From our recent survey results, we know that employees value company culture over salary, this is very true for FRS Recruitment employees.
Our company culture is important because it affects how our clients and employees perceive us which directly determines our success. Since employees working remotely are already physically distanced, it is our jobs as managers to keep our company culture at the forefront of our minds especially due to the absence of in-person interactions.
With Covid forcing the majority of our employees to work from home, having processes in place to build and nurture our culture in the remote work environment has become more important than ever.
Culture isn’t a place you can reach, it is a mindset. Moreover, building our remote culture was totally different than creating our workplace culture for our people that work from the same office.
Here are initiatives we implemented over the past few months which were valued by our people.
Every company has a different idea about what remote work entails. Some companies ask employees to work for a fixed number of hours. FRS are more flexible and follow a deadline-based approach where our employees are trusted to accomplish their weekly and daily tasks without worrying about how many hours they put in daily. We found by having clear guidelines for collaboration and communication among our employees was how we have maintained our strong work ethic remotely while achieving results for ourselves and our clients.
We also made face to face meetings a routine and a priority. There is no replacement to talking to your colleagues face to face, even if it is through a screen. We found that it helped nurture company culture and made our employees feel even more connected. It also helps establish trust and makes people feel like they are part of the team. We also have designated time for managers to conduct regular 1:1 meetings with their team members to catch up and learn more about their issues or challenges.
We organised company-wide initiatives to help promote our culture and shared all the steps our leadership took to support employees adjusting to remote working. Holding webinars where our leaders and subject matter experts answered questions from employees. We hosted company-wide virtual contests like quizzes, fitness mornings, fancy dress work days to name but a few.
By embedding our culture and core values in all of our processes, it has improved employee satisfaction, enriched our overall wellbeing and most importantly we have retained all of our top people, not because we want them, they want us too.