Creating a work culture that makes everyone and their dog want to join your company is no easy feat. But, when your business operates 100% remotely, you really do have your work cut out.
One of the challenges of establishing a strong work culture in a remote company is that your team members could be literally anywhere. When there are cultures within a culture, it makes everything more complicated! Expectation-setting with regards to communication style and frequency, resiliency and work-life balance, and compensation protocols becomes all the more pertinent. But, it’s hard to please everyone, and you don’t want to be constantly adapting your operations to suit individual requests—there are more important things to take care of.
Another challenge pertaining to culture-building in remote businesses sparks from team members who haven’t met in person, and probably never will. If you’re not careful, other contractors or employees can end up being seen as “faces on a screen”, rather than esteemed colleagues who are liked and respected. Everyone hates needless meetings—especially when you could be in bed, or have actual work to do. But, with no pre-meeting coffee machine sniggers about Bobby’s hilarious weekend antics, how else are you supposed to get your team to connect?
There’s also a tendency for people to take a remote job purely for the lifestyle benefits (that bed is calling again!), rather than because of any real interest in a company or its vision/mission. It’s considerably more difficult to assess someone’s genuine intentions via Zoom, and to eliminate those who aren’t a good cultural fit—even if you don’t have one yet. Miss those red flags and you’ll find yourself in a never-ending loop of hiring, questioning your hiring decisions, then hiring again when the original people leave for an even cushier arrangement with one of your competitors.
I’m here to tell you that it is possible to build a bullet-proof work culture from Day 1 that attracts and retains top talent in your industry and gives you the best possible chance of entrepreneurial success. I know because I’ve done it myself. In a company-wide survey that Prospology circulated a few months ago, a Prospology Team member said “Everyone stays connected, despite working remotely.” “You definitely feel like you’re a part of something and working towards a common goal.” So there. It’s real.
To put things into perspective, our first hiring spurt was in the fall of 2021, when we only had a few part-time contractors on board. Since then, we’ve grown to a team of 25, most of whom have been with us for at least 6-12 months and one of whom is now full-time. We have a 92% retention rate, and it shows in how present and engaged everyone is in our Team Meetings.
Alright. Now that you know it’s possible to kill it at creating culture, I’m going to share exactly how I did it. Before we continue, please note that this article is no replacement for getting out there and taking action in your own business to see what works and what doesn’t. But, in preparing for this article, I have focused on what I believe are the most transferrable skills that have contributed to our company’s strong culture, to make sure the content is super relevant. So, let’s begin!
If I had to come up with a succinct statement of how I created a rock solid company culture for Prospology, it would boil down to this: We had a non-hierarchal structure in the first 5 years, where I was at the forefront of everything and accessible to everyone. We let the company grow organically, 100% of the time, and are only now introducing a slight hierarchy because we’re getting too large for me to avoid burnout on this model. (As one Prospology Team member once famously said “You have your finger in everyone’s holes.”) There will become a time when you physically can’t be any more efficient or productive and the solution isn’t to hire again (in fact, this thought is probably nauseating). That’s when you’ll know you need some middle management. But, until then, resist the urge to invest time and resources there, if you’re serious about the longevity of your company from a human resources standpoint.
The major benefit of having a non-hierarchal structure initially is that it allows every team member to contribute to the growth and direction of the company. I cannot express enough how crucial this is for effective culture-building and long-term staff retention. Employees want to feel valued at work—like their ideas are being heard and attributed accordingly. The best way to achieve this is to actually HEAR and ATTRIBUTE their ideas. It’s so easy to say but very few CEOs are executing it and it’s why their work culture is bad or—worse—non-existent.
“We had a non-hierarchal structure in the first 5 years, where I was at the forefront of everything and accessible to everyone.”
– Sophie Ash, Founder & CEO, Prospology
I have countless examples of how we recognize, attribute, and implement our team members’ ideas at Prospology, but there are 5 that stand out in particular:
1. The co-development of our cultural fit infographic
2. How our webinar schedule emerges organically
3. Our recent discussion about ease of program application
4. The co-development of our no-show policy for students
5. How existing team members refer and hire new people
A few months ago, I was concerned about the productivity of a few of our team members—especially since this is by far our highest expense category. I proposed the idea of bi-annual performance reviews, starting in the summer. However, not only was the idea met with next-to-no enthusiasm, one team member—Liz—actually thought it was a terrible idea. This sparked an open discussion about alternative solutions, which resulted in the co-creation of a branded infographic. The idea was to survey each long-standing team member about what they look for in a company culture and if/how we meet those needs at Prospology. Then, I analyzed and summarized all of the common themes to describe our work culture to newcomers. Now, we can re-visit this document periodically, as a team, to reflect on our adherence to the principles outlined and make sure we don’t get off-track, collectively. The result? No-one is apprehensive about being singled out as someone who isn’t contributing enough. Liz feels valued and proud of her contributions (as she should be). And the entire team feels like their voice matters because they’re shaping the future of the company. After all—it’s all about them.
Let’s take a look at the second example. Even though we host live webinars 12-17 times a year and a lot of work goes into them, I hate planning out the topics in advance and refuse to do it. Why? Because the Prospology Team is always suggesting ways we can improve our coaching program and, oftentimes, these are best incorporated via an interactive webinar. Within a few weeks of someone suggesting a new training, they’re presenting a fully-branded slide deck to a Zoom room full of enthusiastic aspiring medical writers and loving every second of it.
Getting it? We’ll try another example. A few weeks ago, I expressed a new concern to the team: “It’s too easy for people to apply for the program! We need to make it harder because I’m constantly rejecting people.” I threw the problem out to the group for them to ruminate on. I wasn’t keen on some of the ideas, but I recognized what I did like and explained what I didn’t like. This meant we could keep iterating until we found a solution that everyone agreed was the best way forward. Now, we’re moving towards a system whereby an applicant has to prove to us that they’re eligible, in the form of a cover letter, and undergo a telephone interview with HR before they can book in a discovery call with me. I can’t wait to implement this! (I’m on a train to Bucharest right now, but will do so when I’m back in Toronto.) I couldn’t pinpoint just one person who came up with the idea, as it was collaborative. But this is one of our four company values, so that’s a huge win culture-wise, too!
The fourth example that comes to mind is what happened after there were three no-shows for 1:1 coaching sessions within two days—a first for us. The coaches understandably felt like their time wasn’t being valued, and I didn’t want Prospology to have to pay for coaching sessions that never took place. I posed the problem to the entire team and we discussed options. Interestingly, one person—Manuel—expressed that what actually bothered him the most was the fact that this behaviour wouldn’t help our students set themselves up for success as freelancers. He was concerned that they wouldn’t do well in business if not taking their commitments seriously and felt strongly that we should “teach them a lesson”, as it were. I agreed that it was a strong learning opportunity for the students, so drafted a “slap on the wrist” email template that I ran by all of our coaches before implementing. Everyone was happy with the approach and we were able to put the issue behind us right away.
Finally, I have to touch on hiring because it’s another great way that you can recognize your team’s contributions to build an immovable work culture. We hired our first medical editor back in December, 2022 and it was a huge success. I think I found her through LinkedIn, or it was a referral from someone in my network. Either way, Ellen was so great at learning the ropes and her help made such a huge difference that I knew I needed more where that came from. Within just a few weeks of her joining the company, I brought on another editor, Shanzeh—also a very organic hire. Then, I tasked the two of them to hire two more editors to flesh out the team. With the existing team getting the first say on who should join the company, both editors felt valued, heard, and appreciated right out the gate—a great strategy for cultural integrity.
All in all, the secret to creating and maintaining a robust and enviable culture in a remote company is to have everyone contribute to its growth. This starts from a flat organizational structure, where senior leadership is easily accessible to all. Once there are strong roots in place, a remote company may expand through organic hiring to maintain its work culture as it grows.
Know a CEO who’s always hiring, yet never seems to gain any traction? Send this article their way!