How to develop a great remote work culture (+ examples)

Culture is a massive part of what makes teams work.

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Most people think of team building activities and employee motivation tools. While these are part of remote work culture, it goes far beyond that.

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Culture ultimately decides how your team responds under stress or when facing challenges. It dictates how fun, motivating, and ambitious your team is. Developing a great remote work culture transforms your company, creating more productive employees and a more appealing work environment.

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What is remote work culture?

Remote work culture refers to the values, norms, and behaviors that dictate how a company approaches and organizes working remotely. 

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Gallup’s work culture definition is “how we do things around here.”

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As broad as that is, it indicates how much culture defines how people interact at work. 

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Remote culture includes aspects such as:

• How you make decisions,
• How teams collaborate,
• How a company approaches communication,
• Expectations around employee availability and productivity,
• The types of benefits and perks on offer.

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Building a remote-first work culture means creating an environment that enables employees to work from anywhere, even if they might still have the option of working from a centralized location.

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Where many aspects of culture can develop organically in an office setting, creating a great company culture remotely requires intentional effort. It greatly impacts motivation and employee engagement, which influences productivity. It also leads to much higher employee retention.

Trends in remote work

The covid pandemic catapulted remote work in 2020, forcing many employers who were reluctant to make the shift–and the changes have been immense.

• Ladders published a remote work report concluding that 25% of all jobs in North America will be remote by the end of 2022. 
• Many large companies remain reluctant, with 4 out of 10 employers saying they will fire workers who won’t return to the office.
• This shows the upcoming conflict between employers and employees. Remote employees are up to 20% happier.
• 89% of companies have already introduced remote working policies, showing that investing in remote work culture is necessary. 

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While some companies might handle the transition back to an office well, most reports make it clear: Remote work is here to stay. 

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Paying attention to the aspects that influence employee engagement and understanding how to leverage these in your company is essential. The only way to keep up with employee expectations and attract high-performing talent is to enable remote work and flexibility where possible.

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11 ways to improve remote work culture

Creating a positive remote work culture will make your employees feel committed and motivated. 

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Remote work culture best practices start with getting everyone in your company on the same page. That means clear communication, defined expectations, and giving everyone access to the tools they need to succeed.

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Here’s how to build and maintain a remote work culture:

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1. Invest in team building. Social interaction is a powerful way to build culture. Tools like Gomada which include team building activities can be a game changer when it comes to functional and enjoyable team building.

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2. Define company values. If your company values sound nice on paper but don’t result in specific behaviors, those values need to be translated into actions. An example might be transparency. Transparency in action could be your team leads involving their teams in decisions or your founders sharing company-wide information with all employees.

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3. Set goals and objectives. Remote work means moving away from the idea that being present at your desk means being productive. The only way to measure how successful you and your teams are is by setting meaningful goals.

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4. Adopt a standard of communication. Written communication is almost always the default when you work remotely–but what does that mean in practice? How quickly do you expect people to respond to emails or Slack messages? Having shared expectations around communication makes a huge difference. 

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5. Establish tools for collaboration. Culture is built through the interactions people in your company have with each other. Find ways to foster collaboration and make it easy for teams to work together. The types of communication tools you use (and how you use them) influence your culture.

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6. Build trust with management. It’s hard to overstate the impact of management on employee engagement. A healthy remote work culture depends on your employees trusting their team leads. This is where regular check-ins and one-on-ones come in. 

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7. Promote professional development. Your best performers will always want to grow and develop. Investing in an employee engagement solution that helps you keep track of professional development can keep it top of mind.

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8. Solicit employee feedback. Employee engagement platforms can be a great way to ask for feedback regularly. Addressing employee feedback enables you to improve and develop your culture continuously.

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9. Foster a sense of community. The biggest challenge with remote work is ensuring employees don’t feel lonely and isolated. Finding opportunities to make them feel connected should be the foundation of your remote culture.

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10. Foster autonomy. There’s a temptation with remote work to micromanage or monitor employees. The trick is to give them freedom and operate based on trust–while holding them accountable to agreed-upon results and outcomes. You want to create a culture in which you judge your employees’ productivity based on the results they achieve.

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11. Encourage work-life balance. It’s easy to blur the lines between work and personal life if you work from home. This is why burnout is associated with remote work. Supporting your team members in creating boundaries for themselves and regularly taking breaks is important in cultivating a healthy relationship with work. 

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Remember that culture is often set from the top down. Your managers are the first role models that everyone else will look to when they want to figure out the right way to behave. 

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Develop a unified culture amongst your team leads first and see how that permeates the rest of your organization. 

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Each of these ways requires careful, consistent work over a longer period–until they become so normal that no one in your company thinks twice before doing them.

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Remote work culture ideas

Reaching for those larger goals is great, but remote work culture building can also start small.

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Try out these remote work culture activities:

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• Virtual team building. Team building is hugely beneficial for remote teams. It can act as a substitute for that natural, organic interaction that can happen in an office space. Check out these virtual team building activities for examples. Gomada generates a series of activities tailored specifically to your team, so you can have the best experience.
  
  

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• Recognition program. Employee recognition is one of the easiest, low-cost ways to keep your employees motivated. Consider implementing an employee engagement app that helps everyone in your company give each other shout-outs. This will not only increase the visibility of their achievements, but it’ll also give your culture a huge boost as well. 

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• Well-being workshops. Unplugging from work is one of the biggest challenges facing remote workers. That’s why investing in employee well-being can transform how your employees feel at work. Well-being also starts from your company values as well. Think about how often your team members take time off and whether they can unplug during weekends. 

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• Meet in person. You can get pretty far with these options, but there’s still no replacement for meeting in person. Most remote companies meet up once or twice a year. That’s usually enough time to recharge everyone’s social batteries and make them reconnect.

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Remote work culture isn’t only about how you do the work but also about the little moments of social interaction in between. Whether you’re spending time on team building activities or trying to improve your team communication, small steps go a long way in creating the culture you’re aiming for. 

Companies pioneering a successful remote work culture

Looking for inspiration? 

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These are some of the best companies with a great remote work culture. 

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• GitHub is the largest web-based version control repository in the world. They’ve pioneered the hybrid model with a headquarters in San Francisco and remote employees across the globe. 

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• 37signals is the company behind the project management software Basecamp. They’ve been working remotely since their inception in 1999, and their founders have written some of the first books about how remote work enables employees to do their best work. They offered a 4-day work week long before that became a popular trend.

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• Buffer is a social media management tool with a fully remote team with employees in over 50 countries. They’ve set the standard around salary transparency by publishing their employees' salaries and sharing the salary calculator they developed internally. 

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• Automattic is the company behind WordPress.com, which also embraced remote work long before the pandemic. They now number 1300 people worldwide and have fully embraced asynchronous communication from the beginning. Despite their size, they still manage to have the entire company meet in person once a year.

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• Zapier is a tool that helps people automate their work by connecting apps and automating workflows. They have a fully remote team with unique perks, such as helping employees find their next jobs and all-hands support. 

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Level up your remote work culture with Gomada

Building a truly engaged remote team starts with developing a strong and positive culture. Investing just a little time in your team and their engagement will result in a more productive and committed team. 

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Gomada’s activities are tailored to remote teams. If you want a simple and easy way to level up your remote work culture without spending tons of time, try Gomada for free.