3 Ways To Adapt Your In-Office Culture To Remote First Culture

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Jun 15, 2022

Debt Collection, Effective Communication,

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On March 9, 2020, the Arbeit team received a directive from leadership:

“With the coronavirus affecting so many people, we want to make it optional for people to work from home for a while. If you will be working from home please let your team lead know and make sure you have everything you’d need to do so.”

We didn’t know it at the time, but this was the beginning of our transition to a remote-first work environment.

It’s been two years, three months and five days since we all packed up our desks that day.

When we officially sold our office buildings in 2021, our team had to make a decision to fully embrace a remote first culture.

As far as we’re concerned, the “transition” is never-ending; we are always looking for ways to improve our remote-first environment. This felt especially true for us because of our intense focus on culture over the years.

As we continue on this quest, we have learned a few things along the way. Today, we’re sharing a few tools that have made our remote work transition easier and our team just as engaged as we were in the office.

If you would like to hear more voices on the topic of remote work in the consumer finance space, listen to our very own Senior Customer Success Manager Ashley Campanella sit down with Lex Patterson on the Fair Debt podcast!

Wellness Bingo

We created the Wellness Challenge to keep our team focused on – you guessed it – wellness, in every sense of the word. Our movement, community and self-care affects our entire well being, both during our workday and when we log off for the day. It’s a way for us to hold each other accountable for the way we show up for ourselves throughout the month.

How It Works

Our team members can submit their Wellness BINGO boards at any time, and are given points for “Full BINGOs “(5 across) or “Mini BINGOs” (3 across.)

Team members can collect these points and submit them for prizes, lunches or even days off through a program called Assembly, which we’ll talk about next!

Assembly Points

Assembly is used to accomplish one of our fundamental values at Arbeit – team recognition.

When we can’t see each other in person, it’s harder to get a sense of how much we truly appreciate each other – we have to rely on digital communication.

Assembly helps us intentionally acknowledge all the ways we appreciate each other’s contributions and then turn that appreciation into tangible rewards.

How It Works

Managers can send Assembly points to anyone on their team, at any time and for any reason they believe deserves a public shout out.

This shout out appears in a company-wide Slack channel, and is accompanied by a discretionary number of points.

Team members can then exchange those points for prizes like a free lunch, a half day, and more.

You can learn more about Assembly here!

Game Day

Every Tuesday at 2 p.m., our entire team is invited to partake in a virtual game for up to 15 minutes. Some examples of games you can play virtually:

Get Creative - Going Remote Doesn't Mean The End Of Casual Collaboration

Even in the absence of the “water cooler” or happy hours, there are still ways to engage your team and embrace the culture you’ve built with a remote team.

It doesn’t just benefit your employees, either. In many cases, investing in these types of activities can lead to better business outcomes.

We’re always happy to share how these outcomes can boost your employee engagement and retention. Feel free to book a time to chat!

About The Author

Alex Villafranca

Alex is the CEO, co-founder and Head of Revenue at Arbeit, a better outbound communication software that makes businesses more profitable.