Everyone knows all about the importance of remote working and its role in the modern workplace. From one industry to the next, understanding a remote working culture and its relevance to the overall capability of your remote team will be essential for a dedicated group of professionals who are engaged, motivated to work and focused on same business-related goals.
How is all that done? By taking an in-depth look at creating a positive remote working culture and integrating it into your business approach.
Why a remote work culture is important
First, let’s take a look at why the remote working culture is important. Whether you belong to the technology companies or the more traditional business sector, implementing a good culture remotely is vital to the success of your business in more ways than you may think. When you prioritize the remote work culture, you reap benefits such as:
- It helps you get more work done in less time
- It helps improve employee morale
- It increases job satisfaction
- It reduces sales
These are just some of the great benefits to any business that decides to deliberately build a cohesive remote working strategy.
7 Tips to Build a Positive Remote Work Culture
There are quite a few ways to build a trusted culture for your remote team workers. Here are 7 priorities to get you started!
Prioritize employee onboarding the right way
When hiring candidates, spend more time on those who complete the different rounds of Interviews† Instead of simply hiring the “cheapest” option from the employee who “looks good enough” for a role, go deeper.
When you hire employees who really fit what you’re looking for, rather than ‘good enough’, you immediately create a close-knit team of members that transitions into one another much more easily.
Set up the necessary tech stack
Technology is becoming critical for technology companies as well as for businesses in more traditional environments. The right tech stack helps people stay connected and communicate effectively about projects as a team. There should be a stack of apps and programs for every need. Fortunately, with the wide use of cloud technology, almost everything is accessible online. Even with some of the more traditional industries, such as construction software†
Some technical highlights are:
- Zoom: As most people know by now, this is used for professional meetings and includes support for multiple accesses, screen sharing, and more. Ideal for those who need to meet in changing teams.
- monday.com: This is great for scheduling and updating progress live. Great for teams working on complex projects where everyone has to work together to get things done on time.
- Slack/Team: From IM communications similar to “water cooler” chats to file sharing and asking questions, both platforms are popular for ensuring that anyone can connect with anyone when needed. Perfect for those who hate phone calls too!
Align company mission and goals
Everyone on your remote team needs to understand the company mission and goals of the company. Rather than just “corporate speak”, focus on making both the mission and goals clear and important to those who carry them out.
At the same time, you also want to make sure that the company’s mission statement aligns with its goals and that both are relevant to today’s employees.
Encourage team communication and collaboration
Through the tech stack mentioned above, but also through classic emails throughout the day. Encourage communication between remote teammates. Also give priority cooperation between team members.
The goal of a team is to have each person work on one segment of a task task so you can all get together and put it together and see how each person’s role made it possible. A mix of communication and collaboration will help to prioritize this.
Make time for personal interactions
In most situations, face-to-face interactions can take place in a physical sense. Depending on your remote work environment, it may be possible to meet in person once a week or once a month. If not, Zoom provides a seamless transition from in-person to online meetings. It provides the same face-to-face communication that is so important for staying in touch with each other.
Even if it’s just a 30-minute meeting to educate everyone and voice any concerns, it’s good for morale!
Supporting the professional development of employees
Whenever an employee takes the initiative to improve their skills and training, you should wholeheartedly support and encourage it. If possible, offer professional development courses through your company. If not, help the employee find his own professional development courses and support him in taking the course by adjusting working hours, etc.
When remote employees see that you care about their professional development, they will see themselves as valuable additions, and this helps them invest in the company through their time and, of course, that new expertise.
Be open to criticism and feedback
Regularly send our feedback forms to all external collaborators. Make the comments anonymous so that everyone can give criticism and feedback without fear of repercussions. When you get these comments and feedback, you should listen to what your employees are saying. Make the changes as best you can so employees see that their feedback is welcome and heard.
It should go without saying, but it’s important not to complain about the criticism you get. After all, employees want to help the company better, not complain!
Set, repeat and improve
Once you’ve put these seven tips in place to create a supportive and professional remote working culture, it’s enough to leave it at that. Overnight, you have to constantly re-evaluate and improve to continue transforming it into a productive, safe and effective work environment.
There is no doubt that remote work environments will definitely be the way of the future in the near future. You can do the best you can to make those environments professional, productive, and rewarding for all employees. These tips will help you on your way!
Zoe is a growth-focused digital marketer with a broad range of experiences across SMB, Sass and e-commerce businesses. Always with an urge to think, analyze and practice, Zoe is convinced that the new engine of this world is widespread entrepreneurship that develops and matures every day, driven by new technology and system innovation.
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