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How Your Remote Team Can Help Improve Company Culture

Managers leading remote teams often face a challenge when it comes to cultivating a strong, positive company culture. However, you and your direct reports and colleagues can work together to create a productive, supportive and engaging working environment. Learn more about how your remote team can help improve company culture:

Schedule Meetings Sparingly

It’s certainly important for building collaborative culture to have meetings, but an excessive amount of virtual meetings can be draining and cause morale and engagement to plummet. Schedule meetings sparingly – determine when meeting as a group is truly necessary and has a clear purpose. Otherwise, think of other ways to get updates, trade ideas, and more, such as via a shared working group document or via email or chat threads.

Create an Online “Water Cooler”

Working together in a physical space often organically grows company culture during impromptu conversations, such as at the water cooler. This is an opportunity for people to have casual conversation and form natural connections. Unfortunately, this can be more challenging in a remote work setting, so you need to be intentional and create an online water cooler, such as a group chat in which everyone pops in to occasionally discuss non-work topics.

Celebrate One Another’s Successes

Feeling recognized and appreciated by one’s colleagues is the cornerstone of a positive workplace culture. Employees at all levels on a remote team can improve workplace culture by making it a priority to celebrate one another’s successes. Acknowledging milestones or personal events, as well as complimenting each other on jobs well done can build comradery and boost morale.

Be Strategic with Virtual Team Building

Team building activities can be challenging to tailor to a virtual format. Be strategic with virtual team building to prevent it from being ineffective or even worse, counterproductive by making employees feel like it’s more effort than fun. Pick something that is easy for colleagues to engage in and find enjoyable, such as an online trivia game or icebreaker questions.

Encourage and Respect Work-Life Balance Boundaries

Remote work inherently runs the risk of lines blurring between work and personal time. That same flexibility of being able to perform one’s job at home can easily creep into the expectation (either self-imposed or from one’s employer) of constantly being accessible. Among the most impactful actions you and your remote team can take to improve company culture is to encourage and respect work-life balance boundaries. Have people block off time on their calendars for personal tasks and ensure no one is reaching out and/or expecting a quick response when someone is marked busy or off work.

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