Redesigning Remote Team Culture

As the world becomes “virtual first”, businesses need to step up their company culture game beyond motivational posters in the office.

Originally published by Tracy Chen on Snack Blog.

The pandemic accelerated the shift to a fully-remote or hybrid workforce, and companies had to quickly adopt new collaboration tech and processes to enable employees to work from home.

Similarly, transitioning to a remote work culture requires intention and effort, and businesses are realizing that having a vibrant office culture does not automatically translate to a healthy remote team culture.

Here, we identified 5 pillars of success that companies follow to keep their remote culture alive.

Communicate Clearly What You Want to Achieve

Company culture can be likened to the mood of your organization. While it is influenced by internal and external factors, the core values should remain transcendent. Be specific and transparent about your purpose and how you intend to get there — they should be actionable in order to be relatable.

Time to Actively Listen to Everyone

With a huge shift in the way we work, a positive culture matters now more than ever. While there isn’t a quick fix to positivity, a company culture audit can tell you exactly how everyone is feeling. Maintaining an understanding of what your team needs (emotionally, physically and psychologically) allows you to address concerns and hear everyone’s ideas on how your company can radiate happiness.

To achieve a happy culture, first actively listen to everyone’s views and ideas, and then implement tailored culture goals to create positive impact.

Take Action & Track Progress

Collecting feedback from your team is a great start, but not taking action afterwards (or taking too long to act) will set you back 10 steps. Manage your company culture exercise as you would any project — with clear requirements, tasks, timelines, responsible personnel & sign-offs. Use this opportunity to instil a sense of joint ownership and accountability.

Keep Iterating

The current climate contains a multitude of uncertainties that no one has a standard solution for. Manage your team’s expectations that there will be changes and adjustments along the way. Driving company culture is a continuous journey, and you most certainly want to fail fast and learn even faster.

Involve Your Employees

Maintaining culture requires top management support and bottom-up employee engagement. Get volunteers for “culture cheerleaders” from all levels and functions to champion your initiatives. This also establishes a feedback loop that ensures your implementations are valid.

“Culture Cheerleaders” organize regular social events such as virtual coffee roulettes and game nights to foster informal interactions and promote work-life balance.

A third of workers surveyed feel disconnected from their company’s culture during the pandemic. As the default work arrangement is shifting to “virtual first”, businesses need to seriously evaluate how to strengthen togetherness and inspire their workforce.