A strong company culture is critical to the organization’s success. It permeates daily interactions among team members and impacts how the entire organization acts. How employees and customers perceive it, good or terrible, contributes to success. A good perception means you are doing well, while a bad one means improvements.
Even before the height of the pandemic, workplace culture can sometimes be toxic. That is why building a strong remote work culture among your team members is crucial now that we are adapting to a remote work environment.
What is Remote Work Culture?
Remote work culture refers to the values, attitudes, behaviours, and practices that shape remote teams’ work environments and interactions. More companies are adopting remote work policies to allow employees to work from anywhere.
Since remote teams lack in-person interaction, building a strong culture is a more significant challenge, but the need to make one should be greater. Establishing organizational culture can create a tight bond among team members that help them become more cohesive while still feeling like they’re part of something bigger.
Good remote work culture also helps provide superior customer service, cultivate a positive work environment, and encourage innovative thinking.
Define Your Company Values
A company with no guiding principles isn’t truly a company. A company’s core values are its defining characteristics, essential in differentiating your enterprise from your rivals. It directly affects culture and the business approach you employ, including the product developed by your teams, sales and marketing strategies, and the customer service provided by your personnel.
Developing and communicating your company’s core values, especially to remote teams, ensures your employees work toward a shared sense of purpose and dedication in the workplace, which can improve team cohesion. From the top leadership down to entry-level staff, every choice of employees should be congruent with the firm’s core principles and should be accountable for the decisions made.
Here are some reasons why defining core values is essential to a virtual environment:
- It helps employees gain a better knowledge of the company’s goals.
- It serves as a guide for all of your employees’ decision-making.
- It instils confidence and gives employees a feeling of direction and purpose in their work.
- It increases the workforce’s motivation and engagement.
- It makes engaging and keeping the best employees easier for the recruitment team.
It is more likely that your employee will make the appropriate judgments that will assist them in achieving the vision and goals of the organization. This is because they understand the firm’s mission statement, they share the values that you stand for, and they have faith in your brand.
It also plays an essential part in recruitment since most candidates first conduct extensive research on the organization and see if they fit in the company culture. Applicants do not want to select the “wrong” organization, just as employers want to ensure they hire the “right” individuals for the job.
Welcome New Employees In Front of Everyone
When onboarding newly hired remote employees, you must ensure your communication channels are in great shape to avoid mishaps. Working remotely can be a hassle and a challenge, but you need to explain to your team members these new cultural norms and each of your cultural values.
As a team leader or a manager, you must focus on telling the essential details they must learn at the company. Tell them your agendas and the activities you will do to further build your bond with each other. There is nothing more important than having your teammates work together without a problem or issue with one another.
Additionally, your body language in virtual calls must be wholesome. Follow the virtual work etiquette and keep your environment free from distractions, as unnecessary noises and backgrounds easily divert remote employees.
Establish Team Communication and Working Relationships
As we move to a more innovative world, remote and hybrid work is the most convenient option for many employees. However, as companies adapt to remote work culture, many remote employees find it challenging to work in isolation without seeing their team members and attending virtual events. Working remotely makes them feel disconnected from the team. Thus needing to build effective team communication and working relationships among remote workers.
Effective communication among employees is critical to developing a more positive remote work culture, improving well-being and working relationships, and expanding employee engagement in organizational activities.
Here are some of the steps to build effective communication and good working relationships:
Building camaraderie among remote workers
across different time zones can be challenging because of the limited face-to-face interactions that often lead to misunderstandings which could hinder building trust for better relationships.
This sense of belonging can also lead to more engaged employees who feel like they’re contributing in the workplace instead of just working from another location outside their physical office building.
Set Up a Consistent Communication Method
Consistent communication ensures that remote team members stay connected and engaged, even when they are physically isolated from each other. Some strategies to set up consistent communication methods include:
- Determine the best communication tools. Companies should determine which communication tools work best for their remote teams. This can include video conferencing, instant messaging, email, and project management tools.
- Establish communication protocols. Outline the frequency, mode, purpose of communication, response time and confidentiality of shared information among team members.
- Encourage open communication. Companies should encourage open communication and provide a platform for employees to share their ideas, feedback, and concerns. This can include setting up virtual suggestion boxes, hosting virtual town halls, and conducting employee surveys.
- Regularly evaluate and adjust communication methods. Companies should be willing to adjust communication methods to better meet their remote teams’ needs.
Encourage Regular Check-Ins
Daily check-ins promote a strong remote work culture among employees working remotely. To keep your employees productive in a remote work environment, you must have regular check-ins with them.
Setting up regular meetups to ask for their feedback and how they adapt to their job is one way to improve your organization’s culture. Virtual team meetings allow team members to connect, brainstorm ideas, discuss project progress and challenges, and provide feedback.
Schedule an irregular face-to-face meeting.
A strong remote work culture can be achieved in physical spaces through team activities. Remote working does not require regular face-to-face meetings, but scheduling in-person gatherings for the remote team gives them the opportunity to interact physically with their colleagues.
A virtual environment with a strong remote culture integrates employee engagement activities to build good working relationships, which could result in greater collaboration. It also gives employees a better work-life balance to share real-life experiences and stay physically connected.
Learn About Everyone
An effective manager takes the time to get to know each remote employee. Excellent remote work culture is built by even the smallest of employees. Understand their organisation positions and show appreciation for their hard work. Learn about their strengths and weaknesses for better-delegating tasks and responsibilities.
Also, knowing your colleagues’ experiences, interests and hobbies outside of work can help you appreciate diversity while building rapport and trust. This can make it easier to work together and resolve conflicts when they arise.
Encourage collaboration
Building a strong remote work culture requires team collaboration. As they say, teamwork is the key to success, and you need the right strategies to achieve effective collaboration, which include:
Using the right collaboration tools. Collaboration among employees in a remote setting can be done through several platforms, such as Slack, Microsoft Teams and Zoom. Having a place where all employees, regardless of level, region, or work location, are present is crucial to establishing a collaborative remote office culture.
Clarifying rules and responsibilities. Remote teams must understand what they are responsible for and how they contribute to the team’s overall success.
Encouraging feedback and transparency. Provide regular feedback and be transparent about the team’s progress to ensure everyone knows what is happening and can address issues before they become bigger problems.
Find Creative Ways to Keep Your Team Engaged
Building a strong remote work culture requires keeping your team engaged and motivated. Unscheduled meetings or hallway conversations benefit your project management team more than planned ones. Interactions between two or more people talking about work but not writing anything down might be a goldmine of helpful information or new ideas.
Consider the “Water Cooler Effect”
When coworkers get together for a chat around the water cooler, they’re having a “water cooler effect,” “water cooler talk,” or “water cooler dialogue.” Everybody needs water cooler talk at some point in their lives. It provides a much-needed reprieve from the next task. It’s doable for every business, regardless of whether employees spend their days in a real office or remotely.
Water cooler chats allow your staff to relax by talking about things that aren’t work-related, such as hobbies and personal interests, or entertaining topics that aren’t directly related to work. Allow remote employees to enjoy each other’s company and recover during breaks. This will help your company expand and improve employee relations.
Recognition and rewards
Appreciate your team members’ achievements, no matter how small. Giving employees recognition could be as simple as sending a thank-you note, gift cards, extra time off, or publicly acknowledging their contributions. Showing appreciation for their hard work and dedication helps remote employees feel valued and a driving force for high-performing team members.
For a remote team, some creative ways to keep your remote team engaged also include virtual meetings, gamification and providing training and career development.
Support employee career and personal growth
In a remote work environment, where employees are physically separated, it becomes even more important to prioritize their professional development and personal well-being. Here’s how fostering growth can contribute to building a thriving remote work culture:
- Training and Upskilling. Offer virtual training programs, webinars, and online courses, focusing on both technical and soft skills development. Provide access to educational resources and encourage employees to pursue certifications and professional memberships that align with their career goals.
- Mentorship Programs. Establish virtual mentorship programs where experienced employees can guide and support remote employees in their career journeys. Facilitate connections between mentors and mentees and encourage regular interactions and knowledge sharing.
- Regular Performance Feedback. Conduct regular performance evaluations and provide constructive feedback to remote employees. Highlight their strengths and areas for improvement, and collaborate on setting specific development goals to help them grow professionally.
- Personal Development Stipends. Provide remote employees with personal development stipends that they can utilize for activities such as attending conferences, enrolling in online courses, purchasing books, or participating in wellness programs. This demonstrates the organization’s investment in their employee’s personal growth and well-being.
- Individual Development Plans. Encourage remote employees to create individual development plans that outline their career goals and aspirations. Regularly review these plans with employees to identify growth opportunities and provide the necessary resources and support to help them achieve their objectives.
By investing in team members’ careers, organizations can build trust, encourage self-motivation, enhance skills, promote collaboration, and demonstrate a commitment to inclusivity. These efforts create a positive and empowering work environment that inspires employees to excel, ultimately leading to increased productivity, employee satisfaction, and organizational success.
Conclusion
Remote work culture is essential for a team’s overall success and morale. Building a strong remote work culture starts with defining company core values to recognise and reward their efforts.
It’s important that everyone feel they have a say in what your organisation stands for and where it’s going, so engaging in frequent conversations with employees can help to facilitate this sense of unity. An environment of trust, respect, and collaboration will provide the ultimate framework for success.
Through fostering an environment like this, you can expect increased employee engagement, loyalty to the company and better performance among your colleagues. All of these elements are needed to ensure maximum value delivery among teams spread across different locations.
