{"id":10048,"date":"2020-11-17T15:22:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-17T20:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/?p=10048"},"modified":"2023-04-26T07:05:59","modified_gmt":"2023-04-26T11:05:59","slug":"remote-tips-how-were-keeping-up-morale-and-company-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/remote-tips-how-were-keeping-up-morale-and-company-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Remote tips: how we\u2019re keeping up morale and company culture"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"entry-header has-dark-background-color entry-header--has-illustration entry-header--has-illustration--generic\">\n\t<div class=\"container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-header__row row align-center\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"col col-lg-7 col-xlg-6 entry-header__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"component component-single-header\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"entry-header__misc text--subtitle text--uppercase text--small\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/category\/growth-customers\/\" class=\"entry-header__link\">Growth &amp; Customers<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"entry-title-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"entry-title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tRemote tips: how we\u2019re keeping up morale and company culture\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"entry-header__description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t<div class=\"single-post-details container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"col\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"posted-on \"><time class=\"entry-date published\" datetime=\"2020-11-17T15:22:00-05:00\">November 17, 2020<\/time><\/span><span class=\"reading-time\"> min read<\/span>\n\t\t<button\n\t\t\ttype=\"button\"\n\t\t\tclass=\"social-share-button button button--icon button--secondary js-social-share-button\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-title=\"Remote tips: how we\u2019re keeping up morale and company culture\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-url=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/remote-tips-how-were-keeping-up-morale-and-company-culture\/\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-text=\"Please read this interesting article\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__share-label\">Share<\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__copy-label\" hidden>Copy Link<\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__copy-tooltip\" aria-hidden=\"true\" hidden>Copied<\/span>\n\t\t<\/button>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/header>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-post-author has-dark-background-color alignfull\">\n\t<div class=\"container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"col\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"co-authors\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-author-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t<a class=\"entry-author\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/author\/trilby-lawless\/\">\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"40\" height=\"40\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/10\/trilby-350x350.jpg\" class=\"entry-author__image\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/10\/trilby-350x350.jpg 350w, https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/10\/trilby-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/10\/trilby.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 40px) 100vw, 40px\" \/>\t\t\t\t<span class=\"entry-author__name\">Trilby Lawless<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Culture is a part of any office environment &#8212; and you work hard to promote your firm\u2019s unique culture. It plays a role in how you recruit and retain talent, whether that talent resides in the office or works remotely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">For remote workers, culture boils down to the little things you do to empower staff to socialize and share ideas. Below are a few things we\u2019ve had success with, things that have helped us stay connected as a company. Hopefully, there\u2019s an idea below that you can steal!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Daily video coffee talks<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Every morning each department joins a video call with their team to say hi and enjoy their morning cup of coffee like we would getting settled into a workday at the office. Love it or hate it, this also helps you get out of bed and get put together for the day. No one needs to know if you\u2019re still wearing sweatpants, but at the very least, this gets you on track for productivity and feeling better embarking on your day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Google Hangout water cooler chat<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">As you know, things can get twitchy when you\u2019re stuck inside all day, and you may need a break or a new face to talk to. We organized an all-day Google Hangout for people to come and go when they need a break from work and want to socialize. Many people join at lunch as a nice way to have a meal with someone, albeit virtual &#8211; it beats TV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>All company Friday lunches <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Transparency is especially important across departments and with leadership. We make sure to dedicate time to this by hosting all-company lunches. The topic and presenters vary week to week, but every Friday employees are able to order a company-provided lunch and eat together on a conference call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">BigTime Fun printable activities<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">For many, trying to get work done with kids at home can get a little crazy. We put together printable activity books, including a coloring book and scavenger hunt, to give little ones some \u201cwork\u201d to help parents catch up on emails or just enjoy their coffee while it&#8217;s still hot. It\u2019s been fun to see everyone\u2019s kids\u2019 artwork, and quite a few of us have even downloaded the pages ourselves to enjoy some fun breaks. <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.bigtime.net\/covid-19-toolkit\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Download your own copies here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Giving kudos and small incentives&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Initially, the Sales team started giving away small weekly prizes (Amazon gift cards, picking a theme for the daily team call, etc.) to the top-performing Account Executive that week. After seeing how a dose of healthy competition sparked enthusiasm, we extended the idea to the whole company and set up a Kudos Slack channel for employees to give a shout-out when someone goes above and beyond to help a teammate or client. Everyone submitted then gets to spin the virtual wheel for a prize that week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Kids and pet social hour<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Adorable kids and cute pets are a no-brainer for a morale boost. Just when it\u2019s reaching the 3 PM slump, a couple of times a month we\u2019ll have a kids and pets social video call for people to stop in with their families and hang out. Something that wouldn\u2019t be possible in the office, it\u2019s a nice plus getting to know our coworkers better and meet the important friends and pets in their lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Wellness slack channel<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Our office loves Slack as we typically have a mix of full-time remote workers and in-office employees, but recently we\u2019ve really stepped it up a notch by adding new channels to build remote communities. One of the best ones so far is our wellness channel where people are sharing mindfulness tips, at-home workouts, and new recipes to try.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">We hope you found an idea or two in this post to borrow from us. For more on running your firm remotely including establishing long-term work-from-home standards, strategies for keeping the team on course, and more, <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.bigtime.net\/guides\/professional-services-guide-to-remote-firm-management?utm_medium=sage-morale-guest-blog&amp;utm_source=marketing+content+download&amp;utm_campaign=remote-guide\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">visit our remote firm management guide<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\"><\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"single-cta\">\n\t<div class=\"single-cta__positioner\">\n\t\t<div class=\"single-cta__wrapper has-dark-background-color\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"single-cta__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"single-cta__title h3\">Subscribe to our Sage Advice Newsletter<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"single-cta__description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>Get our latest business advice delivered directly to your inbox.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\t\t\t\thref=\"#gate-ab515c6e-7e90-4c2f-a67e-113872516e8b\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"single-cta__button button button--primary\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t>Subscribe<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1440\" height=\"810\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/GettyImages-1073797282-1440x810.jpg\" class=\"single-cta__image\" alt=\"Working from home with tea in hand\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/GettyImages-1073797282-1440x810.jpg 1440w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 48em) 33vw, 100vw\" \/>\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Culture is a part of any office environment &#8212; and you work hard to promote your firm\u2019s unique culture. It plays a role in how you recruit and retain talent, whether that talent resides in the office or works remotely. For remote workers, culture boils down to the little things you do to empower staff [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1468,"featured_media":9089,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sage_video":false,"post_featured_image_hide":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,47,44],"tags":[195,170,420,116,153,284,17,138],"business_type":[40,312,41],"lilypad":[],"context":[418,429],"industry":[451,411,55,450],"persona":[100,99,98,97],"imagine_tag":[464,215,444,441,233],"coauthors":[864],"class_list":["post-10048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-growth-customers","category-people-leadership","category-strategy-legal-operations","tag-boss-your-business","tag-business-strategy","tag-cloud-financial-management","tag-compliance","tag-growing-a-business","tag-hiring","tag-hr-payroll","tag-leadership","business_type-small-business","business_type-accountants","business_type-growing-business","industry-healthcare","industry-human-resources","industry-professional-services","industry-software-saas"],"sage_meta":{"region":"en-us","author_name":"Trilby Lawless","featured_image":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/GettyImages-1136194808.jpg","imagine_tags":{"464":"GDPR","215":"HR and Payroll","444":"Intacct Medium Business","441":"Intacct Payroll And HR","233":"Medium Businesses"}},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Sage Advice US","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/1468"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/9089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10048"},{"taxonomy":"business_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/business_type?post=10048"},{"taxonomy":"lilypad","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/lilypad?post=10048"},{"taxonomy":"context","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/context?post=10048"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=10048"},{"taxonomy":"persona","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/persona?post=10048"},{"taxonomy":"imagine_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/imagine_tag?post=10048"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=10048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}