Discover the 8 essential secrets to establishing a successful and thriving remote company. Learn how to prioritize productivity, foster collaboration, and create a supportive culture for your remote team. Embrace the future of work with these tips and tricks.
In selecting our significant life partner, we often rely on our gut instincts. Most people have preferences, deal-breakers, and desires. However, a common challenge in maintaining successful relationships is long-distance. Despite the saying that "distance is just a number", is it that simple?
Distance is extremely taxing and puts a strain on what otherwise could be a successful and happy relationship. But this article isn't about relationships, it's about a different topic - borderless and inclusive remote work for virtual team-building companies.
With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing lockdowns, quarantines, and self-isolation, many companies have been left to question if they are equipped for remote work, managing employees, projects, clients, and culture. However, the shift to remote work has proven successful for many businesses.
Take the fitness industry as an example, online workout classes have unexpectedly become popular. The fitness industry is expected to reach $79.87 billion by 2026. Additionally, over 70% of employees want to continue working remotely for the rest of their lives.
This shows that businesses can leverage technology to conduct various activities online, they just need to be willing to try. But how can they build a thriving remote company, provide the best remote jobs, create an online team, manage them, maintain a work culture, and know the steps to follow?
Why is Work Culture Significant?
Have you ever considered the common factor among companies like Google, Pinterest, Salesforce, and Instagram? They all cultivate a family-like atmosphere that makes employees feel valued and appreciated. For example, Google invests millions of dollars in creating a fun and inviting workspace with amenities such as hairdressers, wellness centers, and video game rooms. Salesforce, one of the world's largest software companies, also has the "Ohana" initiative to promote a supportive community. In today's competitive business world, company culture is crucial. A positive work environment can increase a business's chances of success by:
- Showing the company cares for its employees
- Retaining employees
- Improving customer satisfaction
- Boosting productivity
- Encouraging creativity and innovation
However, it’s not possible to create a strong work culture with a magic spell. It requires time, effort, and patience, but the rewards are worth it.
Remote work has become popular for those seeking relief from a stressful commute, demanding bosses, and distractions in the workplace. Despite its growing popularity, remote work also presents its challenges.
Increased Workload and Difficulty Unplugging
Maintaining a balance between work and personal life can be challenging for remote workers. Although flexible, remote work can come with unexpected distractions like surprise visitors, longer working hours, emergencies, children, pets, and more. This can make it difficult for remote workers to separate their professional and personal life.
Overall Lack of Communication
Lack of communication is often the biggest challenge for remote workers. Working from home can result in low-quality communication compared to in-person communication. This can be especially difficult when meetings are happening without you, leaving you feeling left out and left behind. A strong culture of inclusion for remote workers can mitigate these issues. Picktime offers solutions to improve communication, collaboration, and team sharing with 24/7 SMS & email reminders for appointment updates and integration with other business tools.
Lack of Employee Connection
Remote work can hinder the formation of a bond between employees who cannot socialize or have never met in person. Communication can lose its essence when interactions are delayed in replies.
Technology Hiccups
Internet outages, device issues, or both can cause fear for remote workers. Even with proper research, internet speed and stability are not guaranteed. Video conferencing apps may not always work well, even with a good internet connection. To ease the work, Picktime offers a solution with multiple location access, 24/7 availability, team & services management, and other exclusive features to handle any remote team or project.
How to Build a Thriving Remote Company
Remote work offers benefits such as flexibility, autonomy, and higher productivity, but it also presents challenges. To create a successful remote company culture, start by identifying the company's "why" - its vision, mission, and team development process. This helps align and unify the team's purpose.
Redefine Success for your remote company
In traditional business, success is often tied to stability and balance. However, these can be hard to attain for remote workers. To succeed in the gig economy, consider using Picktime - a user-friendly appointment scheduling software. Picktime offers features such as a customizable booking page, multiple-location access, 24/7 email support, easy integrations with business tools, appointment booking and invoice generation, analytic reports, and more. It has been rated highly by Capterra, Crozdesk, and G2. Sign up for free and start using it today.
Promoting Organizational Transparency
Transparency involves being open and honest about various operations. A transparent work culture shares information on performance, revenue, processes, pricing, and values. Remote work can make employees feel disconnected from leadership, but you can improve transparency by:
- Having regular stand-up calls
- Recording meetings and sharing notes
- Incorporating updated tools
- Providing opportunities for engagement
- Using visuals to interact and increase transparency
Setting Team Goals with Deadlines for Remote Success
Having clear team goals and deadlines is crucial for effective remote work processes. Virtual team-building companies should focus on adapting to the remote environment, improving communication, and setting specific goals with deadlines to stay on track. Setting goals can motivate and evaluate remote team performance.
Defining Vision & Mission of your Remote Company
Having a clear vision and mission is important for the success of any organization. The mission should be concise, while the vision can be more flexible. However, it's not just about having a statement. Incorporating vision and mission into company culture is especially important for remote workers who need the motivation to work from their home office daily. The vision should serve as a guide for employees to provide the best remote jobs possible.
Revamp Your Recruitment Approach
To effectively adapt to the shift towards remote work, companies must establish effective strategies for hiring and retaining skilled remote workers. Success in a remote business model relies heavily on securing top talent, so it's crucial to incorporate considerations for remote work into your interview process. This may involve discussing remote work policies, evaluating a candidate's self-motivation, and verifying their ability to work from home effectively, to determine if they are suitable for a remote work environment.
Emphasize Output Over Physical Attendance
The fact that remote workers cannot be monitored constantly does not imply that they are not working. In fact, they often exhibit increased dedication and efficiency in their work.
A study conducted by Owl Labs in 2021 found that over 60% of participants reported an increase in productivity while working from home compared to working in an office setting.
Incorporate Remote Team-Building Activities
Finally, add some fun to your team's routine by engaging in team-building games. Remote work can make it difficult to socialize with coworkers, but games can be an excellent way to motivate and bring employees together, encouraging collaboration and team cohesion. Consider using tools such as HeyTaco or Donut to facilitate group activities that will bring laughter and spark conversations among team members. These activities can break down barriers and foster connections, creating happy memories for everyone to share.
Creating a supportive culture is crucial to the success of remote work. By prioritizing the well-being of your team, you can cultivate a productive environment that benefits everyone in your remote company.