At Sapper Consulting, we pride ourselves on our culture. From Office Olympics to Sapper Cares events, our calendars are filled with team building, charity work, and opportunities to blow off steam. Since moving to remote working, we’ve pulled together to find opportunities to keep our team connected and engaged online. Below are 6 of our favorite strategies to build a strong company culture without leaving your home.
Remote Cribz
À la MTV Cribs, Remote Cribs is an opportunity to show the team your home-office space. For some it’s a sunny spot on the couch while others prefer to hustle in a decked-out basement den (looking at you, Stephen). Once a week, a member from our team shares their Remote Cribz video via Google Hangouts.
To take Remote Cribz to the next level, our team places their laptop outside the door before they start filming. Upon opening the door, they act as if a camera crew is patiently waiting on the doorstep – “Oh hey guys, welcome to my crib.” A brief tour ensues, usually including a string of inside jokes and irrelevant comments. Needless to say, Remote Cribs has been a huge hit with our team.
Remote Happy Hours
After a long day in the office (house), it can be nice to relax with your friends at the bar (living room). On Friday afternoons, a few of our coworkers like to get together on Google Hangouts, enjoy their favorite craft beers, cocktails, and just hangout. Virtual Happy Hours are a super simple way to stay connected outside of work meetings and offers some ‘down time’ for you and your team.
The SE Lounge
SE Lounge, or Sales Enablement Lounge, is a virtual hangout for our marketing team. As our team hustles through their inbox or builds their next spreadsheet, they have the option to jump in the lounge via Google Hangouts. So what’s it like in the virtual lounge?
“We generally watch Jeopardy if we have something on, sometimes for lunch I’ll pick movies to watch but for the most part we either hang out and talk or watch Jeopardy. I created the lounge to make sure I keep the culture going that we’ve built. I thought it would be fun to find some ways to still get the chance to hangout without making it mandated, just recreate the office in a way.” Said Stephen Baier, Executive Director of Outbound Marketing
#mug_of_the_day
#mug_of_the_day is but one of many engagement channels we utilize in Slack. It’s sole purpose is to inspire conversation and connection with our team. The prompt everyday is the same : “What’s your coffee mug of choice today? What’s the story, morning glory?”.
Here our team shares their favorite coffee blends, sentimental stories about their mugs, and usually a pet or two. While we may not all be able to bond over the same pour over, we can still take a moment to connect over a cup of joe.
Engagement Week
Engagement Week happens the last week of every month; consider it a mixture of ‘Finals Week’ and ‘Spirit Week’. This is the time when we make a big push to reach our benchmarks – but we also come together and celebrate different themed days. In the office, we normally roll out breakfast bars, potlucks, or catered lunches. Since going remote, our biggest focus is once again, Slack.
We created the #Engagementweek Slack channel, assigning a different prompt for each day of the week. These prompts are personal to us based on our company goals, but may look something like “share your first car” or “share a photo of your grandparents”. This channel quickly becomes a hilarious and heartwarming homebase as you share personal stories with your coworkers.
Company Wide Meetings
100+ individuals on a Zoom call? You betchya’.
Company wide meetings are something we’ve done every Thursday for years. We come together to discuss company updates, the CEO shares what’s on his mind, we give appreciation, and are free to ask questions. Rather than canceling this practice for the next few weeks, we decided to simply take it online. While the screen looks like a modern take on the Brady Bunch, seeing everyone come together is heartening. It helps us to maintain a level of normalcy and community while we’ve moved to a new working environment.
Unfortunate circumstances may have brought us here but we’re using this opportunity to come out stronger than ever before. Since moving to remote working, we’re getting extremely positive feedback from the team. In fact, some have said they feel more connected and engaged than ever before. Working remotely doesn’t have to isolate your team; it can be the force that brings you together.
We’d love to learn more about what you’re doing to connect and engage with your employees and your prospects. Need some help? Check out our 2020 Prospecting Playbook.
