How To Build Company Culture With Remote Teams

The platform comes equipped with badges and culture rewards that enable fast online distribution. Awardco offers a peer-to-peer recognition hub that helps employees give each other shout outs and rewards. Remote employees can put a smile on anyone’s face in just a few clicks. Companies who build cultures to withstand the challenges inherent to remote work will skip the growing pains of shifting work models, maintaining productivity as trends change. Most people intuitively understand how shared values might lead to specific benefits. Those same people might also wonder how to articulate the specific benefits.

FlexJobs, a fully virtual business since 2007, knows what it takes to maintain company culture for a remote workforce. However, it’s important for the whole team to be cohesive on a personal level as well, especially if it’s a smaller group of people who have to have a good personal match to work together efficiently. This should never be achieved with unnatural means, such as forcefully scheduling one on one time between employees, but rather encouraging people to reach out to their team members on their own. Aside from the teambuilding that happens during the onboarding of new employees, it’s great to have that flow going in everyday work, too. Also, if you have regular team meet ups or retreats, make sure the culture and communication talk is a definite, scheduled part of your discussions during the limited time you’re all in the same room. How top executives communicate right now is a key element in building community.

Relating to one another in a forum that is not always work-related makes up for the lack of social interaction that comes with working from home. Smart entrepreneurs know that it is that sense of community that brings the team together and makes them work harder to accomplish common goals. It can be defined simply as the way things get done, or it can be viewed as a multi-faceted system of objects, values, beliefs, norms, and behaviors. It outlines the accepted behaviors and attitudes that you want your employees to adopt. Everyone is working together to reach a common goal, communicating openly and trusting each other. Furthermore, we dedicated several Slack channels to spreading love.

Or, ending the day can give team members a chance to talk about what they were able to accomplish that day, or where they need extra support or ideas. Either way, having regular meetings with the full team scheduled can help with a cohesive work environment. We probably have all experienced a text or email being misinterpreted in either our personal or professional lives. With a remote team, a lot of the communication may be done over text. Making sure your team understands that miscommunications may happen and how to effectively deal with that will help your remote team run much more smoothly. If you’re wondering how to improve company culture, feedback is something you should pay close attention to.

Fellow Helps Remote Teams Have More Productive Meetings

As an executive coach, Keil hears a lot of frustration from leaders who feel that their days are now consumed with meetings. A free learning management system like the GoSkills LMS can be helpful here, as this makes it easy for managers to track employees’ training and progress, all in one place. If you are new to the concept of an LMS, you might find this article helpful. You can help make their transition to remote work as smooth as possible through effective training, so your team can continue being as productive as usual in their new environment. Meeting in person even once a year helps us build real relationships that can then be maintained remotely.

A simple shout-out for a job well done provides employees with a boost of confidence. Doing this in a public space also allows their teammates to chime in with their praise and fun emojis. Having a solid company culture and upholding these values is also one of the best ways to retain remote talent. Pair Buddies are a weekly random pairing with 2-3 people on the team that allows you to catch up on work, life, or anything else. Pair buddy chats help keep some semblance of the office social life as part of work and encourage people who work in different departments to get to know each other better.

Whatever you decide when it comes to your meeting schedule, keep it real, though—too many useless meetings can mean a lot of wasted time that could be used for individual work. The first way is to make sure you identify and clearly communicate your company’s core values. When an employee exemplifies the company’s core values, they deserve a shout-out in the weekly huddle. Arrange virtual coffee or happy hours for a chance for employees to get to know each other outside of day-to-day work projects . Suggest a monthly virtual lunch activity with those that want to participate. This could be a time to relax and strictly to discuss non-work topics, or a “lunch and learn” for a slightly more formal setting where different teams could present on different topics .

Use chat rooms, separate video calls, and group meetings to make sure that all of your team members feel supported and comfortable in their remote work. A crucial aspect of creating a vibrant remote work culture is reducing the isolation of telework, often caused by employees staring at screens all day instead of interacting with other human beings. Even if they live oceans away and may never meet in real life, your remote team can still interact regularly face-to-face. Encourage meetings where employees can turn their cameras on and laugh together.

how to build culture in a remote team

And when you add ‘remote’ to the mix, the difficulty level increases. I believe that remote workers can be as productive, engaged, creative, and collaborative as any in-office team. It requires a bit of planning, use of new technologies, and a lot of communication. There are many moving parts to consider, especially how to build culture in a remote team if you want to do more than the bare minimum. Hopefully, this article has given you several tips and strategies to consider as you move to create the best remote experience for your staff members. InVision is also a remote-first company with many awards for creating a stellar work environment for employees.

Q: What Are Some Ways A Company Can Foster Culture In A Virtual Setting?

I had a chance to only touch on it, but it is something that entire articles would be required to completely flesh out. Over the last five years, we’ve grown our core team to hundreds of people and hit a nine-figure annual revenue run rate—all in a 100% remote organization. In addition to clarifying roles and responsibilities, discuss boundaries that will ensure everyone on your team feels control over their work hours. “When you’re together in an office, some of that is alleviated because you get more hallway conversations where concerns and questions come out, leaders hear about them, and can address them,” says Keil. But when you’re working from home, there’s no natural release through traditional “watercooler” channels. You can apply the same logic to your workers transitioning to remote work.

For a remote team, hire people who are autonomous, independent, and have strong collaboration skills. Experienced candidates may be more ideal because a fresh grad may need more hand-holding, which may not be possible in a remote setup. First, you need to understand what attributes you want in your remote team. This will help you in assessing candidates in the recruiting process to ensure they are a culture-add and a culture-fit too.

how to build culture in a remote team

Your tools are only as effective as your methods, though, so it’s important to be strategic about how you use them to communicate with employees. Don’t schedule constant back-to-back meetings or overly long ones. Allow employees the chance to recuperate and recharge before joining their next meeting or focusing on deep work. Set new policies for remote work Setting policies specifically for remote work helps employees understand what is expected of them and allows them to bring up any problems within a professional framework.

Is Your Remote Culture Good To Go?

When working remotely, communication, one-on-one meetings and KPIs become the indicators you rely upon. Given the model above, it’s clear that the process of creating a healthy remote culture begins well before the team is formed. While Schein describes underlying assumptions as tacit or unspoken, we believe remote teams need to be deliberate and intentional in voicing them. Make sure your employees know how to use any new software or tools they will be using, for example if you have implemented Slack or Microsoft Teams as a new way to communicate. Training could be implemented via online courses, or you could hold virtual team meetings or webinars to take questions and get everybody up to speed.

  • During meetings, ask people to summarize what they’ve heard in order to avoid misunderstandings and to give you an opportunity to clarify points of confusion.
  • Leaders should craft a distinct voice and communicate a clear vision in all company correspondence.
  • Don’t forget to keep your team happy.Always balance your adherence to the rules with your team’s overall happiness, health, and wellbeing.
  • The most important thing to do when you hear something worth noting within these meetings is to record it.

Instead of coming into an office with other employees, snacks, and conference rooms, remote workers spend the day alone for the most part. To help mitigate this feeling and to build a strong culture with a remote team, eliminate siloed work, and offer training and development wherever possible. Encourage collaboration with other team members so employees don’t feel as if they are working alone, even though they are physically. Some ways to do this are through collaborative tools such as Google Docs, Basecamp, and Trello to work together and break down silos. Some ideas for training and development topics include presentation skills, meeting facilitation, or team management.

6 reasons why a dedicated workspace is a must when working from home A dedicated workspace or a home office space increases productivity when working remotely. Pomodoro Technique Alternatives For Your Remote Team’s Productivity Here are some Pomodoro technique alternatives to boost your remote team’s productivity. Looking at and hearing each other is an important aspect of the aforementioned communication practices. This in turn dials up our comfort in talking to each other more openly, though we might be hundreds or thousands of miles apart. This in turn translates into a positive impact on the revenues and bottom-line, and the next thing you know, you’re on a strong growth curve.

Wfh Doesnt Have To Dilute Your Corporate Culture

So, include details about your company culture and “work rules” in your job descriptions so that new employees know what to expect, and you’re more likely to attract those who are a good fit. At a traditional office, company culture may evolve through shared experiences, in-house collaboration, and team-building activities. But building a strong remote company culture takes a bit more effort to get right. A co-located office develops its own personality through inside jokes, shared experiences, and a collaborative environment, such as a meeting room with whiteboards.

Instead, think about the goal of your workplace culture initiatives and create ideas to accomplish that goal remotely. Leveraging a positive company culture has been a primary way that organizations have retained and recruited employees for years. But the company culture you’ve spent years building most likely won’t translate directly to a remote work environment. And this is an important and urgent challenge that is worth your organization’s resources.

Have An Intentional Meeting Culture

Carol brings up some great points and shares some good information. In addition to transparency from top to bottom, there also needs to be full transparency when it comes to horizontal processes in the company. This means attention to the work process, dependencies and collaboration—clarity about who does what, why and how, and how different roles and workflows are connected. Besides having discussions, it’s also important to have all of it down in writing. The best way to do this is simply to create a document on the topic in an accessible place to have it on hand for everyone to access and edit/comment on at any time. Values can only work for companies when leaders embrace and live them.

If you are looking for some additional ways to build confidence with your team, check out this post. One of the most important things that promote a thriving work culture in any organization is team bonding. Developing strong bonds among your remote working employees is extremely valuable. Building a strong work culture for your remote team is critical for its growth and success.

Mark Bosma, VP of Sales at Toptal, explores the cultural best practices that helped Toptal grow to hundreds of team members and nine-figure annual revenue—all in a 100% remote organization. During this time of COVID-19, it’s important to establish regular contact with people, despite the physical isolation. Many will find solace by venting to their coworkers, talking about the news, or any topics they might like. This will help maintain the camaraderie between team members and as an added bonus, help keep the conversations in your Slack channels focused on work.

Measure Your Remote Team Employee Engagement

They help teammates speak to each other respectfully and efficiently, so they can accomplish more and reduce confusing back-and-forths. Unstructured socializing showed 20% higher performance than those who did not. Virtual or not, it’s important to ensure your team has the chance to form social bonds with one another.

Real Relationships With Virtual Clients

This helps teammates stay aligned to remain updated on new policies and procedures. As much as we’d like to, it’s physically hard to give high-fives or back pats to team members when they do something that rocks. That’s why we show virtual love—whether that may be via an appreciation message on Slack or by giving a virtual high-five during the monthly reviews on 15Five.

Pomodoro Technique Alternatives For Your Remote Teams Productivity

Your remote culture plays a big role in creating a company that people want to work for. In fact, 83% of employees say that culture is a top factor when they’re deciding between companies. One thing to keep in mind here is that fully remote teams and hybrid teams have slightly different challenges.

One of the best ways to work on remote appreciation is to create a regular appreciation cadence. When was the last time you shared a compliment with your remote teammate? If you can’t remember the last time you showed appreciation for your team’s work, you have to work on remote https://globalcloudteam.com/ appreciation. When was the last time you took a look at your company’s org chart? Leaders and managers are often well defined in a physical setting. You don’t get the same natural conversations like saying hello in the hallway or chatting one-on-one before a meeting begins.

Invite the members of each remote team to meet over video chat during lunch once every two weeks. Or give each member of the team an opportunity to present a theory or idea to their team. Soon, employees will come to appreciate the skills and wisdom of each team member. Casual communication is a cornerstone of team building for remote teams, too. So, provide casual channels (e.g. an actual #random channel on Slack) for less work-focused chatting. GooseChase helps unite your team by giving employees a space to show off their personalities, capabilities, and creativity.

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