9 commandments of building a strong remote team culture

Your remote culture and policies have to be ready to adapt to changes, and that includes using feedback from employees! In a transparent organization, feedback is positively encouraged, and all staff should feel comfortable expressing concerns or suggestions. In some ways, it’s easier if you’re a fully remote company, because there won’t be any disparity between remote and in-office staff. Either way, here are some tips on how to create a successful remote culture.

• Emphasize the importance of considerate communication when managing a virtual team.
• Stay in touch on macro- and micro-levels by creating chat channels for the whole company as well as for each team and affinity group.
• When Jared, Denny and I founded Help Scout, none of us had ever hired anyone.
• See who’s hiring here, and you can even filter your search by benefits, company size, remote opportunities, and more.
• Create a work environment where everyone feels heard and belongs and where mistakes are the learning mode.
• 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.

One of the biggest advantages of remote work is that it allows you to recruit new hires from anywhere in the world, so you can attract the best talent and a more diverse team. 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. A good hybrid work culture should make integration of remote and in-office employees a priority—something that 100% remote teams don’t have to contend with . You could make this a game, where everyone needs to vote on their favourite cartoon character or the like.

You’re building a company culture, even if you aren’t intentional about it. You’ve established a reputation in your industry, even if you didn’t set out to do so. Finally, the best way to find out what would make your employees or teammates happier is to ask them. Next time you’re scheduling a virtual hangout with your coworkers, consider how you can create a little more structure for the event. You could also suggest some ideas for upgrading your existing team events . It gives both sides a lot of time to carefully consider whether this is a perfect fit, and it gives the candidate the chance to get to know several people on the team.

We’ve mentioned the importance of clear expectations, but managers should also have virtual meetups with their remote employees regularly. Lastly, we should not overlook the importance of having an effective process for onboarding remote team members. If you plan your onboarding process well, you’ll be able to tell newbies what to expect, what the company culture is like, and how to succeed. But it’s not enough to just tell them what to do – you need to show them.

Define what your remote culture (and subculture) looks like

For all leaders, but especially those managing a virtual team, having a strategic system in place to do this is essential. Without a way to reinforce company core values, they remain inaccessible concepts that employees think of as vague behavioral ideals or don’t remember at all. Virtual team where all employees are remote, this might mean just you and new hire meet in person.

At The Remote Company, we use public Slack channels for the majority of our remote communication. From design projects, to partnerships, and even salary frameworks; any member of our team can see what’s happening across all departments at all times. Plan their first day in advance and inform their team and team lead of their arrival. Then send new remote employees an overview of the process before their first day, so they have an idea of what to expect and how to prepare.

Curate games with missions centered around learning company values, to onboard them onto new processes, or to simply bond and have fun. Though remote workers tend to be independent, they will, from time to time, need to reach out to management. An available and accessible leadership culture makes virtual employees feel supported. Knowing that a manager is only https://globalcloudteam.com/ a message away makes employees feel safer and closer to leaders. When bringing new hires on the team, there’s no better way to promote your company’s culture than ushering them in with a positive onboarding process. First experiences are significant for fostering a good remote work culture because it sets a precedent for what the new employees can expect.

Tools & Ideas To Help You Build A Strong Remote Work Culture

The core of culture is that employees should feel happy in their jobs. The nine commandments above should help you start building a great remote culture. A co-located office develops its own personality through inside jokes, shared experiences, and a collaborative environment, such as a meeting room with whiteboards. Building a strong company culture requires a sizable investment of both time and money.

The policy should include guidelines on appropriate language and content in communications, expectations around flexibility, etiquette for video conferencing , and so on. If you want them to do something a certain way, you need to tell them! As with so many aspects of business, clear communication is at the heart of a successful and productive team. Promoting your unique culture will attract candidates who are not only high-performing, but also aligned with your core values. An incredible 85% of businesses say that flexible remote policies have improved their overall productivity, and it shouldn’t be surprising. After all, not every business is a Help Scout or tech company that can have video calls from home.

Emphasize Culture

You have to build a company people want to work for and a culture people want to be part of. Identifying and embracing a few key principles, along with a lot of hard work, enabled us to get to this point. One of the best decisions we’ve made at Help Scout is to build a remote culture. SnackNation employees have moved their beloved “Crush-It” call to a remote format that actually enhances certain aspects of the event.

For instance, I have time blocked off every morning to get my kids to school; another teammate has a daily workout carved out; and another reserves time to have lunch with his wife twice a week. Look for opportunities to cut down on the time your employees are required to be together—whether that’s adjusting your working hours or reducing unnecessary meetings. Because we don’t overdo meetings or insist on too much forced team time, people actually look forward to coming together. Any remote company will tell you that it gets super complicated, and great work has the same value to the company, so we should be happy to pay the same amount of money for it.

How to build a strong culture with a remote team

The same applies to remote work, just with one exception – it is the one in which employees are not required to be physically present in a traditional office setting. Instead, they can work from home, a coffee shop, or any other location with an Internet connection. Do you feel that creating a positive work culture is just another form of employer branding? Google spends millions of dollars on providing a workspace that’s enjoyable for employees.

Yet when your staff feels empowered to make decisions, they will grow confident and find more meaning in the work. Because virtual supervisors cannot directly observe employees a greater level of trust is necessary. Extra touches such as hosting team socials and icebreaker activities, mailing a welcome care package, and adding the new employee bio to the website can also create a lasting positive impression. how to build culture in a remote team Extensive scaling of a remote team is achievable without the costs of an office or other in-person expenses. Create a virtual platform for each project where every small change, decision, update, etc. are documented. So, if anyone from the team is absent, they just need to access the virtual platform to help understand the current status of the project without the feeling of being left out.

You should try to go above and beyond to share recognition whenever possible online because it can be challenging for your employees to understand if they are doing a good job or not. “One of the biggest pieces of advice I can give is to always make time for one-on-one meetings with your team members,” shares CJ Bachmann, CEO of 1SEO Digital Agency. “Staying consistent with meeting with your team personally allows the lines of communication to stay open and ensures everyone feels heard.” When you first switch to a remote communication environment, it can be challenging to understand when communication happens. Therefore, your organization should establish that you are moving to a more asynchronous communication style.

As employees share their “crush” , everyone else can buzz and bond via online chat without interrupting their peers. If you find many employees lack these essentials, try carving out a budget for remote setup. If you don’t have the budget, then help employees create a realistic plan for checking off all their essentials.

Building relationships

CIPD & CCL Enter New Partnership to Equip Line Managers With Critical Skills CIPD and CCL have teamed up to launch a new leadership program for frontline people managers across the EMEA region. The longest-running leadership development program of its kind in the world, available in person or live online. Humans have been building camaraderie and culture in-person for hundreds of thousands of years. No matter how well you execute the four recommendations above, nothing can ever quite replace real-life interactions. More visibility into how employees’ contributions drive team progress and how their colleagues’ work aligns with the same goals increases team collaboration. Onboarding is a critical chance to make introductions when managing a virtual team.

Actionable workplace tips & insights for fellow people lovers

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. Remote workers report feeling lonely and isolated more often, partly due to a lack of interaction.

Like any smart business leader, you’re probably skeptical of investments that can’t prove their payoff. So, before unpacking the more complicated question of how to build company culture when managing a virtual team, let’s talk about why. This isn’t about knowing what everyone’s doing every minute of the day; instead, it’s about building a culture around respecting non-work values as priorities. In our experience, this approach helps people connect on a deeper level and has built a culture of support, not judgment, around the fact that work isn’t the only thing that matters. Casual recognition, such as nods, high-fives, and mini applauses, happen in onsite offices all the time.

One underrated part of company culture that you can maintain, even with a remote team? Set aside regular times every week for an all-hands chat if possible. If time zones prevent this, try to arrange two meetings, in differing time zones . Cover what the team is working on, give details on any decisions that may affect the team and reiterate that you want feedback and open communication. Having these regular meetings helps share news and encourages motivation amongst the entire team. In order to grow a positive company culture with a remote team, you need to continue to monitor your culture and values, and never stop.

Understand the value in remote working

In a virtual environment, building culture starts with building trust. When your team trusts each other, they’re more willing to work together and to align around a common purpose. Trusting relationships and candid conversations are the backbone of cultures that demonstrate open and honest communication. Whether you’re managing a virtual team or a collocated one, make sure employees live by core values.

Tip 3: Write It All Down in a Company Handbook

It’s crucial to translate culture remotely so that you can keep up with demand and avoid losing your best people to The Great Resignation. Talk to management or HR to see if they’d be open to creating any easy way for employees to share their thoughts on how you could create a stronger and more supportive culture. You can even do this on a smaller scale by sending a short survey to the other team members on a project you’re leading or to any employees you manage. I’ve talked with a lot of companies who aren’t interested in hiring remote folks unless they’ve worked remotely before. If the person is qualified and excited about the prospect of working remotely, it’s your responsibility to make them successful. Have you ever heard of a co-located culture screening people based on whether they’ve worked in an office before?