How do you encourage people to demonstrate your organisation’s values when they are working remotely?

How do you encourage people to demonstrate your organisation’s values when they are working remotely?

Running online workshops and coaching sessions over the last couple of years I’ve noticed that many organisations have started to supply their staff with Zoom backgrounds that communicate their organisational culture and values. Like the values posters in offices these have the virtue of being clear and easy to deploy; a handy reminder for people. But just like those posters their impact on the actual culture of the organisation is limited, especially around values that relate to the way people work together.

When you ask someone “what’s the culture like at your place?” they might reply “it’s great, collaboration is really important to people here”, or “team working is at the heart of how we do things”. If you ask them to explain, they don’t talk about a poster on the wall – more likely they will recount stories of how people behaved in a way that exemplified those values – and here’s the important point – that behaviour was rewarded by the organisation, either formally or informally. But how do you reward and encourage those exemplar moments when people are working fully or partly from home?

Formal reward structures can be adapted for remote working relatively easily. What we miss from working remotely is the little signs and signals that we are appreciated – the smiles and eye contact leaving a really productive meeting, or just dropping by to say you thought something a team member had done was great.

For a lot of those smaller acts of encouragement, it might seem weird to book a Zoom call. An email or chat message is certainly better than nothing, but delivering that support face to face always has a bigger impact. Why not set up one of your “To Do” lists for feedback, and keep it handy when you have an online meeting? That will remind you to deliver the feedback in a way that will feel natural and be appreciated.

Some productivity tools include the ability to give staff and colleagues “claps” or “stars” to show their appreciation. While these can be helpful, they don’t always reflect the truth – I’m aware of one example where a team member who had some pretty problematic behaviours was also the person with the most stars – because people kept giving them in the hope the person would change. Systems like this are also open to gaming of course, but you can make them work if you use them as a reminder to give specific feedback about what you appreciated and describe how it exemplified the values.

All this takes a bit more effort, but upholding values is hard – that’s what makes them valuable.

Jim Butler, Senior Associate