How to create a culture of remote teams in your company

We know that remote teams are a reality, as well as multicultural offices today. Having people working from different points of the map brings a new challenge to the table for managers and leaders: creating a strong team culture that can unite them all.

But what do we mean by culture?  The company culture is the experience that your employees have while they belong to your team. This is important, because it is a fact that organizational culture has a direct impact on the workers productivity and therefore the company’s chances of success.

But again, if reaching a good company culture can be tricky in a typical office, creating it for a remote team you need to pay some extra close attention.

How to create a culture of remote teams

Discover the team you want to have according to the profile of your business.

First, it’s important to have a clear idea and definition of the kind of team and work philosophy you want. Don’t go with the flow on this; make sure you know what you want so you can be able to transfer this idea to your employees to create the culture that works better for your business.

Communication, as always, is key.

Once you have that clear in your mind, guarantee a fluent communication system with your team, so they can understand what you are creating. The tools you use to work all together also define this. Choosing collaboration and communicational tools like Skype or Hangout for video calls, or Slack or Dropbox to share live documents and content will also force that communication in the team that will create a common feeling amongst your employees.

Making smaller teams for some particular tasks or project will also help them to get to know each other and become more personally invested at work.

Don’t forget that they are working remotely, but they are still part of your team. 

Also, if your team is partially remote and partially physically located somewhere, remember that everyone should feel equally part of it. Don’t leave them out just because they are not siting in the same room, because if they feel they don’t have the same opportunities as those located at your office then they will not work as hard to grow in the company, and this will have an impact in your own achievements.

Let them shine, and the culture will be passed on.

On that same line, make them equally able to become leaders too. What does this means within a company? It means to give them the chance to be creative and bring new ideas to the table, to feel confident enough to be the ones pushing the team sometimes. This will help avoid the feeling of just being a cold machine that executes tasks given by their boss. Listen to them and make them feel their initiatives are welcome. A mentor system, for example, would be a great way to let an employee shine, and at the same time we delegate and make sure our company culture is being passed on to the new members of the team.

Just remember that remote work is set to grow, so don’t overlook its needs and its advantages, just be open to it and be the leader they need.