As a company that’s been fully remote since 2012, it can be challenging to have “water cooler moments” — times when we strike up casual conversations and learn interesting things about one another around the metaphorical water cooler. But challenging doesn’t mean impossible. If you’re also a fully remote company or are looking to join a remote team, we’re here to tell you that although it can be challenging, creating spaces for water cooler moments is possible.
At HiringThing, we’ve developed different strategies to help us enjoy our workdays and develop genuine relationships and bonds. Below are five ways our team builds relationships in our virtual workspace.
Since we’ve been remote since 2012, we consider ourselves experts on the subject and created the HiringThing Remote Work Hub to share our insights and experiences working remotely. Looking for your next role with an established remote company? Check out our open positions!
1. Week Preview Meetings
Each Monday, our entire team participates in a 15-minute, company-wide call, where we discuss work-related plans for the week. These meetings also help us strike up conversations about things that occurred over the weekend and what exciting personal news we may have to share. We like to end these meetings on a celebratory note, announcing any birthdays, new employees, work anniversaries, and shout outs for employees who went above and beyond the call of duty the previous week. These quick meetings are great ways to casually connect at the beginning of each week.
2. Slack Channels
It’s important for remote teams to use a tool that will allow them to consistently connect with one another. At HiringThing, Slack is our go-to. We have various fun channels, like #random, where we share work jokes, photos of kids, pets, and tasty lunches, and much more. We also use this channel for fun games like workplace trivia. In addition, we have a channel called #fitfunandwellness, where we share healthy recipes and workouts and generally motivate each other to be fit and healthy. For competitive individuals, we also use this channel as a way to team up for group challenges/activities.
Although we can’t run into each other in a coffee or lunchroom, these Slack channels help our team keep non-work-related conversations flowing throughout the day.
We especially like to share accomplishments on Slack, like when our SEO and co-founder Joshua Siler gets published in Forbes!
3. “Mandatory Happy Fun Time”
This fun phrase was coined by our CEO, Joshua Siler (we even made t-shirts!). The premise is that all employees are required to have fun with one another whether they want to or not. Totally kidding! “Mandatory happy fun time” is curated by our HR team and includes fun activities like answering workplace trivia, posting fun throwback images, sharing individual fun facts, participating in team-building exercises, and more. These activities have allowed us to get to know one another on a fun, friendly level.
4. Annual Team Meet-Ups
At our annual team meetings, we all participate in bonding activities, company-wide strategy sessions, cross-departmental breakout sessions, and more. This allows us to connect on a deeper scale and build strong, long-lasting connections. Learn more about our annual team meetings and What It's Like Working at HiringThing.
These communication strategies help make working remotely enjoyable. In addition, they help foster a strong workplace culture, friendship, inclusiveness, and, of course, fun! Building connections helps employees feel a sense of community and strengthens output in what has the ability to be an isolating environment.
Want to participate in our annual meet-ups, mandatory happy fun time, and the type of transparency you don't get at every company? Well then, once again, we implore you to check our open positions and see if there's a fit for you!
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