How a Top-Workplace Maintains Culture During Crisis

In today’s modern work environment, company culture is vital. According to a Glassdoor survey, 56% of employees find a good workplace culture to be more important than salary. 

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has disrupted life as we know it, causing many organizations to transition to a 100% work-from-home environment. Paymerang quickly made this transition and our skilled and motivated workforce adapted exceptionally well.

We’ve kept innovation and spirits high while continuing to deliver value and security for our customers and their vendors. Paymerang’s success has always been driven by its strong culture, which has been on display during this unprecedented time.

For two years running, Paymerang has been one of the Richmond Times Dispatch’s “Top Workplaces”. Consequently, we’d like to share the steps we’ve taken during quarantine in the hopes that it sparks some ideas for other organizations.

Daily Stand-up Meetings:

Every team gets together for a daily online stand-up meeting. Joining via video as well as audio helps our teams remain connected and accountable. Everyone is given an opportunity to update their team on their work, as well as ask any questions or raise any concerns they may have. Bonus points if you have a fun background!

Company Celebrations:

At Paymerang, we celebrate with our team on both professional achievements and personal milestones. With the virtual workplace, we have shifted our in-person celebrations to funny e-cards and virtual meetings to help welcome new babies, celebrate marriages, and support one another. We even “skunked” a coworkers yard who is expecting!

Providing Resources:

This is an unprecedented time and we want to support our staff in every way possible. We have compiled lists of resources for our employees to help with home-based work; including, fun activities to keep the kids busy, free classes being offered online, ideas for virtual date nights, and even links to free virtual exercise videos!

Virtual Check-Ins:

Every day, we post a fun game, trivia question, or fun fact to keep our staff engaged. All work and no play makes for a very boring day! Swapping ideas keeps our minds sharp for the task at hand.

Virtual Lunchroom:

The lunchroom is the heart of our office, and often where employees working in different departments get a chance to interact. To keep this company-wide engagement at the forefront, we have moved our lunchroom online to create a virtual lunch hour! Employees can pop in and out as their time allows to visit with others and take a break!

Virtual Walks for Wellness:

Each day at Paymerang, our staff gets together to take a brisk walk through the office park. When working from home, we have kept this tradition alive and shared our walks with teammates. We even have a few extra participants from time to time!

Celebrating the Wins:

Paymerang even created a virtual version of our notorious office gong. Anytime we’ve signed a new client or hit a huge project milestone, we still ring the gong!  

Maintaining connections and relationships while working remotely is crucial to preserving your company’s culture. With intention and some creativity, you’ll be surprised at the endless ways you can help your team stay connected while working remote.

Gloria Garber

Gloria Garber

Gloria leads human resources at Paymerang, implementing strategies and overseeing the day-to-day processes that cultivate an outstanding culture for our team members. Gloria holds an M.A. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology and brings diverse experience from previous HR leadership roles at Unboxed Technology, LanceSoft, and MOM’s Organic Market. She is skilled in leadership development and has a track record of scaling HR programs and practices in fast growing companies. Her passion lies in organizational development and designing training initiatives to help teams and individuals unlock their full potential. She is known for developing strong relationships at all levels of an organization and navigating through complex organizational challenges during times of growth and change.