The word company culture is thrown around in a lot of business circles. However, it is not always understood how to build company culture. Some businesses just throw a weekly catered lunch and think that that makes up for abusing and micromanaging its staff throughout the week. Because of this dispensary between how companies treat their employees and the benefits they want to tout promoting, company culture can best be understood about how employees talk about a manager and organization when they are not in the room.
If employees are not inspired or feel like they are a part of a team, then it is likely that their work will suffer as well. In fact, employees who are disengaged at work often can but into profitability, as they will not go the extra mile if they do not feel valued and recognized. This is especially difficult to deal with when managing virtual teams. When you can’t see your remote employees, you may assume that all is well and that they feel engaged with work. However, this is not always easy to spot and it may require some creative activities on your part to make employees feel more engaged, With that in mind, here’s what activities you can use to engage employees virtually and increase the value of your company culture.
Virtual Games
Zoom is, first and foremost, a business platform. Although it has been used in the past year for more social interaction, it is primarily meant for business communication and presentations. However, that does not mean a business cannot or should not use Zoom to play virtual games and conduct other icebreaker activities. Instead, companies looking to promote a better company culture within their virtual teams should play to the strengths of Zoom and other video platforms. Don’t try to replicate in-person conversation. Instead, use the various features of Zoom to create fun themes, run icebreakers where one person speaks at a time, and play virtual games that emphasize collaboration and teamwork.
Off-topic Slack Channels
If regular Zoom calls is not an option for your virtual team, then off-topic slack channels are also a great way to build teams remotely. You can set up a #random channel to encourage employees to share memes, jokes, or news stories. You can also set up a #music channel or #travel channel to allow employees to share their favorite music, travel experiences, and more. There are limitless possibilities to the type of information you can get employees to share with each other via Slack, and doing so will allow virtual teams to get to know each other better and want to work more closely with each other.
While there is no perfect way to promote company culture, especially when working remotely, managers of virtual teams should look to implement activities and other socialization into the day-to-day proceeding of the company they work for. This can not only help to increase profitability, improve employee retention, and increase employee happiness, but it can also help to build trust between employees and the organizations they work for. This, in turn, can help employees work more autonomously with better results, which helps organizations grow without needless micromanagement and oversight.
