How to Build a Positive Culture with Remote Teams

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of remote teams is on the rise. As the numbers increase, odds are you are or will be managing a remote team. One of the issues you’ll have to tackle is creating and maintaining a strong culture. This defines the experience your employees have working for your company or on your team. Having an established culture and positive employee experience increases engagement, productivity, and retention. These are a few reasons why you need an effective approach to building the culture you need for your team to be successful.

Consider these tips to create a strong culture with your remote team.

Match Communication Tools with Culture

Use communication tools that promote company culture. For instance, Slack can be used as a virtual water cooler. Employees can share random work discussions, talk about the news, tell jokes, and discuss pop culture. The company intranet or programs such as WordPress theme P2 can be used to post internal updates. Threaded comments make it easy to share posts welcoming new team members, discuss work issues, and share other topics your team needs to be informed about. Google Hangouts or Zoom can be used for team meetings. Even a simple, emailed newsletter updates employees and keeps them engaged.

Send Company Swag

Ship each employee company-branded materials. They can wear the clothing, display company items on their desk, and decorate their home office with posters to create the same design aesthetic and cultural life elements as the office.

Promote Team Building

Develop communication and trust through team-building activities. Randomly set up two members of your team every week to have a casual conversation. This gets the emphasis away from business and promotes camaraderie. Or, put employees in groups based on common interests. Let each group set up some time to chat.

Create Shared Leadership

Provide opportunities for employees to take on leadership tasks. Rather than simply assigning a list of things to do, let your team take initiative on certain projects or parts of a project. This may include mentoring new team members as part of the onboarding process or leading a virtual team-building exercise. This helps your team members experience managerial functions, learn other areas of the business and potentially move up within the organization.

Establish Traditions

Encourage your team to create traditions. Repeating these activities, processes, or events creates cohesion. Teammates feel they can trust each other and openly communicate because of these shared experiences. They’ll be more open to expressing their ideas and opinions, knowing they’ll be listened to and respected.

Promote Culture Among Your Remote Team

Remote work isn’t going away anytime soon. As it continues to grow, you must promote a strong culture among your team members to maintain a cohesive company.

To find qualified professionals for your accounting and finance team, reach out to Casey Accounting & Finance Resources. Our candidates understand the importance of promoting company culture while working remotely. Partner with us today.

COVID-19 – How to Lead Your Workplace Right Now

There is no playbook on how to respond to COVID-19. Social distancing, self-quarantines, and stockpiling supplies have become common responses. With many employees working from home, conferences have been postponed, canceled, or happening virtually. Due to the rapidly evolving concerns about the virus, leaders like you need to find a balance between being extremely cautious and conducting necessary business operations.

Here are some suggestions to help you navigate your team through COVID-19.

Deploy Your Crisis Management Committees

Put your crisis management teams into action. They need to provide information about COVID-19 awareness, prevention, management, and hygiene practices to leaders, managers, and front-line employees. The teams also must enact management protocols, and business continuity plans to lead current actions and potential responses to future events. These activities may include reducing to business-critical operations only, cross-training team members to fulfill critical responsibilities in case another teammate is quarantined, and restricting business travel. If an employee or family member is diagnosed with COVID-19, ensure they follow protocol. This may involve reporting confirmed cases to HR or management, disinfecting anything they may have touched, and informing coworkers, customers, and clients they may have had contact with.

Monitor Employees’ Wellbeing

Stay informed on team members’ overall wellbeing. Since most should be working from home, ask for regular updates on their physical and mental health. Remind staff members of the employee assistance programs available to them, including mental health services available for stress management. Provide information on employees’ compensation and benefits, such as employer-sponsored health insurance. Allow paid time off for team members who become symptomatic or need to care for a family member. Encourage the use of short-term disability insurance, time off under the Family and Medical Leave Act, childcare subsidies, or other existing benefits.

Frequently Communicate

Communicate with staff daily, weekly, or when new information becomes available. Everyone must remain updated on your company’s response to COVID-19 advice, policies, and protocols. Be sure to tailor email, text messages, hotlines, and internal systems communications to the recipients, such as leaders, managers, and employees. You may include FAQs or links to authorities such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, The World Health Organization, or local governments. Remind everyone to obtain information from credible sources, stay calm, and not spread misinformation. Emphasize the importance of obtaining adequate food, water, medicine, and other essentials in case of quarantine.

Lead Your Workplace Through COVID-19

As a leader during COVID-19, your example to employees is more important now than ever. Overcommunicating with team members keeps everyone informed about changes within the company and professional organizations providing updates on the virus. Showing ongoing concern for staff members’ overall wellbeing reminds them you care about them. Demonstrating calm behavior encourages others to follow your lead while moving forward through uncertain times.

If you need temporary accounting and finance professionals to fill in for absent employees, contact Casey Accounting & Finance Resources. Our experienced candidates can jump right in and get started working remotely for you. Find out more today.

How to Recruit Remote Workers to Your Accounting & Finance Positions

Hiring accounting and finance employees in a tight labor market isn’t easy. Since candidates expect a lot from their employers, you need to work hard to encourage them to join your team. One perk to attract accounting and finance candidates is offering remote work options. This widens your candidate pool to include significantly more candidates.

Here are four tips for recruiting remote workers to your accounting and finance positions.

Show Support for Remote Workers

Demonstrate throughout your recruiting process how you support remote workers. Highlight on your career page how you include remote accounting and finance workers in your company based on the role and team needs. Label your job openings as remote-eligible. Include in the job description details about what working remotely actually looks like. Mention questions to expect during an interview for a remote position. Share stories of how remote workers actively embrace your flexible work culture. Help candidates see themselves working remotely and being fully supported by your organization.

Be Authentic

Show candidates that the flexible culture they learn about during the recruiting process matches the reality of working remotely for your company. Describe specific ways remote workers are included in team activities and supported as valuable employees. Demonstrate how the messages you communicate through your employer brand match with how your business operates. This may include enforcing key policies, processes, and tools similar to those involving onsite employees. Mention a method such as Slack that remote workers use to communicate with their team. Provide targeted perks to support productivity and inclusion for remote workers. For instance, if onsite employees have a snack wall, offer remote workers a monthly subscription snack box.

Highlight Required Skills

Point out the necessary skills to work remotely. Strong communication, collaboration, and organization skills are required. Excellent time management, self-discipline, and accountability skills are essential. Use pre-employment tests to evaluate these skills. Determine candidates’ comfort level with video chatting, which many meetings and collaborations will require to connect remote team members. Find out whether candidates have an internet connection with a certain speed or a specific brand of laptop to complete their work. If not, you can provide the necessary items if those candidates get hired.

Offer a Paid Trial

Instead of extending a job offer to desired candidates, extend a contract for a trial period. Include how long the trial period is how the candidate will be compensated and other pre-agreed conditions. Assign actual work to see how skilled a candidate is, how well they learn, and how seamlessly they fit into your culture. When the trial period ends, decide whether to permanently hire the candidate.

Source Remote Accounting and Finance Workers

Source remote workers through Casey Accounting & Finance Resources. As a leading Chicago employment agency, we reduce your time spent on recruiting, evaluating, screening, and interviewing candidates. Find out more today.