The Remote Workplace Culture that Prioritises Employee Wellbeing: Gilbert Galea

Gilbert Galea

Gilbert is Castille’s Chief Operations Officer, and specialises in prioritising remote talent with Castille Labs. With a dedicated team, he builds a robust global network of remote software talent, alongside the provision of helpful resources applicable to a global context. For this publication, Gilbert offers his words of expertise on practical recommendations to employers in creating and maintaining a supportive remote workplace culture.

On improving communication between employees with online mediums

More than ever organisations need to invest quality-time in effectively delineating and communicating the strategy of the company, key achievements to date, and new updates as they come along to their direct remote employees and the extended remote organisation.

On-the-job communication has also become critically important as we aim to replace the face-to-face interaction with instant communication via collaborative tools like Slack and Teams.

Moreover, workflow tools that can support stakeholder management and escalation of contention points have become the bread and butter of online teams as they strive for continued alignment and effective collaboration. The extended organisation needs to be trained in the proper use of these tools to ensure adherence to guidelines issued by HR functions as they support this inevitable change towards always-online teams.

On how employers can provide regular check-ins with employees to maintain social interactions

I believe the importance of social interaction despite the distance needs to be championed by the senior management team within the organisation. Through regular team meetings and collaborative tools, and cross-functional assignments that promote communication across the organisation.

Organisations will be surprised to learn that with the right people on the team, distance does not necessarily translate in weaker team interactions.

The one challenge every remote organisation will face will be the onboarding of new people on the team. With the right mindset and proper coaching this can be achieved, but special attention needs to be given to the nurturing of people onboarding the team during the phase where they align to the organisation’s work culture. Onus lies on the senior people with the team and management to ensure enough airtime to achieve successful onboarding here.

On how organisations can build a remote community focusing on social opportunity alongside workplace assignments

Organisations can have a dedicated team that focuses on events management and coordination.

At Castille, we’ve a remote Events Committee passionate about this. Online games which encourages involvement, competition, and teamwork are highly recommended for interaction outside the working environment. In a fully-fledged remote organisation doing this properly can actually leverage on the remote connectivity to ensure all people joining such an event are in a position to contribute equally, without giving priority and bias towards people who are on-site.

On how employers can offer support to employees throughout the duration of Covid-19

I would classify inclusion as the topmost initiative to minimise distress.

Feeling part of the team, being informed what’s going on despite the distance, continue to be the most important elements with an accentuated level of importance in the remote organisation. Following very closely in terms of importance, is the element of recognition. Never has recognition been so important in our lives as today. My suggestion to employers is that we continue to celebrate the big, but also small; collective, but also individual, achievements of the teams, as the feel-good factor that follows is like no other.

Final words of advice

I believe remote working and the extended organisation is the present and future of work globally. Organisations that harness the power of remote and extended organisations will spiral upwards in terms of reach, performance, and sustainability. Of course, face-to-face will always be the stronger channel but people who share the same passion and drive to achieve a common goal will deliver despite the distance that separates them. So one final word of recommendation to management teams out there is to know and understand when you have the right people onboard and remain flexible when it comes to allowing them to choose the location of their workplace.