A Guide to Building Workplace Culture in Virtual Environments

Currently, organizations are facing a major challenge in building a strong workplace culture for remote-working employees. So, here’s a guide for building workplace culture in virtual environments.

What is a ‘ Virtual Workplace‘? What are their special needs?

Simply speaking, virtual workspaces can be defined as a digital environment where employees of an organization interact and work together. They are not co-located physically.

However, employees, who are working remotely must be integrated with the organizational culture.

So, it can ensure that these employees share the common values of the organization and are properly engaged.

What are the Challenges in Building a Workplace Culture in Virtual Environments?

It is a well-acknowledged fact that the culture of an organization plays a critical role in enhancing its success.

Most organizations have managed to create a well-developed organizational culture in their physical workspaces.

However, its integration into the newly developed virtual work environment is still a long journey.

There are several key challenges faced by organizations to extend their culture into the digital work environment:

– Lack of proper communication among the employees and between the employees and their managers is one of the biggest challenges.

– Use of traditional culture-building initiatives in virtual environments, might be ineffective in digital workspaces.

– In fact, cultural and ideological differences between employees are difficult to address in a virtual environment

– Also, most organizations lack skills for managing remote employees effectively and building a virtual organizational culture effectively

What are the Best Practices for Building a Strong Culture in Virtual Workplaces?

Organizations must understand that their virtual teams have similar needs as their physical teams.

However, the key difference lies in how these things are provided to them.

This fact can help them pave the way for building a strong organizational culture in a virtual environment.

Here are a few important guidelines that can be helpful for organizations in this context:

1. Provide the Right Infrastructure

2. Establish and Communicate Work Policies and Expectations

3. Create a Virtual Culture Statement

4. Set Up an Events Calendar

5. Establish Unique Traditions 

6. Plan for Career Growth and Development of Remote Workers

1. Provide the Right Infrastructure

As with physical teams, virtual employees should have the right infrastructure such as computers, furniture, and networks to work effectively.

Hence, the organizations must provide the same to their virtual teams.

If the organization is unable to provide the infrastructure, they should finance the employees to arrange it on their own.

2. Establish and Communicate Work Policies and Expectations

Also, organizations need to establish and communicate their work policies and expectations to their virtual teams.

Hence, organizations should make sure that these policies and expectations integrate the operating philosophies of the business.

So, the culture would reflect the corporate values of the organization.

It would also ensure that the virtual teams are an integral part of the organization.

3. Create a Virtual Culture Statement

Many times organizations fail to provide a clear virtual culture statement to their remote working teams.

However, such a statement helps virtual teams to relate to their work environment and keep them engaged and motivated.

Therefore, such a statement should include the core values of the organization and how remote employees can align their actions and behaviors accordingly.

4. Set Up an Events Calendar

Also, an events calendar with virtual meetups, recognition events, happy hours, brainstorming sessions, etc. is important for building a strong culture.

Such an events calendar provides the virtual teams with a firm sense of time and connectivity with their team members.

Hence, it gives them the prospect of meeting and interacting with team members virtually, eliminating the sense of isolation.

5. Establish Unique Traditions 

Just like physical workspaces, the culture of virtual office environments should be defined by some unique traditions.

Such traditions enable virtual team members to interact freely, work flexibly, or even set aside time for informal discussions.

6. Plan for Career Growth and Development of Remote Workers

Personal growth and development of remote-working employees is one of their major areas of concern.

Hence, organizations need to plan for the career growth and development of members of their virtual teams.

Therefore, they need to invest in the skill development and professional growth of these remote employees in alignment with their career objectives.

Bottom-line

As the demand for digital workspaces continues to grow, organizations can benefit greatly by considering this guide for building workplace culture in virtual environments to enhance their profitability and business success.

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