Startup Culture in the Remote Work Era

Startups can attract more diverse talent and lower their operational costs by working remotely. However, going remote necessitates that startups rethink how to remain productive and foster team unity in a virtual environment.

Pairing new hires with knowledgeable workers on the shop floor, for example, as well as explicit salary negotiations and working with PEOs to navigate hiring across borders are all good examples.

Collaboration

In recent years, remote work has become a common norm for startups to facilitate rapid expansion without requiring physical presence, and to access global talent pools. How can they maintain connection and productivity when most people aren’t in the same physical space? Communication: Strong communication tools are critical for building and sustaining a motivated team. Some startups use virtual water cooler or lunch chats to keep up morale, others use pairing of new hires with more tenured employees to create a sense of belonging and collaboration. On-the-ground cultural sensitivity training, which is often necessary, can be and should be supplemented by continuous cultural sensitivity training for remote workers, especially if they have to overcome any time-zone and cultural differences to make that connection productive.

Communication

One of the strategies that teams use in distant work situations to maintain morale – to make sure that team members feel like one team, and to make sure that they’re all on board with the mission – is for companies to use things like always-on video channels, things like ongoing team meetings, and things like programmes that are designed to enhance trust, autonomy and entrepreneurship, remote work infrastructure, things like work-life balance. Startups follow more of an outcome-based cadence, evaluating employees based on product milestones rather than a time-log cadence. A fintech startup today would assign all new hires a mentor for the first few months to help them onboard into a new culture, and to encourage learning through a monthly subscription to an online knowledge platform and a weekly virtual knowledge-sharing session.

Cultural Adaptation

From the energy of startup vibe and good company comes the realization that startups must now adapt to working virtually. How does one maintain team spirit and a sense of shared vision? Such meetings are now extended across time zones and cultural differences. Startups are oriented toward workers towards an environment of free will and self-determination: flexible work models such as remote vocation models serve as a case in point, where employees of a biotech company can self-schedule and work from home in order to not lose out on their intended drug discovery due to looming commute expenses. Additional, startups push for an outcome-based mentality (what the consultants call performance outcome) as these centres tend towards more extrinsic motivations in order to ensure a harmony of values in the work environment.

Regulatory Compliance

When you are running on a results-based culture, with a dispersed team, it is important to have reliable means of reporting to ensure that everyone is in compliance. Startups should insist on a collective understanding of how they deal with a remote environment. Compliance in a remote working environment can be difficult to achieve, but a number of strategies can help startups. It is important to provide clear communication channels, and tagging and archiving processes that ensure the smooth flow of data. Offer feedback loops to provide ongoing support for professional development and a diverse, inclusive employee experience. And a PEO may be a good partner to engage with when building a global workforce, since legal issues such as local labour laws and payroll services can quickly get complicated.

Outcome-Based

Performance But when startups go remote, their focus must be on activities, deliverables and results. To do this effectively, startups must have regular team meetings – ideally via video conference – where team members can meet to plan objectives and agree on them. It must also have tools to help team morale – from virtual team building activities or ‘virtual water coolers’ for startups to use as ‘treats’ for energising teams; biotech startups can use digital teambuilding activities and digital ‘water coolers’ as morale boosters. Working remotely has disrupted startup culture; it provides new opportunities for innovation, can draw from global talent pools, and cuts overheads. But this new world of remote work raises complex issues, particularly around how to foster inclusive company cultures and communications between workers.

Global Talent

Acquisition Working remotely has become an essential part of startup operating procedures. It offers access to global talent at a fraction of real-estate and operational overhead expenses, while increasing productivity and the creative company culture. Start-ups must build channels to communicate effectively from a distance, as virtual spaces pose challenges in fostering the type of small talk that happens in physical atrium spaces. By creating channels on Slack where people gather to connect and discuss and joke, you are recreating offices through technology. Create sharing circles for posting updates (happy or sad), interest pieces, content for light communication and connection building for remote team members. (Pause at this entry point for a couple of minutes of chit-chat)Engagement, bonding and fostering work-life balance will each help offset the loneliness remote workers often experience.