Bringing Your Company Culture Online

Whether you started out as a remote team or you’re now a remote team (by choice or otherwise!), building and nurturing culture is an important piece of your company’s success. But how can your team feel the same connection to the company and their colleagues without coming together in an office every day?

Communication is Key

Do you know when and how your employees are communicating with each other? Who talks to each other on a regular basis and who doesn’t? How and when they prefer to give feedback?

When you’re in an office day in and day out with your colleagues, you start to take for granted micro communications — communications that happen desk-side, or in places like elevators and the kitchen (or, as one of my temp jobs called it, the snack closet.) Micro communications not only convey company and project information, but they build interpersonal relationships and camaraderie, allowing people to make connections and learn things that wouldn’t be communicated via more formal methods. Micro communications can even aid in breaking down silos and cross-team functioning.

But when everyone is working from the comfort of their home office (or let’s be real, their couch,) you can’t assume micro communications are happening; you have to create opportunities for team members to create those same kinds of personal relationships and casual information swaps.

To support micro communications in a remote environment, you first have to figure out how and when your employees are communicating with each other: do you have a messaging service that works for both focused and wide sharing? (Slack is great for this.) Do all your employees know how to find each other on your messaging platform? Is the messaging service used continuously for project work, or reserved for casual conversations? Once you can determine how and when communications are happening, you can observe if there are holes in your communications stack and make decisions accordingly.

It’s also worth noting that, just like communication styles, preferred communication methods can vary from person to person. Setting up and encouraging use of multiple channels to relay information can be key to getting teams communicating effectively. Some teams may be great texters, while others prefer a messaging client like Skype, or even (gasp) the phone! You want to support your employees everywhere and way they communicate.

Creating a technology plan that supports micro communications can leave more traditional channels, like email, open and help increase engagement for more formal communications like mandatory HR announcements, company-wide recognitions or informational newsletters.

I also like to include feedback when considering how and when employees communicate. Your formal yearly review process and individual 1:1s are a great tool for getting feedback, but the best ideas don’t always come when they’re asked for. How can you make it easy for employees to give confidential feedback at any time, that they know will be reviewed and considered on a regular basis? How can you give your employees a say in implementing some of the feedback that’s been given?

The easier and clearer you can make your communication channels, the closer your employees will feel to each other and the company.

Translating Your Brand Values

Great company culture starts with two things: clearly defined values and an understanding that great culture doesn’t just happen.

Let’s start by assuming you have both things. In the office you live and breathe your brand values, but now your team has scattered and the way your values translated into your culture hasn’t quite kept up.

How can you bring your values into a more digital space? Well, there isn’t really a one-size-fits-all answer because your values are unique to your company, but here are a few ideas to get you started:

Passion

You never know how an employee’s passion project can spark an innovation for the company! Allott periodic hours or days where employees are encouraged to step away from their desk and do something meaningful to them. Support by offering free or subsidized maker kits or classes of their choosing, or by putting together a volunteer opportunity.

Collaboration

You’re going to have to work for true, cross-silo collaboration. Crowd source new company projects (could be internal projects, product features, anything goes) and create spaces for employees to join in working on them without leadership determining the path they should follow.

Connection

You might learn something new about a colleague when everyone gives a fun fact at the beginning of a meeting, but connection is also about sharing space and energy with someone else. Set up coffee dates across departments, so your marketing coordinator can understand (on a high level) what your CTO does on a day to day basis. Bonus: allows your employees to understand how the company functions.

Diversity

Wooh, diversity. It’s currently at the forefront of the corporate culture discussion. But diversity isn’t just about how your company looks (literally or figuratively.) Actively seek out ways for your leadership to engage in anti-racist and anti-opression work with the company. Don’t just encourage your employees to attend learning sessions — have your exec team lead by example. Make a plan for multiple, informal affinity spaces (possible employee-led.)

But what if you don’t have clearly defined brand values?

Time to get some! Brand values are not only what tells your employees what you’re all about, but also convey to your customers what to expect from your company. And since the tools and research you use to make decisions about what your clients and employees really want can be very similar, it stands to reason you all should be on the same page when it comes to what your brand is about.

Support, Support, Support

“Supporting your employees” is one of those phrases that can mean a million different things to a million different people. I’ve worked at companies where support meant sending (a sometimes overwhelming amount of) food and flowers for bereavement, companies where support meant a coworker watching the phone while you went to the bathroom, and companies where support meant helping prioritize tasks.

Many types of support are valid in a working environment, and while things like free food, buying home office equipment, and giving extra time off can be a great way to support your team, you definitely don’t have to spend a lot of money to support your remote team.

Set up a Mentor or a Buddy Program

Meeting with colleagues (who aren’t managers or subordinates) on a 1:1 basis can get lost in the day to day of remote teams. Set up a program that matches people of the same level but in different departments for virtual coffee dates, or with a buddy who can be a culture ambassador and give new or newly remote employees a point of contact for questions.

Town Hall Regularly

Quarterly state of the unions might be enough, but the more you can communicate with your employees how the company is doing, who has joined and left the team, and what new initiatives or projects are coming up, the more everyone will be on the same page.

Encourage Off Hours

While the idea of working ideas can be different and way more flexible when your team is remote, encouraging employees to be off when they’re off is an easy way to support balance and avoid burnout.

Building culture for remote teams can feel daunting, and it can require a bit of out-the-box thinking, but if you can help your employees continue to cultivate relationships, translate your brand values to the digital space and find ways to support your team, you’re on the right track!