If things go right in your business, you’re going to grow, perhaps beyond 417-land. How do you keep distant employees on the same page? Eric Chambers, senior consulting manager for Torrent Consulting, shares how the firm keeps Springfield, North Carolina, Michigan, the District of Columbia and Guatemala offices moving together.
Value Communication.
Communication is core to Torrent Consulting’s beginnings. “We got the brilliant idea that the first three people [to start the company] should be in separate states,” Chambers says with a laugh. “For us it was important to stay connected. Email is not connection, so we had to find other ways.” This includes a constant video stream to all offices, instant messaging and daily meetings through Google Hangouts or Zoom, all of which help them adhere to the company’s no internal email rule.
Get Customers On Board
“You have to communicate with people where they’re at right now,” Chambers says. That often means starting where customers are comfortable, and then sharing faster, more effective methods.
Keep Your Culture Consistent
“[Something] that gets overlooked as you’re in different locations and growing is you have to say the same thing a lot of times for everyone to get it,” Chambers says. Along with talking regularly about the company’s core values, employees fill out notepad forms when someone exemplifies the values. Forms are shared company-wide so the team can celebrate achievements as one.
