Connecting in a Remote World: Nurturing Culture in the Digital Landscape
This past year, companies around the world have had to drastically shift to a remote & completely digital environment. During the Covid-19 pandemic, close to 70% of full-time employees began working from home, with 40% reporting specifically experiencing remote work burnout during the pandemic (Remote Work Burnout).
In addition to remote work burnout, the pandemic & global social justice issues that plagued 2020, led employees to become overwhelmed in their personal lives with stress related to their loved one’s health & safety, the uncertainty of the economy, their own mental health and missing connections from family, friends and colleagues.
The lack of bonding from human relationships has taken a significant toll on employees at work – the normal bonding throughout the workday with coworkers at lunch or impromptu trips for coffee refills are now an idea of the past. Many are yearning for a safe way to reestablish those human relationships and team bonds outside of the workplace setting.
HR has always been responsible for employee engagement and cultivating a safe work environment. However, given the increase in burnout and mental health concerns, HR teams now have a greater responsibility to not only bring engagement into the digital world, but also create moments of connection and culture that foster self-care for our employees.
As the Global HR Director at HVR Software, a global data replication company in the Bay Area, with employees spread across the Americas, EMEA and APAC, I recognized the need for connection when I noticed that many of our new team members had never had an opportunity to meet their colleagues in person.
We recognized not only the need for better engagement, but also, the need to finally put words to what our team has felt about our work environment and organization’s culture all along. We embarked on a journey to bring our culturally diverse global teams together by formally establishing a set of shared beliefs. These beliefs would later serve as the values that helped to guide all of our organizational decisions. At HVR, we share values of trust, initiative and honesty. We understand that diversity is our superpower and we can only be successful by bringing our differences together. We care deeply about each other and take time to connect and celebrate with one another.
We have to be intentional about the employee experience. It is often assumed that moments of forming connections at work happen organically and they often don’t. There has typically been structure built into the workday – the time you go to lunch, the short breaks taken, the walks around the office – all structured for you to bond with your teammates. Because we don’t currently have the luxury of our in-person structure/connections; we needed to create a space that would give employees the ability to explore our global values further and connect with one another.
We held a Global Values Virtual Event for associates to connect, enjoy tea and discuss how we could be better humans and how we each identify with our cultural values. We decided on the main event including tea because tea has such a deep history across the world with cultures preparing tea in so many different ways and we wanted to honor and recognize that – we all shared Rooibos tea, which was a nod to our South African colleagues.
It was important for us to not only establish cultural values but take every moment to truly live these values and that required intentionality within every detail. The event entailed – small groups meeting virtually across time zones and cross-functionally. We established a partnership with Just Add Honey Tea Company- a black-owned, hand-made, loose leaf tea company owned by Brandi Shelton. Just Add Honey described witnessing their tea bring people together at their tea shop in Atlanta, GA. With everyone moving to a remote world, they have now been focused on providing “affordable self-care from home that gives everyone an opportunity to be intentional and give grace to themselves and re-center while adjusting to the remote environments.” says Jermail Shelton, Brandi’s husband and business partner. This is exactly what we wanted for our employee experience – a virtual safe space for everyone to take a moment to relax, share smiles and laughs and get to know one another on a deeper level while sharing in our core values.
The event was a success to say the least, with 96% of our team members having a better understanding of HVR’s core values and 95% indicating that the values accurately reflect our culture. Some of our employees shared that “it was great getting to meet other team members, understand their roles better and to learn how each of them applied our core values”. Another teammate said “[The Global Values Event] was a great way to connect with some of our co-workers – we get so busy with our day-to-day life, especially while working remote, that these moments to connect with others are a great idea”
We understand that what we’re doing isn’t new – HR teams have always created opportunities for employee engagement in the workplace. But we want other companies and HR teams to see the beauty in creating intentional self-care moments in a digital world, that allows teammates to connect with one another without the work pressure. As we continue to navigate post-COVID life in a remote workforce, we encourage leadership teams to put your organization’s core values at the forefront of your actions. And we encourage those in the workforce to seek out companies that are intentional about creating a company culture that invites you to live out those values daily while creating opportunities for you to relax and just – Be Human.
I would welcome connecting with anyone looking to build a company with a culture that is truly reflective of its values. And to any CXO and Fractional HR leaders interested in learning about how we designed our company culture and scaled our global remote teams, while creating moments for connection, I invite you to connect with me further! www.briaporter.com
