Setting Your Employees, Teams and Managers Up for Success in a Remote-First Environment

Part two of a five-part series. To read the complete piece, download here.

CULTURE SETS THE CONTEXT

Organizational culture sets the tone and expectations for everyone. Working remotely requires working differently, which may mean adjusting for specific people and circumstances. In a positive remote-work culture, those adjustments will be interpreted — based on organizational values — as necessary actions to ensure that your remote team members feel integrated and set up for success. If working remote is new to your organization, it will take some mental shifts to embrace this new norm.

The most critical component for a remote employee to feel supported is trust. In this context, trust is believing in the competency and capability of all employees. They need to feel they have the trust and support of managers, leaders and colleagues to do their jobs well, even when others can’t physically see the employee sitting there doing a job. In building trust, managers are key to making sure their teams have the clear communication and direction they need to follow through as expected.

One action to take: To build trust, flex the muscle a bit. On your next team huddle, discuss a recent organizational judgment call that was made. For example, if you prioritized one program over another, talk your team members through the considerations for doing so. Help build the foundation of understanding; talk through the thinking, risks and trade-offs you made in that decision-making process. Having a casual conversation about the outcomes of a decision will demonstrate that you trust employees enough to talk candidly, and they’ll build a better understanding of how you approach problems.

Although trust is a key ingredient, leadership is also responsible for embracing remote employees and the value they bring across the organization. Only leaders can remove any stigma or negative associations with remote work and acknowledge the equal value that workers of all kinds contribute. Leaders must also think critically about the cultural norms they establish for communications across the organization.

Striving for consistent, open and honest communication can make remote employees feel engaged and add clarity. Specifically, think about how to loop remote teams back in after the quick, drive-by conversations that happen on-site have progressed the thinking or moved an initiative forward. As a leader, be sure to reinforce that communication with remote employees is just as high a priority as it is with their colleagues in the office.

Also, think about how to extend the spirit of those “spark” interactions between teams in the office — water cooler conversations, morning chats as you settle into the day — to your remote teams. Give teams permission to bring other natural touchpoints to life for their extended members. Whether it’s chitchat over Zoom calls or GIFs in Slack messages, these little touchpoints and interactions can be the heartbeat of your culture.

One action to take: Build in a touchpoint for teams to gather casually. For some teams, this could look like a morning kickoff to talk about topics that aren’t related to work. For other teams, a 4 p.m. Zoom call happy hour might be appropriate. In either instance, use this time to demonstrate the importance of remote employees as individuals. Provide space to let the team ground in some behavioral norms that build up your company culture.

Come back tomorrow to find out how to support remote-working employees. For the full set of resources, visit the overview page.

Author: Mariah Young, Marketing Strategist
When not off playing in the mountains, Mariah works as a marketing strategist for Ogilvy’s Employee Experience practice based in Denver, Colorado. She enjoys digging deep into the human psyche and analyzing market trends to make brands matter from the inside out, starting with the employees — the arbiters of a company’s vision and mission. When not deep in the weeds of research and strategy, she enjoys getting active, rock climbing, reading and live music.