Maintaining positive company culture

Whilst employees are working from home and representing your business offsite there are some smart and very simple ways you can ensure employees still feel part of your organisation and maintain your company CULTURE:

Company culture supports business growth and employee satisfaction. The engagement of staff is key during these turbulent times and although retention or churn will not necessarily be a concern at the moment there is heightened importance placed on keeping staff engaged, motivated and enjoying their job. 

Many leaders have worked hard to foster a ‘teamwork’ environment inside the office, proven to drive friendships and loyalty and encourage employees to work harder, co-operate and support one another. I’ve collated a few top tips to maintain the ‘inside’ company culture when staff are ‘outside’ of the office: 

• Encourage idea sharing and water-cooler engagement by setting up private Facebook communities, WhatsApp groups or a Microsoft TEAMS groups for colleagues. Even though your team may be distributed, these groups offer a forum for the ‘water cooler banter’ type communication many individualsreally enjoy inside the office.  You can sporadically offer prizes for good ideas or initiatives and encourage conversations between colleagues.
• Encourage individuals to ask for help. Being at home and isolated from colleagues shouldn’t mean employees are left to get on with it. Maintaining good working practice, supporting staff and continuing to mentor is really important. It’s harder to do this remotely but with Screensharing tools such asTeamViewer, ZOOM, TEAMS, FACETIME, the list goes on managers can continue to feel valuable and employees continue to grow.
• Don't try and adopt a BIG BROTHER approach Trusting staff to get on with their work is paramount andmaking the odd spot check is expected, however it’s a good idea not to suddenly introduce timesheets or stringent Big Brother style checks on employees - unless things are really slipping of course.
• CAMERAS ON – dress and engage as though you’re on TV - Engagement is so much better when cameras are switched on and people interact in person.  Encouraging staff to be as presentable at home as they are in the office helps drive a working office culture at home.
• Start the Day to End of Play… Holding daily kick-off meetings first thing will help set a tone and create a feeling of still being part of a team. Finishing the working day with a wrap meeting to celebrate the days successes too helps drive productivity and manages workflow/irons out any issues or concerns early on and drives communication.
• Mental health and wellbeing - Managing the natural anxiety caused during this time is important. It is good practice to promote the use of Headspace and other Mindfulness apps alongside encouraging exercise during lunchtimes and before/after work. Encourage staff to use the time they’d normally spend commuting to do something for themselves to maintain productivity and mental health.
• Maintain normal daily routines - Encourage staff to get away from their screens at lunchtime and call colleagues for a chat – especially if they would normally spend their lunchtimes together. Continue to have your normal team and one-to-one meetings, don’t rely on text and phone communication too much; video calls enable much more natural interaction.

If you recognise the importance of maintaining company culture and would like to talk about ideas to drive and promote company culture, please get in touch.