Improving Company Culture While Working Remote

Written by a promo expert as a part of our guest blog series.

Harboring a positive workplace culture is becoming increasingly important within the business world. In the past, employees cared about their workplace culture, but it wasn’t as important as it is today when it comes to a company’s success.

Corporate culture will continue to be more valuable as younger generations enter the workforce. In fact, Millennials actually care more about a company’s culture than the salary offered when looking for a job. If your company culture is toxic, it can lead to recruiting and staffing issues.
Creating a positive and strong company culture should be a top priority of your organization.

If your business, like many other companies, had to go remote during 2020, you may have a bit more trouble creating, and maintaining a positive culture within your organization. Company culture is often something that needs to be built in-person through random moments.

With this shift to a more disconnected workplace, these cultural “moments” can be harder to naturally come by. Fortunately, there are a variety of ways that you can build up your company culture even when the office moves home.

Work with an All-Star HR Team

As the owner of the business, you are directly responsible for shaping the culture of your company, but you are not the only person that can have an impact on your workplace culture. Having a strong HR team will be important when trying to shape your remote culture.

A great HR team will handle everything from hiring, onboarding, training, workplace policies, payroll, and benefits. Employing an HR team that can handle each of these tasks will help promote a culture of inclusivity, transparency, and accountability.

Putting together a team of experienced HR professionals will take some of the pressure off of your shoulders when establishing a remote work culture. You and the HR team will need to create a program that specifically outlines the entire process of being a remote employee. Everything from the interview process to a remote employee’s day-to-day schedule should be planned out.

Your HR team will be one of the major keys to determining the success of remote work within your business.

Do make sure that you have the resources available to safely expand your HR department. Hiring, onboarding, and training a new employee without having the cash to do so can lead to financial issues down the line. Business expansion loans are a great way to gain the capital needed to hire a new employee without compromising your organization’s cash flow. Before applying for a business loan, be sure to figure out exactly how much hiring a new employee is going to cost.

This focus on remote productivity and integration will show your new remote employees that you truly care about them and the culture of your company.

Adopt Business Tools that Make Remote Work Easier

Adopting the basic tools to lead a remote workforce is not going to be enough. This shows your employees that you are fine giving them the bare minimum tools for success, which will show in their work. If you want to promote a culture of inclusivity and productivity, you should be committed to giving your employees all the tools that they need to succeed.

There is a long list of business productivity tools that your company can invest in to help out your remote employees. Some of the most common tools to think about adopting are:

  • Business Communication Tools: Communication is still something that many businesses need to work on. When a workplace moves to a remote setting, it can lead to even more issues communicating. Luckily, there are a variety of business communication tools that are available to use. We recommend using Slack to improve productivity and communication within your company. Slack allows individuals within your organization to DM each other, put each other in a group chat, and even video chat one another. Business communication tools will foster a sense of togetherness while also promoting productivity in the workplace.
  • Business Automation Tools: Adding in business automation will only help improve productivity among employees. Companies such as Zapier provide app automation as a service. This allows applications to communicate with one another to automate tasks that are consistently carried out. Business automation tools will save your employees time and energy when doing simple tasks.
  • Workplace Relaxation Tools: A major problem that has arisen with the adoption of remote work has been an increased feeling of isolation and stress among employees. Employees may feel that it is harder than ever to disconnect from work. On top of that, connecting with your fellow employees is much more difficult than before which can lead to feelings of isolation. To better promote a culture of care and positive mental health, try implementing a workplace meditation app. By providing a meditation app, you are showing your employees that they are more than just a worker.

Establish New Workplace Events

While the days of office water cooler talk and post-work happy hours are gone, at least for now, there is an opportunity to establish new workplace rituals that promote a healthy work culture.

Rituals within the workplace have been a part of the business world for a long time. Like anything, workplace rituals have evolved over time to fit with the times. Now is the time to come up with new workplace events that fit in with the addition of remote employees.

You should be using the tools that you have at your disposal to help facilitate these new workplace events. Web conferencing, instant messaging, and virtual games can all be used when establishing new workplace rituals.

When coming up with new culture-building activities that you can do with your fellow employees, try to think outside the box. Everyone is likely getting sick of the same old video happy hour. Activities such as virtual game nights, virtual recipe sharing, a remote breakfast, or even a weekly meeting that is about everything besides work can go a long way when establishing culture.

Also, think about how you will handle holidays, birthdays, and other timely events. These events usually provide a mental break within the workday, so they should still be celebrated. When celebrating these events in a remote setting, sending your employees a small corporate gift is an easy gesture that can go a long way. Even something as simple as a coffee mug for someone’s birthday shows your remote employees that you care.

Change is always going to come with some challenges. An unexpected issue of going remote is that there can be a decreased focus on maintaining company culture when everyone is working from home.

While it will take some effort, there are plenty of ways that you can promote a healthy culture within your new remote workforce.

Be sure to check out our other guest blog on Holiday Gifts to Make you Memorable During an Unforgettable 2020.

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