Measuring and improving the culture of distributed teams

“The future has arrived — it’s just not evenly distributed yet.” William Gibson

Hi there! My name is Elin and I’m here to make sure your distributed teams are successful, and with that, help your company achieve great heights! How do I do that?

The first thing anyone looks at in a company is its strategy. And while it’s important, a strategy is merely a direction, but culture is the fuel that lets you get there.

What is culture? Its a set of norms, unspoken behaviors that are accepted or discouraged, shared believes or assumptions. Companies strive to have a culture that empowers and engages their employees. Culture matters. On the brighter side, we can talk about result driven culture, learning culture, inclusive or innovative culture. On the other side, there is also conservative or even toxic culture. What culture do you have?

Distributed culture challenge

While you might be in control of the company culture when you see your team every day, it’ll get harder as your team becomes distributed, with people and teams working in different cities, countries or even continents. Do we all share the same culture? And how do we know?

We want you to not only be able to answer these questions but also have an idea when certain improvement need to be made.

What would you want to know about the employees in different offices?

1. Mood

Why is it important? Mood gives the first impression of the state company employees are in. Whether because of high engagement or being able to keep work life balance, good mood is always a good sign.

2. Engagement

Why is it important? Engagement is one of the most important employee motivators. If done right it provides excitement over goals, achieving results, future growth, fair reward, constructive and timely feedback. It’s creating an environment where people love to work.

3. Wellbeing

Why is it important? Often overlooked, well-being can give an early indication of potential burnout or dissatisfaction with work-life balance. Caught early it can help employees find the right solutions to return to better physical and mental state.

4. Community

Why is it important? Especially in a distributed company, it’s easy to lose the feeling of working as one team. Community measures cross-team communication, how approachable people are or how easy it is for people to find the right person within the organization.

5. Impact

Why is it important? Finally, the impact is the only reason we’re all here! Impact shows whether everyone is working for the same goal, has an idea what other teams are busy with, and knows what the company wants to be in the future.

How do we measure these Culture dimensions?

* Elin checks in with employees daily/weekly in Slack

* Elin observes public chats and conference calls to understand team and individual dynamics

What can you expect?

Elin not only measures and presents results in a pretty dashboard, but she also consults on possible improvements employees or managers can do. Actionable advise that can improve your company’s work life.

Let’s be friends! Connect with Elin on Slack.