Remote and hybrid work is being hailed as the future of work and the new normal. While remote work has many benefits, like increased productivity and flexibility, it can also impact the company culture and communication between employees.
Any work culture, whether remote or in-person, defines how employees interact and behave within a company. It is a shared set of values that underlines your organization’s identity. Within the transition to remote work, it has become crucial to re-evaluate company culture for remote teams.
It is important to ensure that your remote workplace culture is positive and appealing to every team member. So, What steps can you take as a leader to improve your remote work culture?
I am highlighting 4 steps for building a strong and positive remote workplace culture.
1. Nurturing Team Relationships
Strong interpersonal relationships between team members help to make your employees resilient and develop trust, which can boost the overall morale of your team. You can arrange virtual team-building events, weekly collaborative sessions, or online fun activities that can help your team get closer and strengthen their relationships with each other.
2. Providing Regular Feedback
Regular feedback guides employees in their growth potential and aids them in understanding their career trajectories. With regular, virtual feedback sessions, remote employees can get a better sense of direction in their careers and can feel more engaged and valued by your organization.
3. Encouraging honest communication
Employees often do not feel comfortable voicing their opinions at work. With lesser avenues for communication, remote employees might not think of opening up to their managers if they feel discontent. You can encourage open communication through regular virtual meetings or surveys that ask employees to pinpoint areas where the company can do better, gather information on which company policies are working, or get an overall sense of the opinions of the employee. These online surveys can be anonymous to encourage honest opinions.
4. Supporting Employee Well-being
While remote work is more flexible, it has also erased boundaries between work life and home life. You can support your remote team employees by setting guidelines for time management and scheduling. Helping your team get better control over their time can help them maintain a better work-life balance. As a manager, you can also share resources that can help your team reduce burnout. Your support can also be in the form of ensuring team members stop work in the evening, take frequent breaks, and can be unavailable outside of working hours.
While this isn’t a comprehensive list, these steps can get you started with building a positive remote team culture. Even if you already feel that you have a strong culture, you can always strive to improve your culture by reviewing these points. You can keep evolving your culture in this way and ensure that it is aligned with your business goals and employee expectations.
How have you changed your workplace culture while working remotely? Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section.
