Of course, given a choice, many people are more than happy to work from home. If this includes never setting foot in an office, they’re fine with that. If it means never meeting their co-workers in the flesh, they’ll survive. At least at first blush, the ability for many of us to work wherever we want is irresistible. After so many years of working in a central hub – and all that time-wasting commuting to and from it – the vibe coming from the remote workers of the world, freed from their shackles, might as well be the new Age of Aquarius.
Except… maybe having everyone one work together in a central location was decided on early because it promoted collaboration, of the live-wire kind that happens when co-workers become co-thinkers, fusing into powerful work teams. Or maybe it’s about when co-workers become friends who have faced down problems together, and solidify those cultural values of unity and dependability that all companies hope to evidence. If an element of lived-in culture has gone missing from relatively newly remote workforces or those who have never met, we’ve got some great advice from these companies that have figured out great ways to assist their remote workers in soaking up and generating the culture they would otherwise be getting in-office.
How does your company keep remote workers aligned with the company culture?
Great question. We know that every company has a culture, whether they like it or not. More often than not, we create it from the bottom up—not the other way around. Good leaders listen and amplify what’s working and what resonates with people. Discussion and dialogue create a company culture. Collaboration creates culture.
With that in mind, here’s what we’ve been doing at Wish:
Have variable all-hands meetings – We hold company-wide meetings every other week. We change the time to accommodate different employees around the world. No one should feel like they’re not important enough to interact live with the CEO and executive team—even if that means the executive team is at work until 8 PM.Conduct AMAs as frequently as possible. Our bi-weekly company-wide meetings leave at least 30 minutes for questions. People can ask in person, online, or anonymously. No question is a bad question. The Q&A portion is a chance for employees to learn about our leaders, other teams, and the company.
Measure employee NPS – We ask employees if they would recommend Wish as a place to work each month. We report our employee NPS scores and share feedback with everyone. Based on that feedback, leaders meet with their teams and present their plans to improve.
Keep open office hours – We have open office hours when something important happens (product announcements, big campaigns, open enrollment, employee reviews, policy changes). They’re online meetings that anyone can join and ask questions. Sometimes we get hundreds of people in an open office session, and sometimes we get five. Either way, it helps employees stay connected and informed, and it helps leadership know what’s important to our employees.
Meet employees where they are – As much as we want to dictate where employees go for connection and information (it’s less work for us), we meet our employees where they are. We use meetings, Slack, and email to communicate. We don’t demand they use one tool or visit a website to figure out what’s happening. Most of our employees end up using the same method to get answers, but they got there on their own.
Ditch corporate posturing – Speak and write like a human, not an HBR article. We try to keep things short and under a 6th-grade reading level. We encourage people to be themselves, not the manager or corporate version of themselves.
Tell more employee stories – This is a new project for us. We share employee stories pubically, but we believe that consistently telling authentic stories will humanize leadership and sincerely connect employees who would otherwise never have met each other. It makes collaboration easier. “Oh yeah. I know you. You’re the woman from Idaho who collects old-school lunchboxes. That’s rad. This is going to be a fun project to work on together.”
What are some of the challenges remote workers face now that there’s less time for office-bred culture and team bonding?
Our two biggest challenges? Tribalism and navel-gazing. Our employees at Wish love the people on their team. They create their mini-cultures. They support each other and defend each other. They get excited about the same things, and they get frustrated with the same things. Sometimes, what they want conflicts with another team’s priorities or goals. Sometimes what they want conflicts with company goals.
That can be hard to handle when we don’t interact with a lot of people outside our team. If the only opinions we hear are coming from the six people we work with day in and day out, we might make the assumption that our way is the only way. But when we meet a lot of other employees in the office or at an event, we’re reminded that we’re part of a bigger team. This doesn’t quite work over video. If 500 people are in a meeting, we only see a handful of them on the screen at one time.
In the end, we don’t know who we don’t know. And that can be bad for business. Diversity breeds innovation. We’re building a product for humans all over the world. We need different experiences, ideas, and opinions to make something that works for everyone. It can be easy to forget that we’ve got a thousand creative and intelligent people at Wish. An engineer could come up with the best marketing campaign of the year. A marketeer might teach an engineer how to collaborate with executives.When we’re all remote, that’s not easy. We must consistently create ways for employees to understand and connect with each other.
Check Out Wish’s Careers Page Here!
How does your company keep remote workers aligned with the company culture?
At Octane, our culture centers on open communication, flexibility, and inclusion, and we believe that we can best support the needs of a diverse workforce by offering remote or hybrid work opportunities for all of our employees. In a remote or hybrid work environment, it is important to be more intentional about creating opportunities for employees to connect with each other and with the company’s culture, which is why we celebrate our people on and offline through things like our Gift of the Month program, celebrating affinity months in collaboration with our Employee Resource Groups, and offering flexible work schedules. In addition to using tools like Slack and Zoom to stay aligned through virtual happy hours, by sharing wins, and having open conversations, we get together in person for meetings and company retreats several times a year to collaborate and build stronger relationships, and our company meets monthly during our all-hands check in, where our CEO and other leaders answer questions and candidly discuss company goals, progress, and opportunities. Plus, many of our managers work remotely, so they understand the needs of remote workers and are equipped to support and help employees thrive in a remote environment.
What are some of the challenges remote workers face now that there’s less time for office-bred culture and team bonding?
There are many ways to support remote-first employees. Prioritizing inclusion and clear communication and adapting to respond to employee feedback are key to building a company culture that supports all employees, whether they work in-person, remotely, or a combination. We help our employees unplug at the end of the day and maintain work-life balance with policies that promote flexibility, like generous PTO, minimal meetings before 9 and after 5, education assistance, and a stipend for safety equipment so our people can get outdoors and do what they love. To enable employees to connect with the company and coworkers, Octane hosts virtual events and happy hours, encourages regular check-ins with managers, teams, and departments, and we bring our people together for meetings and company retreats a few times a year to build deeper, more meaningful relationships. Small things can make a big difference in ensuring that remote employees are cared for, so companies should adapt based on employee feedback and regularly assess how to best support all employees, whether remote, hybrid, or location-specific.
Check Out Octane’s Careers Page Here!
How does your company keep remote workers aligned with the company culture?
With a bold mission to Protect Life, Axon strives to achieve and maintain a human-first culture for employees. With nearly half of our 2022 hires being remote, we use virtual and in-person events to bring everyone together. Whenever possible, we have virtual options for in-person events so our global teams can participate in things like our regular Ask-Me-Anything (AMAs) with the leadership team, professional development and health and wellness series, and Axon-hosted conferences, like Accelerate. Our VR team also holds virtual game nights where employees put on headsets to play, just one way we inspire work while having fun.Axon encourages in-person events when it’s safe to do so, like work-from-work Wednesdays for those near Axon offices, team hikes in Scottsdale, and other company off-site day trips to celebrate team wins and foster relationships. We also offer company-sponsored Grand Canyon trips, ski days, Phoenix Mercury games, movie premiere screenings, and more to get to know one another on a more personal level.Axon’s six global Affinity Groups are core pathways for engaging our employees in our JEDI – Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion – efforts by discussing needs and crafting solutions for underserved communities while also fostering belonging and professional development for our team members.Whether remote or in-person, Axon works hard to provide fun team building, professional development and, entertainment opportunities to help employees feel more connected with one another, the company mission, and values.
What are some of the challenges remote workers face now that there’s less time for office-bred culture and team bonding?
Working from home didn’t just lead to a feeling of being less connected to the office or team; it increased chances for burnout. It wasn’t uncommon for employees who were not well versed in working from home to overwork. Axon combatted this by encouraging employees to get up and move during their work day and to set boundaries on their work hours. All Axon managers also conduct regular one-on-one meetings with their direct reports to keep two-way communication going.
Check Out Axon’s Careers Page Here!
How does your company keep remote workers aligned with the company culture?
Our team members bring our values and culture code to life with how they treat one another and work cross-functionally toward a common goal. At First Advantage, we’re proud to offer a flexible work environment where many of our team members work remotely around the globe. Communication is key to keeping our team members aligned. Our communications team ensures all 6400+ team members stay informed with the use of our Intranet and collaboration and corporate social networking tools.
What are some of the challenges remote workers face now that there’s less time for office-bred culture and team bonding?
Employees tend to become engaged when they feel recognized and heard. First Advantage conducts an annual Global Employee Engagement Survey. It’s an opportunity for team members to voice their thoughts anonymously. While that has been helpful as an organization, we wanted to take it a step further. In order to achieve genuine engagement and community in a virtual world, we needed to foster personal connections through open communication and teamwork. We have proudly launched four Employee Resource Groups. These groups representing minorities host virtual meetings, ‘ask me anything’ sessions, networking, and educational events. By creating a safe space, we see more and more employees opting to participate and connect.We recognize that everyone faces challenges relating to mental and physical health and wanted to offer benefits to support our employee’s journeys to health and wellness. By creating a free virtual library of meditation, breathwork, and workout classes, we are leaving employees feeling inspired and happy. From this platform, we have encouraged employees to build Microsoft teams groups as well as walking challenges. Through the creation of this program, more employees are engaged on our platform and with one another.
Check Out First Advantage’s Careers Page Here!
How does your company keep remote workers aligned with the company culture?
At nCino, culture is key to the success of our company. It is vital that we keep all employees, whether they choose an in-office, fully remote or hybrid work model, in tune with our culture. To keep folks aligned, nCino prioritizes open lines of communication through various channels, such as Slack, where employees can easily discuss work projects, as well as access many fun channels that connect them to coworkers with similar interests (#petlife, #ncino-foodies and #n-the-garden are a few favorites!). In addition, we empower our leadership teams to provide resources, tools and support to their teams and to foster unique opportunities for employee connection outside of the traditional office space through events like virtual socializing hours and panels hosted by our employee-led affinity groups. These strategies help ensure our employees enjoy the full nCino experience, no matter where or how they choose to work.
What are some of the challenges remote workers face now that there’s less time for office-bred culture and team bonding?
Working remotely with offices in different countries and time zones can create unique challenges for employees. Without the option for spontaneous conversations or “water cooler talk,” organic employee connection can be more difficult to accomplish. With some employees in office and others fully remote, it’s important to be creative with finding new ways to connect. Some of our teams’ favorite ways to connect are virtual game sessions, team group chats and opportunities for online socializing. We also prioritize regular one-on-one meetings with managers, in-person team volunteer days and a fun onboarding buddy program to help new folks form connections early in their nCino journey.
Check Out nCino’s Careers Page Here!
How does your company keep remote workers aligned with the company culture?
“The Way We Work”, our new hybrid working model based on trust and flexibility, supports a positive work-life balance, and allows our N-ablites to determine the most productive working style based on their roles, responsibilities and team needs. We launched “The Way We Work” across the globe, and it’s designed to embody our core values while keeping N-ablites engaged with each other, our culture and the work we’re doing to support our partners. It ensures each team member is supported and celebrated so that they’re able to live out our values of N-riching lives, N-spiring others and N-joying the journey along the way.
What are some of the challenges remote workers face now that there’s less time for office-bred culture and team bonding?
Some challenges that remote workers face now that there’s less time for in-person team bonding and interaction with the culture include truly feeling connected to the company and its values while feeling a sense of belonging at work. Along with our hybrid working model, “The Way We Work”, we’ve put an emphasis on promoting and supporting our global Communities of Interest which are our N-ablite-led, company-supported interest groups that foster inclusivity and belonging. Through our COIs, N-ablites can come together virtually and at our Collaboration Hubs to form a community and share experiences, stories, educational opportunities, and have open conversations to create connection and an inclusive environment for all.
Check Out N-able’s Careers Page Here!
How does your company keep remote workers aligned with the company culture?
At Calendly, we prioritize keeping our company culture alive in a remote-first environment, not only through providing meaningful work opportunities that make an impact but also through creating connections. Recently, we launched our Experience Boxes, which include unique Calendly swag, a special note from our CEO, and gift cards to keep the celebration going for our teammates and to continue their excitement around being on Team Calendly. These boxes are a way for us to celebrate team members who are new to Calendly, who have referred talent, who have received a new job within Calendly, and many more. We’re also creating connections and memories for our team members by having bi-annual in-person retreats for the entire company, with our first being in Atlanta this month, along with bi-quarterly in-person departmental meetings in locations all around the United States.
What are some of the challenges remote workers face now that there’s less time for office-bred culture and team bonding?
It can be hard to stay connected with one another in a remote-first environment. It’s important for companies to create and foster opportunities for their team members to feel connected.