Company culture is what makes your workplace different from any other workplace. It’s the secret sauce, the qualities that keep your employees engaged and motivated to show up for work. For those with remote or hybrid working policies, establishing and maintaining a strong sense of company culture can be challenging. In an office setting, leaders can see their employees daily and get a sense of what the overall morale is just by walking through the door. However, it’s a bit of a challenge to know how your employees are feeling through digital interactions. 

With more and more companies opting for remote work, human resource departments and executive leadership teams are scrambling to support their workers. This isn’t to say that remote companies can’t have a strong culture. Supporting their employees by giving them the flexibility to live wherever they want can be a strong motivating factor in terms of recruitment, but that can’t be the only perk that comes with a job. Here are three tips for building a strong company culture despite a distributed workforce.  

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1. Know What Your Employees Value

What employees value has changed over the years. Before, it was all about having that corner office and perhaps an occasional free lunch. Today, individuals are looking for better work-life balance. They want a company that prioritizes their mental well-being, which can look like working remotely all or part of the time. Employees crave a sense of purpose in their work knowing that what they are doing matters and is valuable. 

Of course, every company is different. Those working for a remote tech startup team will have different priorities than an international corporate law firm. While human resource departments could guess or assume what their employees want, there are more concrete ways to understand their values. 

HR analytics, which is simply the process of collecting and evaluating employee information to make informed decisions, is one way to gather useful insights. Companies want to know what they’re doing right and how they can show up better for their employees. Analyzing employee surveys and yearly performance evaluations allows HR departments to make more informed decisions. This can benefit both employees in terms of their well-being as well as companies looking for better retention rates and a happier workforce. 

2. Encourage Collaboration 

Collaboration can lead to better communication amongst teams, improve productivity, and spark creative thinking. When individuals are working in silos, they may not have the same thought process as they would talk it out with a colleague. In an office setting, these conversations tend to happen naturally when others are asking how their day is going or what they’re working on. However, it’s less likely to happen when employees are spread out across the country or the world and speaking via Slack and other internal communication platforms. 

Your first thought may be to assign group projects. However, forced group work may bring up similar feelings of when the teacher mandated collective assignments in high school. For most people, that’s not the most enjoyable experience. To avoid this scenario, you want to look for ways that teammates will start to collaborate naturally. During team meetings, ask everyone to share a win from the last week related to a certain project or task. This can promote team learning and may even lead to side conversations amongst teammates who want to hear more about another’s project.  

The one challenge of collaboration in a distributed workforce is time zones. It’s rare for everyone on your team to be working in the same geographical location. You may even have some international employees who are working while the majority of the team is already logged off for the day. Asynchronous collaboration may be beneficial in these instances. Encourage your team to utilize shared documents, which allow for commenting and suggesting modes. Project management tools can also be advantageous as everyone on the team can work together to collaborate on a single project or goal. 

3. Celebrate Achievements

It’s all too easy to accomplish a goal and immediately move on to the next objective. However, celebrating achievements can improve your company culture by boosting morale and strengthening relationships. By spotlighting individual team members or the team as a whole, you’re placing value in their work. This shows that what they are doing is valuable and being recognized. 

While you may not be able to gather for cupcakes in the conference room, there are ways to celebrate no matter where people are physically located. During an all-hands meeting, have a designated slot of time to remotely pat someone on the back. A different employee can be recognized during each meeting for their recent work and efforts. For an individual team, a manager could have everyone log off an hour or two early on a Friday after a project is accomplished. 

Remember, it’s not always the size of the gesture, but the fact that you’re taking a moment to reflect and acknowledge an individual or team for their work. Sending someone a Venmo to buy themselves a coffee after completing a challenging assignment can be just as meaningful as a shoutout at the next team meeting.    

Takeaways

A strong workplace culture matters. It makes the difference in terms of hiring, retention, and overall productivity. Keep these tips in mind as you navigate the many challenges of a distributed workforce.