No two businesses are the same. It could be because of industry, products, processes, or even leadership techniques. But at the end of the day, what truly sets one company apart from the next is the internal culture. Company culture is what attracts employees and drives them to choose your company as their career path. Culture may even be what drives customers and clients to want to work with you over your competitors. In this modern, virtual world, it has become growingly difficult to foster a thriving culture when working remotely. As true problem solvers, the Michigan Creative team quickly adapted to the change. Since then, we have learned three fun and easy ways to foster company culture remotely.
Check-in as an Organization Weekly
The single most important thing missing from businesses with employees working remotely is the lack of human interaction. It is nearly impossible to breed a fruitful company culture without interacting with your teammates or employees regularly. Make it a habit to develop the cadence of Zoom check-ins weekly or bi-weekly. Show genuine interest in how your employees are doing with their workload and work together to solve pressing issues. Go into your check-in meetings with an agenda and structure. When done correctly, your company will be better for checking in because you’ll ensure your company as a whole is communicating, on the same page, and not overwhelmed.
Don’t Always Talk About Work
Something our company learned early in the remote work transition was the need to invest in conversations that have nothing to do with work. I use the word “invest” deliberately in this case because by genuinely taking an interest in your co-worker’s lives outside of work, you will build and reinforce bonds that strengthen your team for the long term. Since working remotely, our team has made it a point to schedule extra time in meetings to chat about things outside of work. We’ve also hosted events like a virtual happy hour together.
Pick Up the Phone
Don’t be afraid to turn some emails into phone calls. It doesn’t hurt to have a one-on-one conversation with your co-worker, especially when we are mostly only interacting virtually. Sometimes just talking with someone can help you figure out an issue. It can also give you some new perspective on the project. By layering check-in meetings with individual phone calls and conversations can help to solidify holes in company communication that may not get filled at check-in meetings.
There’s a theme to fostering company culture remotely. When we gain the convenience of working from home, we lose the human interaction and relationship building that the office setting naturally provides. A thriving business will make it a necessity to find ways to spark connection and maintain the company culture, even when working remotely. For tips on building a company culture, growing a business, and all things marketing related, subscribe to our monthly newsletter, The Creative.