HOW TO BUILD GREAT REMOTE WORK CULTURE
By: Find Remote Work
Tags: Remote Team, Find Remote Work, Future Of Work, Remote Working, Work From Home

Photo by Helena Lopes on Unsplash

Managing a company and ensuring good culture that encourages innovation, creativity and productivity can prove daunting to many entrepreneurs and managers. Corporate culture according to Investopedia refers to the beliefs and behaviors that determine how a company’s employees and management interact and handle outside business transactions.

Corporate culture has a direct impact on the success of the company as it creates a proper atmosphere for work that translates to high productivity. Managers of remote companies need to be deliberate and proactive when coming up with strategies and policies that determine or govern remote culture. Building a remote culture starts from the core processes of recruiting, onboarding, performance reviews, tools and management.

1. Recruiting remote candidates

Finding the right candidates for your remote team is the first step towards building a great remote culture. The candidates have to be self-driven, proactive, tech-savvy and good communicators. A great remote employee is an asset to the organization in general as their output will be of good quality with minimal to no supervision creating a chance for management to concentrate on other things.

An employee with a good attitude will most definitely boost the morale of others and help the organization in achieving its goals and objectives.

2. Onboarding and Training

Once you have new hires you have to take time and train them. Ensure that there is a clear understanding of roles and who is responsible for what. Training is important as it will set expectations on how employees are supposed to carry out their work and responsibility.

It is the manager’s responsibility to ensure that employees have access to the right resources to be successful in their roles. As a manager, provide full support during this time from walking them through the various tools and software you use. This is also the time to introduce them to the right people.

Here are some steps that you can take to ensure new employees are properly inducted to the company’s culture.

Provide structure

Proper structures will give new employees a sense of direction. Generally this includes the organization’s mission, vision, culture, policies, procedures, systems, people and goals. Explain clearly what is expected of them. Make sure the new employees have a good understanding of what their job description entails and what is required of them.

Buddy Up

Pairing new employees to trusted employees of the organization is a great way of providing support, mentorship and coaching. Through such programs, employees will share on a personal level and this will encourage collaboration and great work culture.

Give room for feedback

Provide a conducive environment where employees can give honest feedback. This will enhance trust and mutual respect within the teams. As a manager, ensure that no one is victimized or punished for speaking out. Confidentiality is key to earning trust amongst employees. Ask for feedback from new employees and their buddies. This feedback can be used to improve your onboarding process.

3. Communication

Communication is critical for remote teams. As a manager, ensure there is a clear flow of communication. Communication among team members gives a sense of belonging and inclusivity. You can ensure good communication through the following approaches

Weekly team meetings

Ensure you have weekly meetings to follow up on assigned tasks and to ask for feedback. Encourage each team member to contribute and give their opinion on how they are going about their tasks and any challenge or tips and tricks they have picked up along the way.

Openly assign each team member tasks that they are responsible for so that everyone is aware who is working on what.

One on one meetings

Schedule these meetings as often as possible with your team members. Discuss any challenges experienced and offer your support where needed. You can also use this opportunity to get to know your team members well. Try to find out what their interests, hobbies and talents are. This information will help you know your teammates much better and on a personal level.

Group Chats

Provide a platform such as Slack where team members can share ideas, pictures and wins for the day. It does not have to be work related. Let team members share pictures of their pets, food, weekend fun etc.

Photo by Park Troopers on Unsplash

5. Create Organization Rituals

Set recurring events for employees to participate in. Some companies have virtual dinners together after a month. Employees can then dress according to a given theme and have dinner as they catch up and get to know each other. Such rituals help remote employees to have something to look forward to and prevents the feeling of isolation and loneliness.

6. Professional development.

Professional development is just as important to remote employees as any in office employees. As a manager, you need to come up with clear structures and processes for career development and promotions. Encourage employees to contribute to new projects and challenge themselves. Provide an ambiance for both personal and professional development. Create a budget that employees can use for their personal development. This can be something like paying for their gym memberships, Spotify subscription etc.

Recognize employees who have done exceptionally well on their tasks by either rewarding them with money, promotions or mentioning their work during team meetings. Recognition of achievements is a big motivation to employees as they feel valued and celebrated.

Conclusion

I hope these tips will help you create a great remote culture for your company. This list is not exhaustive and you can come up with many more approaches to improve the work culture at your company.

Cheers