What type of workplace culture are you building now? Has it changed?
Whether you’re temporarily working remotely or growing a remote-first organization, it’s important to define the ideal culture for your distributed workforce. Do you want an innovative culture with employees who are comfortable taking risks? A family-like environment with a flat organizational structure? Or a results-oriented, competitive organization that’s focused on launching products?
Whatever your ideal culture type, strengthening your culture should be a top priority for internal comms, along with the rest of your organization. Gallup reports that a strong organizational culture can increase net profit by 85% over a five-year period, while also improving employee engagement and patronage.
Likewise, recruitment group, Robert Walters, writes, “Both employers (96%) and professionals (98%) agree that businesses have a responsibility to invest in their workplace culture, developing a clear set of values upon which to base practices…”
How can you build and maintain company culture with a remote team? Here are a few ideas.
3 Ways to Strengthen Company Culture with a Distributed Team
- Focus on the aspects of culture that actually matter to your people. Robert Walters says the top three culture-related factors candidates care about are: (1) Level of collaboration, (2) Remuneration package, and (3) Transparent decision making by management. How can you speak to these priorities in your internal comms?
- Collaborate with the key stakeholders who drive cultural change. While every employee influences your workplace culture (intentionally or not), there are some key players who carry more weight in influencing your workplace: senior management, mid-level managers, HR, and you—marketing and internal comms. How can you collaborate with HR to ensure your organizational messaging about culture is consistent during interviews and onboarding? How can you work with marketing to align your external branding with internal communications?
- Show your culture, don’t just talk about it. In PwC’s Global Culture Survey 2021, the firm reports that leaders have an enduring challenge when it comes to culture: translating the talk about culture into actions that are felt every day. PwC writes, “…the positive impact of culture is felt most strongly in organizations in which the entire workforce sees their leaders acting in authentic ways.” How can you use internal comms to report on your lived culture? How can you tell stories that visually document your enacted culture?
Want to strengthen your company culture while your team works remotely? If your organization hasn’t done it yet or hasn’t refreshed your plan since transitioning to remote work, start by defining what your ideal workplace culture looks like. Then focus on building out the aspects that actually matter to your people, collaborating with key players who drive cultural change, and showing your lived, enacted culture—rather than simply talking about your mission and values.
