7 Ways to Maintain Business Culture During Work From Home

It has been over a year since the coronavirus was declared a pandemic and the world was turned upside down. Millions of businesses were forced to lay workers off as infection rates soared across the world. In truth, many businesses still haven’t recovered from the devastating effects of the pandemic. That’s why those that are still operating, are doing so cautiously. 

One of the more implicit implications of the pandemic is the subtle shift in business culture. This has been the case in the United States as well as around the world. As companies increasingly shift to remote working practices, managers are finding it difficult to maintain business culture. 

This is, of course, not surprising since the culture of an organization goes hand in hand with its workspace. Take the workspace out of the equation, and you’re left with a hollow culture.

All hope is not lost however. There are still ways to maintain some semblance of a business culture in companies that utilize remote working. Let’s dive in and check out how managers can maintain business culture even during a pandemic.

Prioritize Communication

This is pretty much a no-brainer. With the entire workforce confined to their respective homes, communication is key. If managers and co-workers don’t know what’s going on with their peers, it becomes almost impossible to maintain the culture of the organization. The shift to remote working doesn’t have to mean a gap in communication.

In fact, we’re lucky to be alive in a time when digital communication is at its most sophisticated. The use of video conferencing through Zoom or Google Meet can help prioritize communication within the company. After all, the very essence of a business culture stems from the interactions between components of the company. 

As such, it is important that these components remain in contact with one another at all times. An effective way to prioritize communication in the company is to mandate daily meetings through a memo.

Encourage Feedback

The next step after prioritizing communication is encouraging feedback from employees on a regular basis. Oftentimes, organizational cultures become distorted due to one-sided communication. The only way to avoid that is to ensure that both sides get an equal opportunity to speak their minds. 

That’s why modern companies are now increasingly dependent on employee feedback to maintain culture. With feedback, companies can ensure transparency and clarity in the workplace. These components are necessary for the maintenance of business relationships and culture within the company. 

Create an Interactive Online Environment

Perhaps one of the best ways to ensure that employees feel heard is to create an interactive environment. That can be hard sometimes if the organization is working remotely. Online interaction is much less effective as compared to face-to-face interactions. That’s because a lot of visual queues are missing during online interactions.

But that doesn’t mean it’s totally useless to try and develop regular online interactions. It is important to remember that business culture comes down to how each employee perceives the organization. Even if a single employee feels left out, that can seriously affect the culture you left behind in the office. 

Develop Organizational Memos/Newsletters

We already talked about how memos can be used to prioritize communication. But they are also a powerful tool for maintaining business culture within the organization. 

During remote working, it’s easy to feel disconnected from the company. That’s where memos and internal newsletters play an important role. They keep employees up-to-date regarding the everyday activities of the company.

In addition, managers can make use of memos and newsletters to make announcements regarding short term plans for the company. These plans should then be discussed in daily or weekly meetings. That would allow employees to retain some semblance of normalcy in, what are now, very unusual times.

Reinforce Cooperation through Diversity

One overlooked way of maintaining the culture of the company is to promote interaction between diverse groups. Now that may mean having an awkward weekly meeting between sales and design. But more frequently, it might mean getting diverse groups of employees together for a task or project. But how would that maintain business culture we hear you ask?

In the midst of a pandemic, cooperation is a value that all organizations can do with. These weekly interactions between diverse groups boosts cooperation and instills a sense of togetherness. In a time when people are increasingly feeling alone stuck at home, it’s not the worst idea to develop cooperation and togetherness in the company culture through diversity. 

Foster Transparency in Interactions

While maintaining frequent interactions is important, maintaining transparent communication is equally important. Managers often overlook the importance of making interactions transparent, even within the workplace. 

And when it comes to remote working, it is all the more difficult. Yet, transparency in communication fosters trust and reliability among employees. These are key aspects of any business culture and need to be maintained if the organization is to succeed.

So how do you develop transparency in online interactions? Well, recording your meeting is one way so that all other employees have access to it as well. Having a third-party observer is another way so that there’s always an arbitrator in the interactions. These little things may seem insignificant but go a long way in maintaining a culture of transparency and trust.

Emphasize Company Objectives

Lastly, emphasizing company objectives regularly can make a world of difference to employees and managers alike. This is especially true during remote working environments when employees may start to lose focus about what they are striving to accomplish. The organizational memos and newsletters mentioned earlier are an effective tool to reinforce company objectives. 

Executives can also hold one-on-one online meetings with employees to encourage them and reiterate the objectives of their job roles. This will also help highlight how each individual employee’s job contributes to helping the company achieve its overall goals. This tactic helps maintain the company culture automatically by focusing company values and objectives.