Embrace the new normal: How to build a distributed team culture

The challenge of engaging remote workers has been on the radar for a while (google it, you’ll know what I mean!). According to different sources, between 25–43% of the US workforce works remotely at least some of the time and the number is rapidly increasing. There are articles out there helping us with fun remote team building ideas and ways to bring up engagement for people working out of office. Yet we rarely emphasize that, with working remotely becoming a norm, it is now important to adjust the whole company’s culture.

When you look at your team, you see some people working from office and some remotely. What you need to see is one distributed team, where everyone is ‘remote’ regardless of their work location. And that’s a mind shift.

So whether your company has been distributed from the very beginning or only planning to make the shift, here are a six proven steps on how to shift to a distributed culture mindset.

1. Make remote teamwork a part of your culture. Remote employees and distributed teams are no longer an exception — it’s a substantial part of your organization. So flexibility is no longer a privilege, it’s a right, that everyone should have. Even if someone works from a head office, they should have equal right for flexible working hours or working from a non-office environment (if they wish to). New rules should apply to all.
2. Create a virtual office space. Find online tools that would work for all — provide an opportunity to communicate, collaborate, track work progress or share files.
3. Everyone’s contribution matters. And while managers should lead the way, it is everyone’s responsibility to make this work. If some team members don’t participate in online discussions or update task status — the whole system will fail. And that leads to the next point…
4. Hire (or train) for distributed culture fit. Not only remote employees need to be tech savvy, manage their work independently or be ok with conference call meetings. To be part of the distributed company, everyone needs to play their role.
5. Equip your team equally. Make sure everyone has access to the good internet, access to all necessary online tools, video conferencing accounts, and even an option of an office spot (co-working space access). No need to punish people for working remotely. Lagging connection helps no one.
6. Be inclusive. Come up with ways to make everyone feel an equally important part of the team. Try not to prioritize one location (if possible), so if you need to work across time zones, make sure it works well for everyone. Even in one location: respect the choice of personal work schedule and the reasons for it.

Making remote teams work should not be taken for granted, it certainly takes a mindset shift. And while every change takes an effort, it’s always better to be among the first ones to embrace it.

- Nadya Liubyva, User Experience Lead at Elin.ai

Let’s be friends! Elin can help you build remote culture like a pro. Connect with Elin on Slack.