You’re not alone if developing business culture has been difficult for your company during the pandemic. Two out of every three employers struggled to keep employee morale up, let alone deal with the logistics of moving to remote work.
Some businesses, on the other hand, have found success by cultivating a culture among their remote workers. As we prepare to return to work following COVID-19, you may need to start from the bottom up developing organizational culture by:
- Employees that are resilient and adaptive are hired and promoted.
- Sharing instances of how the company is adhering to its cultural principles (for example, if inclusivity is a fundamental value, all meetings with distant workers should be held remotely for everyone).
- Model transcending values (can you, for example, give extra privileges like free entertainment subscriptions or paid transport to work?)
The Opportunity for establishing a new Corporate Culture
Others see this as an opportunity to rethink organizational culture. Start establishing corporate culture by providing more work-life balance, for example. To do so, they’ve implemented concepts like a company-wide 3 p.m. Friday finish, reducing hour-long meetings to 45 minutes, and encouraging staff to block aside lunchtime on their calendars every day.
Recognize that most of your employees will want some type of flexible working – Many employees are considering relocating to a new location in the next year due to the increased ability to work from home, thus the business culture you formerly had may not cut it anymore. Whether staff are working in or out of the office, you must make them feel included.
How to create a business culture that includes remote and hybrid employees
With so many employees opting for a hybrid or work-from-home model, it’s critical that they’re set up in such a way that remote team development is possible. Forbes suggests that you take the following steps:
- Ensure that your remote workers have everything they need to operate from home, including a COVID-safe option in the event that the internet or power goes out.
- Rethink your training approaches to ensure that remote workers receive the same level of onboarding and upskilling as those in the office.
- Make sure remote managers are taught how to supervise, manage, and coach from afar, as well as how to establish remote teams.
- Make frequent opportunities for “virtual high five” moments, in which both in-office and remote employees are recognized for their achievements.
- Create a regular schedule of virtual meetings and opportunities for remote team development, covering everything you’d cover in person, including frustrations, wins, comments, and questions.
- Every team will have “subject matter experts”; make sure they have opportunity to share their knowledge at staff meetings.
- Ensure that your hybrid and remote workers have plenty of opportunities to interact with management.
Best practices for Remote Team Building
Fostering a positive remote work culture and forming remote teams begins at the ground level.
- Start with the end in mind while forming your remote team and work backwards. Allow employees to create their own schedules, but keep an eye on them to see if they’re getting enough time to cooperate with their coworkers and what you can do to help.
- Make an effort to accommodate various personalities. It’s possible that not everyone feels at ease gathering in large groups indoors. Different team-building activities in Covid-friendly outdoor environments may be desired by some. Inquire about your employees’ preferences.
- Provide opportunities for employees to identify management improvements and for managers to gain access to the skills they require.
- Make a special effort to set up remote team-building chances for all new staff.
How to create safe Team Building activities for in-office and Remote Teams
The first and most crucial requirement is to put safety first for employees returning to work following COVID-19. Another major challenge is how to plan these events without leaving out hybrid or work-from-home workers. If you’re using these activities to establish business culture, it’s a good idea to:
- Both hybrid and work-from-home employees, as well as in-office staff who aren’t feeling well, should be able to call in remotely.
- Make sure the office is set up to allow for maximum social distance, with visual indicators for where to stand and safety equipment like face masks and hand sanitizer.
- Enable a booking system for activities with restricted capacity (for example, workout classes) so that the first persons to book can safely participate in the activities without overcrowding, while the remainder call in from home.
- Ensure that your cleaning crew has been educated on how to clean up any in-office locations thereafter, and encourage employees to wipe down the area where they worked.
- Establish open lines of communication with employees about what they want for remote-friendly team development, what they’re comfortable with, where their worries are, and how you can solve them.
- It may also be useful to provide a mix of totally remote team-building activities so that remote employees don’t feel left out of events held in the office.
How the world’s most successful multinational corporations are cultivating their Corporate Cultures
Alternatively, you can get ideas for establishing corporate culture from the world’s most successful companies. Over the last year, the most popular themes for remote team building were:
- Top team communication
- Leaders’ honesty
- Ethical conduct
- Leaders that are capable of handling challenging challenges
- Observance of regulations
- Leaders’ transparency
- They need resources to execute their work.
- Transparency in the workplace
Employees, on the other hand, showed the greatest concern about the recession, mental health, leadership transparency, health and safety, top team communication, diversity and inclusivity, and racial equity, therefore it may be worthwhile to address these factors while developing business culture.
How to Create a Cross-Border Company Culture
The fact that more and more teams will be scattered across borders is a last factor for developing business culture. Remote team building, hybrid team building, and team building for individuals who return to work full-time in an office environment will all be part of your long-term strategy. Planning for remote-friendly team development, collaboration, and corporate culture is the best method to accommodate this. In addition, conducting a survey of your employees’ preferred activities would be a crucial step in promoting inclusivity.
Your return to office culture should be gradual, taking into account differences in vaccination rollouts, for example. First and foremost, you must adhere to local regulations. However, you must consider cultural differences in who is and is not ready to return to work, as well as who may or may not wish to continue working from home for the near future.
