2020 was a game-changer for the corporate world, transforming the way we work, collaborate, and manage employees while our companies reinvented themselves to embrace remote working. Looking ahead at this year, companies need to focus on building and maintaining their corporate culture, even while their workforces are remote and dispersed. Building culture in a remote world can be challenging, but it is possible and essential for a company’s future success, writes Ronni Zehavi, CEO of Hibob.
Building a Positive Culture While Remote
Working at a company is more than receiving a paycheck, and today’s employees place great value on the company culture. In an online surveyOpens a new window conducted in 2019 spanning employees aged 18+ in the U.S., we asked them how they rate the importance of corporate culture when considering a new job offer. A staggering 77% of respondents stated that it was extremely important. We also asked them why they left their last job, and 17% said it was due to bad office culture.
If you want your people to stay with your company and feel happy in their jobs, you need to create a positive corporate culture where employees feel engaged and loyal. You can achieve this in a few ways:
Recognition
Create an environment where you acknowledge your employees’ accomplishments, both privately and publicly. In our company, we do this using Kudos and Shoutouts, which are shared company-wide. Team members can also react to these announcements with comments and emojis, which further contribute to a positive culture.
Outside of technology, there are other great ways to build a culture centered on recognition. Organizations can institute a program where team members nominate “stars†each month who are then celebrated for their accomplishments, a play on the “employee of the month†concept. Alternatively, something as simple as asking every employee to give a shout-out to another team member during weekly meetings can be powerful. Not only does this approach help employees feel as though their accomplishments are getting noticed, but it also establishes a culture of collaboration, support, and camaraderie.
Inclusion
Ensure that you keep team dynamics and composition at the forefront when recruiting and hiring. If team members struggle to voice their opinions, make sure that their perspective is heard.
Consider bringing mid-level managers and people of diverse backgrounds into the hiring process, and not just the senior staff. Often, HR teams and senior staff will lead hiring efforts, even though those employees won’t interact with the potential new hires as much as others on the team. Involving others with different perspectives in the decision-making process can help make sure teams don’t become homogenous, not just when it comes to gender and diversity, but also when it comes to ways of thinking.
Unity
Encourage employees to build relationships with each other by finding ways to connect professionally and personally. Incorporate offsites, group activities, and team-wide projects into the team culture.
Establishing mentorship programs where senior team members are assigned junior mentees who they don’t work with directly can have a strong impact. This allows junior staff to approach their mentors with questions and concerns they might have about their team or manager while giving them the opportunity to naturally build relationships with people outside of their core team.
Building a company culture may be more challenging when employees work remotely, but it can be done with just a bit of creative thinking.
Encourage a friendly and collaborative environment where employees schedule virtual coffee breaks or lunches with their peers. New hires who haven’t had the opportunity to meet their teammates face-to-face will particularly benefit. Organize online classes or activities for your teams, and build clubs of like-minded people who enjoy video games, cooking, or extreme sports, and encourage communication and social interactions outside of work.
Remote Working: Adapting and Supporting Your Employees
When COVID-19 struck, we were caught off-guard, and many companies didn’t have the preparations or infrastructure in place for working remotely. Nine months later, we are wiser and understand the significance of a productive home office setup and technical tools that enable our teams to continue to work efficiently.
We are in this for the foreseeable future, and companies need to take responsibility and do whatever they can to help their employees to alleviate the hardships of remote working. Consider offering a stipend to help your employees to buy the furniture and equipment they need to work comfortably and efficiently, whether it’s a new desk or office chair, or to upgrade their home internet package. Provide them with tools for collaboration, enabling them to connect with their peers as they would at the water cooler in the office. HR tech platforms need to help employees engage with each other and build relationships, leading to better work culture and a more collaborative environment.
As we continue to work from home, companies should drive two-way communication to check in with their people, see how they feel, and if they require anything. Company-wide surveys help to gauge employee well-being and make company-wide decisions based on their feedback.
Learn More: 3 Ways to Extend Workplace Culture Beyond Office BoundariesÂ
Why Leaders Should Set the Tone for a Positive Company Culture
Corporate culture comes from the top. Management and HR set the tone for the culture and should lead by example. Building a company culture will only succeed if your leaders actively promote it and stay true to it.
When considering whether to apply to a company, job candidates check the CEO’s social media pages and websites such as Glassdoor to get a sense of the company culture. How the company leadership communicates will give candidates a clear picture of whether they want to work at the company.
HR Leaders: Don’t Compromise on Company Culture
2021 heralds a new year with our employees continuing to work from home. The world of work has changed, and many will continue to work remotely for the long haul. Just because we aren’t working physically together doesn’t mean that employee engagement and collaboration are less critical. In fact, building your corporate culture has never been so important, and with the right approach, this can be done seamlessly even without a physical office space.