Remote Teams: How to Build a Strong Team Culture

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In the year 2020, when the Covid-19 epidemic struck, many business owners and company executives scrambled to establish their footing in the new normal. The vast majority were put in a position where they had no choice but to pursue remote employment since it was the only way for their company to continue running and be profitable throughout the epidemic.

Even before the pandemic, there were already a significant number of businesses that could be run from a distance. According to the findings of this survey by Forbes, this is rapidly approaching becoming the norm, and it is anticipated that it will continue to expand. Therefore, business owners and entrepreneurs need to quickly change in order to make it through this decade.

The issue that has to be answered is: how can you rapidly adjust to the new normal and begin constructing a culture for your distributed teams?

Developing a culture within a distributed team may have many positive effects on the organization. The contentment of employees is raised as a result, and unplanned absences are cut down. Productivity among employees also increases as a result. A study conducted at Stanford over the course of two years found that qualified individuals working from home had a significant increase in their overall productivity.

In addition to the advantages described above, it also helps businesses save money, foster greater teamwork, and increase their pool of potential employees. It is essential to construct a robust culture for the remote team. It is of far more significance than many people who run businesses may be willing to accept or may even be aware of. Regrettably, a large number of companies do not implement the appropriate approach for the development of distant cultures.

Therefore, as the owner of a firm, how can you establish a productive corporate culture for a remote staff and ensure that it continues to expand?

1. Have a great onboarding process

It is just as crucial to welcome a new team member to a remote team as it is to do so in a more conventional work environment. It is essential to complete this phase in order to instill a feeling of belonging in the members of the team.

You need to make sure that your values, vision, and purpose are all communicated throughout the onboarding process. It is very necessary to maintain open lines of communication in order to construct a powerful culture for a remote workforce. Make sure that your crew is aware of the values that your organization upholds from the very beginning.

Take advantage of modern technologies to keep misunderstandings and uncertainty at bay. The members of your remote team may have more fruitful contact with one another by using communication platforms such as Zoom, GoToMeeting, Microsoft Teams, or Skype.

2. Organize virtual weekly or monthly meetings

The fact that you manage a remote team does not absolve you of the need to hold regular meetings on a weekly or monthly basis. The monthly get-togethers or weekly briefings cover more ground than merely providing updates on the situation. The team members are able to get closer to one another via the weekly meeting that is held. Your team will have a better sense that they are not alone if you check in with them on a frequent basis. Everyone has a role in something that is both significant and expansive.

3.Make use of collaboration tools

A collaboration tool is essential for your team for a variety of reasons, including the following:

The efficiency of the members of the team is increased. Cloud-based collaboration tools have fundamentally altered the working practices of a significant number of skilled laborers.
It enables the secure storage of information in a centralized location, which improves return on investment and eliminates time wasted. According to data conducted by IDC, businesses lose around $5,000 for each employee due to their difficulty in locating suitable employees. When people work together, it becomes much simpler to get the appropriate information whenever and wherever it is required throughout the world.
It helps bring your team members together regardless of where they are located and makes monitoring the project easier all in one area. The majority of online collaboration solutions have search features, which make it simpler for members of your team to search for and readily access the documents they need, regardless of when or where they need to access them. Your team will waste less time waiting for other members to get online so that they may resend an email or upload a file because of this. Using cloud-based services for collaborative editing of documents also allows for real-time updates to be made to such documents. This will result in fewer emails being sent back and forth. Slack, Asana, Trello, and Google Docs are just a few of the useful applications for working together.

4. Leverage regular training for your remote teams

You have to be willing to seize the opportunities that the new standard brings, and consistent exercise is one of the tools you should use to distinguish yourself from the crowd.

It is essential to provide training opportunities for remote teams in order for such teams to function to their full potential. You may present them with one of the many available online courses that range from self-improvement to skill training, or you can just encourage them to read more by giving them book vouchers. There are many online courses available.

5. Build camaraderie among remote teams

Once again, it is crucial to focus on developing strong ties among the members of your virtual team.

The following are some suggestions for fostering a sense of camaraderie among members of a remote team:

Ensure that there is sufficient time for small talk during meetings.
You should have your weekly or monthly meetings through video chat.
Establish a hangout space for the distributed team in the form of a group chat.
Organize competitions, awarding awards to winners based on their exceptional achievement.
Establish a chat area in the form of a digital breakroom.

6. Prioritize the well-being of your teams.

Make the health and safety of the members of your team your number one concern. Putting other people’s needs before your own is the moral thing to do. The members of your team will then have the impression that they are vital to the firm, which will encourage their loyalty to the business. When the members of your team are given more responsibility, they will perform to the best of their abilities. This will ultimately result in improved revenues for your company in the long term. because your employees always have a positive attitude and do their best in all they do.

7. Promote teamwork among remote team

Those employees who operate as part of a team are more likely to perform 2.3 times better than those employees who work in isolation, according to a poll conducted by ADP Research in 2018. that included 19,000 workers. A stronger level of involvement was found to be associated with being part of a team, independent of the mode of operations or location, according to the findings of the extensive worldwide study.

If you haven’t been recruiting and managing remote teams previously, you need to learn how to do this successfully, particularly if you want to maintain remote teams for the long term. This is especially important if you want to keep remote teams for the long term. You do not have to stop at just finding a handful of skilled individuals to work remotely. Constructing a culture among your remote employees is an additional step you may take to optimize your experience of the new normal.

The establishment of a culture among distributed teams is not only beneficial but also very lucrative. Since our business has always operated entirely online, I am quite familiar with the difficulties associated with managing remote teams as well as the advantages associated with developing a culture that supports remote work.