The “future of work” sounds like it might take several more years to actually present itself. But in quite a few ways since a lot of organizations have embraced the existence of remote and distributed work, the ‘future of work’ is here.
The recruitment game has changed its rule. Now it’s no longer about sourcing talent within the same latitude/longitude, it changes borders.
The concept of distributed work is gaining ground with a lot of professionals today. Even people working in the same company, location often communicate, collaborate, and complete their tasks through the most basic “remote” tools like email and phone, or tools like document sharing, video conferencing, and chat programs.
People might be working remotely with a team that shares a common space, or with teammates who are halfway across the globe.
Now at this juncture, when you hear the expression “building group culture” you may imagine vivacious office gatherings and lunches, dinners, yet with different geographically placed members and with almost 70% of the world’s workforce working remotely, culture in the ‘future of work’ implies thinking beyond the physical office space.
If you have a team working out of different locations, offices across the world, you might sometimes wonder-how to reinforce your company’s codes and values when everyone is displaced here and there?
It’s important that you build a strong and positive bond in your team through ideas, discussions, Brainstorm with them to come to a point wherein ‘bonding’ doesn’t feel like an exercise at all but just a way of life. Here are a couple of tips on how to enhance the feeling of positive company culture.
1. Create a culture of breaking the ice and knowing one another
Team building doesn’t occur on a single day. It’s based on mutual trust, and with most leaders valuing this factor than anything else, it’s fundamental to cultivate it. To do as such, make time in your group gatherings to find a way of knowing each other.
To make those associations, begin each gathering with an ice breaker starting with a fun question, like ‘what’s your favorite James Bond movie? Or, favorite sport? This straightforward activity can help shed some light on each one’s personality. Here’s the best part- everybody is anxious to share and take an interest and you never know there might be more than one person sharing the same interest and bonding upon the same.
2. Get inventive with virtual group offsites
A virtual offsite is as a matter of fact harder to design than an in-person one, however, it’s certainly doable. Put aside time to interact as a group and evaluate new exercises that work for your remote group.
You can come up with something like a virtual cooking class where the whole team cooks let’s say pasta or omelet over video calls. Sounds crazy I know! But trust me it works. Ensure that all are aware of a feast plan that worked across time zones! And you can share cooking tips with each other and seeing how everybody’s dishes turned out it might end up being an astounding bonding experience.
Do a bit of research and find out what can work best for your team. Whether it’s cooking, painting, or even a web-based game, find out what can unite your team across borders.
3. Let technology be your pole star
Use internal chat apps like Slack to share personal pictures of pets, family anything that is fun. This provides an easy-going approach to draw in with one another and helps everybody to show their characters through gifs, responses, and that’s only the beginning.
With video conferencing for team meetings, you can see each other for all intents and purposes and respond to nonverbal communication. Ensure that your remote group is effectively utilizing innovation — beyond a phone call.
4. Encourage remote colleagues to meet 1:1
It is really important that as their leader, you encourage them to meet 1:1 week after week and you do the same too. Basically, practice what you preach. Despite the fact that not every person has the chance to connect regularly when team members meet 1:1, they’re ready to build individual connections and discover territories to work in cohesion.
If you’re remote, jump on the video call two or three minutes before the gathering to get to know them better. Ask about anything outside work-Friday plans, discuss the last night’s game-anything. Consistently turn on your camcorder. Technology is your friend-use it smartly.
5. Exploit the time you have together face to face
While building solid group bonds remotely is essential, it’s imperative to explore whenever you a chance to interact with your team face-to-face. After spending a whole lot of time online, it is refreshing to meet your staff face to face.
You will bond on a different level once those ice barriers have melted away and certain inside jokes shared on virtual offsites find their way in.
Remote work has taken a gigantic leap in the past few years. While the productivity boosts of working from home are getting press, as are the skills needed to succeed in working from home, the movement is growing quickly than one can imagine.
Besides the homebound, remote work also includes professionals working outside the office several days a week from different locations, consultants who permanently work from a variety of locations, the co-working-space crowd, and digital nomads.
The very structure of work is changing, and companies are scrambling to keep up. And as mentioned, the staffing industry has seen a colossal change. The hunt for the right candidate isn’t just centered around a single place anymore, it could be from anywhere, any country now.
AhaApps understands that in a talent-oriented market, sticking to the old norms can’t do anyone good. We change our stance in staffing according to the changing times. Speak with us to know what best we can do in the talent acquisition niche.
Author’s bio:
Mohona is a Content Writer for the Marketing team in AhaApps since 2019. When she is not busy attending to her creative, technical side, she likes to binge on sitcoms on Netflix. She loves writing poems and reading short stories when she wants to break away from the humdrum of life.