How to Maintain a Team Culture with a Distributed Workforce

Creating and growing a culture within your company or team is no easy feat.  Many employers and team managers struggle to build and maintain a culture around team members with different backgrounds, skills, and overall experiences.

And whatever complexities existed before have now only multiplied thanks to Covid-19 and the numerous changes in workplace dynamics.  Managers and employers are now left scratching their heads trying to find ways of cultivating a culture when their workforce is so spread out.

If this sounds familiar, here are several things you should consider implementing to develop and maintain a company and team culture with a dispersed workforce.

1.     It Starts With Hiring

 It may seem obvious, but it is much easier to develop a particular culture if you hire individuals who will mesh with your culture and add to it.  Any interview you conduct should take note of qualities candidates possess, and whether their personalities will add to the culture you are trying to build.

If people are better suited to your culture, it will be much easier to maintain that culture regardless of where your employees work.

 2.     Share Company Values

Culture is often rooted in organizational values.  And so, to properly build and maintain a culture, your employees must be aware of, and reminded of, your organization’s values.

Take your company values seriously and make sure they are placed somewhere easy to find and that everyone can access – like a company website.  After all, it makes no sense to have your values in the break room if half your team works remote.

Far too many organizations make the mistake of claiming to hold certain values, but then never make much of them internally.  If you do not take them seriously, neither will your team.  Go one step further by offering peer-to-peer recognition for those who exemplify core values.  This will further cement their importance.

3.     Communicate Regularly As A Group

 With so many people now working remotely, we too often forget about traditional team building activities and group meetings.  In the past, co-workers would interact with each other daily.  Now, team members may rarely see each other.  In fact, if you have done any hiring during the pandemic, it is possible you may have team members that have never even met each other in person.

As a team manager or supervisor, you must engage in regular communication with your employees.  Set time aside every week to engage in individual communication and team conferencing that includes both on-site staff and remote workers.

Finally, make use of videoconferencing. So much of our communication is non-verbal, employees will benefit much more from seeing their co-workers than simply hearing their voices.

4.     Establish Company Initiatives

 What you do with team members, and the events you engage in together, play an integral role in shaping and maintaining company culture.  For example, in the past, many organizations would hold department-specific retreats or offsite trainings to help staff grow together in a non-work environment.  These retreats and trainings were a great way to reinforce company culture and show that organizations practiced what they preached.

Unfortunately, it seems as if these types of offsite activities are not nearly as common now that remote working is more common and team members live far apart.  But that is no excuse.  To accommodate remote working environments, try to hold virtual all-hands meetings to celebrate important events or milestones.

And to the extent team members can travel, bring everyone together, in person, once or twice a year.  Take time to focus on team bonding and team building so you can explore company culture without the pressure of work tasks.

Are you looking to work with a company that has a culture that matches your values? See who is hiring at CyberCoders.com.