Wagepoint has always been a remote company. From day one, we’ve been challenged with being a great place to work while being far apart from each other. It’s not an easy feat — especially when the love is real for all of our team members. Here are five tools and programs we implemented to motivate and support our employees, remotely:
1. Use a strong internal communication tool
Like many other tech companies, we use Slack to communicate with one another. It’s a robust communication tool and the key features Wagepoint employees use are:
- Slack calls — Our employees use this feature to quickly connect for on-the-fly questions.
- Channels — From #Food to #RuPaulsDragRaceLovers, our team members organize themselves into different interest groups using Slack channels. We also have a #Watercooler channel where everyone can gather, celebrate milestones, tell Dad jokes, share songs and everything in between.
- Donut app — Donut is an integration in Slack that matches two people up every two weeks to connect. It’s our way of breaking down silos and encouraging employees to connect with people outside of their regular, day-to-day teams via virtual coffee chats.
2. Create space for storytelling and support
Storytelling is one of the most effective tools employers can use to help their employees feel supported.
Ever heard of “F**kup Nights?” It’s a global movement and event series where people share stories of professional failure to change the culture of work. We held their own version of “F**kup Nights” where we got together and shared stories of failures, learnings and a lot of laughter. We’re humans, after all, and mistakes are a guarantee!
3. Adopt internal tools and processes that make sense and aren’t annoying
This is a big one. In a digital workplace, it’s easy for information to get lost because there are so many places to store it. Make your lives easier by having one knowledge hub for internal processes — more importantly, make sure it’s organized, consistent and makes sense for your organization.
At Wagepoint, we use Slab, an internal Wikipedia tool that’s open to everyone. On top of sourcing the tool, our Business Analyst took it one step further and made sure it was pre-populated with templates on how to write, log and organize documents and pages before we shared it with the rest of the team. Having these templates in place helped keep our Slab organized as more and more people began to upload their content to the knowledge base.
It’s still a work in progress, but we think it’s important to have one source of truth for a remote team.
4. Recognize your employees
When you’re remote, sometimes it’s hard to feel recognized for the awesome things you do every day. That’s why we need to create space to celebrate each other and to celebrate our accomplishments as a company.
For on-the-fly thanks and recognition, we have a “Kudos” Slack channel where people can go to give shout-outs to their colleagues for going above and beyond or for lending a helping hand.
5. Celebrate the good, the bad and the ugly (sweaters) together!
Usually, at least once a year, Wagepointers come together to meet each other, connect, learn and celebrate. Due to COVID, all of our events in 2020 were held virtually — this includes our annual holiday party which we hosted via Zoom.
Even though it was virtual, it still helped the team build rapport! We had an “Ugly Sweater”-themed holiday party. In celebration of the holidays, many team members put up funny Zoom backgrounds and the hosts even put up a “burning yule log” background. We played Holiday Song Bingo, Chubby Elf (Chubby Bunny but with a holiday spin) and we gave out gift cards and prizes. In between the games, a few team members even gave toasts!
Sure, we missed getting the chance to physically see each other, but it was still a lot of fun.
A “new way of working” but same way of caring for your employees.
It’s become very clear that what constitutes a “workplace” is evolving. In the past, people would literally go to work but now, more and more companies are adopting work from home policies or a hybrid of the two. No matter where your employees work, your role as the employer is still the same — someone who can provide a good work environment where employees feel motivated and supported.
P.S. If you’re interested in working at Wagepoint, check out our Careers site to see the roles we have available! We’re always looking for good human beings to join us.
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