It is essential to build a strong remote team culture and it is one of your business’s most crucial and impactful things. Culture in an office and remote setup is vital since it establishes a strong camaraderie that scales the business. Also, having a strong remote team culture builds a strong business.
What is a Remote Team Culture
Remote team culture is the same as the culture inside a corporate setup. However, more complicated because everyone in the remote team needs to collaborate physically. Culture means having the ability to cooperate as a team. Also, it enables one to make decisions despite needing more key personnel. And when no one is watching, everyone in the team is committed to working productively. Another one is having a sense of fulfillment when things go well. Last but not least is serving the business’ mission.Â
Why Building a Strong Remote Team Culture Important?
According to an experienced senior executive, Torben Rick, business culture is like an iceberg. The iceberg consists of 90% of the business’ attributes that need to be seen and display only 10%. Many business leaders focused on the visible one (10%) and overlooked the most important one. And this is why many businesses fail. Following these tips can establish a productive business culture in your remote team.
5 Tips to Build a Strong Remote Team CultureÂ
1. Hire the right remote employees.
Hiring the right candidates for your remote team is vital to productivity. Yet, how to employ suitable candidates? First and foremost, there are three guiding factors when hiring a remote team. These are:
- Skills
- A remote employee with the right mindset
- The right cultural fit
For a successful hiring process, it is essential to emphasize the three factors. Talking about skills, you can quickly identify them by looking at the resume and portfolio. But in terms of hiring remote employees with the right mindset, it is essential to take note. This is because, often, start-up businesses need hustlers, while thriving businesses need executioners. Cultural fit requires an expert to onboard the best remote employees to your team successfully. So, when you’re planning to onboard skilled and experienced remote workers, get assistance from those highly accountable experts.
2. Promote social interactions within your remote team
Being a remote employee is sometimes prone to isolation. And one way to ease this is to allocate time for the remote team to collaborate and meet virtually. Also, creating a one-on-one meeting with your remote team members is vital. Thus, they can form personal relationships and explore cross-functional opportunities. Another option is to schedule non-work-related Zoom meetings. And organize a virtual pizza party whenever your business achieves a small or big win!
3. Allow remote team members to take ownership and encourage accountability
Embracing remote teams in your business entails entrusting and encouraging accountability. This is because the more you allow your remote employees to take responsibility for their work, the more they are accountable. Due to this, your remote team will be effective in terms of providing value. And in case some problems happen, they take ownership of the issues. And they will take to the details of their responsibilities and be better accountable. Then, remote employees will learn how their role differs from each other.
4. Build a strong connection with your Remote Team
Communication is one of the challenges in managing a remote team. Thus, when communication within the remote team fails, problems happen. First, it is essential to specify the role and expected outputs of the remote employee. Also, maximizing the use of communication platforms for daily and weekly meetings. This way, you can reach and collaborate with your team.
Similarly, your remote team can quickly contact you when they need clarification or if a problem occurs while they’re working. Additionally, you can use a project management tool to track the tasks and the day’s outputs. The tool allows you to check the finished and pending tasks of the day.
5. Mentor more than manage
Managing a remote team could not be enough. It should consist more of mentoring. Talking about mentoring your remote team focuses on your team’s professional development rather than your team’s performance. The aim of embracing remote employees is to grasp help and develop talents. Client and remote employee relationships must be a win for both. Business culture (remote setup) differs in so many ways.
Nevertheless, both aim at keeping employees happy for more productive and effective work. As Dharmesh Shah, CTO and founder of HubSpot said, You are not just hiring remote employees to delegate. But, you are hiring to elevate. Now, you learned the five tips for strengthening your business culture for a remote team. Are you ready to hire and manage a remote team? If you do, visit Surge, where we provide trained and experienced remote professionals you can leverage in your business.
