The past few years have brought significant changes to the way people work, with about 43% of Americans working from home occasionally and about 20% working from home primarily. How do we maintain a desired company culture with so much of the workforce working remote?

This has been the million-dollar question for small and large companies alike.  I think the answer looks different for every company, because every company has a different culture to begin with and it can’t be a one-size-fits-all formula.

Here are a few questions that I think leaders should themselves regarding their culture:

1. Do you want to have more of a family type culture, defined as “shared assumptions, beliefs, and values regarding the extent to which an organization supports and values the integration of employees’ work and family lives” (Thompson et al., 1999; p. 394). 

2. Does your business work in silos (because it works) or do you promote teamwork? And how does that work in a remote or hybrid environment?

3. Do you want to be a growth mindset organization?

4. Do you want to have a flexible culture where employees work onsite part time and remote part time?

Company culture should be intentional.  This may seem easy, but it’s not.  One of the most challenging things to maintain is the culture.  However, culture is one of the most important things and will make loyal employees or disgruntled employees.

There are several different ideas and options when it comes to fostering your company culture.

Promoting a family type culture. 

Here are a few ideas:

• Give your teams a sense of ownership.  Empower them to feel like owners and work like they are owners.

• Everyone protects each other.  What does this mean?  Everyone has each other’s back and supports each other.  This means when a project is due everyone rolls up their sleeves and helps where they can. 

• Choose core values that enable a trusted culture.  Make sure that your core values promote the family type environment.  Some examples may be teamwork and/or work ethic.

• Encourage people to speak up.  There are no stupid questions or responses.  Help everyone realize that their input is valued and welcomed. 

Promoting teamwork type culture. 

If you’re interested in helping a team work together or get to know each other better, there are several ways to do that:

• A remote escape room where employees must work together, utilizing clues, to get out of a virtual room in a specific amount of time.

• A virtual trivia game with questions about team members so everyone gets to know each other better, about the company or even current events.  Something to bring everyone together that also allows them to chat while playing.

• Host a virtual cooking class.  Send ingredients to each team member and set up a meeting on WebEx Teams (or other platform) at a specific time and have the host lead everyone in cooking the meal.   

Promoting a growth mindset organization.

What does this look like?  Here are a few ideas:

• Set up monthly internal lunch and learns.  Assign different topics to different team members and let them teach the rest of the team.  Have food delivered to everyone at the office or at their homes so they can eat together while learning.

• Teach leadership classes so everyone can grow in their leadership and communication skills.

• Help employees understand the thought that we aren’t there “yet” which means we will get there.  It is a mindset that we don’t say “no,” we say “not yet.”

• Set up a mentorship program.  Not everyone is ready to try new things and take on new challenges.  However, a mentor can walk along side them until they are ready to do it on their own and then they can become the mentor. 

Promoting a flexible culture. 

This type of culture can be challenging for some businesses depending on the type of work you do.  A few ideas:

• Employees work two to three days in the office and the remainder remote.

• Employees have a flexible work schedule where maybe they start their workday a little later and stay a little later to allow for personal appointments or field trips with their kids.

• Adopt the philosophy that employees can work the schedule that fits them best as long as their work is being completed in a timely fashion. 

These ideas are certainly not exhaustive by any means, but hopefully they’ve sparked your creativity on how to enhance your culture and get your employees engaged with each other and their work. Whatever your culture environment happens to be, embrace it and work to cultivate it.  The time will be well spent, I promise.  Your company wins, your employees win, and your clients win. 

This post was contributed by Michelle Padilla, our COO/CFO. Michelle has a Master of Science in Management and Leadership and is passionate about creating an encouraging company culture with highly motivated and positive people.

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