Remote Workforces and Organizational Culture: 6 ways to Strengthen Your Culture (part 2 of 2)

In the previous article, we talked about the challenges of establishing and maintaining organizational culture in these post-pandemic years, specifically regarding the fast growing expansion of remote workers. Considering that a company's role with an in-person organizational culture might be tenuous at best, how do we need to think about remote workers and their connection to a culture?  

When an employee works remotely, they get a lot with this arrangement. Employees can live further away geographically and avoid a long commute. They might have more control over their day and fewer interruptions. Working from a home office means that the noise of organizational life is probably not as loud. The remote worker usually doesn't get as tangled up in the office politics and drama as their in-person counterparts. They can be much more present in their family's lives and even walk the dog when it's needed. All of these changes are good for some people and they can actually be much more productive than in the office. 

But let's consider what they lose, specifically as it relates to connecting to the organization's culture, and how organizations need to adapt to the new reality.  New employees become socialized and enculturated by frequently and regularly interacting with their team members and the leader. In Orientation, there are explicit efforts to communicate the mission and values of the organization, but it's the immersion in the physical arena that facilitates their assimilation.  

So what is different about the remote worker? How does enculturation happen without the physical environment, the co-workers, the infinite number of signals that permeate the office? What fills the void and reminds us about our identity and affiliation with the larger organization?  

When we teach leaders about 'communication', we often emphasize the overwhelming amount of communication that occurs through body language. Verbal communication is one thing, but it's often the alignment (or misalignment) of body language, the physical signals,  that either confirm or betray the communicator's message. To understand this better, try saying I love you to your significant other while looking at the televised baseball game at Applebee's at the same time. Maybe that was too specific?

Organizational culture for remote workers may struggle in the same way. Numerous social and cultural signifiers have to be reconsidered for the remote worker. While this is in no way the exclusive list of shifts to be thinking about, let's review a short list:

• Rethink Orientation and Onboarding - Consider how the virtual orientation and onboarding experience looks to the remote worker. Apart from establishing regulatory rules and talking about fire exits, in-person onboarding is more about connecting new employees to other new employees (socialization). It is also about establishing an initial framework for the organization's (ideal) culture (enculturation). 

For the remote worker then, extra care has to be given to bridge that chasm. An isolated remote worker will struggle with the basic mechanics of  technology, ordering supplies, HR policies/benefits/time cards/holidays, and other functions that would be quickly addressed by an in-person counterpart in the office. Assimilation into the group or company will take much longer if there is no thought given to this crucial bridge. Mentors or an 'onboarding buddy' can accelerate this journey, but it shouldn't be left to chance.  

• Increase Strategic Communication - consider the way daily communication typically goes with the in-person experience. Team members greet each other and reconnect (i.e., good morning, how was the softball game, how was your weekend, goodnight). Throughout the day, co-workers stop in to talk, you see familiar faces on the way to the cafeteria, and the endless opportunities for informal communication paint a colorful picture of where we stand with our teams. 

The remote worker is going miss a lot of these signifiers unless the leader/team consciously think about this. And while for the introvert, they might secretly rejoice in the thought that a lot of 'ragbag' stuff has been avoided, in reality, these social connections are not being strengthened. 

What is your communication strategy? How are you consciously organizing communication that tightens the team? What are the group norms for communicating? Are you connecting the team in a morning scrum? Does everyone understand when is a text or an email appropriate or when is a Zoom meeting warranted? How regularly does the team meet and with what frequency? 

What are the norms for personal and professional communication? How does the team get to know other employees personally, their family, their lives outside of work? How might a remote worker get to meet people from other teams? Are there opportunities to develop deeper human connections?

• Strategic Recognition - a large part of an employee's sense that they 'fit in' comes from the way they are recognized, -the activities and events that forge an identity amongst team members. This is typically driven by the leader, but with remote workers, there needs to be some structure around it (otherwise it looks ad hoc). How are birthdays and accomplishments acknowledged? How are people recognized?

For the remote worker, as one author puts it "facial expressions, body language, … high fives, handshakes, pats on the back…those indicators are not available." (Cochran, 2022)

• Leadership Signifiers - the biggest 'X' factor is going to be leadership. We've talked about the changing competency set for post-pandemic leaders, but there is another competency model to be written for the leader of remote workers. While remote teams are not necessarily new, most leaders have only experienced in-person teams.

Remote workers will not usually get the steady stream of signifiers from leaders that their in-house counterparts get. That means leadership patterns, expectations, temperament and other observable clues will not be as visible. Because the socialization of remote workers takes longer than their in-person counterparts, the leader will need to make a deliberate effort to close the gap. The leader might be the original and primary source to frame-up goals, communicate the support an employee can expect, convey/show the preferred pace of contact, and set the tone for how mistakes are viewed. The leader models attitudes about the team, team members, their value to the team, their skills and challenges. This contextualization is the remote worker's initial and primary introduction to culture. 

• Connecting through 'the work' versus the physical office - it is the work that is now our connecting point, not the physical office, the mission statement on the wall, the company colors, the uniforms or khaki pants that everyone wears. The traditional artefacts that Schein talks about are not as relevant in the remote world.  

• Emotional connection - consider that in the physical environment, the team is present for moments when good things have been done and it's a great time for recognition. The remote worker might not feel this connection except for the monthly meeting over Zoom. This means that the emotional bonds between the leader and the employee become all that much more important. A more effective leader will make this emotional connection that fills whatever void might otherwise exist. It is performance management on steroids by another name. When the remote employee understands that their leader sees them, recognizes their value, appreciates their contribution to the team, the emotional connection establishes a fundamental need; their status. 

Even if the leader cannot personally devote the time and attention to establishing this emotional connection, they can consciously put the new employee into various team assignments. 

Culture is Shifting. Remote workers and virtual teams were not invented as a post-pandemic discovery, but this group of the workforce is certainly an expanding presence in organizational life. Even though an employee is working remotely, there are a wide array of dynamics that are similar to the on-site employee. So that may be helpful to leaders. On the other hand, the lack of signifiers for the remote worker make them susceptible to becoming disconnected and disengaged. 

The backdrop of course, is that culture is now more than ever the differentiating factor (once the transactional element of compensation is taken off the table). Remote worker cultural management is within the purview of leadership strategy. With the trend to a growing remote workforce, indifference to creating, managing, and sustaining a strong culture is simply malpractice.