Creating Real Culture Matters
I remember the day that I quit my corporate job to work on my startup full time. I was really excited to dedicate all of my energy and attention to something that I was extremely passionate about. I think that I was most excited to try out the digital nomad life, working from anywhere in the world, on my own schedule.
While I loved traveling around the world, meeting new people, and having new experiences while working, I realized that I missed seeing my old colleagues on a daily basis. I missed the semi-frequent meetings with coffee and pastries available. What I missed most of all were the free concerts and company outings.
Creating culture in a remote work environment is a huge challenge but it's vital to a company's success and longevity. Smart leaders make nurturing their team and creating culture a priority. When you think about company culture in a traditional setting, you might think of:
Seminars
Retreats
Free beer and coffee on tap
Pens and stationery
Quarterly (or weekly if you're lucky) happy hours
The constants are getting people together and enjoying material items and experiences. It's a bit harder to do this in a remote setting. Your HR team can't walk around the building passing out new pens or water bottles to every cubicle. You can't easily say, "hey everyone, we'll go across the street for drinks after work on Friday" if your team works from home or elsewhere around the world.
You can, however, leverage several of the same strategies when creating remote work culture as well. You can mail people swag, you can do virtual happy hours and give the team a gift card for coffee. What's more difficult—and most important—is to create an environment that your team feels comfortable working in.
Here are 7 things that I think remote companies with great culture do:
Create a comfortable environment that aligns with your company values and brand.
Encourage your team to reach out to one another throughout the day and actively foster relationships that span beyond 'work chat.'
Let people know that you are there for them if they have a work related question or just want to chat.
Set the tone for your meetings. Consider what you want to accomplish during the meeting, when it's time to get down to business, and when it's okay to socialize. If you run a music startup, you could have a slack channel where you share your current playlist or post a 'song of the day.' Staying with the music startup example, you could have a Facebook group where you share your favorite gear.
2. Prioritize 'culture' sponsored events on a regular basis.
It's easier than ever to find an expert online to present a seminar to your entire remote company via zoom on almost any topic you're interested in. Learning something new as a group that's unrelated (or related) to work is a great team bonding experience.
3. Offer optional activities for your team to participate in.
Create regular quizzes or virtual activities where people have the opportunity to rack up points that can be applied to company swag or a gift card of the winner's choice.
Dedicate a slack channel for team members to share photos of their travels or fun activities.
Set a challenge. Let your team join you in a 10k steps a day challenge for example.
4. Send swag.
Swag doesn't make or break team culture but it's nice ;)
Send your team a notebook, backpack, or mug with the company's logo printed on it.
Do this quarterly.
5. Be transparent.
A huge part of company culture can't be materialized into a swag bag so get into the intangible and be transparent with your team.
If the company is doing well, celebrate with your team!
If the company is doing poorly, make sure you communicate the struggles within the company along with action steps that upper management is taking to improve things before it is actually doing poorly.
Transparency creates comfort among colleagues and as a manager, founder, or business owner, you want your team to work in a comfortable environment.
6. Make company culture a priority from (before) day 1!
Great culture should be felt even before a new hire joins your company.
Make sure you touch on your company's culture during the interview process and explain that it's a big priority that people feel comfortable and fit in.
Incorporate culture into your onboarding by having new team members meet with their peers throughout their training phase.
Consider pairing new hires with a mentor to show them the ropes and give them a shoulder to lean on when times get tough.
Make their first few weeks exceptional by welcoming them and celebrating your new colleagues.
7. Read the room.
Not every culture activity is going to appeal to everyone and that's okay.
Make sure activities are optional and gauge interest.
If you have a team member with different interests than the majority of the team, ask them what kind of activities or seminars they would be interested in. Chances are, others will be into their interests as well.
Have your team decide what kind of events they want to participate in. Even better, if you have a master knitter on the team, have them give a master class and send everyone a starter kit!
It can be a challenge to create a cohesive culture in a remote work environment but as always, people come first. There are so many ways to create culture and it's ever-expanding. I'd be curious to know what you think your company does well with its team culture and what you think could be improved.