How to build a strong culture with a remote team
With teams working remotely there are unique challenges when it comes to building and maintaining team culture.
There is not the same casual relationship building that occurs in the office through chance encounters nor is there the opportunity for your team to adopt the team culture through tacit or implicit means.
Therefore different strategies and methods are required to unify your remote team.
So what are the top things team leaders can do to create a good remote work culture?
Create remote team rituals
Just like in an office environment, it’s important that you have regular rituals and touch points with your remote team to ensure relationships are built and then remain strong.
People are less likely to feel disengaged and isolated if you schedule informal catch ups and remote team rituals on a regular basis.
What can that look like in practice?
Schedule regular social events with games & activities
Regular team socialising helps to foster genuine connections and builds trust. Social activities are also good for mental wellbeing, with the anticipation of reward a dopamine regulator for the brain.
Studies have shown that playing games also helps to reduce stress, and that digital games can be more effective than meditation for post work recovery.
Social, team problem solving games are good for team bonding and practicing a safe-to-fail team environment, which is important for high performing teams.
The Trip is a team problem solving game with a travel theme - perfect for bringing people together online.
People really bond around reaching the “ah-ha!” or lightbulb moment together when they solve it. A shared sense of achievement is fantastic for building rapport.
It’s important to make these events regular, and to create space for relationship building inside working hours.
The Iconic, a large Australian e-commerce company recently ran a 5-week tournament for their employees, one game every Friday afternoon, with different team compositions every week.
To encourage participation, points were allocated to individuals who ended up in the top 3 teams each week, with an overall winner crowned at the end.
Spotify have a social club led by team members who find social games and activities for the whole team to do together, and MOZ, a Seattle-based SEO marketing company, have a "chief of happy", who delivers regular team problem solving games for teams of employees across the organisation.
Celebrate and recognise people remotely
Birthdays, work anniversaries, weddings, and babies can and should be celebrated remotely, just as they would be in the office.
Feeling a sense of belonging and appreciation keeps people motivated and engaged, which is vital to building a strong team culture.
This can be done with a special cake delivery to the employees home, and a virtual get together to hang out and do something fun together as a team.
Communicate openly & personally
Leaders of remote teams should use open and personal communication to improve their relationship and sense of closeness with their staff.
For example, making a quick video to send out to your whole team once a week, or once a month, and sharing both personal and professional highs and lows will make people feel included and increase sense of belonging.
It’s important to share weaknesses as well as successes, and to be vulnerable sometimes.
Videos are particularly good when you have staff across multiple timezones and less opportunity for synchronous communication.
Provide feedback channels
Also important in maintaining team culture remotely is providing open, asynchronous channels for feedback.
Set up a digital mailbox or a feedback form / survey that your staff can use on an ongoing basis and ask people to send feedback on what is working and what isn’t.
Listen to team members and be inclusive, then take action and address concerns.
Share knowledge and learn together
Schedule virtual breakfasts, "lunch and learns", group training sessions to help engage your remote team and bring them together to learn something new.
Have the sessions be led by team members, external guests, or both.
Document values & how you’ll work
In a co-located setting, culture is typically formed through tacit or implicit knowledge, whereas in a remote work environment, culture should be defined explicitly.
Writing down values enables team members to exemplify them regardless of their physical location.
Make them specific and relevant to the team, and include behaviours, mindsets, approaches and skills that are valued.
A leading company in this field is GitLabs, who have over 1300 employees across 65 countries. They have very well documented values.
Make sure they are communicated to new hires during onboarding!
Define how you'll work
Clearly define with your team members how your team will do things. How will we schedule and conduct team meetings? How will we make, document and communicate team decisions? What is the process for giving each other feedback? Will we blend virtual and in-person interactions and if so, how?
Write it down together and make sure it is easily accessible for all the team.
These are a few things that you can do to help build a strong culture in a remote team.
If you need any support in setting up remote games and activities for your team, feel free to get in touch, we’re happy to help!