Even before people had heard of Covid-19 and were still working in the office, building a thriving company culture was a challenge for many businesses. In fact, one survey revealed that just 19% of CEOs and HR leaders believed they had the “right culture”.

And yet, a good company culture is vital to a business's success. It improves employee happiness and morale, reduces staff turnover, and gives organisations a solid foundation on which to navigate challenging times - something we all need right now. 

Putting effort into prioritising company culture - especially one that’s built for remote teams - is essential. Here are some ideas to help you give company culture the attention it deserves, and how your intranet can help.

Create a company culture task force

Whether you're starting from scratch or building upon existing ideas, your staff should be at the front and centre of your company culture.

Start by setting up a dedicated task force, with representatives from across your organisation, to lead your company culture initiatives. Create a Discuss area on your intranet to collect employee ideas, and encourage everyone to contribute. By having a diverse team, you can build a company culture that truly reflects your staff.

Dedicate time to social activities

Remote teams work best when they feel connected to each other, and this is especially true in the middle of a crisis. Rather than focusing solely on meeting goals and targets, business leaders should proactively encourage teams to dedicate time to social activities that link back to the company’s culture.

Try meeting virtually every Friday afternoon to summarise the week’s highs and lows, sharing a public “thank you” to individuals or teams who have aligned with your company’s mission, or posting a weekly intranet news article that celebrates staff successes.

By making deliberate connections to your company culture, this will help teams see how their work impacts your organisation’s mission.

Get feedback on what is and isn’t working

Many organisations have been thrown in the deep end by having to switch to remote working in record time, so it’s completely understandable if you didn’t get everything right from the get go.

Utilise your task force to collect feedback on what aspects of your culture are working, and which areas need improvement - you can use your existing Discuss area to do this. Based on the suggestions, keep making little tweaks to your culture and send regular pulse surveys to your staff to see if your changes are making a difference.

Cover image from Freepik