Building workplace culture when you don’t have an office

The Covid-19 pandemic caused a substantial shift in the way we work. After most office-based businesses went fully remote, many have now returned to their offices full-time or work on a hybrid-basis, although there is still a small number of businesses that are fully remote, getting rid of their offices completely. 

For the businesses that have adopted a hybrid-based working model, there’s still plenty of opportunity for employees to catch up ‘over the water cooler’ or in meetings, but for those who are fully remote, it’s a lot harder to build a workplace culture.

Because of the loss of a shared physical space, these businesses need to be much more intentional about creating a sense of connection and belonging among their employees.

Communication is key

Not only do you need to communicate what is expected of your employees if they work remotely, but you also need to listen to and learn from them when it comes to what they need in order to work efficiently and effectively. 

Regular check-ins, employee feedback, and open conversations can really help you understand what is and isn’t working. 

Replicate those ‘water cooler’ moments

Just because there isn’t a physical water cooler or a photocopier that people can chat across, doesn’t mean socialising goes out of the window altogether. Be consistent about setting up team meetings/catch-ups on a regular basis, create a Slack channel or Google chat where employees can talk about all things work and non-work related. You could even dedicate one meeting per month to being face-to-face so you all have at least some human interaction - if you don’t have an office, this could be in a co-working space nearby or even a local cafe. 

Celebrate the big and small wins

When people aren’t working together in an office, recognition can be hard to come by. There’s no passing each other in the staff room and congratulating an employee on a project win or a quick ‘good job’ comment on passing in the corridor, so regular shoutouts via team calls, Slack/Google Chat or even in internal newsletters can help keep morale high.

Regular check-ins

In the office environment it’s easy to tell when someone is having a bad day or has something on their mind, but it’s not so easy when you can’t see them.

Have a proper check in and find out how they’re doing - try to notice if they’re clocking in and working at odd times of the day or night.

Trust your employees

Granted, sometimes an employee is not performing as well as you expect and in those situations, closer supervision is required, but generally, overall, people want to do a good job, so trust your employees.

When employees feel trusted they become more motivated and engaged, so if you can, forego the constant monitoring and checking of statuses and give employees the chance to manage their own workloads.

It might seem a bit of a challenge to instill a good workplace culture without an office, but it’s not impossible. It might just take a little more intention and determination. Doing so is no doubt only going to benefit your business. After all, a good workplace culture creates higher engagement and improved employee retention. Workplace culture isn’t defined by four walls.