If you think that working remotely as a company automatically means that positive company culture is out the door, then think again. 

There are steps that you can take as a company to ensure that your employees feel heard and understand that they are valued, even when working from home (WFH). 

Defining your Purpose

At Culture Works we believe that defining your company’s purpose is one of the most important foundations for a positive culture. 

Would you be surprised to hear that your company culture is actually defined by your purpose? 

There’s a statistic that states, “¼ employees are either indifferent or don’t know much about their company’s mission.” 

The numbers speak for themselves, and if an employee has no level of commitment or passion towards the company’s purpose, then fostering a positive work culture will become a more difficult feat. 

If employees are working from home and don’t fully understand the company’s purpose, then the odds are they aren’t going to seek it out. This is the role of the higher up’s to implement constant purpose-driven actions. 

One way to define your purpose is to ask yourself some questions: 

• How fulfilled are your employees?
• How does your work impact others? 
• What’s the meaning behind your work? 
• What was the original goal of the company — has that changed?
• Are you spinning your wheels or losing money because of a lack of intentional culture?  

Although those are some big questions to tackle, it’s necessary to define your company’s purpose and improve the remote work culture. 

Defining your Culture with a Hybrid Work Model

Defining your culture through Zoom has proven to be a challenge for many companies. Theresa Larkin from Zoom posted a blog highlighting ways to maintain company culture through a hybrid workforce. 

One of the key tips as many companies are returning to a hybrid model is to “create equity between on-site and remote workers.” 

Some of the ways listed to create a common ground and culture include: 

• “Create space for hobbies and activities
• Communicate through a company or team-wide channels
• Host fun activities
• Keep everyone informed on your whereabouts.” 

These are some tangible action items that will hopefully jump-start the defining of your company culture. 

Role Alignment in a Remote Workforce

Understanding each employee and their skillset on a deep level will help the whole team dive into positive company culture, this can be done with value and role alignment. 

Forbes speaks of role alignment highly claiming that role alignment can be “getting everyone on the same page” as a long-term goal, or even “understanding everyone’s role.” 

While companies commit to staying remote or moving into a hybrid model, there are bound to be changes in employee roles. People adapt and change, and as a higher-up, it’s important to keep company culture at the core of change. 

Do you dread making mistakes at work? You should actually embrace them! Learn more about why you should make mistakes at work here.