Many organizations, Solutions360 included, are moving to more of a remote workforce.
Today, our CEO, Brad Dempsey, speaks with Brad Malone, Partner with Navigate Management Consulting, about some of the challenges that Solutions360 has faced while embracing remote working, and how the company has addressed those challenges.
“The first thing, that’s most important, is you need a culture that supports the communication necessary for remote workers,” says Dempsey. “Communication comes in many forms. A lot of us instantly think of email and possibly some video when you’re talking about a remote worker, but there are different layers of communication that are very important.”
It’s important to have a culture that supports the kind of communication necessary for virtual workers.
“We have found instant messaging absolutely critical. There are products out there like Slack, Hangouts and Microsoft Teams, et cetera, which give you that kind of instant messaging and channels. But you need a culture where even the people who don’t work remotely are always using that kind of communication, otherwise it’s not going to work.”
Part of that culture is making sure that your remote workforce feels like part of the team.
“I’ve run virtual teams and if we’re going to have a pizza party in the office, we’re delivering pizza to the home of the remote workers too,” says Malone. “So everybody is included in that team meeting, and sharing that common refrigerator that you have in an office. This kind of culture lets everyone know that they’re part of the team.”
“And it’s absolutely critical to have those channels which are just for fun,” Dempsey continues. “The random channels where people talk about going to the game last night, or what they did on the weekend, or share pictures of their babies. You need that kind of social interaction, because they’re human beings, a culture where people can work and socialize together.”
Watch the video for the full discussion:
Creating Culture for an Increasingly Remote Workforce
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