Keeping Culture Alive at a Fully Remote Company
In the dystopian visions that occasionally plague my sleepless nights, I picture the AI that will soon put people like me out of a job (tell me I'm not alone in this). But in the light of day I remind myself: for all that AI seems to know exactly what to do and say, ask it for genuine empathy and the response rings hollow. Culture is intrinsically human. As social mammals, we've evolved over generations to build and maintain extraordinarily complex webs of social norms, mostly without realising we're doing it — and that's so deeply rooted in our biology, our souls perhaps, that even the most sophisticated digital tools can't truly replicate it. Not yet, anyway… but that's another blog.
We all know culture makes or breaks the workplace. But here's the rub - this intangible, messy, deeply human phenomenon never evolved to play out in a digital world. So for The Phantom Company, which has fully embraced remote working and everything it offers (work-life balance, a wider hiring pool, a smaller carbon footprint), we face a Catch-22: how do we keep culture alive while working remotely?
Offer tools that support natural communication styles
- Slack is where we speak - and we only speak in Slack. Having five conversations with the same person across five different tools fragments your experience of them, and eventually your relationship with them too. To say nothing of the brain-fry. And beyond DMs, we have a Slack channel for everything: from house renovations to rock music, pets, running, cooking and movies.
- Gather is where we work. It's our virtual office. We love it because you can see at a glance who's at their desk and who's in a meeting. Nothing replaces a real office: overhearing the thing you didn't know you needed, catching someone in the corridor, an unexpected coffee. But Gather is the best digital alternative we've found.
Promote ways of working that have culture baked in
- We make space to connect. All Hands and Company Syncs where the mic is open to anyone; plus regular, non-negotiable 1:1s and team meetings. And when we do jump on a call, cameras are on. A little thing that makes a big difference, because we talk face to face.
- Random Coffees, and open diaries. A generator connects three colleagues each week for a chat — and beyond that, anyone can reach out to anyone, on anything, just by dropping a coffee in their calendar.
Curating our culture
- We hire carefully. The final step in our process is a culture-fit interview, held by senior managers trained for it, though you'd never guess it as a candidate, since it feels like a natural conversation. We're not after clones (as diversity is a strength); we're looking for the kindness, openness and curiosity that runs through our team.
- We still meet in-person. Nothing beats time together in real life. So a couple of times a year we gather for an Offsite, working side by side and sharing meals, moments and (let's be honest) the kind of in-jokes that only land in person. Digital is all very well, but this is where relationships really get cemented.
So — have we cracked it?
Honestly, no, and I'd be suspicious of anyone who claims they have. Remote culture isn't a problem you solve once; it's something you tend to, like a fire you keep feeding. Some of what we do works brilliantly, some we're still figuring out. But the flame's still burning. We may be sat alone in living rooms, bedrooms, kitchens or gardens all across Europe… but we’re far from disconnected.
— The PhantomBuster People team
