8 Tips for Building a Positive Remote Work Culture

A positive workplace culture is important, even if you and your team members never meet in person. It can help everyone—regardless of their location—create a cohesive work identity and improve collaboration.

Of course, while that sounds great on paper, knowing where to start is the challenge—especially if you’re working with a remote team. Remote work has many benefits, but it can also make building personal connections between colleagues challenging.

Luckily, there are proven ways to build strong and positive remote workplace culture. This article will explore eight key areas to focus on when building culture, as well as five potential problems to watch out for.

Table of contents: Creating positive work culture

• Defining workplace culture
• The importance of workplace culture
• 5 factors that can ruin your corporate culture
• 8 tips for creating a healthy workplace culture
• Start improving your company’s work culture

Defining workplace culture

Workplace culture develops through the implementation of company values. Leaders directly impact workplace culture through their words and actions. It isn’t enough to create a list of corporate values and expect people to abide by it. You’ll want to ensure that your leadership team’s actions reflect these values, and that they work to help instill said values in their teams.

The resulting company culture can influence the way a team:

• Interacts with its competitors, suppliers, and customers
• Views its place and responsibility within a given industry
• Encourages each other to communicate and collaborate
• Approaches the idea of risk
• Provides resources and support to colleagues

For a long time, the embodiment of organizational culture existed within the four walls of an office building. Now, though—thanks to the rise of freelancing and remote work—many people can work together from a wide variety of locations. Just as modern workplaces look different, so may modern workplace culture.

The importance of workplace culture

Remote companies that work to develop a strong workplace culture are able to:

• Attract in-demand talent eager to work with a business. Companies that hire and work remotely can attract top talent from across the entire world.
• Boost morale and retention thanks to higher levels of engagement—nearly 50% of hiring managers in a major US survey say that they’re focused on strengthening team culture in order to retain staff.
• Improve performance and productivity as team members feel engaged in and proud of their work.
• Cultivate transparency because team members and managers feel free to be open and honest with each other, knowing they’re all working toward a common goal.
• Build successful teams by getting a better sense for who is and is not a good cultural fit.

You may find that it takes some time to build workplace culture up to the point that it feels as if it continues to grow and develop on its own, and you’ll always need to nurture it. However, its benefits are well worth the investment—here’s how to get started.

5 factors that can ruin your corporate culture

First, you’ll want to address any problems that can derail or sabotage progress made toward developing a positive work environment and culture. Even well-meaning people can unknowingly undermine your efforts here, and it takes strong, empathetic leadership to keep everything moving in the right direction, in the right ways.

1. Gossip

Gossip among team members can increase anxiety and reduce morale. This is partially due to the fact that it can be hard for team members to distinguish what is real and what is part of the rumor mill. While you can’t squash all gossip in the workplace, you can:

• Foster a culture of open communication
• Encourage team members to come to leaders with any questions or concerns about their role within the company
• Address any broad rumors (such as about the company’s financial stability or restructuring) and provide the necessary facts for team members to understand what’s going on

Of course, not all non-work-related communication between team members is negative gossip. You’ll want to continue to foster conversations and camaraderie among teams—while taking care to address any points of concern that you become aware of.

2. Poor communication

Poor communication in the workplace can foster a culture of gossip. It can also lead to weaker bonds between team members and leaders. When there is a poor flow of communication from the top down, or laterally, it can leave team members wondering where they stand at work. Team members may also find themselves doing duplicate or redundant work due to a lack of communication, which brings down overall productivity.

To improve communication, leaders can:

• Schedule time for open question-and-answer forums
• Send regular company-wide announcements and updates to keep everyone on the same page
• Create a way for team members to provide feedback and suggestions
• Standardize the flow of information across teams—selecting a shared project management or productivity tool is a great place to start

3. Lack of feedback

Providing your team members with feedback is another part of maintaining good communication. Managers should try to schedule, without regularly canceling or postponing, one-on-one meetings with their staff. These chats can help leaders:

• Get a sense for how team members feel about their work or company
• Identify any surges in negative gossip and lay fears to rest
• Support team members who may be struggling with projects
• Help team members feel seen and heard, which can build team loyalty
• Answer questions about work and workplace matters
• Give feedback that’s more personalized than updates delivered in group settings
• Work with team members to set and check in on goals
• Make sure team members feel that they have the resources they need to do their jobs well
• Demonstrate the core values they’d like to promote as part of building a strong workplace culture

Ideally, you’ll want to aim to have these regular meetings with full- and part-time staff as well as independent talent regularly contributing to your team.

4. Overwork

When team members work extra hours, or have a hard time unplugging from work, it can erode attempts at creating a strong workplace culture. 50% of businesses report higher turnover now than before the COVID-19 pandemic—due in part to professional burnout from overwork.

This burnout and overwork can be the result of:

• Improper delegation
• Skills gaps
• Hiring shortages
• A lack of resources

If you notice that there are skills gaps or hiring shortages happening and negatively impacting your team, bringing on independent talent can help. By engaging talented freelancers for project-based or ongoing work, you can relieve some of the pressure on your team and make sure that everyone has the necessary resources to take on new projects.

5. Disconnection

Poor communication and overwork can both lead to a sense of disconnection from work and teammates—but this may happen for other reasons, too. Team members who are under a lot of personal stress, or feeling like they aren’t recognized for their achievements at work, could become disconnected from their jobs.

By holding regular one-on-one meetings and encouraging open communication, you can look for signs of disconnection early on, such as:

• Noticeable changes in normal workplace patterns
• Reduced communication
• Increased absenteeism
• Diminished work quality
• Missed deadlines
• Decreased participation in work events

You can then get ahead of this disconnection and provide team members with support to help them feel more engaged and connected at work.

8 tips for creating a healthy workplace culture

Once you’ve addressed the five factors that can damage workplace culture, you can focus on the following culture-building elements:

1. Solidify your company’s mission and values
2. Live your company’s values
‍3. Promote diversity, equity, and inclusion
‍4. Encourage honest, open communication
‍5. Celebrate successes
‍6. Build programs to support a healthy work-life balance
‍7. Make an effort to encourage social connections
‍8. Foster learning and development

You can apply these tips whether you’re just starting to think about culture for the first time, are having trouble transitioning a previous in-office culture to a remote setting, or just want to make sure your workplace culture is as strong as possible.

1. Solidify your company’s mission and values

As discussed earlier, workplace culture develops through the implementation of company values. Without a clear understanding of your organization’s mission statement and core beliefs, creating and amplifying a cohesive culture will be difficult.

Ask yourself the following:

• Does your company have a vision?
• Does this vision align with your current direction?
• Can you clearly state your company’s mission?
• Is your mission aligned with where you’d like your company to go in the future?
• Are there any sticky spots in your vision and mission statements that do not feel aligned with your company’s current or planned operations?

You’ll want to have a firm grasp of your company’s values, mission, and direction before you can get into the nitty-gritty details of fostering that culture in your team members.

2. Live your company’s values

Once you’ve reviewed and solidified your company’s values, you’ll need to put them into practice—starting at the top. Your leadership team has to demonstrate their commitment to the organization’s values.

This commitment can include:

• Making an effort to exhibit company values in workplace communications
• Publicly promoting and acting upon company values
• Remaining aligned with the company mission across all external communications, including executives’ social media accounts
• Providing team members with relevant training opportunities

When leaders set the tone, other team members will see their actions and use them as an example by which to model their own behavior.

3. Promote diversity, equity, and inclusion

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and the Harvard Business Review found that when a company places a strong emphasis on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), they can see better employee engagement, innovation, retention of top talent, and customer satisfaction.

It’s not enough to say your company supports diversity. You’ll have to show it through actions.

This can look like:

• Building a diverse leadership and executive team
• Being transparent and accountable about DEI by department
• Sharing DEI metrics with all team members
• Actively setting and measuring progress toward DEI goals
• Training team members on representation, unconscious bias, and more

4. Encourage honest, open communication

Encouraging honest two-way communication is also essential for building and maintaining a positive workplace culture.

Unfortunately, 25% of U.S. workers don’t feel safe voicing their opinions about work issues. Over time, this can lead to attrition and discontent. By encouraging open communication from day one, you can build strong relationships with your team members and improve trust.

When team members feel comfortable speaking to each other, managers, and company leaders about their experiences within the workplace, it can help you:

• Pinpoint any disconnect between intended goals and current reality
• Ensure independent talent and full-time team members feel supported
• Get a sense for how well your programs and policies are working or being received within the workplace
• Understand areas where your company may be falling behind in terms of DEI and accountability

5. Celebrate successes

Celebrating individual and team successes can help your workforce feel more connected to the company and its values, no matter where they physically work. You can celebrate success in a variety of different ways, including:

• Sharing how one department’s combined efforts led to a positive result
• Championing business successes as a job well done by all team members
• Creating an employee recognition program
• Setting new goals and celebrating when they are achieved
• Hosting company-wide virtual or off-site events to talk about everything achieved so far, and where your company is heading next

6. Build programs to support a healthy work-life balance

Creating a great workplace culture doesn’t end when team members leave the office or log off for the night. Three in 10 Americans reported that bad workplace culture negatively impacted their home life, such as making them feel irritable when they weren’t at work.

Supporting your teams’ ability to maintain a healthy work-life balance is key for both personal and professional satisfaction. This can look like:

• Ensuring team members stop work in the evening and get a break from responding to work messages
• Supporting working parents and other caretakers with flexible scheduling
• Providing teams with resources to help them mitigate burnout
• Encouraging team members to take time off as needed
• Maintaining a staff headcount that supports your team’s workload

7. Make an effort to encourage social connections

Social connections are an important part of a good workplace culture, as they can help team members build trust in each other. Because teams in a distributed or partially remote work environment may not have the same kinds of organic “watercooler” conversations that happen when everyone’s in an office, your leadership team will want to make an effort to build these social connections.

You can make this happen in a variety of ways, including:

• Scheduling regular “happy hour” meetings so remote team members can get to know each other
• Pairing up each new team member with a “buddy” to help them acclimate to the company and its culture
• Use Slack apps like Donut and Meetsy to spark social conversation and pair team members up for one-on-one coffee chats

8. Foster learning and development

Providing your team members with the resources they need is a great way to support all of the other items on this list and build a positive work culture. When teams feel that they are supported in terms of personal and professional development, it further builds their trust and loyalty.

Managers of remote teams can support learning and development by:

• Talking to team members and identifying similar topics of interest
• Taking and prioritizing requests for different training modules
• Providing team members with access to on-demand learning platforms like Skillshare
• Working with team members to identify areas they’d like to improve through one-on one coaching
• Providing tuition reimbursement for continuing professional education

Start improving your company’s work culture

Even if you feel your workplace culture is already top notch, you should strive to continue improving. Nobody - and no workplace culture - is perfect. A scheduled social meeting may fall flat, or you may realize you’re not publicly embodying a commitment to a key value. These kinds of bumps in the road are normal.

Keep evolving your workplace culture and aim to grow it like any other initiative in your company. By being receptive to feedback from team members, you can continue to make strides toward creating a more cohesive workplace.

As your workplace culture grows, you can take on new initiatives such as:

• Developing new ways to support career development
• Customizing the onboarding experience for new team members
• Establishing a mentoring program
• Providing benefits for team members' health and well-being

While all of these efforts take an upfront investment of time—and often money—you’ll see the return on your investment.

Strive to hire leaders and team members who align with your workplace culture, and look for new ways to support your teams—including bringing in the support of talented independent professionals who can provide needed skills. It’s easy to begin building trusted relationships with independent talent who can provide this support—learn more by exploring our other hiring resources and create an Upwork account to begin browsing talented freelancer profiles.

‍

Upwork is not affiliated with and does not sponsor or endorse any of the tools or services discussed in this article. These tools and services are provided only as potential options, and each reader and company should take the time needed to adequately analyse and determine the tools or services that would best fit their specific needs and situation.