Building Culture in a Remote World, Part 2: Roll Out the Virtual Red Carpet!

For those of us whose preferred office footwear are slippers, times are pretty good. Companies have adopted (at least partial) Work From Home as a standard operating procedure, recognizing remote work as a win for companies and employees alike. That said, WFH does present significant challenges when it comes to maintaining a cohesive corporate culture.

As I mentioned in my previous column, best practices for maintaining a thriving company culture in today’s remote world comes down to three important elements:

● create an environment in which people feel safe to be their authentic selves

● let people know they belong and are welcomed

● help people understand how they contribute to something bigger than themselves.

We tackled authenticity last time, and we’ll dive into meaning and purpose in the next article. For today, let’s open the door wide open on creating a welcoming environment.

The Importance of Belonging

Feeling as though you’re on a team is fundamental to feeling good. Studies of physician turnover have found that professional social connectedness is vital to doctors’ wellbeing. A friendly workplace is associated with lower physician suicide risk and fewer reports of “physician burnout.”

What’s true for your doctor, is true for you, too. But it can be difficult to cultivate that home team feeling when you’re alone at home. (Believe me, I know. Most days my only in-person co-worker is a Boston Terrier puppy.) Here are a few tips for creating a welcoming environment while you’re working from home:

Exclude People. Really.

It may sound counterintuitive to recommend exclusion as an effective way to make people feel included, but the truth is not everybody needs to be in every meeting. Your organization may regularly host 50–person Zooms just because nobody wants to feel left out – or feel as though they’ve left someone out.

I invite you to take a close look around that Zoom room. Being invited to a meeting that I can’t contribute to doesn’t make me feel included, and I’m guessing the same is true for you. If 48 people on that giant Zoom are just there to be a “fly on the wall,” that’s way too many flies.

To really make someone feel valued, include them where they can contribute and shine. Before you send out that calendar invite, ask yourself, “What is the purpose of this meeting? Who needs to be there to accomplish that?” This makes for better meetings and more meaningful interactions. Exactly the kind that builds trust and teamwork.

Go Big (Because We’ve All Gone Home)

One of my biggest pet peeves in the world of Human Resources is this: Companies often don’t allow hiring managers to make job offers. Human resources typically extend job offers to give a candidate the room to negotiate and ask last-minute questions before deciding to accept or decline.

Legal issues are discussed, as are benefits and wages. Most companies feel the best person to handle these issues are HR associates. But think about the lost opportunity to really welcome – and celebrate – a new hire.

This is an amazing opportunity to say, “We picked you!” An HR person can be cheery, but they can’t articulate all the wonderful attributes that led to the person being hired. That’s where the hiring manager comes in. Companies could give new hires the verbal equivalent of cake and confetti. Instead, we tend to ask HR reps to give them a checklist and a bunch of forms. The giant, thrilled welcome is lost. And in the WFH world, this impersonal welcome can set the tone for a lonely onramp.

Follow the Leader (Even If They’re Not the CEO)

Great ideas come from everywhere. Ideas that help build a sense of teamwork are no exception. At Element3 Health, for example, the Marketing department created a Slack Channel called “Mad Props,” that is one of our highest trafficked channels – with people extolling the amazing work of fellow team members who are crushing their goals, contributing to projects or even just celebrating a birthday.

This not only bolster’s morale and provides that ego boost that we all need from time-to-time, but by publicly tooting a horn for someone else, we build a feeling of togetherness among people who have never sat in the same room.

In a remote work environment, it’s important to give mad props to ideas like “Mad Props,” letting them rise to the top and integrate themselves into the core of your company’s culture. Be it a Fantasy Football game that inspires socializing or a streamlined approach to communication, democratizing great ideas inspires a collaborative corporate culture – whether you’re wearing office-appropriate footwear or terrier-chewed slippers.

#workfromhome #corporateculture #showingup #authenticself #hr