. Beyond customers, it’s their team that benefits from an increased trust in the company which has allowed the Buffer team to boast a 94% retention rate(2).
Set the example so that your team knows it’s okay to goof off a little at work. Keep documentation and process guides where your team can easily find them. You can use a dedicated software like ProcessStreet or organize documents in a shared drive like Dropbox or Google Drive. Values do the most good when they’re simple, specific, and detailed. They should be clear enough that your team can use them to guide decisions.