Creating a great company culture would seem almost like an impossibility when you’re talking about a remote company. That sense of bonding, camaraderie, and collaboration would traditionally be something that only brick-and-mortar businesses would be able to experience.
Until now.
FlexJobs was honored when we were included in the Entrepreneur and Culture IQ’s second annual list of the Top Company Cultures in America. In an Entrepreneur article written by FlexJobs’ Founder and CEO Sara Sutton, “How a Business With No Office Has One of the Best Company Cultures in America,” find out how remote employers can build a great culture, regardless of where your workers live—or even if you’ve never met them face-to-face!
How Remote Employers Can Build a Great Company Culture
Hire people who “fit” culturally.
Your company is growing by leaps and bounds and you need to hire for some new positions. Even if your company is looking to recruit ASAP, you should still take the time to find workers who are truly a cultural fit for your organization. Without having to worry about where workers live, you can focus your hiring efforts on those job candidates who have the qualifications and the desire to work for your organization, and those who you think would enjoy and thrive in the environment you’ve created.
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Invest in your employees’ personal lives.
Employees want to feel as if they truly matter to a company and not that they are only valued for the work they produce. Remote companies can build a great culture by investing in their workers, both professionally and personally. Understanding that workers are multifaceted individuals with lives outside of work—and supporting their needs and interests—is something that a flexible work environment is designed for.
So find out what is going on with your workers—maybe a couple of your employees are military spouses or are caregivers for aging parents—and help to foster a connection between them so that they can lean on each other. Bridging this connection despite distance can not only help workers on a personal level, but make them feel even more connected to the company, too.
Rethink collaboration and communication.
It would seem that effective collaboration and communication can only be achieved by in-person meetings and a proverbial water cooler. Not true. Being physically together in the workplace doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll have stronger communication.
Instead, focus on offering the best collaboration tools out there so that your workers can communicate—and therefore collaborate and be innovative together within a remote work environment. Encourage “proactive communication,” meaning, get teams together to address any issues before they become potential problems, and to help generate new ideas and allow everyone’s voices to be heard.
Trust your workers.
It might seem like a no-brainer, but trust is a huge issue when it comes to remote companies. After all, you may never meet some of your employees, and these individuals will have access to some confidential company documents and other privileged information. So you have to trust that your workers will be responsible enough to do their jobs and not jeopardize the company. That trust is built initially during the hiring process, when you can get a sense for who candidates are—and what they stand for—to make sure that they will fit with your organization.
But trust goes one step further. As a remote employer, you have to also trust your employees to get their work done without having a boss physically breathing down their neck. You have to trust that remote workers will do their best, not because they’re afraid that they’re hearing the boss’ footsteps coming down the hallway, but because they believe in your company and want to do their best.
A great culture is pivotal to any organization, but none so more than a remote one. Company culture is ultimately what the company stands for, what its mission is, and how it treats its workers, all wrapped up into one.
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