Jobhop Jobhop's blog : 5 Ideas to Create Cultural Transparency in Remote Work Environment

Do you want to create a work environment where remote workers can freely express their thoughts?

Do you wish to build a workplace where communication flows smoothly between remote, hybrid, and in-house team members?

“Yes, and yes.”

In that case, you need to create a transparent remote work culture.

Company culture is important for building a transparent and trustworthy environment at the workplace. In fact, 80% of workers consider company culture before applying for a job.

In addition, a Harvard Business study reveals that 70% of workers find themselves more engaged in work when they can freely communicate with senior management.

However, communication has always been a challenge in the remote work environment. Often employees and employers find themselves struggling to establish a clear communication line while working from home.

So, you wish to harness cultural transparency in your remote work system but don't know how to do it?

Simply scroll down to explore 5 ideas to create cultural transparency in your remote team.

What is Cultural Transparency?

Cultural transparency or workplace transparency is an environment where managers and workers can freely express themselves. There is no barrier between subordinates and seniors in the transparent workplace.

In other words, two-way communication between a company and its people leads to better communication, coordination, and teamwork.

Transparency is essential to earn employees' trust to improve their engagement and productivity. Especially in remote work culture, transparency is vital to keep workers and managers on the same page due to a lack of physical connection.

Transparency enables remote workers to better understand their job roles in the remote workplace, such as;

What actions will be rewarded/punished?
What are the manager's expectations from remote employees?
What does the working day look like?
What are company goals? Etc.

Overall, transparency is a democratic state where everyone has the right to speak and share their opinions in the organisation.

Why Is Transparency Important in Remote Work Environment?

Remote working is the new norm these days. But this doesn't mean it is easy for managers to keep remote workers productive and aligned in the absence of physical interaction. Remote work culture has thrown many curveballs, but with transparency, you can dodge many of them, like:

Strained relationships

Remote work systems might have allowed companies to leverage the global talent pool. But it has also broken the connection among subordinates. Remote workers can't have informal discussions with their colleagues during lunch break or hang out together after work.

This lack of informal interaction among team members can lead to miscommunication, conflicts, and poor coordination. Thus, practising transparent remote culture will harbour trust among your staff, strengthening their relationships.

Build an overall company culture

Company culture is the best way for workers to understand what their employers value besides their contribution to the workplace. In remote shifts, workers might find it hard to understand what their seniors expect from them. Thus, having a transparent remote culture can conjure employees to better understand the company culture.

Better understand the role

Remote work can save infrastructure and other expenses for companies. But, it can increase their financial burden if employees are not familiar with their job role in the organisation. So, transparent culture will make sure that every member of your team is familiar with his or her responsibilities.

Set accountability

When all the work operations are discussed in an open environment, there will remain no confusion among employees. Moreover, it will help managers set work accountability and ensure that a particular project is completed on time.

Improve employee engagement

Many studies have shown that transparency can improve employee engagement and retention rates. With a transparent work environment, you can make your employees understand the reason behind your certain actions. This way, you can better connect with your employees and improve their engagement in the organisation.

5 Ideas to Create Transparent Remote Culture

Transparent work culture can help remote organisations in many ways. But unfortunately, 50% of employees believe that their organisation has a poor transparent work policy. That means you have to bring up your A-game to build a robust, transparent remote culture in the workplace.

Here's how you can create cultural transparency in your remote workplace:

1. Constant communication

Communication is the key factor for remote managers to establish transparency and gain employees' trust. Since employees lack physical interaction in remote systems; it becomes the responsibility of managers to create a constant communication flow between different team members.

Here are a few tips to improve communication in remote teams:

First of all, companies should invest in a centralised communication tool so that employees can have a regulated yet free communication system.
Organise video conference meetings at least once a week for employees to establish informal relationships.
Make communication fun by starting different discussions and debates.
Create a ritual where each team member has to say good morning to everyone via text message.
Zoom Happy Hours have been a great hit. So, you can try something on that line.

2. Create a remote work policy

Remote work is new for everyone. Despite the two years of work from home, not many employees can still fully understand this work culture. That's because they have been trained to work in a physical work environment for years, so shifting to remote work will not be easy for many people.

Only 32% of workers say that they will not return to office even after the pandemic. That means the remaining 68% of workers would like to move back to the office once the pandemic crisis goes away.

So, companies can do a simple thing to create a transparent remote work system and motivate remote workers - create a remote work policy. They just need to put together a well-defined remote work policy to provide a framework for remote workers. Employees can use policies as a basic foundation to make decisions and understand company goals.

3. Use the right tools

Remote work is impossible without the right tools, period! If you don't have the right tools to assign tasks, monitor performance, and provide feedback to your remote team members, it is simply impossible to build a transparent remote work culture.

You can easily establish a transparent work environment using the right remote work tool. Through a centralised dashboard, each team member can know which task has been assigned to whom. This will eliminate any doubt or confusion among remote workers.

For example, recruiters use recruitment CRM software to build a single source of truth, nurture relationships with candidates and clients, accelerate hiring processes, and win deals quickly.

However, the key point here is to find the right remote work technology for your company. For this, you have to consider multiple factors, such as;

Get a tool that can handle your core remote work issues. For example, if latency has been a problem in your remote work team, you should get a tool with powerful time management and tracking features.
Before selecting remote work software, you should consider your business operations and team size.
Ensure to make your budget before getting a remote work tool.
Make a list of all the features that you want in your remote work dashboards, such as team collaboration, time management, onboarding, and more.
Always get software that can support two-way communication so that you can establish a smooth communication flow between employees and employers in your organisation.

In this digital hiring era, video interviews are crucial for every recruiter. Integrate a video interviewing software into your recruitment process. It will help foster a faster and more efficient recruitment process to empower your hiring managers.

4. Collect regular feedback

If it's your first time running a remote team and establishing a transparent remote work policy, there is a big chance that you will make lots of mistakes. It is impossible to get the right remote work balance on the first attempt.

Therefore, you should constantly collect feedback from your team members and other stakeholders to understand how you can make a better transparent remote work culture. You should not just collect feedback but also take immediate actions based on real-time feedback.

When your remote workers see that you are taking immediate actions based on their feedback, this will also improve employee engagement and productivity.

5. One-on-one interaction

Not many managers invest in one-on-one interaction, but this is one of the best methods to know your workers in a remote environment. Managers should conduct one-on-one interaction through video calls or regular calls with individual team members to understand their concerns and thoughts.

As we all know, remote work has caused depression and anxiety among many workers. Thus, one-on-one interaction will allow managers to understand the mental state of individual team members. They can provide guidance and moral support to employees who are feeling low. They can also assure employees that their job is secure.

Bottom Line

Transparency is an important part of modern workplaces. Whether you have a remote or hybrid team, having a proper transparency culture is the backbone of your business success today. In addition, transparency will help you gain the trust and respect of your team members.