During this uncertain period of time, when employees continue to work remotely, one of your key goals as an employer must be to maintain your company culture. You worked hard to build a workplace culture that supports your employees’ best efforts to contribute, stay productive, and find happiness and fulfilment in their jobs.
Remote work doesn’t have to change this special culture.
You just need to understand the factors that need emphasis and maintenance while employees work outside of the office.
Maintaining company culture is more than providing team-building activities, or sponsoring company events, excursions, and celebrations—although they can help, even virtually.
To maintain a remote workplace culture, employers need to establish a virtual environment in which team members still feel connected and protected. Employees need to feel that their entire team is working hard together, staying productive, and that their opinions matter. To achieve this, they must have regular contact with their manager and their colleagues.
Helping your employees stay connected to the overall vision and goals of the company promotes a feeling of being part of something that is bigger than themselves—a must for employee engagement.
Here are 5 things you can do to maintain a positive company culture while working remotely:
Reinforce the Culture You Want to Develop
Workplace culture will develop whether you pay attention to it or not—in fact, you likely already have one. So, you will want to actively discuss your culture with senior leadership, managers, and employees. If you like your current culture, you will want to reinforce it while employees work remotely.
Trust Your Employees
Employees who are treated with trust and respect will likely rise to the occasion. Instead of over-monitoring your remote-working employees, which can hamper their motivation and productivity, find alternatives for your teams to share work schedules—like a Trello board they can use to stay updated and in touch with their progress.
Communicate with Transparency
Transparent communication is critical for maintaining your culture while employees are working remotely. Employees need to trust you, especially during an economic crisis when job security is likely one of their top concerns.
Enhance Employee Work-Life Balance
In a remote workforce setting, attention to your employees’ work-life balance can reinforce your organizational culture of caring. You do this by acknowledging the challenges they experience in their remote setting by scheduling meetings and interaction time during a core period of hours and respecting family time in the morning and evening. Your employees, for instance, may have to get their children started on home schooling before they have time to get to work.
Look Out for Employees Mental Wellness
In addition to paying attention to employee work-life balance issues, you must do more to ensure the positive mental health of your remote workers. Mental health issues that employees might experience working remotely include loneliness, mourning the past workplace, missing daily co-worker interaction, and concern for their job and economic future.
Maintaining your company culture while remote working can be crucial to your business’s operational and financial viability. By clearly defining your culture and reinforcing it through well-trained management, your employees can feel more engaged, connected, and motivated when working from home.
About Great Place to Work®
Great Place to Work® is the Global Authority on Workplace Culture. We make it easy to survey your employees, uncover actionable insights and get recognized for your great company culture. Learn more about Great Place to Work Certification.
