Building a great remote work culture is a necessity for today’s companies. While some may not place as much importance on the need to establish a strong remote team culture, experts say many companies will choose to retain a significant portion of their remote work structure in the coming years.
Whether your employees are working from home, long-term or temporarily, it is important that you take steps to build a strong remote team culture that creates happier, more engaged employees. A major benefit of remote teams is the ability to hire the most talented people, regardless of their location. When you have assembled your team, the last thing you want is to lose them because they are isolated and disconnected from their colleagues.
Distance should be an inconvenience, especially if we have the tools and technology available that facilitate communication and connectivity. Here we are going to give you several tips so that you can keep your remote workers engaged, productive and happy with these practical tips.
1. Onboard Your Employees The Right Way
Creating a good remote culture starts before the new member logs on. You should have a plan to ensure the person doesn’t encounter obstacles, such as not logging in or incorrect permissions. Keep in mind that first impressions are everything.
2. Support Personal Growth
Review what excites and motivates the people on your remote team by getting to know them on a personal level, beyond project expectations and deadlines. Help them discover their goals and help them learn new skills to advance their careers. Encourage them to budget their funds for online courses, attending virtual seminars, and obtaining a new certification to encourage them to expand their skills.
3. Communicate And Collaborate
Encourage communication and collaboration as much as possible in a remote team. By maintaining regular contact with your remote employees, you will be able to get to know them better and establish a good team relationship. If they feel like nothing more than a cog in the corporate machine, there is very little incentive to continue talking to their peers.
Use solutions like Slack to bring instant messaging to your teams and break down communication silos. Allow
remote team members to communicate with each other, check in, and say “hello, ” without the need to
exchange phone numbers or personal email addresses.
4. Prioritize Facetime And Avoid Isolation
Even if your remote workers are connected to the rest of your team via instant messaging or video chat, they may still feel isolated.
Combat loneliness and burnout by incorporating an annual in-person company event into your annual budget, or provide some funds for remote employees to join a co-working space in your local area. Exposure to new people and ideas remain key ingredients for creativity.
5. Recognize Achievements
Appreciation feels good. Recognize the contributions of your team members and ensure their hard work doesn’t go unnoticed. When everyone is working in their own homes across continents or countries, it is important to remind
everyone how crucial their roles are. Have a weekly virtual appreciation session where successful results or important projects are highlighted for all team members.
