Remote work has become increasingly popular in recent years, and with the events of 2020, even more people are turning to working from home. However, with remote work comes the challenge of building a vibrant remote team culture. Without a comprehensive plan in place, remote teams can easily become disjointed, hampering productivity, and causing communication breakdowns.
Building a successful remote team culture requires a strategic approach that prioritizes collaboration, open communication, and a strong sense of community. In this blog post, we’ll explore best practices and real-life examples that will help your remote team succeed.
Best Practices for Building a Vibrant Remote Team Culture
Define Your Team Culture
When working remotely, it’s essential to have clearly defined values and goals to bring your team together. This will help create a sense of community, foster teamwork, and give everyone direction. As a leader, it’s your responsibility to create an environment in which everyone thrives.
Take a minute to ask yourself what are the values of your company, and how do they translate to remote work? What characteristics and traits do you want to see in your team? Communicate these ideas to everyone on the team, so everyone has a clear understanding of what to expect from each other.
Promote Open Communication
One of the most significant challenges for remote teams is the lack of face-to-face communication. Without regular interactions, it can be challenging to build trust and establish strong relationships.
To create an environment that encourages open communication, you should set up weekly or monthly video conferences, hold frequent one-on-ones, and use collaboration tools to maintain regular communication among team members. Encourage everyone to use a consistent communication tool like Slack or Microsoft Teams to keep communication organized and within context. Use a video conferencing tool like Zoom or Google Hangouts to help everyone feel more connected and build trust.
Establish Clear Boundaries
Working from home may seem like a dream, but it’s important to establish clear boundaries between work and home life to avoid burnout. Encourage your team members to set up a designated workspace and schedule their work time so they can switch off at the end of their designated times.
Establish mutual expectations – this helps to eliminate misunderstandings as to when team members are expected to be online, available or offline. Encourage team members to set their “office hours” in their communications system, such as on email or Slack. Also, set rules for emergency communication outside the standard hours- define what situations constitute an “emergency” and advise your team members on protocols for dealing with such situations.
Encourage Collaboration
Remote team culture success relies on team members working together, so it’s essential to create opportunities for collaboration. Encourage team members to share knowledge and engage in group projects that require collaboration. Through these exercises, you build the trust necessary for remote teams to work effectively.
The primary objective is to create a team focused on mutual learning, growing and development – this way team members are more likely to accept new roles that complement their expertise, share their knowledge and experience, and provide constructive feedback for one another. Use tools such as Basecamp, Trello or Asana for team task management, encouraging team members to contribute regularly to help keep everyone informed and involved.
Finally, encourage collaboration on non-work-related projects or initiatives, such as a virtual sports team or charity event. Organizing informal off-site, social events, and retreats can help encourage cohesiveness, foster connections, and increase morale.
Acknowledge and Celebrate Success
Recognition and appreciation are critical for remote teams. Working remotely can often make team members feel isolated, so acknowledging their contributions, milestones and successes is important for maintaining morale. You can create a dedicated channel to recognize achievements or share good news with the entire team.
Real-life Examples for Inspiration
To put these principles into action, let’s look at a few examples of remote teams that have built a strong sense of culture and community:
Zapier
Zapier is an online productivity tool that allows users to automate repetitive tasks within different applications. They employ a fully remote team of over 300 people who use over 2,000 applications to keep their company running.
Zapier’s team culture is unique since they reject the conventional office-centric approach. While everyone is working remotely, they’ve fostered a strong sense of community through regular social events, such as virtual happy hours, book clubs, and other fun activities.
They also encourage employee attendance at a monthly internal product knowledge sharing session, where co-working team members share their knowledge of individual work practices, experiences and collaborative environments. For Zapier producing knowledge exchange videos can generate revenue, create knowledge exchange opportunities, and keep the sense of community and collaboration strong.
Jorcus
Jorcus is a job board and digital nomad forum for remote workers or those looking to hire remote workers. The team is entirely remote, and they’ve set up a culture that’s both efficient and enjoyable for everyone working on-site.
Their team meets regularly on Zoom to discuss work, updates, as well as general chit-chat which has helped build relationships among team members who have never met in-person. They also organize virtual happy hours, virtual games and competitions which help people work together and build a sense of camaraderie.
Additionally, they share “wins” and “kudos” in their forum, which helps foster a culture of recognition and celebration, even when they’re not physically present.
Buffer
Buffer is a social media scheduling tool that also employs an entirely remote team. Their culture is characterized by a strong focus on open communication, setting solid boundaries and prioritizing both personal and professional development that offers employees an opportunity to grow and advance in their careers.
Buffer encourages participation in personal and professional development with a reimbursable-educational-program to enhance skill-sets, review of coursework and/or online classes for newly acquired knowledge, and keeping up with software and new tech updates to inform company processes.
Buffer also has a number of unique policies they use to support their remote culture, such as “no-meeting Wednesdays,” which sets aside time for uninterrupted work, and a buffer retreat that brings the entire team together for fun and planning.
Conclusion
Creating a vibrant remote team culture can be a challenge, but it’s achievable if you take the time to prioritize communication, establish boundaries and promote collaboration. By following the best practices and learning from real-life examples, you can build a solid foundation and create an environment that encourages your team to grow, work together, and achieve success. Remember that the most important part of building a vibrant remote team culture is continuously iterating, listening and adapting to make sure your remote employees feel empowered and supported every step of the way.