Combat Remote Work Challenges With Centralized Culture Communities

As remote work is becoming more permanent, leaders need to consider the challenges and complications that can accompany this work model. In this article, JD Conway, head of talent acquisition, BambooHR, highlights how HR leaders can focus on building centralized culture communities and utilize HR technology to help with this shift. 

While the workplace has always been a place of constant change, the biggest change to come from the last century has perhaps been the exodus from the corporate office into the home office (or a kitchen table, guest bedroom, or couch) caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. And it doesn’t appear as if remote work will be going away any time soon — some experts predictOpens a new window working from home will double in 2021.

The ability to work partially or entirely remotely throughout the 2020 pandemic may have been the saving grace for many organizations and economies. It’s certainly something that helped our organization — and many other Utah tech companies — transition somewhat seamlessly throughout the challenges of the pandemic and likely helped Utah reach its #1 spot among U.S. economies in 2020.

But working remotely has non-pandemic benefits as well, including:

• Increased engagement: The most engagedOpens a new window employees are those who spend three to four days a week working remotely.
• Fewer interruptions: Employees report Opens a new window 35 fewer minutes a day lost to interruptions while working remotely.
• Reduced absenteeism and turnover: The option to work remotely can reduce absenteeismOpens a new window by 26-88% and turnoverOpens a new window by 25%.

Even with the clear benefits, experienced HR and business leaders know remote work isn’t and never will be all upside. There are significant challenges and complications.

Learn More: HR’s New Duty of Care Responsibilities As Employees Return to the Workplace

The Challenge: Remote Work Changes Recruiting and Retaining

While it’s true that many studies (including one linked above) tout the benefits of remote work on retention, having a significant portion of your workforce working remotely completely changes the game of hiring and keeping employees.

• No location bounds: While it may seem like remote work opens a world of possibilities, consider that if you can recruit from anywhere, so can your recruiting competitors. That being said, issues like location-based pay discrepancy will create some barriers to a completely open recruiting field — offering a San Francisco-based developer the going rate of the same role in Mississippi isn’t likely to be a very attractive offer. What’s more, varying tax codes in different municipalities will create added costs and complications that many organizations won’t want to take on.
• Weaker relationships: Any recruiter worth their salt knows that job decisions often hinge on the recruiter/candidate relationship. Likewise, GallupOpens a new window has consistently found that employees who agree that they have a best friend at work are also less likely to be actively looking for job opportunities (among many other positive outcomes). But relationships are tougher to build without the ability to meet in person. And while technology can help, nothing can fully replace the depth with which face-to-face interaction aids productivity, cooperation, and retention.
• Obsolete recruiting levers: You’d start your interviews with a tour of the tastefully decorated office, mention flexible schedules, and cap it off by shooting the breeze with their potential eclectic teammates. Well, not anymore. If remote work continues to grow, flexibility won’t set you apart, the office space won’t matter as much, and connecting with coworkers isn’t going to be easy. What’s more, you’re likely to have to completely re-engineer your recruiting process using things like highly collaborative video interviewing tools and applicant tracking systems to make hiring decisions completely remotely.

So, how can you reap the benefits while managing the changing tides, new opportunities, and increased competition made possible by an increasingly remote workforce?

The Solution: Centralized Culture Communities

Centralized culture communities are deliberately chosen geographical areas in which your organization hires employees and cultivates an organizational culture. What differentiates this strategy from multi-location organizations of the past is that the employees in this community may intend to still work remotely a majority of the time. Why specific locations, then? 

• In-person company events: Gallup has found that benefits of remote work are often found when employees work most, but not all the time, remotely. Having centralized culture communities allows for a hybrid approach where most work is done remotely while some are done in the office.
• Opportunities for connection: With centralized culture communities, you don’t have to lose personal connection and the advantages that come with it. Satellite locations can still form enough connections to drive off the lone-wolf complex that completely decentralized companies often face. Even digital connections with those in your physical community can be powerful. Something as simple as a Slack channel for specific locations allows people to connect about things like which water park is best for a family outing or a Friday lunch meetup.
• Culture consistency: We (and many other HR experts) have talked for years about the business advantages of strong company culture. This is still true — maybe even more so — in a remote working world. While traditions and norms of the culture may vary from location to location, having specific locations to focus on allows you to provide a consistent foundation of things that matter, like adopted company values.

With centralized culture communities, you can capitalize on talent in multiple parts of the world while still nurturing a connected company culture. So, you CAN have your cake and eat it too.

Learn More: 3 Ways To Leverage Hiring Tech for DE&I Success

HR Technology: Bridging the Gap

So, being in defined communities helps each geographical location stay connected, but what about connecting between the individual culture communities? This is where HR technology can help. Here are a few technologies that made our abrupt transition to remote relatively smooth and continue to help our employees stay connected as we encourage more remote work than ever before: 

• Human resources information system (HRIS): The most obvious benefit is keeping all employee information neatly organized and accessible. The best systems will have reporting capabilities, electronic signature tools for all needed paperwork, and mobile apps to keep your HR team current no matter where employees work. An HRIS can also help you improve internal communication with the ability to post announcements and even gather and send out customized information about new hires, like where they’re from or what their favorite vacation spot is.
• Learning management system (LMS): With less time face-to-face, giving employees access to important information and consistent training is crucial for staying up to date and on the same page. Whether it’s training on company values, information about open enrollment and benefits options, or updating an internal process, an LMS can help.
• Communication and feedback tools: Whether it’s choosing a chat tool for the entire company to use or an in-depth feedback tool that allows you to consistently gather data from employees, tools to help everyone communicate are crucial for success in a remote environment. Done correctly, you may find that your communication using these tools is even more comprehensive and organized than the in-office days of endless meetings and shoulder tapping. These are just a few of the tools we’ve leaned on heavily throughout the shift to remote work and plan to continue incorporating to help all our employees stay connected.

Embracing Change

The widespread adoption of remote work is likely the biggest change to rock the workforce since the industrial revolution. HR and business leaders can have the best of both worlds by embracing the change and adopting new structures and technologies that enable them to access the benefits of remote work without leaving behind the advantages of connected cultures. Centralized culture communities make this possible. The truth is change is the only constant. While it might create short-term discomfort, embracing change through strategic planning is the best way (perhaps the only way) to survive it.