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Keeping your company culture alive whilst working remotely

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​Here at Adam, we’re a pretty social bunch. We pride ourselves on our company culture, which we believe makes us a great place to work. When designing our offices, our Operations Manager Leanne wanted to make the entire office feel like a ‘home away from home’, believing that if you spend a third of your life at work then work should be a place you want to be.

So, when all of us found ourselves working from home during the current COVID-19 pandemic, we knew that one of our big challenges was going to be finding a way to ensure that we manage to maintain that culture, and stay connected to each other.

We’ve all worked together to do what we can to try and keep the Adam culture alive whilst we maintain social distance and self-isolation, and it’s safe to say that having the social connection to your colleagues whilst being isolated has made this potentially difficult situation much, much easier to cope with.

Here is what we have been doing at Adam to keep our culture alive whilst remote working.

Video meetings

This is probably the most obvious of all the ideas to stay connected, but it is also probably the most effective. All of our teams at Adam have at least two video meetings a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. This video chat not only helps us stay up to date on what is happening with the rest of the team, but actually seeing each other helps lift the feelings of isolation that threaten to settle, and helps remind us that we’re all in this together!

Over-communicate

With everyone working from their own homes, it can be quite easy for things to get missed whilst trying to communicate so much information concisely. The best way to combat this is to over-communicate. Amid the current chaos, it is our thinking that too much information is better than not enough!

WhatsApp group

The Adam WhatsApp group has been a lifeline for many of us. The groupchat gives us a place to talk about everything we would usually have a natter about over a brew, as well as a place to share things to cheer each other up and make us smile.

And we absolutely cannot forget about the amount of pet pictures, as our furry friends adjust to life with their humans at home all the time! A steady stream of pet pictures works wonders when it comes to keeping up team spirits.

Virtual drinks

At the end of our first week working remotely, our CEO Richard invited us all to a virtual Q&A and drinks session. Everyone at Adam jumped onto Video chat, the majority of us with drinks in our hands, and held a Q&A session with the management team.

We got to ask any questions any of us had – from remote working logistics, to plans for the future – in a more informal setting than our daily meetings, but we also got to catch up with each other and share our news. Even staff members who were on annual leave popped in with a drink in hand!

Every single one of us thought that this simple idea was invaluable, and it made a huge difference to our working week. We’re all looking forward to this Friday’s drinks, now!

 

Whilst everything feels chaotic in the world of business right now, making the extra effort to connect your team and maintain your company’s culture will help your entire team in countless ways.