Scaling Company Culture: Remotely

Company culture has been at the forefront of business leaders minds for some time now, building an environment where employees know how to act an operate, what’s acceptable and what’s not. We all know when a company have a great culture yet never forget the ones with a bad reputation.

We typically have relied heavily on building & reinforcing cultures based with in person connections whether it be company or team get together. As a recruiter, I aim to get to the heart of the company culture and there was no better place to do this than the HQ.

Yet as we are approaching a year of working remotely and the talent market with some added levels of complexity to it (I explored this in my previous post) now’s a good time to stop and re-access how to continue to build those awesome cultures in a remote environment.

Here’s 5 top tips that you may or may not have considered:

Town Halls – Many company goals were entirely abolished last year, and survival mode kicked in. What does the future look like today, and what’s the vision for the next year? People need to be onboard and believe there’s some plan going forward, even if like many, you’re still figuring it all out.

SMT Check ins – CEO & SMT Breakfasts and Coffees for new joiners was very much a done thing in 2019. If not a one on one, we’d often meeting in person in small teams within their first quarter and something that shouldn’t be forgotten.

Coffee Roulette, Elevenses, Afternoon Tea – Get people together outside of their daily teams. Block out some time for people to “meet” in smaller and random groups where they get to catch up about anything.

Home office set up – Budgets differ greatly here but we encourage you to explore what may make all the difference to your teams and allow them to be creative. Is it a new chair or a houseplant? My best purchase was noise cancelling headphones as my neighbour is teaching themselves the bongos… I wish I was joking…

Recognition – Platforms like Perkbox are great, and other recognition, benefits and rewards systems. Of course there’s always Amazon vouchers also a “thank you” and genuine recognition goes a long way too.

I must note, that not to be forgotten is simply not forget what defined your business & its culture and look to continue to reinforce and maintain this as much as possible through all you do, each and every day.