Remote teams are diverse. You’ll find people from different countries, following different cultures and speaking different languages.

The Core Values of a Remote Team:

• Empathy
• Communication
• Ownership
• Accountability

From one point of view, remote teams are beautiful for the sheer diversity they bring into an organization. But if you don’t set down some core values for your business, this diversity could potentially transform into chaos, hurting the management of remote teams.

The 4 Core Values Every Employer Should Implement for a Remote Team

The foundation of any remote business should be to have a clear and concise Equality and Diversity statement in place. Essentially, this should be a written agreement for your remote team members to understand, create, and treat colleagues with a safe and inclusive atmosphere.

Above all this comes a zero-tolerance policy. Let your remote employees know that you take these core values and policies of the organization seriously, and anyone who violates these values will be strictly punished.

Once you have the foundation set in place, you’ll need these core values for your remote team. Without lingering on the intro, let’s get down to the core values of a remote team every employer should have.

Empathy

Empathy shouldn’t be a mere core value for remote teams. It is the capacity of emotions that every human being must have. As long as we’re coexisting in this world, empathy is vital, both inside and outside the workplace.

As a diverse remote team, it's significant to remember that each remote employee is still human. Remote team members, including managers, should cultivate empathy to be willing to understand and empathize with each other's situations.

Simply understand that things can go wrong even inside a heavily organized business organization. Everyone should have the capacity of emotions to help each other out, both professionally and personally.

Empathy is a strong core value since remote employees don’t usually get to see each other in person every day. This results in everyone having less insight into what’s going on in their team members’ lives.

A few tips to express empathy:

• Check in with team members often. Texts like a mere “good morning” or “how you doing?” will go a long way.
• Celebrate together the small wins of your team.
• Try to understand and not make a big deal when things go wrong
• etc.

Communication

Remote team members are more diverse and English isn't the mother tongue of many employees.

In order to make the workplace less chaotic and more organized, healthy communication must be promoted as a core value for remote teams, which also contributes to creating social bonds in remote teams.

Communication shouldn’t only be about sharing information. Instead, it should be the value of a company to communicate well for every remote employee to not just know, but also to understand what’s being shared.

This includes using the best collaboration tools, examples, graphics, and translations that consider every remote employee.

Some communication tips when managing a remote team:

• Set clear milestones for the team and each remote employee
• Share healthy feedback loops
• Write with clarity when managers are asked to help
• Communicate your availability
• etc.

Ownership

Unlike working in an office, remote work puts more concentration on the individual employee since it caters less to micromanagement. This means every organization should give space and help remote employees take the initiative they should be taking.

Such empowerment of the individual demands a higher standard of ownership. Although ownership is vital for each remote employee, they must also hear and support each other’s initiatives.

That means ownership should be a balance between taking initiative as well as helping others with their ideas.

A few examples to take ownership at work:

• Suggest ideas and solutions
• Volunteer yourself for assignments and team roles
• Support healthy ideas of others
• Ask for feedback
• etc.

Accountability

Remote work means less oversight from managers. Having less oversight compared to office work demands each remote employee to be more accountable for everything they do.

Every remote team member must be accountable for their work and take responsibility for their actions. This means remote employees should take credit for every action they do at work, whether that’s positive or negative.

Businesses must encourage every remote worker to take credit for their achievements, and take the initiative to give them credit as well as show appreciation.

This also means providing your remote employees with healthy feedback. Keep in mind this applies to both the positives and negatives of an employee. The crucial part is to help remote employees acknowledge how they’re doing in the workplace.

Ways to show accountability at work:

• Acknowledge your mistakes and fix them
• Think and develop solutions for future potential problems at work
• Be open to receiving feedback, both positive and negative
• If you possess leadership skills, prove them
• etc.

Conclusion

Having a set of core values for remote teams is vital to ensure a safe and healthy environment in remote organizations.

This starts with establishing a clear and concise Equality and Diversity policy, coupled with a zero-tolerance policy. If an organization has these policies set in place, following other core values will become easier for the employees.

Empathy is crucial for remote team members to treat each other with respect and healthy emotions. Communication, on the other hand, ensures employees to better understand each other since remote teams are more diverse with people from several countries.

Ownership is another core value for remote teams, which is vital for employees to take initiative and support other team members’ ideas.

Similarly, accountability helps to take responsibility for one’s action, whether that’s something negative or positive.

Setting these core values down for remote teams will lead to a more organized workplace. If you think your remote teams are playing havoc with the business, consider adopting these values.

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