“How do we sustain our company culture whilst working remotely?” It was the question on everyone’s lips in the internal communications and employee engagement world when the Covid-19 outbreak sent us all home packing. And rightly so.
Statistics show that companies with strong cultures see a fourfold increase in revenue growth, while employees quitting their jobs because of poor company culture costs the UK economy a huge £23.6 billion per year.
Our story
For our founder Danielle Phillips, creating a virtual, remote workforce was the only option.
“I actually registered the company the day that the first lockdown was announced. I didn’t have a lot to work with in the way of being in a physical office, especially when bringing employees together in that way was just not an option. As I began taking on more projects, growing with a remote workforce was the only way I could see myself growing the team and the business. On top of that, having developed a niche in digital transformation communications, I needed to have access to talent all over the country, and remote working was the only way to do this without expecting people to pack up and relocate.”
And so, Inside Out, our virtual internal communications consultancy was born.
As an internal communications consultancy, you’d think we have employee engagement and workplace culture down to a tee. It is definitely a part of our business that we’re proud of. But not because we’re an internal communications consultancy. It’s actually down to working together to create an environment that champions hard work, values everyone’s contributions equally, celebrates wins, and also balances this with time for rest and a life outside the virtual office.
But when you break that down, how does creating an amazing workplace culture for a remote team really happen? What are the tiny parts that make your remote workforce tick from day to day, delivering on client project after client project?
This isn’t an exhaustive list, or how-to manual, but here are some of the things that have worked for us at Inside Out.
Never going more than a day without a team catchup
In a remote workforce it’s easy for each individual, despite working as part of a team, to feel like they’re working on their own. Don’t have a client meeting scheduled? There’s a chance you’ll go the whole day without speaking to a colleague, apart from some work-related exchanges via email!
That’s why at Inside Out we start every day with a 15-30 minute stand-up meeting where we discuss the previous day and run through the priorities on everyone’s to-do lists for that day.
But work aside, it's a time where we get to engage in general life chit chat, in the same way you’d be able to if you were standing in the office kitchen, waiting for the kettle to boil, mug and tea bag in hand.
Don’t get us wrong, we recognise that these meetings come second to clients or an extra busy schedule, so on a rare occasion we’ll skip them, making sure to catch up the next day. But taking this time to sit together on a virtual call helps us to bond as a team, allows us to know what’s going on in each other’s lives and on a work-related note, builds a level of accountability over our responsibilities and progress.
Culture in practice, not on paper
For us, culture is about walking the walk, not talking the talk. Our culture is something we practise, not something we continually draft policy documents around. It’s something we put into action day to day.
What does that look like? It’s encouraging each other to take an extra long lunch when we’re feeling rundown. It’s fully embracing a flexible work schedule that might involve logging off at 4pm when you’ve hit a wall and coming back to finish your work later that evening (or simply working longer the next day). It’s asking eagerly what each other did on our three day weekends, knowing that we’ve all had the time to take a proper break and are ready to go back to work for another great week, without the Sunday scaries.
Add to that the bonus day off we get for our birthdays and two ‘me’ days each year, which we’re encouraged to spend doing things that matter to us which don’t get enough of a priority in day to day life. This might be going to the cinema, spa, volunteering or having a family day out. We’re then able to jump back to work feeling refreshed or accomplished, and share what we got up to.
Given that we are geographically hundreds of miles away, the feeling of belonging and sharing really adds to our team culture.
Physically coming together once in a while
While as a team we’re big fans of getting our heads down and working independently, we recognise that there’s simply no replacement for connecting in person, whether that’s at a work event, hiring out a meeting room to work together on business development, or having a Christmas-time get together over afternoon tea. There’s a place for all of that within our remote working model.
We prioritise our quarterly team away days over everything else. (Seriously, they’re marked in the calendar a year in advance.) And we supplement these as often as we can with one-off events such as networking events, business showcases or awards dinners.
It’s important for us to take this time to build our relationships in person, as well as on screen, so we can return to work for the next few days feeling that little bit more connected and energised.
A winning formula
These are just a few of the things we do as a team to make sure we all bring our best selves to work every day. But every organisation is different. Our culture is authentically us, but might not work for your business and that’s totally okay.
How do you ensure your workplace culture survives in a remote or hybrid workforce? Need any advice or guidance? We’re just an email away…
Inside Out Communications Consulting is an award winning internal communications consultancy, specialising in digital transformation, major IT change, and cyber safety.
Need a hand getting your people on board with a new operating system? Want to upskill your leaders with storytelling workshops? Or are you keen to increase awareness around major cyber security threats in your sector? Whatever it is, we can help. Get in touch at hello@insideoutconsulting.co.uk.