This article has been written by Naghma Rahman pursuing a Startup Generalist & Virtual Assistant Training Program from Skill Arbitrage.

This article has been edited and published by Shashwat Kaushik.

Introduction

“Remote work is the embodiment of the belief that great work is not confined to a location but cultivated in an environment of inspiration and choice.”

If the COVID-19 pandemic locked the whole world down, it opened new opportunities for those who did not need their workstation to be tethered to a cubicle for them to be productive, resourceful or efficient. Their output was location agnostic, and they in fact discovered a superpower associated with this flexibility—that they were not ready to trade with anything in the world. There is no denying the fact that remote work is the structure for the future corporations that are here to stay. In this article, we explore the strategies that are effective in building a strong work culture in start-ups.

Understanding remote work culture

Today, if a company wants to reap the benefits of a diverse talent pool, it is embracing remote work—that helps them be at the top of their game by being able to attract talent from across the globe. Here are some features of a remote work culture:

• Attract global talent: This might be one of the main reasons why most startups are going remote. By obviating the need to come to work, startups can now attract talent from around the world. Today, some organisations are fully remote and are super successful.
• Cost consideration: Remote work is highly cost-effective as there is no capital cost involved while running a business, in the form of electricity, rent, bills, etc.
• Improved productivity: The inherent flexibility offered by the remote work culture leads to improved employee productivity through increased autonomy.
• Reduced absenteeism: The employees need not be absent for reasons that hardly occupy 10 % of their days. They can attend to personal chores without sacrificing their professional commitments, as they have all the flexibility to rearrange their priorities.
• Remote employees help to widen your perspective: Having employees from across the globe brings a fresh perspective on the region and ethnicity they belong to, making the team truly inclusive in terms of demography as well as intellect.
• Advances in technology: A few years ago, remote work was unheard of. Many corporations were on the fence, about to implement remote work for the innumerable advantages it had to offer but unable to do so for lack of the requisite technological environment. Today, technological advancements have made those companies switch to remote work.

Driven by these factors, a strong remote work culture is critical for start-ups today. It not only drives productivity and efficiency and directly affects the topline and bottom line but it also attracts top talent from across the globe.

Foundational elements of remote work culture

When you want to build a strong remote work culture, the thrust has to come from the leadership. It should be made a part of the company’s core values and vision, making it an integral part of the work environment. The Leadership team has to lead by example and set benchmarks that the rest of the team can emulate. Of course, the right tools and technology that are essential for communication and collaboration must also be in place, to ensure team cohesion.

Building trust and accountability

• Trust: A strong remote work culture is based on the foundation of trust. The team is responsible enough to understand what the deliverables are and capable enough to deliver results without the need for micromanagement.
• Transparency in Communication: Communication is key when it comes to remote work. There needs to be regular, and transparent communication among teams to ensure all stakeholders are aligned and updated.
• KPIs: When the key performance indicators are results-based rather than the number of hours clocked in, only then will the team members have a sense of ownership for the task allotted.

 Fostering team collaboration and engagement

• Team building: This assumes even greater significance in the context of remote work. To create a strong team in a remote work environment, there has to be a conscious effort to make the team feel connected and engaged despite being physically distanced from each other. This can be achieved by having team-building exercises, virtual meet-ups, and informal sessions, to get the teams to know each other.
• Rewards and recognition: Felicitating the performers and changemakers in review meetings reiterates the fact that remote work is also a serious business and establishes the effectiveness of KPIs. Regular feedback and recognition ensure the team’s performance never goes off track and the team members feel a sense of engagement.

Promoting work-life balance

Remote work promotes work-life balance, as it shifts the focus to the outcomes rather than the time invested. This provides much-needed flexibility to the employees, as they feel more in charge of their lives—without having to worry about being unavailable for family when at work and vice versa. Their professional and personal lives need not feed on each other, for one to grow. Both can coexist peacefully and in perfect harmony, leading to an increase in. employee satisfaction. Further, commute-related anxiety and the unavailability due to rigid work hours can be obviated, further leading to a sense of autonomy that directly impacts employee productivity. Reduced absenteeism is another advantage, as employees no longer need to take a PTO to attend to minor commitments at home.

However, the startups as well as the employees must have strategies to set clear boundaries, demarcating personal and professional lives, to let the idea of work-life balance succeed.

Continuous improvement and adaptation

To have a strong remote work culture, it is critical to have an environment where feedback is valued. Start-ups can foster such an environment by encouraging their employees to share their feedback, experiences or insights through various channels. Actively seeking feedback puts continuous improvement at the forefront and the employees feel valued and cared for.

This not only boosts operational efficiency but also leads to high employee engagement, further contributing to their being open to continuous learning and adaptability to keep pace with technological advancements. A work culture that embraces growth through continuous learning and upskilling is what sets organisations apart from the crowd. Further, an adaptable team knows how to bounce back from challenges or less than favourable outcomes, and quickly turn around the situation—something that is extremely critical for a start-up to stay ahead in the competition.

The way forward

Remote work, as we see it today, was unheard of a few years ago. It was offered to employees only as an option to accommodate some exigencies—on a case-to-case basis. It was detested by the leadership team of organisations due to the absence of accountability and accurate performance metrics. Not anymore. The technology has advanced so much that many companies have gone fully remote—20% post COVID compared to 2.3% pre-COVID.  Communication and collaborative technologies like Zoom, Slack, and Google Meet have made teleconferencing easier than ever, making teams embrace this change wholeheartedly. The rise of sophisticated project management software has led to clearly defined performance metrics, making accountability and monitoring easier than ever before, resulting in leadership buying in this change.

Conclusion

The rise of remote work has made a globally diverse talent pool available for startups, but they need to be ready to pay for premium talent if they want to leverage this opportunity. The cost saved from needing an office space may be channelled into paying adequately to attract the best talent.

The future looks promising for remote work as more and more companies continue to adopt it with the rapid technological advancements as well as the change in the nature of the job itself. As technology continues to grow, and now with the introduction of the omnipresent ‘Artificial Intelligence’, there will be a drastic change in how we will be working, making more space for remote adoption driven by task automation and increased productivity.  According to a study by World Economic forum, remote digital jobs will grow by 25% and rise to reach 90 million by 2030.

To wrap up, here are some strategies that can help a startup build a strong remote work culture:

1. Build trust and accountability
2. Establish transparency in communication
3. Set clear deliverables and have performance metrics
4. Fostering Team Collaboration and Engagement
5. Establish and encourage a positive company culture
6. Encourage work-life balance
7. Create an environment of continuous learning and adaptability

These strategies can help startups have a robust team that is deeply engaged, and motivated and works cohesively because of being remote, instead of ‘despite;’ being remote. Whether or not companies accept this change, remote work is not just a passing trend but is here to stay. Planning for it and strategizing for it is not only a prudent business decision, but also the only way forward to build a strong remote work culture, that will establish the organisation as one that values change, and attracts the topmost talent.

“If a company doesn’t go remote, they’ll steal your most talented people” – Chris Herd Founder & CEO @FirstbaseHQ

References

• https://www.thaloz.com/blog/building-a-remote-first-culture-essential-strategies-for-success
• https://www.trustshoring.com/blog/the-ultimate-guide-to-remote-work-for-startups/