Company culture matters. It seems fair to say that’s a near-universally accepted truth among business leaders these days. No longer seen as a fringe benefit, secondary to things like salaries and bonus plans, culture has become a key differentiator for many companies over the past decade. It’s easy to see why when you recognize that, according to a Deloitte study, 94% of executives and 88% of workers believe strong company culture is key to business success.

But the challenge is not in recognizing the need for a vibrant culture; it’s building and nurturing that culture — something that can be especially tricky at a bank, where employees may be spread across multiple locations as well as onto a diverse array of teams and departments, with varying levels of responsibilities and personalities. Not to mention the new complication of engaging remote workers in a cohesive culture with the rest of the company.

So how can these obstacles be overcome? Technology can help. It won’t do all the work, of course — after all, culture is, first and foremost, a human concern. However, the right tools can go a long way toward bridging the gaps between people at every level.

At JMARK, we take great pride in our culture. We have been operating with a hybrid workforce for many years and have worked hard to create a united team, even with workers in multiple offices, as well as working from home from all over the country. These are the tenets we follow and the tools we use to create unity and cohesion among our teams, no matter where people work.

1. Make Communication Easy — People want to communicate with coworkers with the same ease their cell phones give them in their personal lives. At JMARK, we use Workplace from Meta to give our teams a simple, single access point to chat with both video and voice calls. This solution augments our internal phone system and tools like Outlook, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom, ensuring that employees always have an effortless way to reach one another.
2. Make Collaboration Easy — With the right tools and a little practice, virtual collaboration can work every bit as well as in-person. Once again, Workplace is our go-to solution for this, allowing us to share documents and resources and team up via video call as if we were in the same room. Whatever technology you use, the key is to let everyone’s voice be heard and skills be shared, so the output becomes greater than the sum of its parts.
3. Bring Your People Together — A strong culture isn’t just about work. It’s about creating bonds of trust and fellowship on your teams. Come together as a company on a regular, frequent basis to celebrate each other, share victories, and let everyone spend some time with folks from other teams. At JMARK, we hold weekly rallies every Friday afternoon, where we celebrate wins, console each other about challenges, honor teammates whose work stood out that week, commemorate anniversaries, and more. This rally takes place in our office, with remote employees joining via Zoom. Everyone in the office can see and hear remote attendees via the video conferencing system in our NOC (network operations center).
4. Make Hybrid Meetings Better — One of the big frustrations of a hybrid workforce is the hybrid conference room meeting, with some people in the same room and others joining via video call. Ensuring that every person can both see and hear everyone else is extremely important. In fact, when JMARK recently moved offices, creating an audiovisual solution to this dilemma for our new conference rooms was at the top of our priority list, and we put our best internal engineers on it. The result was our Engage videoconferencing solution, which we have begun marketing to other organizations. In the end, creating that solution has paid off exponentially as people leave meetings with information rather than frustration and feel connected as teammates rather than disconnected by distance.
5. Be Transparent — A great culture is founded on trust. Trust is built on transparency. Share the goals, data, and vision behind policies and initiatives. We’ve already discussed rallies and meetings as a way to connect with your people; technology offers ways to keep everyone informed between those gatherings. Instead of writing yet another memo, choose mediums that feel less formal and more interactive, such as video — where you’ll get a higher open and view rate than a written email. Better yet, embrace the notion of short, live broadcasts to your company when you’ve got news, inspiration, or insight to share.
6. Let Your People Lead the Way — While every healthy company culture begins with the C-suite, the strongest cultures are those in which employees at every level have a hand in creating and nurturing. At JMARK, we formed a group of employees from every level and team to lead the charge in making a unique, enjoyable workplace that represents all our corporate values. This aptly named Culture Crew meets once a month to discuss culture initiatives ranging from charities to support to holiday parties to inclusivity.

Technology is such a big part of the work we all do every day — and the world we live in — that taking advantage of how it can support and enhance your culture makes perfect sense. The right tools can break down distances and barriers to communication and collaboration to bring your people together and create a cohesive, enthusiastic team and a culture that your people will be proud to embrace. 

To learn more about JMARK’s collaboration solutions for banks, including Engage and Workplace from Meta, visit JMARK.com or call 844-44-JMARK.