Company culture is an important aspect of any team business, but it’s also one of the most forgotten activities due to time constraints and simply not realizing just how critical it is to building a cohesive group. Many businesses are working remotely and/or are spread out across different regions, and loneliness and lack of collaboration are two major struggles for those who are not regularly going into an office location. 

Regardless of what industry you’re in, cultivating a culture within your company will lead to stronger communication, higher productivity, and happier employees. 

Image Source: https://lp.buffer.com/state-of-remote-work-2020

Hire Passionate People

If you are a business owner and your goal is to build a strong team of real estate appraisers, your main strategy is likely to focus on hiring professionally experienced candidates. Yes, this is incredibly important to consider when building your company, but you also want to attract individuals who are passionate about growth and excited to collaborate with others because they will positively contribute to company culture. 

Host Company Events

Planning in-person events can be challenging nowadays because many people are working remotely and there are safety restrictions to consider, but don’t let this get in the way of socializing with your teammates! 

Make sure that you incorporate team building activities into your company gatherings! As important as it is to kick back and relax with your colleagues, it’s also critical that you work on building synergy and creating bonds that will ultimately help your business succeed. Encourage everyone to turn on their cameras; putting faces to names is such a basic thing, but so very important to encourage, especially when many companies have employees spread out across different regions. 

There are multiple programs available that you can use to facilitate a virtual event. Here are some ideas and lists to help get you inspired:

• • 33 Fun Virtual Event Ideas for Online Socials in 2022
  • 18 virtual team building activities and games for 2022
  • 13 Online Team Building Games to Try with Colleagues

Image Source: https://pixabay.com/illustrations/idea-project-to-build-brainstorming-6900632/

Create a Company Newsletter

This initiative is simple enough to coordinate, and it ensures that everyone on the team is kept up-to-date on major happenings with the business or industry. Newsletters don’t have to go out on a weekly or even monthly basis; you can start simple with quarterly newsletters that feature major highlights from the previous three months, and goals for the future! Make it eye-catching; try including a GIF or video, so it doesn’t look like just another email with a wall of text. Be sure to add your brand colors and company logo too!

If you want to start a company newsletter but aren’t sure where to begin, here are examples of items you can start brainstorming with:

• • Industry awards and nominations
  • Conferences or other industry events you’re attending
  • Employee(s) of the month
  • Welcome new employees added to the team
  • Marketing achievements
  • Industry news and trends
  • Share new content (one-pagers, customer testimonials, blogs, videos, etc.)

Check out this article from Content Monkey that lists 20+ examples of company newsletters and strategies for success. 

Celebrate Wins, Big and Small

No achievement should be too small to share with your team. Acknowledge exciting releases, updates, accomplishments, employee anniversaries, birthdays, and other big life events! It doesn’t have to be anything fancy or overly official; a simple post in your internal communications channel (Slack, Teams, etc.) will do the trick! This lets people know that you recognize their efforts, and it encourages them to continue their hard work. 

Fostering a professional work environment is important to productivity and overall success, but that doesn’t mean that everything has to be all about the business, all the time. For example, you can create a “Fun” Slack or Teams channel where people can share photos, videos, and links they enjoy. Try posting a question every week (“What’s your favorite movie?”) to get conversations going.

Resources:

• • Slack: https://slack.com/blog/collaboration/remote-team-building-activities 
  • Atlassian: https://www.atlassian.com/blog/teamwork/virtual-team-building-activities-remote-teams 
  • Contact Monkey: https://www.contactmonkey.com/blog/employee-newsletter-ideas 
  • Team building: https://teambuilding.com/blog/virtual-event-ideas 
  • Hubspot: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/online-team-building-games 
  • Buffer: https://lp.buffer.com/state-of-remote-work-2020
  • Remote-How: https://remote-how.com/blog/the-importance-of-remote-team-building