Remote work any-location hiring have combined to make business teams stronger than ever. It is now possible for companies to effectively hire the best people for the job. Whether they are located inside the country, across a single border, or across the world. Each professional in your remote team brings something unique to the table, with their skills and perspectives that enhance the total capabilities of your team. However, one of the biggest challenges is maintaining a strong employee culture in remote teams.
How can you unify such a diverse crowd into a single, cohesive unit that shares routines and values even if they do not share time zones or root languages? Fortunately, with the right mindset and a little technological assistance, this task is easier than it sounds. Good people will come together to share a positive employee culture if you give them the foundation and structure to work together.
Bring Everyone Together for Video Meetings at Routine Times
Video meetings have become an essential part of bringing remote teams together. Distance means so much less when everyone can share a cup of coffee and catch up on recent events. Teams have the opportunity to build rapport, coordinate efforts, and even grow friendships in these shared meetings. This is why many remote team leaders schedule at least one weekly meeting where everyone can attend.
Of course, mutual scheduling can be especially challenging with an international team. You will need to work with everyone to find the perfect hour in which everyone can attend a shared session. You can also schedule two meetings a week at different times, if necessary. Once or twice a week, this meeting will help to create team cohesion. It will also become the forum for your shared employee culture in remote teams.
Welcome New Remote Team Members Together, as a Team
A big part of growing and maintaining an employee culture in remote teams is to lay the seeds immediately for new hires. A new hire must see the shared work culture values in how they are welcomed and the way the team works together as they arrive. New members should be greeted by the whole team and welcomed into the shared employee culture.
Make them the guest of honor at your next weekly meeting. Before that, invite everyone to reach out via asynchronous messaging to say “welcome” and share a few pointers. Bringing new employees into the fold in this way makes them feel welcomed. It also shows that, in your team, a shared work culture overcomes being from different countries.
Create a Rhythm of Synchronized and Asynchronous Communication
Communication is key when your remote team is from all over the world. You likely will have people from different time zones working hard to stay coordinated. One of the best things leadership can do to build a strong employee culture in remote teams is to introduce a rhythm of both synchronized and unsynchronized communication.
Synchronized communication is real-time – video meetings and live chats where employees can answer each other’s questions immediately. Asynchronous communication is email and slow chat. The messages are left for one another and answered based on each person’s schedule and shift. Once your team gets good at knowing how and when to use both types of communication, you will achieve optimum workflow and camaraderie in the way your team collaborates.
Loop In Your Nigh-Shift/Time Zone People
In any remote or international team, there will likely be at least two shifts. The “day shift” and the “night shift”, are according to the company’s home country and time zone. The “day shift” consists of onshore and nearshore employees who are online during the company’s normal business hours. However, night owls in near time zones will form a natural alliance with your team members working remotely in different countries to form the “night shift”.
Formalize the night shift and make it official. Encourage this alliance with flexible scheduling and communication styles that empower all your people who work on the opposite side of the clock. Night owls make your global hires feel more included. Global team members, on the other hand, validate night owls during their best working times. Together, they can double your team’s active hours of daily work, taking care of things the day shift did not finish and welcoming the day shift with overnight progress.
Share Enjoyable Team-Building Activities
In addition to building a culture of collaboration, take some time to plan a few enjoyable team-building activities. One of the things that builds a shared employee culture in remote teams is shared happy memories. After a big team success, send everyone the same gift, arranging for them to arrive at about the same time all around the world. Then, invite everyone to show them off – whether it’s coffee mugs, team sweaters, gourmet snacks, or desk gadgets. Every time one of these items appears in a video meeting, it will subtly bring the team closer together, as if they shared an office with matching mugs and shirts.
Plan remote team-building exercises like games to play or guided discussions during team meetings. Set up fun polls on the remote dashboard that everybody shares. (You can even do this with a kanban board.) Creating shared experiences is a great way to build up a shared employee culture in remote teams.
Take Actions That Uphold Your Employee Culture Values
You can also make plans that help to reinforce your stated cultural values. If the team came together under a banner of charitable works, find opportunities to get involved with charities around the world that match your values, whether it’s pooled donations or small side projects that will benefit disadvantaged groups. If you share a passion for ecological conservation, track weather changes together, adopt a patch of rainforest, and grow desk plants together.
Stated values are not just words, and the younger workforce is particularly passionate about making a difference. These shared experiences are a great way to bring everyone together over shared values.
Encourage Mentorship and Creative Collaboration
Mentorship is a valuable asset in any team, but especially in a far-flung remote team built all across the world. Mentorship gives each person at least one coworker they can always go to for guidance and support. It helps new team members adapt faster to the challenges and rewards of a remote team and encourages existing employees to invest in team-building as each takes their turn to become a mentor when remote hiring brings in a new person.
Adding International Remote Team Members With BrightR
Hybrid and remote teams provide flexibility for your company, including the ability to expand your scope of hiring. If you want access to the international talent pool, working with EORs like BrightR is the best way to quickly dive into remote recruiting. BrightR is an Employer of Record based in Canada, unlocking your access to Canadian talent as part of your remote teams. Contact us today to learn more.
