REMOTE CULTURE SCHMULTURE!

6 episodes ago, episode 36 of season 5, I recorded a podcast all about building company culture and why it’s so important. I didn’t just ramble about culture though, as usual I gave you 4 definitive reasons why culture is so important in a company, and I also talked about some things you can do within your organization to make sure you actually have a culture, and one that both external and internal clients can identify, get behind, become evangelists of, and help separate your company from every other company like yours in the market. The 4 reasons for building good company culture that I talked about in that episode, and there are many more, were; that it helps build a competitive brand, it makes your company sticky, meaning employees want to stay, it helps to attract and retain the best talent possible, and it makes people raving fans of the company. I encourage you to go back and listen to that episode a few times to really get a sense of just how important having a definable and attractive culture is for a company. I will also say in this episode what I said in that one, which is that even if you’re a two person company, you can begin building culture. You can start with your one employee and quiz them on what your mission and core values are. If you don’t have a mission or any definable core values, well then that’s step one. Define your greater mission and which core values you find compelling, and then get buy in from your one employee on a daily basis. Start every meeting by asking, ‘what is our mission? And what are our core values?’ Gamify the process, reward your one employee for being able to recite those things, and reward them for living those value out through the work that you do. You’ll find when you bring on that second employee, the process gets easier because two thirds of that company are evangelists on a mission. 

In this episode, however, we’re not going to just rehash what I talked about in that episode, we’re going to talk about some things you absolutely need to be doing if you have what are often referred to as remote talent, remote workers, virtual assistants, and remote employees. Lest you think that because your employees or contractors are remote, meaning they don’t occupy your main office or a single location where everyone can interact, that you’re free from the responsibility to create any kind of culture, I’m here to tell you that you’d be making a grave mistake. As many of you already know, the appraisal industry has been using remote workers, virtual assistants for a long time. You might not be there yet, you may actually be opposed to using virtual assistants for some reason, but we are definitely living in an age when working remotely is becoming the norm, not the exception. Even as licensed appraisers with many years of experience, the opportunity to work in another market that you don’t live in has grown exponentially and is making the industry more efficient. But with that opportunity comes a new challenge, the challenge of building a cohesive culture. I’ll say it again, it is a big mistake to think that because some of your workers are remote that you don’t have to have, or build, any kind of culture. So, in this episode, I’m going to give you____ things to consider regarding building a killer culture, especially if you have talent that is remote.

The first rule regarding building a killer remote culture is that it must be all or nothing! What does that mean? It means that, even if you only have 1 or 2 remote employees, you have to build systems into your business to include the remote employees just like they are local. If you don’t, they’ll feel disconnected, they won’t buy into the efforts you make toward culture building, they won’t buy into your core values and your greater mission the same way you hope the non-remote employees do, and they’ll always feel like outcasts. What this also means is that your non-remote talent understands the importance of this all or nothing policy and they push to include the remote talent in discussions, in zoom meetings, in happy hours, in any culture building activities, and in any important decisions being made amongst the team. Now, I understand that many of you listening to this might have VAs in the Philippines, in India, and some in other countries that are on different time zones. They might also do certain tasks for your company that you simply don’t feel it’s necessary to include them in your culture building activities. That is obviously totally up to you and your team. However, I’m still going to make a strong recommendation in this direction for the very same reasons I mentioned in the episode on culture building. It only makes those relationships stronger; it makes the team stronger; it makes it less likely your remote workers will leave you for something better, and it builds your brand. So, all or nothing. Either build it into your culture to include the remote talent in everything and get buy in from your non-remote talent or do nothing. 

The next rule of building a killer culture when you have remote talent is to force social moments. Forcing social moments is simply making it a habit to have events on the calendar where employees can meet others on the team that maybe they’ve never met before, and are unlikely to meet because of geographic challenges, or maybe just because appraisers tend not to be social creatures tend to be introverts. Most appraisers cringe at the thought of going to a networking event, going to a place with lots of people and lots of noise, or having to make conversation with other human beings. I’m not saying this is all of you, but the appraisal industry in general, like accountants and engineers, tends to skew introvert and anti-social. However, if you’re running a company, there are simply a few things it benefits you to overcome in your personality if you want to create some stickiness in the culture. If you want people to feel like they’re part of something bigger than themselves, if you want to them to feel included, if you want them to feel important, then you have to force social moments. Many of you have multiple appraisers spread in a wide geographic area. I’ve met with some appraisal companies in the last couple months that have more than 10, more than 20, and one company that has 30+ appraisers and no main office location. Meaning, those companies run primarily utilizing technology to keep everyone in touch, to some degree. Many of them use Slack, Zoom, Google Meet, and several other software tools to communicate and keep in touch with their people, but if you’re not forcing social moments, you are not building any kind of identifiable culture. There is little reason beyond pay and work opportunity for those people to stay with you when a better opportunity comes along. If you want to have some kind of greater impact on their lives, if you want to have a greater mission and core values that are positively influencing their lives and helping them with decision making both on and off the job, then you’ve got to have a calendar of events that forces your talent into social moments where they’re meeting each other, sharing stories, getting to know one another, finding mutual interests, and becoming part of something bigger than just their daily job description.

If you’re wondering how you might do this, I would recommend getting familiar with the tools that can allow some of this to occur like, Slack, Zoom, Trello, Skype, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and several other tools available to everyone in this day and age. Start building out a calendar of events that might include a weekly ‘all hands’ meeting with the whole team, a once per month meeting with each team member to check up on life issues, any goals you may have discussed with them, maybe a monthly trivia night or watch party of some kind of event, maybe a monthly celebration meeting to celebrate the numbers, the company wins, and also each individual’s personal wins that have nothing to do with work. Of course, to make this happen, you, the leadership, have to build this into the culture so people know coming into the meeting that you’re interested in their own personal wins. This will prime the pump, so to speak, and teach them to be on the lookout for things going well in their lives. Prior to being asked, and knowing they have to bring something to the meeting in that regard, some people will simply never look for the good in their lives. Until you asked them, they may always simply look at the shitty stuff that goes on in their lives, which might just be a personality trait and habit that you can have a positive effect on and help change over time with these kinds of activities. You can have fantasy sports events, sports pools, social hours, virtual happy hours where everybody cheers the camera and then just chat about life and non-work stuff. If somebody from the staff, remote or non-remote cant make it, have everybody take selfies or a screen capture pic of the zoom call and send it to them with a note saying, ‘wish you were here!’ It’s very important when you’re running a company with both remote and non-remote talent that you make it all or nothing. Treat the remote talent just like they are working out of a central location or main office. 

The next rule, or at least a very strong suggestion for building a strong remote culture, is to help your remote talent establish some goals and development plans. If you’ve listened to this podcast for any amount of time, you’ll know that I’m big on goals for yourself and all your people. Goals are simply important for accomplishing things both in your work life and personal life. I am a firm believer in helping all of the people in your organization, and I don’t care if it’s just one other person, to set some goals for what they’d like to achieve in the business, as well as in their personal lives. There will be those who want to keep their personal lives separate from their work lives, and they should. I’m not suggesting that you demand everybody reveal their deepest desires and personal life aspirations. What I am suggesting, however, is that you, as the leader, work to develop the kind of relationship with your people where you feel comfortable at least asking them, ‘what kinds of things would you like to accomplish outside of work?’ If you’ve done your job as a leader, you’re going to find that your people really appreciate that you’re not just focused on the growth of the company and the bottom line, but actually care about their personal growth too. I quoted Jim Goodnight in the last episode I did on culture building.  He’s the co-founder of SAS software and is famous for saying, ‘treat employees like they make a difference, and they will’. What I would’ve said, if I was Jim Goodnight, is something more along the lines of, ‘Treat employees like they make a difference and they will. Make a difference in employee’s lives, and they’ll make a difference in the lives of others!’ When you help your people grow as individuals, not only are you simply making better employees, but you’re also developing people who will then go out and help make the world a better place. 

This is an imperative, in my opinion, for every business owner who cares, and for every single soul that works with you and for you. We talked about how killer culture builds a killer moat around your business and gives you a tremendous competitive advantage in the marketplace. Imagine what can happen when the lives of the people working in your organization are getting better as a result of their association with you? Understand, when I talk about making people’s lives better, I’m coming from a place of doing that with no expectation or remuneration. I’m not saying that it should be a tactic that you employ to make more money. I know from personal experience in half a dozen businesses that that end result of improving the lives of your people has a beneficial net result, but the place to come from is always from a genuine desire to make people better than before they met you. If you only do it because there might be something in it for you, the disingenuousness of that will be felt and experienced by the people you say you’re trying to help. No, the only true position to operate from in this regard is one of complete sincerity in wanting the absolute best for your people whether they remain with you or not. And all of this must include your remote talent, friends. If you don’t care about the lives and the experience of your remote talent, how could you ever expect them to care about you and your organization beyond what you can provide in the way of a paycheck. To be truly fulfilled, employees must first be able to envision where they’re headed, and you can help them with that, and second they must like what they see in front of them. 

Understand, friends, there are a great many people in the world who have never had anybody show them how to think big, how to set goals, how to imagine something beyond what they see and experience now. It’s a fundamental nature of the human experience to believe others know what you know and see what you see. But that’s a fallacy. It’s not always true. In fact, it’s rarely true. There are people who think bigger than you and I and know more than you and I do. But there are also many who don’t think as big as you might and may have never been instilled with the confidence to achieve that you might have. As business owners we have an opportunity, but I also believe we have a responsibility to make the world a better place in some way and the easiest way to do that is by making the lives of those you come in contact with better as a result of that connection, however brief or extensive that time may be. If you have 1 week to make a difference in somebody’s life, what would you do first? Second? What next? Yes, we need to make sure they’re qualified for the work we’re paying them for. Yes, we need people who can kick ass and get shit done. Yes, we need them to be the best at what it is we’re hiring them to do. Our responsibility to them as employers, however, I believe goes beyond just paying them for a day’s work. I’m challenging you to view your role as more than just an appraiser, just an appraisal company owner, just a boss, just a manager, or whatever your role  may be within your organization. I’m challenging you to develop a culture that builds people up and makes them better, not just one that pays people to do things. It’s a different way of looking at things, but one that is extremely fulfilling and becomes viral. 

So, to recap, building a killer remote culture is, in my opinion, as vital as building your local company culture and requires an all or nothing approach. Essentially, take everything you do in your offices and your local culture building practices, anything that is tied to an actual physical space, and figure out what and how you might be able to replicate some of that in your remote culture. Establish traditions, over communicate, include your remote talent in as much as you possibly can so that they’re not left out and feel like outcasts. Have regular ‘all hands’ zoom calls or company wide town hall meetings. Do some fun things utilizing all the tech that’s available to all of us these days, like trivia nights, digital happy hours, sports pools, and any other unique traditions you might come up with. I would also encourage you to delve into some of the cultural customs of the regions your remote workers may be located in, or even just from. Celebrating customs and traditions from the Philippines, from India, from Central America, from Japan, China, wherever your people are located or from goes a long way in building an awesome remote culture. To put a nice bow on all of this, don’t overlook the value of developing virtual wellness programs as well. We haven’t done this ourselves yet, but I know several who pay for memberships to Peloton, or similar programs where there are both live workouts, as well as recorded ones, and anybody who wants to join in at certain times can log in and join in on a company yoga workout, an exercise bike workout, a bodyweight workout, meditation, or whatever you want to promote.  Encouraging increased health and wellness is super important, in my opinion, and can easily be done in a remote setting. 

Until next week my friends, I’m out…