Company culture has played a significant role in workplaces of all kinds, and that continues to be true with the onset of increased use of remote work arrangements. While culture and teamwork are still important, they're more difficult to integrate with the challenge of having teams spread out across multiple locations or even multiple time zones. However, it doesn't have to be that difficult.
Premier Virtual is a company that's been providing effective tools for employers to hire, onboard, and retain employees with virtual events. The power of virtual events for remote hiring is incredibly clear, but it can also help provide a foundation for building an effective remote workforce culture.
Premier Virtual CEO and co-founder Steven Edwards believe that organizations can still promote strong company culture and teamwork for remote workforces if they have the right attitude and the right tools.
The Challenges Remote Workforces Face
While there are certainly challenges that both remote and centralized workforces share, remote work has brought new challenges with it, along with complicated any existing ones. There are three big challenges that can make or break a company's attempt to establish company culture in a remote workforce.
- Keeping Top Talent
Even with effective hiring practices, organizations can only truly flourish if they're able to retain their top talent. In remote workforces, minimal engagement can lead to employees being quick to leave for marginally better or even lateral positions.
The need to coach and support employees doesn't disappear along with the physical office environment. Despite the lack of in-person connection, employers must continue to make an effort to make it possible for employees to develop towards their goals and advance in their careers.
- Maintaining Accountability Within Remote Teams
It's not terribly difficult to keep individuals within a workforce accountable for individual tasks when you can simply walk over to them. This becomes a much more complex issue with dispersed teams where some employees can fail to meet expectations in the absence of direct oversight.
Many companies struggle to move towards a more direct goal-oriented approach rather than the time-based frame of mind. Having concrete deadlines and goals is essential to maintaining accountability without micromanaging.
- Ensuring Effective Communication
There is a great wealth of tools out there for remote workforces to communicate with. That being said, teams need to commit to how they're going to communicate. Will teams be using email? Will there be set video conferences? These are things that need to be agreed upon ahead of time.
Leaving communications up to chance is the perfect way to let important information go unnoticed. While each team might have different means that work for them, the real challenge is making a choice and sticking to it.
Starting Remote Employees off on the Right Foot
First impressions are always important, and that goes for both employers and employees. The remote hiring process can be challenging, and starting things off on the right foot is essential to make sure employees are the right fit and that the company will be able to retain them in the future.
Premier Virtual provides companies with a comprehensive virtual event platform that makes the remote hiring process much more effective. With clear communication in both directions, every party involved is more likely to find what they're looking for. Premier Virtual is what companies need to build an effective remote workforce.
