If you’re in a virtual or hybrid team, you already realize that good communication software and good processes aren’t always sufficient. The team members may be meeting their numbers, attending all the right meetings, and getting the job done, but if the team isn’t feeling connected, performance and morale will pay the ultimate price.
Company culture gets implemented in the day-to-day life of your team, the way they support one another, the way they communicate, and the mission sense they apply to the job.
It’s the tone of messages in the Slack channel, the manner in which the feedback is offered, and whether or not your team even believes they’re part of an organization that cares about them.
Culture is easy to lose sight of when you’re not physically in the same space. If you’re not intentional about it, your team becomes a group of people doing work, not a group of people building something meaningful together. And that shows.
Pay Special Attention to the Time After Work
Among telecommuting’s chief disadvantages is the lack of casual conviviality. There is no watercooler, no casual hallway chat. But that does not mean you cannot have casual contact in cyberspace.
Consider also including casual check-ins, custom Slack channels for activities that aren’t work-related, and low-key weekly routines like a “win of the week” thread. These small details are regular points of contact that make people feel remembered and noticed even when they’re working from afar in other parts of the world.
Make sure that it is fine to put a meme in the chat group. Make room for randomness of association through the use of a casual and relaxed tone. Other individuals will surely comment because they will not fear interrupting a strict flow.
Communication Sets the Tone
Your communication style is your culture when you’re working from home. It’s in the frequency of how you communicate, how you communicate, and how you provide and accept feedback.
Make the managers ask open-ended questions like, “How’s your week been so far,” and listen for what’s not being said. Touch base with how the new employees are doing, and do not interpret the silence as a good thing. Create open communication, and make sure your people know that you value hearing from them.
Structure is good. Define clear expectations for time of response, emoji use (yes, that does add up), and how you deal with updates, wins, and blockers.
Set up a cadence for check-ins or fast-async updates. It puts everyone in the same cadence, and importantly, gets everyone in the team to feel they’re all in motion even if none of them are all simultaneously online.
Find Your Culture Influencers
There will always be individuals within every group who will automatically relate to others and maintain the firm’s personality. You will locate them within an office. You will need to look a little harder in a virtual space.
Set them free and give them the means to make casual team interactions happen. They may not have official roles, but they have real power within the day-in, day-out life of the team. The important thing to remember here is that power, whether or not directly related to revenue, is the ultimate key, and they pay very acute attention to that.
They also have the tendency to set the tone for how to introduce the new employees, and they maintain the high engagement even after the motivation is low. You should involve them in the consideration of ritual and internal practices if you’ve identified them. They will, in most instances, know what will work.
Rethink the Structure of Your Meetings
Meetings are a big part of virtual life. But using them or not will make or break team momentum. Zoom call after Zoom call? A time-waster. Carefully designed people-centric sessions? A whole lot better.
Start with a mini icebreaker or check-in. You don’t have to make it long. A simple “The best you’ve eaten this week?” will break the ice and make the conversation less robotic.
You may also establish voluntary “coffee break” discussions, free of obligations. These give people time to chat in an informal environment and socialize away from the workplace.
Another piece of advice: video record all of your meetings, even the casual ones. Then the missed ones won’t have anything to worry about. Also, the team members will become better able to manage their energy.
Keep the Why Center Stage
When you’re not in the facility, you’ll see individuals so consumed with checklists that they’ve lost sight of the bigger picture. When the mission isn’t clear, individuals aren’t motivated.
Remind staff regularly why the work is important. Tell of business successes, customer praise, or your own experiences that capture the firm’s values. Use short video messages, team calls, or messages via the Slack platform to refresh the message in mind.
Environment Still Matters, Even Remotely
Your workplace is not the typical office, but that does not make the environment irrelevant.
Make your employees build spaces in which they will be able to focus and in which they will be comfortable. Virtual “desk tours” are even offered for fun and inspiration by some corporations.
And if you have a small HQ or periodic in-the-flesh meetings, make sure to pay special attention to the small details. Tidy setup, decent lighting, and good, up-to-date-looking breakroom furniture all equate to the space people won’t mind retreating to.
The physical and virtual spaces, the way they feel, mirror what you value as a team.
Watch What You’re Tolerating
Your culture is not only what you celebrate but also what you accept. Until you address unkind communications, burnout, or disrespect, your culture suffers. Set clear expectations. Be sure certain people grasp what is appropriate behavior and how to handle problems.
Virtual teams need open spaces for open discussion. Be clear and definite in specifying means of support, and also deliver on promises you make. The policies you implement are greater than official policy.
Keep Culture in the Picture
You need not recreate your firm from the ground up in order to establish a strong culture. The key is consistency and deliberateness. Check in frequently. Reward effort. Make room for casual connecting. And show in action what your values really mean in everyday work.
Culture takes intention. When you build in simple systems, clear structure, and real care for your team, connection and support can grow, even across distance.
