What is a remote work culture?
Remote work culture is the embodiment of shared values, behaviours, and practices that allow a team to collaborate, communicate, and connect even as they work from disparate locations in a manner that encourages trust, productivity, and the sense of being at home with others. Building a remote work culture is easy with the right techniques and virtual team collaboration tips.
Read more about what is remote working in our detailed blog - here. Let’s see how to build and improve remote work culture:
1. Establish clear communication protocols
It may sound cliché, but communication is the life of any remote process that occurs with employees working remotely. Unlike a typical centralised working atmosphere where people can easily interact with each other without the need for a prior plan, a distributed team is the opposite and has to plan effectively when it comes to ways to communicate.
Due to the lack of physical contact, many interactions have to be productively motivated and free of any ambiguity. Communication helps in maintaining and enhancing relationships. With the right method of communication, employees can maintain company culture while working remotely.
The organisation should spend money on support that corresponds to the communication requirements and preferences. Slack or Microsoft Teams can be used for short and no business-like communication, while Zoom and Google Meet allow face-to-face video conferencing. Email is still applicable to professional and business matters where an official, documented sent and received message is needed.
The need to articulate clear communication protocols is however equally relevant. These should specifically indicate how soon the responses should be posted, the use of the channels of communication and how to communicate.
For instance, an instant message may require a response in two hours, and an email within twenty-four hours. Video calls should be restricted for situations requiring serious decisions, effective teamwork, serious conferences, etc. Remote work communication tools should be effectively used.
Communication norms in a workplace allow for avoiding misunderstandings and minimising communication apprehension. It’s important to always recommend the following – To give the necessary context, adhere to the policy of ‘less is more’ while writing messages, and seek additional information, even when it may not seem necessary.
Over communication should be the policy which means that every member of the team should be able to provide enough information or give more explanations about a given topic. Consider implementing communication training programs that help employees develop digital communication skills.
This might include workshops on writing effective emails, conducting productive video meetings, and using collaboration tools efficiently.
Lastly, recognise that communication is not one-size-fits-all. Different team members may have varying communication preferences and styles. Encourage flexibility and empathy, allowing individuals to communicate in ways that make them most comfortable while still adhering to overall team guidelines.
2. Invest in the right technology infrastructure
Technology is perhaps the pillar of working from home as it is the roads that connect the working team. Sound, effective, and most importantly, secure technological foundation is a prerequisite for efficiency, business cooperation, and staff happiness.
The first way to generate a powerful technological structure is to conduct an extensive survey of the existing tools and share the emerging voids. These should include but not be limited to, usability, compatibility, security, and adaptability. Companies cannot just offer fundamental instruments but must pay attention to the long-term ‘total’ work environment digitalisation.
It is, therefore, significant that they adopt cloud-based collaboration platforms. Being web-based, solutions such as Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 provide complex sets of tools that encompass document creation tools, file-sharing and collaboration, storage, and communication media.
These platforms allow members of a team to collaborate on documents and share files with secure knowledge. Permissions can be set to control who accesses the material and which version of the document is current. Remote work company culture should take care of all the aspects.
Security is still an issue of concern, especially with regard to the growing number of organisations embracing work-from-home policies. Adopting strong passwords, use of VPN connections, two-factor authentication and encrypted communication safeguard important company and client information.
Security training allows the employees to recognise possible threats in the digital facet of their activities and ways through which they can avoid such dangers. Relying on asynchronous communication tools has now become a thing of the past because video conferencing has become a necessity.
The list of high-quality platform features should include video calls at least but not be limited to details such as screen sharing, virtual backgrounds, breakout rooms, and recording among others like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or Google Meet. These features further facilitate teamwork and provide a great feel of physical human touch even in group communications.
Project and task management software is essential to keep the team performance metre running and to ensure that there is accountability and keep track of how the project is going. Tools such as Asana, Trello, Monday.com, or Jira support agile work display, task management, and distribution of roles and status checks. These tools give people an aggregated picture of current initiatives and their contributors.
Buy home office equipment for the employees to have the right equipment to enable healthy working. It will be helpful to have some form of compensation for the accessories such as chairs that have reclining features, separate screens for external displays, ergonomic keyboards and good lighting. Managing the physical work environment for a remote employee shows that employers have included many ways to support remote work in their strategy.
3. Foster a culture of trust and autonomy
Communication is the key to successful organisations that implement remote work structures. The idea of keeping a tight rein and closely monitoring employees’ work disappears when several teams are located in different geographic locations and often work in different time zones.
However, organisations need to shift to an outcome-based model which allows organisational members free reign and acknowledges their capacity to organise their work. Building an organisational culture of trust starts with some basic changes in the leadership mindset.
Managers need to change their perceptions of employees as assets that have to be managed to valuable partners of the organisations. This philosophical change means that it is possible to leave behind the old assumptions about what being productive means − namely, that the longer employees spend in a physical office environment, the more productive they will be.
It is always helpful if these expectations are quantitively set so that review can take place on a regular basis. Instead of the sum of hours spent on the work performed, it is necessary to highlight clear, measurable goals and objectives (OKRs).
Such goals should be clear, optimal to both the adviser and the advisee and related to organisational goals. Every team member should be able to relate the assignments being given by the company back to the overall mission of the business.
The amount of flexibility rises to be one of the primary characteristics of trust-based management. Understand that every individual has his or her unique set of personal conditions, which indeed means that people work in different ways and have different rates of performance throughout the working day.
The time of the day when the individual is most productive might be different with distinct members of a particular team. Through this approach of creating understanding and permitting employees to create work schedules which they will perform creating natural and better cycles, organisations will achieve the maximum creativity levels.
The application of technology in facilitating people’s independence without turning into oppressive surveillance. Always choose project management tools that enable workers to track work progress without referencing invasive tracking software.
There are platforms which monitor project progress and completion, as well as teamwork which can provide reports and data without invading privacy and making employees feel monitored. As a result of the shift from constant supervision to meaningful organising, regular and worthwhile check-ins occur.
These discussions should be centred on the learning, development, difficulties and help that an employee might require. It is a chance for coaches and managers to realise essential requirements and get rid of possible barriers. There are multiple challenges of remote working, read about various challenges of remote working and how to overcome them.
4. Prioritise mental health and work-life balance
Remote working has revolutionised the typical division between work and family life is a terrain that has not been fully explored as a factor that has a negative impact on employees’ well-being. While working remotely is beneficial in many ways it erases boundaries between the working and personal environment which may cause stress, isolation, and burnout.
An awareness that mental health is an area of organisational concern. This can only be attained through a preventive effort. And it’s not just about primary prevention and cannot be solved just by providing corporate wellness programmes.
Businesses are required to create elaborate approaches towards addressing psychological issues associated with remote working. The ability to work during different shifts of the day is another essential approach to promoting good health of the mind.
Out of the formal structures, conventional, time-bound 9 am to 5 pm structures are less applicable among distributed teams. But the key is to establish environments and practises that will enable individuals to work during hours of optimum performance yet enable the organisation to also honour what some might consider as ‘standard’ working times – calling meetings and creating collaborative time with other associates.
Set our official policies whereby the employees should not overwork to excessive hours. This may include policies such as no eating during work and no sending emails etc., policies on punctuality and early leaving time etc. Several organisations have implemented ‘core hours’ when everyone can be at one place, while the rest are rather fluid working time options.
Ensure full service for mental health. This goes a notch higher than what the typical employee assistance programme would offer.
Here are some remote work culture ideas:
- Virtual counselling services
- Carrying out of stress management workshops
- Users subscribing to mental health mobile applications
- Online practising platforms
- Fitness expenses
Develop assets that can help to fight loneliness. Counselling through online support groups, peer mentoring and friendship helps the employees to feel socially connected. The physical health is a very important facet of mental health.
Promote wellness through sports competitions, bringing ergonomic home office equipment/hardware allowances as well as daily virtual workouts/ yoga classes. There are some examples of steps taken by companies to challenges or wellness competitions that helped to develop health, as well as the aspect of teamwork.
Do you know there are so many benefits of remote working - Read here in detail.
5. Create opportunities for social connection
Unlike the normal working environment where employees interact physically during their working periods, remote working denounces normal informal interactions that take place in normal working environments.
One of the key issues that distance entails is psychological issues that distance results in are loneliness, lack of social contact and decreased team spirit. An organisation has the responsibility of deliberately working on social interaction that should not be just formal organisational interactions, but real human interactions which are beyond the internet and virtual space.
Communication requires that virtual social interaction be diverse, interesting and must involve all stakeholders. This does not work because people within the teams that need to work together have different preferences, personalities, and their levels of comfort when interacting within the social spaces.
Some employees like to have group activities that include games and movements while others would like simple, close and relaxed meetings. Remote work implications for organisational culture may vary from organisation to organisation. Implement a variety of social connection initiatives that cater to different interests and personalities:
- Small groups with schedule-free, random chance interactions during a virtual coffee break
- Cyberteam development activities and exercises
- Public Interest-based Slack channels for work-related hobbies and personal interests.
- Virtual movie or book clubs
- Making a joint library
- Meal preparation lessons or tours in Tanzanian
- Fitness challenges
- Talent showcases
- Cultural exchange sessions
Such interactions can be supported and managed through specific technologies and original approaches to utilising the available tools. Business products like Slack and Microsoft Teams, have random group generators, integrated games and channels which can help with social relations.
Supervisors should consider adopting an apparatus known as a ‘social fund’ that funds the social activities of the teams. This might include:
- Scheduled food drop-offs for virtual team lunches
- Basket memberships in online games
- Amount paid for virtual social activity costs
- Quarterly team event budgets
Because leadership is so significant in the processes of social modelling, leaders must actively engage in positive interaction. Managers should:
- Be proactive in acceptable social functions
- Free up the time for discussing topics which are unrelated to the employment context.
- Appreciate personal accomplishments or achievements
- Show a real concern for the workers’ lives outside the workplace
6. Develop comprehensive onboarding and training programs
Remote worker orientation is an essential point in an employee’s evolution at an organisation, as it lays the foundation for the whole experience. However, remote onboarding should not be viewed as a substitute for onboarding done face-to-face, but as a method that requires very careful planning to address the issue of geographic separation, demonstrate rapport and ensure that remote employees are well integrated into the organisation.
Multi-tasking remains a norm in a remote M&O environment when it comes to the onboarding process, which should not be just administrative paperwork and a brief description of roles and responsibilities. Organisations should care about work-life balance for remote employees.
Ideally, it should be a technical training session that allows an integration of cultural understanding, mastery of a specific skill and getting to know the people. Organisations should start the onboarding process with pre-arrival onboarding material to reach the employees before they join the facility.
This package might include:
- Company’s souvenirs
- Detailed digital orientation guide.
- Guidelines on the installation of equipment and acceptable technology
- A short video about the team developed especially for the event
- Digital access credentials
- Personalised welcome letter
Technical preparation is the most basic requirement. Create a streamlined process for:
- Laptop and equipment delivery
- Software and platform access
- VPN and security setup
- Advice to Home office
- Customer support phone numbers
Design a structured first-week experience that balances information, skill development, and personal connection:
- Weekly meetings with some members of the team
- The roles and expectation summary
- Some basic information about the company culture and values
- Computer/typed font training session
- Partner onboarding or a chosen person to guide the new employee
- A sequence of structured and semi-structured social contacts
Develop a multi-phase onboarding approach which will have pre-arrival preparation, followed by the orientation, and intensive and focused activities in the first week. The adaptation phase includes 30-60-90-day integration milestones for motivation and ongoing skill development.
Training programs should be multifaceted, addressing technical skill development, soft skills enhancement, company-specific processes, industry knowledge and career development pathways.
Develop a diverse online training resource centre along with flexibility in time that employees can use. This resource should include:
- Training aids developed for the particular roles
- Company policy documentation
- Industry best practices
- Soft skills development resources
- Career progression guides
Implement a mentorship program that pairs new employees with experienced team members. This approach provides:
- Personalised guidance
- Cultural integration support
- Professional development opportunities
- Reduced feelings of isolation
7. Implement continuous feedback mechanisms
Continuous feedback transforms the functioning of traditional annual performance reviews into a self-perpetuating model. Feedback should become current, continuous, and intrinsic to the development of employees and organisations rather than just being used in isolated cases.
In remote work environments where in-person contact is not feasible, this becomes much more needed than ever for employee engagement, identification of difficulties, and development purposes.
Annual performance review has the inherent defect of retrospection. It is a retrospective snapshot that cannot in any way depict the detailed day-to-day realities at work. An agile and responsive construct is found necessary for remote teams, allowing instant recognition, timely course correction, and ongoing development.
Here’s what can be done:
- Continuous performance monitoring
- 360-degree feedback systems
- Real-time recognition platforms
- Weekly one-on-one check-ins
- Peer review mechanisms
- Self-assessment opportunities
- Quarterly goal-setting sessions
Technology has indeed been the engine of continuous feedback. Use state-of-the-art platforms in an advanced performance management configuration that comprises:
- Progress checking in real-time
- Checking in reminders
- Goal manager integrated tools
- Anonymous assessments
- Thorough reporting
- Insights powered by machine learning
Build a feedback culture focusing on:
- Psychological safety
- Constructive communication
- Growth-oriented perspectives
- Transparency
- Dialogue is two-way
Create feedback training modules, wherein:
- Providing effective and actionable feedback
- Receiving and processing feedback constructively
- Inclusive Culture building
- Emotional intelligence competencies
Create multiple channels of feedback catering to different communication styles:
- Formally quarterly reviews
- Monthly one-on-one meetings
- Weekly survey check-ins
- Real-time digital feedback tools
- Anonymous suggestion platforms
- Informal virtual coffee chats
Adopt a balanced performance evaluation approach:
- Objective performance metrics
- Qualitative contributions
- Being a good collaborative team member
- Innovation and problem-solving abilities
- Personal growth and development
- Organisational values alignment
Design an acknowledgement system which will be beyond the traditional parameters of a performance evaluation metric, for example:
- Peer-sponsored employee recognition channels
- Quarterly achievement awards
- Public recognition for outstandingly supported endeavours
- Opportunities for professional development
- Meaningful rewards and incentives
Leverage data analytics to gain deeper insights into:
- Team performance trends
- Individual development needs
- Potential skill gaps
- Organisational culture indicators
- Engagement levels
Create feedback loops that transform insights into actionable improvements:
- Regular leadership review of feedback data
- Structured improvement planning
- Transparent communication of organisational changes
- Continuous refinement of feedback mechanisms
8. Promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)
Remote work provides outstanding new opportunities for constructing teams that are globally distributed and genuinely diverse, without regard to standard geography and demography. The improvement of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is, thus, not only a moral obligation but also a strategy that will fuel innovation, creativity, and resilience within organisations.
Moreover, remote work being characterised by globalism eliminates traditional barriers to diverse hiring. Organisations can recruit talent from diverse geographical locations, cultural backgrounds, and life experiences. A wider talent pool enables organisations to develop teams enriched with multifaceted perspectives wishing to solve issues and achieve competitive advantage.
Draw diverse employees into your workplace:
- Recruitment Processes
- Incorporate Diversity in Hiring Practices
- Ensuring the safety of your workplace
- Career Growth
- Build leadership transformation representation
Adopting blind recruitment to:
- Remove identifiable details from the first application
- Focus on skills and potential alone
- Minimise any unconscious bias
- Standardise the evaluation criteria
- Fairly assess all candidates
Set measurable diversity objectives such as:
- Targets for representation
- Promotion equity metrics
- Equity analysis for pay
- Diversity benchmarks for leadership
- Surveys of inclusion measures
Design hiring processes that:
- Reach a diverse pool of candidates
- Use inclusive language in job descriptions
- Provide a process for accessible applications
- Different interviewing formats
- Welcoming experience to candidates
Develop onboarding and integration processes that will:
- Celebrate cultural differences
- Provide training in cultural competency
- Create opportunities for supportive networks
- Address potential integration challenges
- Offer mentorship and support systems
Establish ERGs (Employee Resource Groups):
- Support underrepresented communities
- Spend time networking with others
- Provide professional development opportunities
- Bring open spaces for dialogue
- Advise leadership in the organisation
- Introduce Constitutive DEI program
- Training on unconscious bias
- Workshops on cultural competence
- Inclusively leading development
- Allyship learning
- Awareness in local-global cultural settings
Set up a technological infrastructural foundation for inclusion:
- Access to communication tools
- Multiple language supports
- Adaptive technology options
- Inclusive design principles
- Representation in digital materials
Comprehensive DEI strategies to be developed on:
- Recruitment process
- Hiring methods
- Organisational culture
- Career growth
- Representation in leadership
- Continuous education
- Remote-first work culture
Monitoring and measuring one's progress towards DEI through:
- A periodic demographic analysis
- A survey of employees' sentiments
- Retention and promotion data
- Pay equity assessments
- External benchmarking
9. Encourage professional development
The professional development of remote working environments gradually changes from the traditional training format to a sure-shot method of developing employee engagement, organisational transformation, and individual job advancement.
The rapid technology development and changing industry dynamics now always create a rapid movement in both progressive learning and not an option but rather a necessity for individual and organisational success.
Today's workers want dynamic, personalised professional development experiences that align with their career aspirations and learning styles, as well as the demands of the industry. Such forms of manufacturing should provide an organisation with a holistic ecosystem that will support continuous skill-building, career exploration, and personal development.
Professional development strategy:
- Tailored learning pathways
- Diagnosing proficiency gaps
- Continuous learning budgets
- Exposing an individual to functions other than his/hers
- Mentorship programs
- External certification support
- Opportunities for internal mobility
- Remote work styles
You can also choose platforms that have:
- On-demand online courses
- Microlearning modules
- Interactive workshops
- Virtual conference access
- Skills assessment tools
- Personalised recommendation engines
- Follow-up capacities
- Flexible learning support systems
- Budgets for annual professional growth.
- External course reimbursements.
- Dedicated learning time.
- Subscriptions to education services.
- Support for attending conferences and workshops.
- Professional certification funding.
- Language learning resources.
Design comprehensive skill development approaches:
- Technical skill enhancement
- Soft skills training
- Leadership development
- Industry-specific knowledge
- Emerging technology awareness
- Cross-cultural communication skills
- Digital literacy programs
Develop technology-enabled learning experiences:
- AI-powered learning recommendations
- Adaptive learning platforms
- Virtual reality training simulations
- Interactive online workshops
- Gamified learning experiences
- Collaborative learning environments
- Multi-format content delivery
Form internal knowledge-sharing mechanisms for better development such as lunch and learn sessions, expert speaker series, internal podcast networks, collaborative research projects, cross-departmental exchange of learning and peer-to-peer mentoring programs.
Create a clear career progression framework with criteria for promotion at all levels that is transparent, career mapping by skills, opportunities for performance-led growth, leadership development tracks, support for entrepreneurial innovation and internal job rotation programs.
Create a culture where every learning is continuous model learning in leadership practice, achievements in learning are celebrated, including learning outcomes in reviews of performance, no stigma in learning, encouraging experimenting, supporting those who take calculated risks and paths of different learning are recognised.
10. Regularly assess and adapt your remote work strategy
Successful strategies in remote working necessitate continuous improvement so that organisations develop the habit of lifelong adaptation and continuous strategic reflection and innovation in responding to the changes. A flexible, data-oriented approach is needed for a rapidly changing world of distributed work environments to adapt to rapid technological, cultural, and organisational transformation.
Formulate comprehensive assessment frameworks that provide holistic assessments of efficiency and effectiveness in remote work and measurement of performance in quantitative terms, as well.
Carefully observe results of employee engagement survey, productivity monitoring, analysis of technological efficiency pro-index indicators, cultural health indicators and financial impact assessments.
Initiate multi-dimensional mechanisms for measurement:
Quarterly strategic review; annual exhaustive assessment; real-time feedback collection; cross-functional analysis teams; external benchmark comparisons; continuous improvement protocols.
Set up very strong collection and analysis platforms:
Advanced analytics platforms; employee sentiment tracking; performance management tools; cultural diagnostic instruments; technological effectiveness measures; comprehensive reporting dashboards.
Conclusion
Remote work is not a phase but a fundamental revisiting of how organisations collaborate. Organisations should use technological, human, continuous learning and adaptive thinking environments that will be used to create not just productive but transformational places of work. Above mentioned remote work best practices will definitely help your employees to be happier and more productive.
The best remote teams will probably see situated work as an opportunity to redesign work in itself- more flexible, more inclusive, and ultimately, more human-centred approaches to collaboration, innovation and individual development. Use our employee cost calculator to see how much you can save per month by offshoring to India with us.
If organisations properly implemented these strategies and their employees have willingness to learn continuously and adapt, putting both the organisation's objectives and individual human potential ahead, remote working can do wonders. Remote working strikes perfect balance between work, health and family.
