Many businesses have had challenges bringing their teams remotely. Not only do office environments provide a common point for meetings and collaboration, but they also allow for a focused environment where teams can build camaraderie. When moving your team remotely, this can be more of an issue, as the disconnected nature of remote work means that teams will need to work harder to stay in touch to continue their company culture.
Fostering Company Culture
There is a strong benefit to building company culture in general. Accordingly, building a healthy company culture has a direct correlation with profits. This makes sense if you think that employees who feel satisfied and engaged with their work environment are much more likely to go the extra mile for their team, and by extension, their company.
In order to foster company culture among virtual teams, several factors need to be considered. For one, a remote company needs to create ways to replicate and expand upon spontaneous interaction. Spontaneous interaction is the cornerstone of team building, and this type of interaction at work can lead to employees feeling a better sense of belonging and happiness.
To better foster company culture with your virtual teams, consider things like setting up off-topic Slack channels and recognizing individual and team achievement on the platform. You can also add additional apps to Slack like ways to share GIFs and polls in order to keep people engaged and make sure they enjoy working with their team remotely. On top of this, you can also schedule meetings via Zoom slightly early to allow for pre-meeting banter, or you can even schedule weekly or monthly happy hours to allow employees to socialize and blow off steam outside of the confines of the regular work day.
Emphasize Company Values
Beyond promoting and fostering company culture, successful virtual teams need to make sure that their company culture is honored and followed as well. To do this, you should set core values for your company and make sure that all remote workers follow these. Core values can include things like personal integrity and accountability, as well as striving to create a sense of community.
When remote workers see that their company leadership follows these values in their day-to-day interactions on platforms like Slack and Zoom, then they are much more likely to follow these values themselves. Making sure that the company leadership always show respect to employees on these channels is of extreme importance when managing virtual teams. Not only will employees be more likely to communicate their grievances to each other virtually, but they can do so without the prying eyes of the office environment.
Fostering a remote environment that helps virtual teams thrive is essential for success as a remote company. Although not all remote teams are successful at doing so, the companies that create the best remote work environment for their employees are the ones that will see their profitability increase as well as their employee happiness. Creating a satisfying work experience for remote workers, especially those who are not used to working in virtual teams, is very doable, especially with the abundant tools available to do so.
