Having Fun Together!

Clipboard Health has always been a remote-first company that gives its employees opportunities to prevent “lost hours” (the time you spent getting up early in the morning to prepare yourself to go to work, driving long distances to and from the office in crazy traffic, etc), spend more time with family and friends, and a work-life balance.

All of these things might sound great (and they are!), but It’s fair to ask how we stay social and help people to build connections with their teammates, and most of our applicants do ask just that question as they go through our hiring process. Building connections and friendships are easy when you’re in a physical office, but building relationships in a remote environment is a different story.

We’ve been remote since our founding and every tool we use and habit we build reflects a dedication to not only making remote work, but making it great in a way that accommodates familiarity, friendships, and rewarding interaction in the workplace. Here are the things we do to achieve that.

Slack is our primary communication tool and we have a #fun and travel channel where our team members can share photos of exciting things they did or interesting places they visited during the weekend. They often post pictures or videos of the incredible work locations they visit while working from home; it’s not at all uncommon to see a team member posting their location from a white sand beach.

The photos below are some of the photos that our team members posted in #fun-and-travel

A remote-first company often needs to intentionally create channels for social interaction. If it’s left up to chance, we realize that social interaction simply might not happen. We’ve found there are a variety of ways to socialize in a remote environment and that each is an important element of building trust and relationships with each other.

Building strong teams requires establishing trust between a variety of people; it’s the cornerstone of effective teamwork. It’s not just about productivity, though; the value of the employee experience remains the same whether you work remotely or in an office setting, and nurturing those connections is a huge part of providing that value.

Socializing with coworkers in the remote working world presents an entirely different set of problems compared to traditional offices, but establishing connections across borders and time zones also opens up a whole new set of exciting possibilities. We’re fortunate as a company to be able to build these connections and form a deeper level of trust within each team and within the organization.