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As companies continue to embrace remote work and its benefits, it is vital to emphasize staying connected as a team. Whether you own a software company or an eCommerce website, remote work may be the way to move forward, but maintaining a happy workforce might be proving to be a struggle.
Positive company culture has countless benefits for productivity and overall team happiness. 88% of employees believe a strong company culture contributes to overall business success, while, according to Forbes, companies with a strong culture saw a 4x increase in revenue growth.
You can improve the remote work culture by enforcing specific company rules. Just as you would have a set of rules for in-office work days, you should also take the time to create some general guidelines to be followed for remote work.
Company newsletters can include weekly highlights, employee profiles, goals that have been reached, and more. Once you learn how to create a newsletter, you can incorporate this idea into your weekly routine.
Simply reminding your team that they are appreciated and valued can improve productivity and keep employees happy.
A downside to remote work is everyone is in different time zones, making a company meeting a drag. Instead of merely focusing on one time zone with the most employees, try keeping everyone in mind so that no one feels forgotten.
No one wants to wake up at 4 in the morning for the weekly team meeting, so you should try to keep track of each team member's time zone. You can also better understand precisely where your team is spending time by using a time tracker like Toggl.
Keeping everyone on the same page and listening to everyone's schedule worries will keep employees invested.
No one thought the pandemic would drag on for months, but here we are. While a lot of work can be done remotely, team building and getting to know each other cannot. An excellent way to get the team together would be to make a day out of it. As the boss, this is your responsibility just as much as reaching those projected numbers is.
Since we are still in the pandemic phase of things, an offsite meeting would probably make the most sense. You could consider meeting in a park, for example.
Outdoor movies, an art session, cookouts, or even just a 'hangout day' are all great ways to spend your time and get to know each other. You can bring snacks from home, and each employee can take care of one dish.
You can even make this day productive by having a 'strengths session.' This session will help everyone figure out their strengths by completing a personal assessment. In the long run, this allows employees to focus on each team member's positives and know who to call on when they need help.
Remote work comes with tons of awesome tools that can be used to bring a team closer together by communicating strategy remotely, making sure everybody is on the same page, and improving team collaboration.
These are some of my favorite tools-
Apart from these tools, there are tons of other options like Go Game or Let's Roam that will help your team come together on a more personal level. You cannot work well with a team you do not know!
In the same way, customer experience is vital to your business; employee recognition is not just important to the employee but also to your company's overall success. A survey by Achievers found that 55% of employees surveyed were planning on switching jobs and lack of recognition was the number one reason. 69% went on to say that better rewards and recognition might even convince them to stay on at the company.
While money can't buy happiness, a reward once in a while can be a great way of showing your employees you recognize the effort they put in.
Remote work often lacks this neat feature, and not many companies have bothered fixing this. Here are a couple of remote-friendly options to consider when an employee has succeeded in being a thought leader in their niche, hit a sales goal, or simply continued being awesome-
Rewards do not have to be expensive or in-person. Even remote employees deserve some love and appreciation for everything they do. As the world goes more remote, you have an ever-increasing list of options.
