If you had to describe your team culture in one word, what would it be?
The COVID-19 pandemic ushered in a new wave of remote work. Nearly 15 percent of U.S. employees work remotely for advantages like flexibility and prioritizing time with family — and more are expected to follow suit.
However, opting for remote work doesn’t mean employees want to feel disconnected from their teams. Companies must strive harder to build inclusive company cultures that span across states and continents.
Companies like The Predictive Index, Terakeet, 8th Light and Jabra Hearing exemplify this shift, going above and beyond to foster cultures where remote team members feel as included as if they were all in the same room.
Built In sat down with these companies, and others, to learn more.
The Predictive Index helps companies understand how their people think and work so they can build dream teams and create better work.
Describe your team culture in one word.
Cultivating. Cultivate can mean a few different things, but primarily, developing and improving — as well as fostering relationships. On the product operations team at The Predictive Index, I love working with my team, because we’re constantly finding new ways to improve our craft as operations specialists, developing new processes and innovating how we build and support our product. On top of that, we are very supportive of one another and our relationships as coworkers. This collaboration has been crucial as we’ve established this function in our product department.
What is one way your company ensures all employees feel included in the company culture, even with remote employees?
By creating opportunities to connect all year round, with no travel required. Some things that come to mind include pen pals, wellness challenges, support groups and ERGs. It’s important to connect with people outside of projects and work responsibilities — learning more about my coworkers outside of our day jobs is incredibly important to company culture.
What is your favorite part about working remotely?
Flexibility. I’m a new parent, so being able to be there for my family without feeling like I’m sacrificing opportunities at work to develop professionally has been monumental. Sick days and daycare closures can happen unexpectedly, so being able to remove a commute or the ability to work flexible hours has provided so much peace of mind.
Terakeet is an owned asset optimization partner for Fortune 500 brands seeking meaningful customer connections and online business growth.
Describe your team culture in one word.
Collaborative. The team thrives off one another, constantly bouncing ideas around and learning together. Having several smart individuals striving towards the same goal creates a natural need to collaborate.
What is one way your company ensures all employees feel included in the company culture, even with remote employees?
Openness and keeping things fun. We are an incredibly welcoming group so anyone can come as they are. We have Slack channels for anything and everything — from musicians to cooking to gardening. Whatever your hobby, I can guarantee someone on the team will share that interest and want to include you.
What is your favorite part about working remotely?
Flexibility. While I am more of an outgoing person, I also love the ability to quickly drive to a doctor's appointment or multitask with chores at home, should time allow for it. Not to mention avoiding traffic on the way to and from work.
8th Light partners with forward-thinking people and organizations to help them imagine and create elegant, robust and groundbreaking software solutions to complex problems.
Describe your team culture in one word.
On the 8th Light team, it’s clear that support is a core value. When I reach out with questions, there is always a team member to help. As a remote worker, I have been able to develop relationships with people across the company, which has led to many mentoring opportunities — I’ve picked up several new skills from the mentoring I’ve received.
What is one way your company ensures all employees feel included in the company culture, even with remote employees?
8th Light has a very active Slack workspace and guilds where people can meet up on Zoom to talk about interests, along with many in-person events at our HQ office. Even when I am working with a client solo, I still feel connected to the company.
What is your favorite part about working remotely?
The lack of a commute is an incredible benefit. It’s eco-friendly, which is a huge bonus. It allows me the time to wake early, get a good breakfast and become acclimated to my day before I get busy with work.
Jabra Hearing is empowering people to hear better through convenient, personalized hearing care at a fraction of the cost.
Describe your team culture in one word.
Fun. We’re collaborative, solution minded and empathetic. By focusing on the challenges our colleagues face, we work together to find effective solutions, making our work environment enjoyable and productive. Recently our team had the opportunity to visit our fulfillment center in Bloomington, Illinois, to help them problem solve, but the highlight was the relationships we forged over arcade games and brewery bingo.
What is one way your company ensures all employees feel included in the company culture, even with remote employees?
As a remote-first company, we’ve nailed the art of inclusivity. We’re all about utilizing tools like Slack, Google, Jira and Figma to keep everyone in the loop continuously. Picture spontaneous group chats, huddles and shared channels where ideas flow freely. While we do the occasional one-on-one, our group discussions are where the real magic happens. Plus, we're all about that “camera-on” vibe — not because we have to, but because we genuinely enjoy seeing each other's faces. It’s just how we roll, creating a work culture that’s as chill as it is connected.
What is your favorite part about working remotely?
Seeing my kids’ faces when they come home from school. I can do what I love but still feel present with my family. Focusing on what matters, rather than spending hours commuting, I can start earlier, with a fresher brain and enjoy a more flexible schedule. At Jabra Hearing, remote work thrives, thanks to the collective efforts of both employees and leadership. Our employees embrace and champion remote work culture, made evident in their dedication to communication and adept use of online tools. This is further supported by leadership through their investment in hosting things like weekly all-company meetings and fun monthly virtual events, as well as monetary benefits to make working from home a breeze.
AWeber is an easy-to-use SaaS marketing platform, trusted by over 500,000 small businesses globally.
Describe your team culture in one word.
Solvers. Our customers face problems every single day that make it hard to run their business successfully. Every team member at AWeber is focused on identifying and solving those problems through our platform. As a marketing team, we exist to educate our customers — and non-customers — about the latest, best and most effective ways to grow and drive their businesses forward for years to come.
What is one way your company ensures all employees feel included in the company culture, even with remote employees?
We have annual retreats and team meetups and plenty of remote fun via holiday games, happy hours and games and drag queen bingo. One fun practice we’ve continued remotely is small, randomized, meet-the-team groups for existing and new team members to get together for 15 minutes to share silly or surprising fun facts about ourselves.
What is your favorite part about working remotely?
At AWeber, we measure performance by execution and results, not hours at your desk. As a fully remote team, this autonomy means there’s time for life to happen between work hours, whether that’s personal interests or time for kids and family. It also means as successful remote AWeber team members, we are naturally curious and driven problem solvers who are passionate about doing difficult, meaningful work that will benefit our customers. We study, test, learn, iterate constantly and do our best work in public, learning from each other’s experiences and expertise.
FloQast automates common accounting workflows and helps to streamline and make them more efficient.
Describe your team culture in one word.
Ownership. I see a culture of ownership pop up all across FloQast, and so many of us appreciate it as a key part of our FloQast experience.
When you own something, you feel a healthy pressure to set things up for success and take a special interest in the result. In engineering, it’s not just the seniors who own software delivery projects. We rotate that ownership around to every engineer on the team so that everyone has opportunities to stretch and show what they’re capable of.
Our ownership culture is a natural product of transparency and autonomy. It starts at the top when, every quarter, everyone in the company sees the same slides that are presented to the board of directors. We know the key numbers. We’re aligned on the vision and the goals. And then we’re given the autonomy to go and do the things in our areas that will help us reach our goals.
And we’re all literal owners of FloQast’s success through the stock option program. We know that the value of our slice of the company increases as we take care of our customers and attract new customers by solving the problems they care about.
What is one way your company ensures all employees feel included in the company culture, even with remote employees?
One advantage I’ve found is the mix of synchronous and asynchronous communication. If you like to think out loud and bounce ideas off others, there are Zoom meetings. If you like to take time to organize your thoughts, there’s Slack. So many of the conversations happening across the company every day are easily accessible for anyone to join or catch up on later.
My favorite channels are the ones that celebrate our wins, like signing new deals with customers. Each thread has a story attached of people across departments working together to win. Having a continual feed of what winning looks like at FloQast reinforces the culture for everyone following along.
What is your favorite part about working remotely?
I love that I can work for such an exciting company from anywhere in the United States. As someone who has had to hire a lot as we’ve grown engineering over the years, it’s such an advantage to be able to have access to a huge talent pool and be able to hire the best fit regardless of location. It’s a fun dynamic to work alongside people from almost every state.
Chainlink Labs is a leading provider of secure and reliable Web3 services.
Describe your team culture in one word.
Passionate. Our team believes in the project and Chainlink Labs’ vision, which makes us very passionate about what we do. We all share a belief in the significance of our work and are driven by the vision of a future where the world will operate and transact based on what we are building. It is wonderful to work in an environment where we are all aligned and pushing towards the same goal: a fairer world where mathematics and cryptography will define relationships and trust.
Our passion is not only reflected in our daily work but also in our dedication to continual learning and improvement. We strive to be at the forefront of technology and to deeply understand how our contributions can positively impact society. Each team member brings their knowledge and enthusiasm, creating a collaborative and stimulating environment.
The vision of a world where trust is based on principles and transparency is the norm drives us to move forward with energy and determination.
What is one way your company ensures all employees feel included in the company culture, even with remote employees?
The company consistently seeks feedback on our experiences through surveys, constant communication with our manager and weekly, bi-monthly and companywide meetings focused on key priorities. This helps us feel included and recognized as an important part of what we are building.
The people team does a wonderful job in making all this possible. They organize and facilitate these surveys and meetings, ensuring our voices are heard and considered in decision making. Their dedication to maintaining open and effective communication greatly contributes to our motivation and sense of value.
Working in a company that values feedback and communication gives us confidence that our contributions matter and that we are moving forward together toward a common goal.
What is your favorite part about working remotely?
Working remotely helps us make the most of our time, enhancing our efficiency and productivity by eliminating the need for a daily commute. This flexibility supports a healthier work-life balance, allowing time for personal activities and self-care.
Remote work enables collaboration across different geographical locations, fostering an inclusive environment where all team members have equal opportunities. This global approach brings diverse perspectives and ideas, enriching our creativity and innovation.
Additionally, it strengthens our communication and organizational skills through digital tools, promoting a culture of trust and accountability. Remote work improves our productivity and creates a balanced, inclusive and collaborative environment, leveraging a diverse team’s strengths to achieve common goals.
