In today's digital age, we're witnessing a revolution in the way we work, with remote operations becoming the new normal. However, this shift from physical office spaces to virtual work environments doesn't come without its challenges. Fostering a strong company culture in a remote setting is at the top of the list. As a remote based Flutter mobile app development agency, we are experienced in best practices that bridge the gap of physical distance and enhance the virtual work experience.
The Role of Company Culture in Remote Workplaces
Company culture is the soul of a business - it's what defines the company. In a remote environment, a strong culture serves as a unifying force fostering a sense of belonging and cohesion among team members separated by physical distance. It gives employees a sense of identity and purpose, and helps to align their actions with the company's strategic goals. The promotion of a strong company culture is the foundation for thriving in a remote work setting.
In a traditional office setup, this culture is often felt and practiced physically, during in-person meetings, events, team building activities, or casual water-cooler chats. However, with the rise of remote workplaces, particularly heightened by the COVID-19 pandemic, maintaining and fostering company culture has become more challenging yet more important.
Leadership сhallenges in remote-based companies
Leading a remote team comes with its unique challenges. The absence of a physical office complicates several aspects of leadership, making it necessary for leaders to adapt and develop new skills for the remote environment. Here are some common challenges:
1. Lack of Communication: Communication is key in any work environment, but it's especially crucial in a remote setting. Leaders might find it challenging to ensure everyone is on the same page when working in different locations and often different time zones. Misunderstandings and miscommunications can occur more frequently.
2. Building Trust and Connection: Establishing trust with and between team members can be more challenging when everyone is working remotely. Lack of face-to-face interactions might cause feelings of isolation and disconnection. It can be difficult for leaders to build a strong relationship with their team and promote a cohesive and collaborative environment.
3. Ensuring Accountability and Productivity: Monitoring productivity and holding employees accountable can be difficult when you can't physically see what they're working on. Leaders may worry about the potential for decreased productivity and have to find a balance between ensuring tasks are completed and avoiding micromanagement.
4. Managing Performance: Assessing performance can be more complicated in a remote work environment. Traditional performance indicators might not be suitable, and leaders may need to redefine what success looks like in a remote context.
5. Fostering Innovation and Collaboration: Creating an environment that fosters innovation can be more difficult remotely. In-person brainstorming sessions often generate the best ideas, and replicating that energy and spontaneity virtually is challenging.
6. Promoting Employee Well-being: It can be harder to recognize signs of stress or burnout in remote employees, making it challenging to intervene and provide support when necessary. Leaders need to take extra steps to check in on their employees' mental health.
7. Navigating Time Zone Differences: If a company has a global remote workforce, leaders may struggle to schedule meetings and deadlines that are convenient for everyone. This can also impact real-time communication and collaboration.
Strategies for building a strong remote culture
Building a strong remote culture starts with creating a sense of connection and inclusion among team members. Here are some strategies to help build a strong culture in a remote-based company:
1. Regular Communication: Regular check-ins and meetings are crucial for staying connected. Use different communication channels for different purposes. Email might be good for official communication, while chat apps like Telegram, Slack, Discord can be used for quick queries and casual conversation. Video conferencing tools like Google Meet, Zoom can be used for team meetings.
2. Emphasize Mission and Values: Clearly communicate the company's mission, vision, and values to all employees. This gives everyone a common purpose and set of values to rally behind, strengthening the sense of culture and community.
3. Create Virtual Social Spaces: Create opportunities for social interactions. This could be virtual coffee breaks, game nights, or even a dedicated chat room for non-work-related topics. These activities can help recreate the water-cooler conversations of a physical office, fostering camaraderie and connection. Do not forget to invest in virtual team-building. Organize virtual team building activities that are not just work-related. This can help build a strong sense of community among remote teams.
4. Implement Regular Feedback Systems: Regular feedback sessions help employees feel heard and valued. This can include performance reviews, but also feedback on the remote work experience and suggestions for improvement. Meetings such as 1-on-1, can be an invaluable tool for improving communication, understanding, and performance within a team or organization. Remember, the ultimate goal of these meetings is to foster a culture of open communication and continuous improvement.
5. Recognize and Reward: Regularly recognize and reward employees' hard work and achievements. This not only boosts morale but also fosters a culture of appreciation. Do not hesitate to encourage employees to take ownership of their work. This not only fosters a sense of responsibility but also helps employees feel more engaged and committed to their work.
6. Provide the Necessary Tools and Resources: Ensure your team has access to the right tools and resources to do their job effectively. This should includes not only reliable technology, but also resources for learning and development.
7. Foster Inclusion: Make sure every voice is heard and valued. This can be done by creating an open channel for communication where employees can share ideas, concerns, and feedback. Also, consider diverse time zones when planning meetings or events.
8. Transparency: Leaders should lead by example and be transparent about decisions and changes within the company. This helps to build trust and makes employees feel valued and involved.
9. Training and Development: Promote continuous learning and growth. Provide opportunities for employees to learn new skills and grow professionally. This shows employees that you value their development, and it also helps to keep them engaged and motivated.
Lessons From Fully Remote Companies: Success Stories and Best Practices
Fully remote companies have been growing in number and scale long before the COVID-19 pandemic forced many companies to pivot to remote work. These pioneering companies have learned valuable lessons and have developed best practices that others can learn from.
Here are 5 highly successful remote companies and the key takeaways businesses can learn from them as they transition to remote work:
GitLab
GitLab is one of the world's largest all-remote companies, and it has been fully remote since its inception. One of their best practices is the extensive use of documentation. GitLab has a handbook that's over 3,000 pages long and is publicly available online. This handbook covers everything from company culture and values to specific job roles and responsibilities. This practice ensures that all information is transparent and readily available, reducing misunderstandings and confusion.
The company sees remote as a way to empower its employees. GitLab emphasizes an employee's ability to exist first as an individual, then as a company member in its remote work playbook.
"Remote is not a challenge to overcome. It's a clear business advantage. From the cost savings on office space to more flexibility in employees' daily lives, all-remote work offers a number of pros to organizations and their people." - Victor, Product Manager, GitLab
Key lessons to learn - Remote work has low overhead, employee flexibility, and reduced waste. So it is beneficial for both employees and employers.
Deel
Deel is a payroll and compliance provider based in San Francisco, California. It offers hiring and payment services to businesses that hire international employees and contractors. Starting in 2018, Deel has a valuation of over $5.5 billion, making it one of the fastest growing companies.
Deel operates entirely remotely, indicating that remote teams are more effective and productive because they have the freedom to work from anywhere in the world.
Key lessons to learn - Remote teams are more effective than in-house teams when managed properly.
Atlassian
Atlassian
Atlassian, founded in 2002, is a publicly traded computer software company specializing in team collaboration, development, and issue-tracking software.
It announced during the coronavirus pandemic that it would no longer require its employees to return to the office for work even after the pandemic ends. Making it one of the first Australian companies to do so. Atlassian said this move would allow them to hire amazing talent by expanding the hiring search.
Key lessons to learn - Going remote allows you to overcome location barriers and hire top talent from all over the world.
Coinbase
Coinbase, established in 2012, is a global digital currency exchange focused on fostering an accessible and global financial ecosystem. Its platform facilitates the buying and selling of cryptocurrencies among traders, merchants, and everyday consumers.
Embracing remote work, Coinbase empowers its employees to work from anywhere globally, leading to the recruitment of top talent across continents.
Key lessons to learn - Going remote allows you to break down geographical barriers and hire the best talent from around the world.
Automattic
Some may not recognize Automattic by name but must be undoubtedly familiar with their most well-known achievement: WordPress. Automattic is a fully remote company with employees spread across the globe. The company has a strong emphasis on output, focusing on what employees produce rather than when or how long they work.
Matt Mullenweg, Co-Founder of Automattic, believes engagement is the key to success. Matt defies the trend of measuring productivity by "false proxies" such as working long hours or getting up early in a recent interview with Inc. Instead, he encourages businesses to define success through creation, asking, "Can you create something great in a certain amount of time?"
Key lessons to learn - Adopt a distributed culture that is inclusive and people-centric, especially in this time of uncertainty.
Conclusion
Creating a strong company culture in a remote setting may seem like a challenging task, but it's worth your efforts. It requires commitment, creativity, and constant investments of your time, but the payoff in terms of employee satisfaction, productivity, and overall company success is immeasurable.
In practical terms, we considered cases which successfully employs these strategies and gained success in the worldwide arena. All this companies showed that even with the inherent challenges, a remote team can deliver high-quality solutions.
We decided to share our experience since our company successfully operates remotely starting from 2020. Our remote-based Flutter experts balance productivity and a shared sense of purpose, fostering trust from our clients through our dependable, high-performance apps.
Our strong company culture is at the heart of our services, enhancing the value our clients receive. The result? When you engage our services, you're not just getting expertly developed apps, but also the benefits of a robust company culture. In today's remote work landscape, this robust culture ensures our commitment, quality, and reliability—key ingredients to any project's success.
