Our team had the essential tools to work from home when the pandemic began in 2020. We moved our meetings to Zoom and used Slack to communicate with each other. Those things kept us moving day to day.

But would you believe it if I told you our team actually grew and thrived during the COVID-19 pandemic? 

It wasn’t an easy year by any means, but we’re grateful to have found a way to maintain our company culture from afar. Here’s how we did it.

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Growing a Team, Remotely

In 2020 and 2021, we welcomed three new employees: Jenna, Brittany and Jordan. Since onboarding with each of them was entirely virtual, we needed to do something special to welcome them to the team!

Each employee received a box prior to their first day, filled with the essential items to set up their remote office. But we also included some of our favorite goodies, as well as beans from one of our favorite coffee shops to give them a taste of the office. 

Typically, we would also host a first day welcome lunch. We still did this, but we did it over Zoom instead.  

This gave our new team members a chance to see what office life will be like — someday — and get comfortable with their new coworkers. It can be intimidating to ask questions when we’re all working remotely, so we found ways to help our newest team members learn without feeling like an intrusion.

Maintaining Our Culture, Remotely

9 Clouds has an office PPC (Party Planning Committee), which existed well before the pandemic. Our PPC was an integral part of maintaining our culture in 2020 and 2021, more than ever before. 

We hosted several events such as happy hours, our Thanksgiving “soup days”, and even our Christmas party, virtually!

Before each event, we sent everyone on our team a package of treats to open and enjoy during the events. At Christmas, this included things like bingo cards (so we could keep up our holiday competition) and personalized cupcake kits from Oh My Cupcakes.

We focused on making each package as personalized as possible — remembering that Jenny loves seasonal Kit Kats and Betsy loves any and all things chocolate. 

The snacks didn’t just stop with our care packages — we also gave everyone gift cards to fill their snack stashes at home. 

To keep up spirits, we provided the team with a creativity bonus, hoping to inspire everyone creatively or just help them clear their mind from the weight of the pandemic. Jaden used her bonus to buy instant camera film and build new photography skills. Catherine used hers to buy supplies to learn how to do hand-lettering.  

We also managed to have a hybrid work retreat during the pandemic — let me tell you, that was not an easy feat! 

We broke out the team into small groups and had each group at a separate location, decreasing the amount of team members in one enclosed space.

Fortunately, we were all able to get together for a bit of food and drinks (are you sensing a theme yet? 😉), but we made sure to do it in an outdoor location where we had plenty of space between each other (the deck at Remedy Brewing Company was perfect for such an occasion). 

Finally, we also had daily “watercoolers” on Zoom, where team members could jump on and just chat about anything: books, dogs, daily drama, the latest season of the Bachelor.

Keeping Culture Top of Mind, No Matter Our Location

2020 was a hard year, but we didn’t let the pandemic keep us down.

We celebrated. We celebrated birthdays. We celebrated the arrival of the newest 9 Clouds baby. We celebrated a wedding.

We still were able to do all the things we enjoy and the things that keep our team connected — we just had to do them differently. What mattered most was just being able to do things together, even if it wasn’t physically in person.

Want to learn more about building your team’s work culture? We’ve blogged quite a bit on office culture as we work through the best ways to connect our team! 

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