How to Implement Remote-First Policies Without Sacrificing Culture

October 1, 2025

Published in:

Leadership & Management

A virtual team meeting on a computer screen. — Photo by Canva.

The future of work isn’t coming – it has already arrived. As an entrepreneur, your people are your greatest asset. But if your remote or distributed team is spread across time zones and continents, you are faced with a difficult choice: Let distance undercut your company culture until it impacts productivity, or intentionally build virtual strategies and environments where collaboration, trust, and belonging shine.

As remote and hybrid work become the global standard — and indeed, 83% of workers around the world express a preference for hybrid work — leaders must rethink remote-first policies for businesses that preserve culture and connection across distributed teams.

“Companies in North America and Europe are leading in remote work adoption, but Latin America and parts of Asia are seeing rapid growth as digital infrastructure expands,” according to The State of Remote Work: 2025 Statistics.

Leaders worldwide are answering the call to adapt remote-first strategies for business into workable policies that preserve and uplift company culture for the benefit of employees, their companies, and their stakeholders.

Rethinking Virtual Collaboration

As remote and hybrid work scenarios continue to advance, the question becomes: How do you, as a leader, promote and preserve culture when your team members are rarely together in the same time zone, let alone the same room?

“You can invest in every premium remote-work tool on the market and still struggle to build an effective team,” said David Nilssen, EO Seattle member and CEO of Doxa Talent. Why? Because when you focus on tools alone, you’re missing the human element that turns a group of distributed workers into a high-performing team.

“We’ve found that when you prioritize connection over tools, everything else falls into place, including how effectively those tools are actually used,” David continued.

Here are five ways for leaders to embrace the flexibility employees want without losing the human connections that drive a thriving culture toward success.

1. Build Culture into Your Communications

Company culture is the social and emotional glue that holds your organization together. As community-seeking creatures, human beings crave connection. Often, strong connections are more difficult to foster when interactions with teammates are predominantly experienced through tiny digital squares populating a virtual meeting.

If your team is distributed in time zones across the world, clarify your expectations for world-class accountability, inclusion, and collaboration. That means meeting times and protocols must work for every team member, from Sri Lanka to Sao Paulo to San Francisco.

Standardize communication rhythms by implementing consistent weekly updates, virtual “open-door” hours where teammates can pop into your meeting channel to chat, and recorded video meetings with written recaps. The focus is for all team members, regardless of location, to enjoy equal and easy access to information.

Consider your core values and model behaviors from the top. For example, if your company, like EO, values its “Thirst for Learning,” prioritize thoughtful peer learning opportunities that foster stronger bonds, inspire creativity, and promote effective coworking and collaboration.

2. Strengthen Human Connections Remotely

With 45% of remote workers citing loneliness as an issue, it’s on leaders to intentionally build rituals into the workday that foster community and connection.

One best practice is a weekly “Morning Update” for each small-group team, during which members share personal anecdotes or answer such questions as:

What’s your personal highlight of the week?
What’s going well in your work, and what are some challenges?
What is one thing about you or the world that most other team members do not know?

These insights, shared over time, provide a strong foundation for developing relationships, building trust, and accommodating differences.

“We’ve developed simple but powerful activities that get people to talk,” David added. “Try a quick round of ‘This or That’ at the start of a meeting. Watch how your video call transforms from just another virtual meeting into a space where real connection happens.”

3. Preserve (and Evolve) Rituals

If your organization has always honored an employee of the month (EOM), continue to select that standout and find virtual ways to acknowledge the individual. Gift baskets, an EOM hat or t-shirt they wear to weekly virtual updates, or even an afternoon off are welcome ways to honor employees virtually.

Additional rituals you can preserve and evolve:

Virtual team rituals: Weekly coffee hour, weekly wins roundtables, or Friday check-ins.
Cross-border buddy systems: Pair teammates from different regions together to expand their cultural knowledge, perspective, and even cross-train on work deliverables.
Learning circles: Share peer-to-peer knowledge on a host of topics ranging from work-related to personal talents and skills to build strength among teams.

Annual in-person offsite meetings can do wonders for team morale. Your team can nurture and strengthen connections that support ongoing productivity when they return to the virtual landscape.

4. Kick Off with Kudos

Even seasoned leaders can find it challenging to recognize their virtual employees in ways that truly resonate. One solid strategy: Gratitude. Recognize employees and call out wins by starting your meetings with sincere praise.

“Instead of launching right into business during your weekly virtual team check-ins, begin by highlighting the excellent work you have seen or heard about – such as a customer’s review about a team member,” said Mike Szczesny, owner of edco.com. “Or, you could publicly thank someone for picking up extra tasks for a colleague who took a few days of unplanned PTO.”

Don’t be shy about opening the virtual floor for peer-to-peer praise. Keep the kudos section of meetings short and sweet: five minutes (or less) is typically enough, but make it a habit to launch team conversations on an uplifting and positive note.

5. Measure, Adjust, Iterate

“We track all the usual metrics—productivity, retention, and tool adoption rates,” David continued. “But what really matters are the things no software can measure. How connected do our people feel? How freely do they share ideas? How much do they trust their teammates?”

Remote-first success is not a set-it-and-forget-it task. It takes ongoing commitment to ensure remote employees remain engaged and have everything they need to thrive.

Feedback loops that include regular anonymous surveys or short pulse checks (especially after major company changes) are valuable because they invite team members to actively participate in company policy rather than succumb to management-levied norms.

The Future is Human

Remote-first work is not a threat to your company culture — it’s an opportunity to strengthen it. By leading with trust, fostering belonging, and embedding learning into daily practices, entrepreneurs can create a workplace where people feel connected and valued, no matter where their physical desk sits.

The world of work has gone borderless. The question is not if your company can adapt — it’s how you will lead culture in this new era.

“Our company is living proof that the future of remote work isn’t about finding the perfect tools. It’s about building the perfect environment for people to use the tools they have,” David stated. “By prioritizing connection, it’s not just changing how work gets done. It shows the most powerful tool in remote work isn’t digital at all. It’s humans.”

Written by Anne-Wallis Droter, EO Staff Writer