Building a Remote Team Culture

• Benefits of Working from Home:

• Remote Work Disadvantages & Challenges:

• Developing a Remote Work Policy:

• Hiring and Onboarding

• How to Hire Remote Employees

• Virtual Onboarding for Remote Employees:

• Managing Remote Teams

• How to Manage Remote Workers & Virtual Teams

• Building a Positive Remote Work Culture

• 10 Tips to Build a Positive Remote Working Culture:

• Why is Remote Work Culture So Important?

• Rememo: Simplify Your Team's Collaboration

• Effective Communication and Collaboration

• Managing Remote Meetings:

• Health and Wellbeing

• Avoiding Stress & Burnout:

• Tips for How to Work From Home:

• Setting Up a Home Office:

• Future Trends

• Integrations and Features:

• What is the Future of Remote Work?

• Approach to Salary and Benefits for Remote Employees

• Fair Compensation Strategies:

• Benefits and Perks:

• Conclusion and recap

Remote work can be defined as a working situation that is characterized by the fact that the employee is not in their office environment doing their work. This can also mean working remotely, in one’s home, at a coffee shop or any other place of their choosing and not a place provided by their employer. Remote work is an umbrella term that mostly defines a specific range of jobs that can be performed from a distance, including completely remote work and jobs that involve both remote and on-site work.

The major factor that has made it possible for employees to be hired for remote work is the technological growth in the communication and collaboration tools. Such improvements have allowed collaboration across the teams even if the teams are in different geographical locations. The covid19 has also facilitated remote working since many organizations have had to adopt it especially in the face of the deadly virus.

Benefits of Working from Home:

• Increased Productivity: Researchers have established that workers who are located in other stations are likely to perform more that those who are in fixed offices.

For example, a 2020 survey conducted by Airtasker also reveal that remote employees work 1. That is four more days per month or Finland at least 40 additional days on business than in-office workers, equating to more than three additional weeks of work per year.

• Work-Life Balance: Working from home can be beneficial for the employee since working outside of the office can help the employee have control over his/her working time and personal time. In the 2020 Owl Labs survey, 80% of people said that working remotely made their quality of life better by enhancing work-life balance.

• Access to a Global Talent Pool: Working remotely means that companies can work with professionals from different parts of the world, irrespective of geographical location, therefore affording the organisation a pool of diverse and talented employees. GitLab being a fully remote company with employee strength of over 1300 people to more than 65 countries demonstrates how remote work can provide level playing field for hiring talent.

Remote Work Disadvantages & Challenges:

• Communication Barriers: One disadvantage of remote communication is known as the lack of face-to-face communication; this is because there are no prospects for cues and feedback. A Buffer’s remote work survey conducted in 2021 revealed that communication and collaboration issues were among the biggest remote employees’ struggles.

• Managing Remote Teams: It is a must to understand that supervising remote workers is different as compared to supervising workers who are based in offices. There is always a sense of interdependence between employees and their superiors thus managers must learn to delegate duties, define expectations and offer performance feedback. A published article by Harvard Business Review in 2020 revealed that 40 percent of the supervisors and managers had low self-efficacy when it came to managing remote team.

• Isolation and Burnout: Some of the disadvantages of remote work include; professionals may feel lonely or burnt out since to them, their work is like being at home. A survey conducted in May this year by the job search website Indeed also revealed that respondents said Burnout level is 52% of current remote workers and 38% of the new regular shift hours than pre Covid-19.

Developing a Remote Work Policy:

Creating a remote work policy is a positive step towards the need to ensure that expectations are well understood in any organization with a remote team. Here are the steps to create an effective remote work policy:

• Step 1: Some of the policies and practices that should be addressed should include the following; eligibility to work, working hours, communication and information management, data security and performance appraisal.

• Step 2: Communicate expectations for your remote workers. List out all the specifics of the roles as well as the deliverables pertaining to them, and indicate how and when the specific roles shall be communicating.

• Step 3: Legal and compliance aspects need to be taken into consideration when developing a remote work policy. Make sure the policy you write follows the local laws related to employment, data protection laws such as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and the rules governing compliance for your respective field.

• Step 4: Consult with your HR and legal departments over your remote work policy and make the necessary improvements. It can help them offer valuable recommendations and make sure that your policy address all necessary legal aspects.

• Step 5: Make sure that your employees are aware of your remote work policy; if necessary, conduct training for your staff. Make sure that all the employees are clearly informed of the policy and make sure that you give them a chance to express their opinions or even ask questions.

• Step 6: Ensure from time to time you revised and checked the efficiency of your remote working policy based on the change of your team and the business needs. Always discuss with your team and be informed of their experiences so as to make the necessary changes.

If you do undertake the following steps and take time to go through each of the main points outlined above about policy components and expectations and requirements necessary to adhere to the law, you will be able to develop a remote work policy plan that will assist in the success of your remote work team.

Hiring and Onboarding

How to Hire Remote Employees

Identifying the Right Candidates: When recruiting people to work from home it is important that the people they hire are effective communicators, have the capacity to work on their own and without supervision.

According to a 2021 study by CoSo Cloud, 30% of remote workers reported that the most important trait for successful remote work is self-discipline.

Conducting Remote Interviews: It is possible to do interviews remotely through Zoom or Skype among other video conferencing platforms. To facilitate an interviewing process, explain what is expected from the candidate and conduct a technology run through.

A 2020 Gartner survey found that 86% of organizations conducted virtual interviews to hire candidates during the pandemic.

Onboarding Best Practices: The process of onboarding is particularly critical so that the employees joining the organization remotely can perform optimally. These include offering a welcome kit also known as orientation, having a buddy or a role model as well as outlining objectives and goals.

A 2020 study by Bamboo HR revealed that organizations with a strong onboarding process improved new hire retention by 82%.

Virtual Onboarding for Remote Employees:

Creating an Engaging Onboarding Experience:  To achieve an effective virtual onboarding, the following are important features of the onboarding process: It should comprise of live video number of times Tutorial and number of times Self-paced learning modules.

According to a 2020 study by the Brandon Hall Group, organizations with a strong onboarding process improved new hire productivity by over 70%.

Tools and Resources: Equip remote employees with the peculiar tools and materials to enable them perform their functions effectively, for instance, remote communication and collaboration tools, project management apps, and virtual learning realia.

A 2021 survey by Finances Online found that 43% of remote workers cited poor technology as their biggest challenge.

Building Early Connections: Introduce new workers to the other people on the team and foster their relationships with them through team bonding sessions, daily check-ins and informal interactions. A 2020 Buffer report shows that 20% of remote employees suffered from loneliness therefore; team members must be welcomed from the onset.

Managing Remote Teams

How to Manage Remote Workers & Virtual Teams

Communication Strategies: One of the conditions necessary to manage remote teams – communication. Set rules concerning communication concerning which channels to use, how often to communicate and what is expected of you. Also, let the people have the face-to-face communication conduct video-conference; thereby suggesting a daily or weekly standard check up to ensure all are on course.

Performance Management: Supervising the performance of people who work from home means changing the focus from monitoring employees’ activities to assessing their contribution to organizational outcomes. Wherever applicable, the course of action should be laid down with clearly defined targets and objectives, and the effectiveness of the measures adopted should be periodically reviewed against established parameters. Continue to give feedback and reward your remote employees so that they stay focused and determined.

Building Trust and Accountability: Building trust is crucial and so is the ability of managing accountability when working in remote teams. Enhance the organization’s transparency and ensure the improvements of communication channels. Provide expectations about when and how much work is expected to be done, and when and what is required to be completed, and let you team own the work they do. When people work intimately together, one-on-one consistent check-ins afford a chance to allow for more trust, as well as instructional and advisement.

Table 1. Apps and software that can be helpful for managing remote teams:

Building a Positive Remote Work Culture

Building a Positive Remote Working Culture: remote working culture is beneficial for the employees’ morale and efficiency. In order to create the positive remote culture, one has to state its values, mission and expectations clearly. Another consideration is that it is also crucial to update the remote work policies from time to time to make them current and relevant.

10 Tips to Build a Positive Remote Working Culture:

• Clear Communication: Establish rules and regulations on how communication is to be handled, the number of times to be done and what is expected out of it.

• Regular Feedback: Ensure that one offers praise and constructive criticism so as to ensure that the employees are always motivated and on the right path.

• Encouraging Social Interactions: Encourage everyone on the team to join online social events so that they feel connected to colleagues.

• Emphasize Work-Life Balance: Develop a culture of proper separation between the work schedules and personal lives and emphasize on flexibility.

• Celebrate Successes: Reward and motivate your team and its individual members in order to increase morale.

• Foster a Culture of Trust: Ensure that organizational transparency, accountability and advocacy for open communication channels.

• Provide Necessary Resources: Ensure access to tools, resources, and support for effective remote work.

• Encourage Professional Development: Provide educational opportunities for development through web-based tutorials or seminars.

• Prioritize Mental Health: Offer health of staffs with the help of facilities such as EAP or stress relief sessions.

• Lead by Example: Lead by example, meaning ensure that good communication is enhanced, respect employees, being committed to creating a positive remote work culture.

Why is Remote Work Culture So Important?

Another benefit of having a solid remote work culture relates to the engagement and, or motivation of employees. It helps in maintaining the stability and effectiveness of remote teams in the long run since all the members feel valued and are motivated to work within the groups.

Rememo: Simplify Your Team's Collaboration

Rememo is a SAAS based project management and collaborative work platform to manage projects and help the teams to succeed.

The platform integrates features of the Kanban boards for the visualization of tasks as well as the use of an integrated chat. This does away with having to use various tools and it also makes a way of ensuring that all the information to be included is kept in the right context.

Key features of Rememo include:

• Kanban boards for organizing and prioritizing tasks

• Built-in chat for discussing projects and making decisions

• Chat tabs for structuring conversations by topic

• Task assignment, deadlines, and progress tracking

• Time tracking for monitoring productivity

• Comments and status updates for transparent communication

• File uploads and data management

• Custom filters and task grouping

• Keyboard shortcuts for increased efficiency

• Advanced security features, including data encryption

Rememo scales to the needs of your team and can be used to address various projects and work flows. The system makes it easy to work with enlisting the most suitable tools for each team member to bring out the best in them.

In that sense, Rememo enhances productivity, increases accountability and fosters better coordination, all in one communication platform that enables successful project completion.

Effective Communication and Collaboration

Managing Remote Meetings:

What clearly emerges in the organization of remote meetings is that some specific goals and time frames need to be set when working in a team. Select a time that is flexible enough to suit different time zones and personal working schedules in order to increase attendance to the meeting.

To improve engagement during the meeting assign roles, engage the interactive tools like polls and break out sessions and create an environment where everyone wants to contribute.

Following the said meeting, paraphrase the main points discussed, the decisions taken and the action points and circulate notes to the members. Make tasks and their completion dates specific to get follow-ups and progress without fail.

Get your business use out of free tools like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or Slack for videoconferencing and instant messaging, and explore applications like Kahoot! or Jackbox Games for those case interactive affairs with the main emphasis on collaboration and people’s friendly relations.

Health and Wellbeing

Avoiding Stress & Burnout:

It is therefore imperative that one identifies the signs of burnout as a way of ensuring that everyone working remotely is healthy. Some of the symptoms are always tiredness, reduced efficiency and sluggishness.

For instance, if a remote employee who was previously active and enthusiastic in his work begins to frequently delay his deliverables or report fatigue, he or she might be experiencing burnout.

To help the remote employees, the managers should daily remind their subordinates, make sure they inform them about their working load and stress level, and make sure they have access to professional psychological help or guided meditations like Headspace or Calm, subscriptions to which should be paid by the company.

Ensuring work-life balance is also important and possible to do through exact separation of working time and free time, short rest period and opportunities to exercise flexible working hours where possible.

Tips for How to Work From Home:

• Time Management: Remote employees should be asked to plan the day, know what tasks are critical and employ time tracking such as Toggl or RescueTime to debug productivity.

• Creating a Productive Workspace: The members of the virtual team must adapt a proper ergonomic and comfortable work environment at home and avoid any kind of interference between the working time and the free time. For example, they can put up partitions such as a curtain to separate working from living area.

• Balancing Work and Personal Life: Encourage behaviors that are good for the physical well being of remote employees such as having time off from desk work, setting working hours and pursuing other interests outside work.

Setting Up a Home Office:

Remote workers require a well-equipped home office so that they do not feel as though they have lost their professional bearings. Some of the prerequisites that might be required are a dependable computer, fast internet connection, good chair and table.

For instance, a remote graphic designer needs the best performing computer with a spacious monitor whereas a remote writer needs the best keyboard and quality chair. Remote employees should also be advised on which ergonomic tips to use to avoid straining themselves these include posture, chair, and computer screen height.

It’s also pertinent to uphold professionalism for times like video conferences or clients’ meetings and so.on Remote workers should be motivated to ensure that their working environment is clean, tidy and free from interferences and that they dress appropriately to conduct work related interactions. For example, a worker who is a remote sales representative requires professional-human interface for a video conference call with the prospective customers.

Future Trends

Integrations and Features:

While there is a multitude of applications designed for remote collaboration, most of them have integrations from third-party applications – for instance, Slack and Google Drive or Asana and Zoom integration. Two good things to look for are the ability to collaborate in real-time and the automation of specific tasks for the workspace.

What is the Future of Remote Work?

• Emerging Trends: Remote work is expected to continue but not as the complete gag system where people work from home every day of the week. They are also using VR and AR techs to improve on interaction of employees and develop the virtual work environment for their organizations.

• Predictions and Speculations: Specialists believe that traditional work from home will remain an option for many companies, with many of them adopting performance-based models. It may also lead to the focus on talent and the employing of the best candidate regardless of the working from home or outside their proximity. Nevertheless, the problems like cybersecurity, digital divide, and lack of social touch will have to be solved as more and more organizations adopt remote work.

Approach to Salary and Benefits for Remote Employees

Fair Compensation Strategies:

• Base salaries on the role and qualifications, not location, to ensure fair compensation for all team members.

• Consider offering location-based stipends for expenses such as home office setup or internet costs.

• Regularly review and adjust salaries based on market rates and individual performance.

Benefits and Perks:

• Include medical, vision and dental insurance, pension plansías well as paid vacations and sick days.

• Ensure that the employers offer employee-specific initiatives like work from home allowance, coworking spaces or trainings.

• They were more likely to suggest flexible working hours, and self-organized work or unlimited vacations.

• Hold online events and campaigns related to the promotion of mental health, for example, the organization of lectures or a mindfulness session.

When working with a remote team, make sure you share your compensation and benefits plans effectively and equally to all workers. Collect feedback at least weekly and modify the work in accordance with your team’s requirements to ensure the positive remote work.

Conclusion and recap

• Encourage the exchange of information through both modalities and current synchronous and asynchronous tools.

• Every individual should know their role, objectives, and roles to be accomplished at the workplace.

• Be sure to check-in with employees or ask for feedback and appreciation frequently so that remote employees are motivated the entire day.

• Take care of deadlines and focus on working conditions and mental health of all your remote workers.

• Always schedule virtual team-building activities and promote casual interaction time so that the team can foster good relationships.

• Ensure that the appropriate resources, equipment and backing are available to foster for telecommuters to achieve their responsibilities.

• Set the tone from the top to be trustworthy, delegate and empower your employees and promote personal responsibility.

Hence, developing strong remote team culture takes time, consideration, and dedication to meet your team’s needs. When choosing the approaches described in this guide, one is fostering a healthy and effective remote workplace for the employees and the organization.

However it is noteworthy to remind that establishing or strengthening great remote culture is a long-term effort based on constant review and adjustment. Seek input from the team members, evaluate the progress of the implemented activities and the readiness to modify activities that were previously on schedule or completely ineffective.

Building your remote team culture is not only beneficial to your employees, in terms of increasing employee morale and reducing turnover, but is also good for the future success of your organisation as the move towards remote work becomes a more prevalent and staple part of business. When you ensure that your remote employees are well taken care of and provided with the necessary tools for growth, you are able to foster a strong community of workers that are not easily discouraged by challenges that may come in the course of their work.