All thanks to modern technology, the global work environment has taken a massive shift in the past few years. We are adopting these accelerating changes faster than ever now. Gone are the days where you had to work in the cubicles and report out of the head office. Remote work culture is the new trend. It has become popular to have your team members across the world on zoom call and talk about endless business opportunities. To be sure, you’d be surprised to know that many high profile companies have no office at all, making their entire workforce work remotely.
Let’s be honest; the pandemic is not expected to leave us anytime soon. This way, we still have the possibilities of going back to the lifestyle of conference calls and Work from Home. In fact, certain organizations HireIndependent Developers.com throughout the world to work on their projects which makes it real easy for them to focus on other essential aspects. And that is why we have decided to go with the trend and talk about Remote work culture here.
Building and managing remote teams within the organization is a challenging but rewarding practice. For many enterprises, it is a crucial solution to staffing problems while lowering overhead costs. For other businesses, it is a lifestyle that confederates with the company’s values. Either way, remote work has proved to be a promising way of sustaining one’s business.
5 Pillars of Strong Remote Work Culture
There is a notion that Remote work is associated with less structure when it comes to everyday operations. It is actually quite the opposite. With a remote team, it’s important for distributed teams to be extremely clear on the roles and responsibilities of every team member. This structure is what ensures the success of the team over time.
A thriving remote work culture helps the team to :
- Maintain positive and healthy connections between the members.
- Reach mutual goals
- Focus on interpersonal growth
- Perform their best.
When the elements mentioned above are optimized, there is a guaranteed success in meeting project goals.
Here are the five essential factors that provide vital support to remote work culture.
Clear Expectations
Establishing clear expectations
When you establish transparent expectations with your team, it results in a harmonious work environment. It can be not easy since the structure of remote work may be less organic than that of a physical workplace. But then again, you can be extra careful to avoid any kind of misunderstandings.
Ensure that your expectations are not just limited to the set Key performance indicators (KPIs) or the outcome of the project. Expectations can revolve around quality standards, interpersonal communication, adaptivity and situational behaviour.
The expectations mentioned above should be made clear to candidates or employees during the interview and reiterated on their onboarding.
It can be an asset to do a regular follow up and check-in on your remote employees. This manages expectations, makes them feel values and eliminates the possibility of miscommunication.
Open Communication
Communication is an essential component of a collaborative and inclusive environment. A transparent communication cultivates trust between employee and employer and helps in building positive relationships. It is best to provide a safe environment where they are allowed to make suggestions and share new ideas.
Your team members should never feel the need to silence themselves. Expressing opinions is that one factor where you get to understand your team members. Another excellent ingredient to good communication is feedback.
Make sure to balance between your negative and positive feedback and make it constructive. It has been shown that organizations and businesses that support and welcome open communication experience great productivity and establish better relationships with their employees.
Employee engagement
Employee engagement is the benefits plan that can help you in the long term. If your employees are engaged in their work, it exhibits they are loyal to their responsibilities and, in effect, will result in lower turnover rates.
On a similar note, when remote employees demonstrate involvement in an enthusiastic manner in meeting common goals for your business, this creates a culture of creativity, collaboration and professional growth.
Moreover, managers should also try to keep the remote employees in the loop, making them feel more included. This approach delegates to inclusive workplaces where every voice is heard. One more way to do this is through informal chats and team rituals.
Result Oriented
Before you find yourself stuck in the process of business operations, you must set a goal. A result-oriented approach gives birth to numerous positive outcomes. Some of them are listed below:
- Increased work-life balance for employers
- Increased organizational commitment and job satisfaction
- Reduced turnover
- Positive effect on employees’ energy level and productive skills.
With this approach, team leaders and managers find it easy to track efforts and measure progress in order to deliver a successful project.
Mutual Trust
Working with a remotely distributed team feels like a long-distance relationship. And that is why, above all, trust must be the foundation of your team’s collaboration—trust checklists several aspects of robust remote work culture.
Consider this example,
Employers must give their remote teams the freedom to organize themselves. Trust that they will deliver quality results on time. And employees can take this responsibility and work to create the best output they can. This way, both the parties will work together, creating a better workplace where everyone has confidence in each other’s work.
What are the advantages of Working Remotely?
You probably will not believe the endless benefits; remote work offers to both employers and employees. How about we talk about it one by one.
Advantages served to Employees.
The pros here usually revolve around having a lax schedule, ultimately resulting in a better work-life balance.
Time-saving
With no workspace, there is no work commute. Therefore, the time that employees save every day can be utilized for both personal and professional development.
Flexibility
Employees get the flexibility to organize their work duties however they wish. For instance, they may take a break at their sleepiest times and decide to work at their peak performance times.
Productivity
Remote work offers the most significant benefit of removing the office distraction, helping the employees maintain their focus on their tasks. This also assures that the time spent on the screen is utilized in a positive manner.
Self-organization
The remote work doesn’t leave any space for the supervision of the head team member or the manager. Since the employees are on their own, they get time to micromanage their chores.
Advantages for the Employers
For the employers, the benefits gained are more business-oriented. Employers need to check that all their business categories are running smoothly from employee satisfaction to financial management. Remote solid work culture is one way to do it.
Employee wellness
Statistics state that remote workers are more productive since they get to work in a comfortable environment. And happier employees mean better business all around.
Global access
Via remote work, employers get the opportunity to invite global talent to join the organization from any region of the world. One can find great additions in the team at an even more reasonable price.
Sustainability
Taking care of one’s environment is an important criterion towards the planet’s long term sustainability. Working remotely cuts down the traffic pollution, paper consumption, and food containers.
Now that we have seen how remote work culture works effectively for both the employee and the employer let us discover specific ways towards building a productive work culture.
Four steps for a productive Remote Work Culture
Productivity is a challenge for a remote work environment which is why it needs more attention. Many business managers believe in the notion that lack of supervision in remote teams will lead to project delays and poor organization.On the Contrary, according to a FlexJobs survey found that 66% of the participants were more productive outside the office.
However, productivity challenges still occur. So, here are few tips on how you can cultivate a structured work environment.
Set Priorities and Goals
Remote work asks for a high level of self-organization. Establish clear expectations to avoid any possible confusion related to deliverables.
To do this, communicate clearly about your team, with your team on your objectives on how and when they should be reached.
Set SMART goals. Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound goals. It is a reliable method of meeting objectives. This ensures everybody is on the same page.
Document standard Procedures
Standardize document standard procedures to save time and efforts on business operation. Research well and then plan out the functions you need to follow to make sure that all the document information is covered.
Apart from that, ensure that the documents explain well step-by-step how the task is supposed to be accomplished. These documents can even be modified whenever necessary.
In the long run, this can keep your team more productive.
Provide Regular Feedback
Feedback is the key to both the steady project development and the professional development team. It also helps the team members evaluate their work performances and adjust themselves accordingly.
Also, by providing regular feedback, you incorporate the habit of the software development process, helping in continuous development. Make sure the feedback is honest and not negative. Try your best to recognize the hard work that your employees have achieved by providing helpful suggestions.
Centralize Resources and Communication
The most important thing of all is ensuring that all the team members get easy access to all the communication tools and resources. There are certain web remote tools to where the team members can easily collaborate. You can use Google Docs, Zoom and Trello and other household names for those familiar with the remote work culture.
So now that we have discovered the endless benefits, how about throwing a quick glance at some of the companies that have grown by embracing remote work culture.
Successful Companies That Chose To Go Fully Remote
DuckDuckGo
DuckDuckGo is known to adapt search engines in order to prioritize privacy. The company has built a cutting edge online business with entire remote working teams. DuckDuckGo seems like a perfect example for remote work done right.
Zapier
Zapier works in the automation software market. As complicated as the name sounds, the company makes it work remarkably easy. Zapier takes remote Working seriously.
AdHoc
AdHoc is a remote-based software house that specializes in digital services for government agencies. They only find people who specialize in working remotely. With the remote work model, the company has established itself well.
Parting Thoughts
Looking at the pros of remote work culture, it is established that more and more companies will utilize the power of it. Therefore, if you want your business to be a part of the news trend, keep up with the remote work and save your resources in the process. Consider going remote, and build a new work structure.