Remote work, while a mandatory practice during the pandemic, has continued in various sectors. An unintended consequence? The struggle to maintain company culture.
Many argue that culture — and by extension, morale — suffers in light of the decreased opportunity for watercooler talk, corporate lunches, or in-person team building, and other one-to-one interactions.
“Fail to get your company culture right, and you may have to deal with miscommunication, lower productivity levels, tanking employee morale, high turnover rates,” reports We Work Remotely, adding that culture is often key to retaining talent.
The reason? “It’s easy for remote employees to feel ‘out of sight, out of mind’ when it comes to their supervisors and team leaders,” the writer adds. “So that’s why leaders should go above and beyond to show their team how much they value and appreciate their hard work.” Examples they give include offering employees subsidy for continuing education, lunch and learns, and opportunities to meet with company heads to ask questions.
“The more connected they feel, the better they’ll collaborate.”
Indeed, in February 2022, Wired reported on a survey of 700 newly remote workers, which “found that social connection was the thing people missed most about offices, outranking office banter, a dedicated workspace, and face-to-face meetings.”
But what, precisely, is company culture? How does one foster it in the workforce?
“It is an organization’s core values that determine a company’s culture,” said Ivan Misner, founder and Chief Visionary of BNI – the world’s largest networking organization, with about ten thousand groups around the world.
“People have to continually communicate the core values. It’s an ongoing process. If you don’t create them, your clients and customers will, and you may not like them. You have to create core values that resonate with you as early as possible. And you don’t talk about it once a year. You talk about it every week,” he says. “I would say culture is the secret sauce of a successful organization.”
‘Giver’s Gain,’ for example, is the prime cultural value of BNI, he explains. The thrust of the concept is that the more one helps people, the more likely they will be ready to offer help back. “That is all about building relationships that you can feel trust with.”
Other core values at BNI include lifelong learning and accountability.
“Other than Giver’s Gain, which we have a trademark on, people should in fact borrow those. But, it’s got to be relevant to their industry.”
However, Misner refutes the idea that being remote poses any real challenge to maintaining corporate culture. It’s like “putting up artificial walls,” he says.
“If you choose to believe that we can’t do this online, then you are right. If you choose to believe you can do it online, you will be right. What you put in your head shows up in your world. When times are tough, the culture helps you get through difficult times.”
He adds, “I think if you have a bad culture to begin with, that will transfer over very easily to Zoom. If you have a good culture, it just takes a bit of effort.”
Executive Director of Climate Care, Victor Hyman, concurs. “You will end up with a group of individuals instead of team members, if you don’t build and communicate the values often,” he adds. “It doesn’t matter if everyone works in person or remotely. Getting everyone together regularly is key.”
Hyman practices what he preaches, with regular colleague calls that include “an opportunity for everyone to share some good personal or professional news at the outset.”
“The key to making all of this work remotely is ensuring the calls are impactful and consistent. Oh, and it’s not a bad idea to have fun too. We have had great success in doing remote team building events like a virtual whisky tasting with Tom Vanek and a games night.”
Faigy Pilc of Toronto is the Remote Inbound Sales Manager at Oorah, who has been managing a remote team for seven years, overseeing representatives from around North America.
She schedules Zoom meetings for longer than they need to be, to afford an opportunity for watercooler talk. “It’s so important for team building, that I don’t view it as a waste of time at all. I also try to mix in some fun meetings where we play a game or do an activity once in a while, as that definitely helps with team building too,” she says.
“We do also encourage team members to get involved in the programs that we run,” including flying them to the main headquarters in New Jersey, or inviting them to their upstate campuses so that they can see how the work they are doing is making an impact.
“When you feel part of a larger cause you feel good about yourself and feel like you belong.”
Stacie Ikka, the self-described Chief Problem Solver of a new company called Problem Solved, has been building and leading teams for over thirty years across various industries and geographical locations, and worked with Fortune 1000 corporations. She made it a point for everyone in the office to meet in a non-work setting, including remote workers. “So they are not forgotten or left out,” she says. “The leader has to show a direct and personal interest in what co-workers are doing.”
The result was “work-changing and life changing.”
“Respect was earned on both sides of the table. The more I knew about them, the better I could be advocates for them. Unless and until it is a part of your leadership mandate, you will never have a cohesive team with a thriving company culture.
“It’s not a ‘nice to have’. It is a requirement as a successful business practice.”