Can You Build Brand Culture with a Hybrid-Remote Team?
The pandemic made working in the same office impossible unless you were an essential worker. Teams were forced to quickly adjust to online conferencing for all meetings, and most of us have been left with PPZF (post-pandemic Zoom fatigue). But as time went by, we did what humans do. We adapted.
Now that things are opening back up, many employees have adjusted to work-from-home life and don’t want to return to the office. Why? Because they’ve gotten a taste of freedom. Freedom of their time, their workspace, who they sit next to, what they wear while they’re working. No more forced conversations with coworkers they may not even like. No dress codes, or stale lunches packed in tupperware. They’ve had more time and capacity for self care now that they’re not commuting, and are reluctant to give up that newfound control - especially now that they realize their work can be done remotely. Many are taking this to extremes, willing to quit their jobs if they are forced to return to the office.
Managers are left to make a decision - risk losing team members or continue to allow them to work from home (part or full time). Productivity is a concern (though the research shows in most cases it remained stable or that some teams are actually more productive). Another key concern is team culture. How do you create the same level of communication, collaboration and camaraderie for a team when you’re not in the same space building it together?
WE POSED THIS QUESTION TO A NUMBER OF FOUNDERS AND CEO’S. (SCROLL DOWN FOR SOME OF THE RESPONSES WE GOT).
At Young & Co., we’ve always been a hybrid-remote team, with only team members local to our LA office meeting occasionally in person for strategy sessions. Our creatives are spread out across the country and lend their wonderfully unique perspectives to our repertoire of projects. The design of our structure was intentional to allow our team members to have freedom of when, where and how they wanted to work. Putting the onus on them to self-pace and meet deadlines has worked well too - our creatives always deliver their work on time and are appreciative of the flexibility our company offers for their life-work balance.
Not every company can function remotely, but if you’re a business that’s willing to try, we have some tips for cultivating culture with a virtual team:
You can’t build culture from toxicity.
Sorry but it needs to be said. If you already have a toxic workplace with a lack of trust between management and workers, you’re not likely to create a thriving culture online. Going virtual may exacerbate the problems too. Start by fixing the real issues first, then assess if remote work options hinder or help your people.
Know your values + ensure your team is onboard.
As we mentioned, building culture with a hybrid-remote team requires trust in your employees. It’s also imperative that the company values are explicitly clear and that your team is fully onboard with them. These are just good brand culture practices but it’s surprising how few companies get this part right. To really drive home the values into the heart of your team, try leading with a story to demonstrate the importance of one single company core value at your next all-hands virtual meeting. Make the story something inspirational and meaningful to you, your team and the company. It has a much better chance at sticking in their minds than just reading your values off like a laundry list ever will. Repeat this action weekly.
Keep the dialogue open.
Since team members won’t naturally have the ability to knock on your door when they have questions, meet new coworkers or discuss weekend plans around the company kitchen, you’ll need to create time and space to encourage this behavior. In all honesty, this is something we’re constantly trying to be better at (with team members in different time zones, this can be tricky). We recommend setting daily standups (quick, status-report style sessions with your individual teams), weekly virtual happy hours on Zoom, or perhaps starting a ‘water-cooler’ Slack channel for non work-related banter.
Rethink what an ‘office’ means.
We recently stumbled upon a virtual office tool called Teemyco, currently in beta, which allows you to create an online workspace with multiple rooms where individuals can join, see each others profiles, invite people to chat, etc. You can host multiple conference calls at once, close meeting rooms for private conversations, go into the lounge to let team members know you’re free for casual talk time, and even brand the interface! (We are not affiliated with Teemyco, just sharing a cool resource.)
MORE FROM OUR COMMUNITY ON MANAGING BRAND CULTURE REMOTELY:
“Building lasting culture on a virtual team is all about repetition. Since you don’t have a physical space to hold reminders, you need to essentially “relaunch” the team every 6-8 weeks. At Pareto, we have an all hands meeting every month to review our team’s guiding mission, values, and principles. This helps everyone stay on the same page.”
- Phoebe Yao, Founder Pareto
"In the gaming industry, we have the benefit of establishing culture through playing actual games together. Since there are a variety of games - fighting, sports, adventure, we're able to keep a brand culture that's inclusive of these various game themes and genres combined with the partners we invite to play with us!"
- Jonathan Horowitz, Co-founder of Kouch
“During this post-pandemic remote hybrid work environment, I've been able to manage about 30 people internationally. Weekly Zoom meetings, daily Slack communication, and the ability to add more people to our team virtually, has allowed us to be able to become even more diverse, re-evaluate our previous culture, and co-create an even stronger brand culture through redefining our story, creating spaces where vulnerability and flexibility are paramount, and being able to sit back and listen to people, so that I can effectively create a work environment that allows each of us to feel important, and to collaborate to build better experiences and better products.”
- Lisa Mae Brunson, Founder and Chief Visionary at Wonder Women Tech