A little over a year ago, who would have thought that many office buildings would be practically empty. While remote work was already trending upward, the Coronavirus pandemic shoved it into the stratosphere. More employees are now working remotely than ever before.

Companies with a strong culture have higher employee retention rates, happier employees and satisfied customers and clients. Culture is one of the most important things a company can establish. It gives employees and customers more than a job or a service, it gives them a second family.

With so many employees working remotely now, it is daunting to try and keep your company culture alive. Daily interactions between colleagues drives a strong company culture. Working from home takes a lot of that interaction away, and can make work feel more like a job.

Technology can help you keep your company culture alive and well, even through a pandemic.

Daily huddles

Starting out your day with a quick meetup of all employees in the company or in a specific department allows everyone to interact on a daily basis. Make sure everyone has their webcam turned on and you are all following proper virtual meeting etiquette like muting yourself when you aren’t talking.

Although this doesn’t quite feel the same as a meeting in the conference room with the entire staff, it’s a very close second.

Open chat

In addition to the daily interaction as a team on a video call, employees should be encouraged to utilize online chat. Teams is free for Microsoft 365 subscribers and is a great tool to facilitate this.

Each department should have it’s own group chat, and you can create one for the entire company as well. Think about adding a “fun” chat where people can post funny links or memes or other things that could clutter up some of the other chats.

Online games

With so many group activities canceled, companies have really had to get creative to create bonding experiences for their staff members. Online gaming is actually a great way to have activities that everyone can participate in.

Even if your staff members aren’t necessarily “gamers” there are a lot of online games that even the most gaming adverse person can get behind.

Jackbox.tv has a ton of group style games that are simple to play and extremely fun. You just need to set up one device to show a TV screen, and then join a video call. Every person can join from their individual phone. It’s even fun for people who are not playing to watch the interactions that result from the gameplay.

Another fun game to play as a group is Among Us. You can create a private group so the only people playing are co-workers. The game has you trying to figure out who the imposter is! Will it be you?

There really is a lot you can do to keep your company culture alive, even through a pandemic and remote work. It is so important to keep the culture a priority though, or you may find employees and customers looking to jump ship.