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Culture

100 Quick Ideas to Keep Your Culture Strong

Written by
redpepper Staff
redpepper Staff
multiple authors
Updated on
May 29, 2024 6:03 PM
We rounded up all that we’ve been doing to band together during the pandemic, combined it with our favorite outside world inspo, and put it all in this very practical list.
  1. Unite a team to lead the company through personal growth initiatives.
  2. Launch a 30-day growth challenge. 
  3. Have a Zoom background contest at your all-hands meeting.
  4. Create a “buddy system” with employees across multiple functions.
  5. Designate a few mandatory company-wide days off—a 3-day weekend can do wonders.
  6. Encourage and remind people to use the same OOO process (or an updated one if needed) for seamless and worry-free days off.
  7. Get a MasterClass subscription and give everyone access.
  8. Encourage each other to get daily movement—workouts, walking, dance breaks, yoga—and share selfies.
  9. Three words: Group. Zoom. Jazzercise.
  10. Dedicate extra time to learning how different personality styles react to uncertainty—we use DiSC. Here’s a free DiSC assessment tool. 
  11. Weekly morning coffee Zoom chats.
  12. Encourage outdoor brain breaks on sunny days.
  13. Do an all-call for pet photo submissions.
  14. Ask for weekly feedback on remote setup/productivity. Check out this feedback tool.
  15. Equip people with any extra resources they need to be productive—headphones, monitors, hard drives.
  16. Share which favorite local restaurants are doing take out.
  17. Crowdsource ideas for ways your company can give back to the community.
  18. Encourage each other to not partake in at-home haircuts. Seriously.
  19. Have remote walkie-talkies: one-on-one meetings while taking a walk outside.
  20. Increase financial health transparency—open book accounting where possible.
  21. Have a weekly, or maybe even a daily, message from your CEO.
  22. Provide ways for less utilized people to pitch in new ways during their downtime.
  23. If times are slow, find ways to invest back in the company brand. The next 6 ideas are examples of this.
  24. Revamp your website.
  25. Create a new work reel.
  26. Transition to that new software or piece of technology you’ve all been wanting to try.
  27. Explore new processes and platforms to support them.
  28. Give people a way to express themselves on the company blog.
  29. Create a system to notify and encourage your employees to share your company’s externally-facing content.
  30. Create a way for people to show remote appreciation—like a dedicated Slack channel. Ours is called #appreciation-station.
  31. Make sure people understand their mental health benefits.
  32. Invite outside speakers to company-wide meetings to talk about topics like emotional health or personal finance.
  33. Encourage teams to send each other care packages.
  34. Re-evaluate your company goals and create space for all to help define these.
  35. Dedicate a place to post/talk about pandemic-related news so that people can consume at their own rate and to their own comfort level.
  36. Share information for employees so they know what to expect if they become sick or have to care for a sick loved one.
  37. Provide a safe and confidential way for people to report if they are sick.
  38. Remind employees of all relevant policies/benefits and make sure they know where to access this information.
  39. Create an open line of communication with Sr. Leadership and the CEO if possible.
  40. Schedule internal meetings a few minutes longer than they need to be for some buffer time to catch up with each other.
  41. Schedule facilitated workshops to get alignment and keep projects moving forward. We’re happy to help.
  42. Host virtual Lunch & Learns.
  43. Give each other a heads up when other stressors might be on the horizon—a big storm, or a new local policy.
  44. Support different work times/availability when possible. Flexibility is essential right now.
  45. Have a dedicated meeting or channel for moms and dads to talk about their experiences balancing work and parenthood.
  46. Make sure all decisions check back to well-being—we are all human.
  47. Celebrate small wins.
  48. Have a contest: the weirdest thing you’ve cooked, drank, bought, or done while at home during the pandemic.
  49. Zoom your own Mystery Science Theater 2000 and group-watch a movie or show.
  50. Host a weekly company-wide happy hour—maybe even throw in a creative cocktail content.
  51. Virtual Karaoke night, anyone?
  52. Set automatic Slack reminders for the simple things. Breath. Drink water.
  53. Remind people of the importance of gratitude.
  54. Create a gratitude channel where everyone can post something they’re grateful for each day.
  55. Share links for free meditation sites, podcasts, or apps.
  56. Do a group meditation via Zoom.
  57. Host a virtual book club. Poll the group for what genre they’re most interested in right now.
  58. Share your book recommendations.
  59. Have fun photo contests with kids, pets, food-fails, crafting fails, etc. Have a theme each week to let people vote with emojis. PS—this is great social content.
  60. Host a virtual paint & sip one evening.
  61. Create a collaborative, company-shared “office” playlist. Bonus points if you include the go-to songs normally played throughout the office.
  62. Throw surprise Zooms for colleague’s birthdays. Maybe even send them a birthday in a box. Etsy has a lot of great options.
  63. Celebrate birthdays and workaversaries with a recognition post or email.
  64. Zoom a “company cribs”—want to show off your office setup? Share your tips and tricks for working at home? Or really just love the pillows you bought? Have a weekly guest on the “show”.
  65. Have fun with creating custom emojis to use in your company Slack channels. We like to make funny ones with our employee’s faces to use as reactions when they get appreciated.
  66. Share what you’re doing/working on outside of work.
  67. Stop to take stretch breaks together during longer meetings or workshop sessions. We even created a pair of virtual dice to help with this.
  68. For internal meetings, have a weekly theme like “silly hats” or “bring your favorite mug”.
  69. Email or message people on your team individually just to ask how they’re doing and check-in with them - not for anything work-related.
  70. Do the above for people not on your team.
  71. Let the musicians among you serenade the group with a couch concert series.
  72. There’s bound to be someone keeping up with TikTok trends—make sure they keep the rest of the group up-to-date.
  73. Spread a little laughter with the joke of the week. Or if you’re really funny, the joke of the day.
  74. Share relevant health tips on immunity, hygiene, and nutrition.
  75. Make sure each employee has a square squad featuring a mentor and a sponsor.
  76. Send each other cool uses of creative technology in the socially distanced world. We like to also share these with the world through our series, Touch on Tech.
  77. Crowdsource ideas to get inspiration and let others lean into projects they might not normally touch.
  78. Send funny nostalgic messages like, “Hey, who just microwaved fish in the office kitchen?” or “Matt, your Jimmy John's is here.”
  79. Embrace disruptions during virtual meetings. We are all learning how to navigate our new environments. Make sure everyone knows not to sweat interruptions out of their control.
  80. Remind people to take breaks in between long stretches of work. It can be hard to remember without the natural breaks the office provides.
  81. Teach people how to re-create the 5 work modes in their houses. Changing scenery based on the task at hand will increase productivity.
  82. Reassure people that you’re thinking about the new normal and new safety precautions that will be in place when you return to work.
  83. Reminisce on pictures from old office gatherings, parties, or retreats.
  84. Have a “guess that baby photo” contest.
  85. Share experiences about which grocery stores or pharmacies have the best social distancing precautions in place.
  86. Create a penpal system where people send handwritten letters to one another.
  87. Encourage people to partake in #The100DayProject or one like it.
  88. Swap Netflix recommendations and talk about them via lunch Zooms.
  89. Ask for volunteers to give mini-presentations during company-wide meetings on a topic of their choosing. Here’s a playlist of our Redbits for some inspiration.
  90. Encourage everyone to share their favorite TED Talk. We have a rule—if you’ve watched it 3 or more times you have to share it with the group.
  91. Check in with any freelance or external partners to communicate any changes and make sure everyone is aligned.
  92. Share any and all sales on loungewear.
  93. Remind everyone of the importance of a good night’s sleep.
  94. Reach out to past employees, partners, or clients just to say hi and see how they’re doing.
  95. Use Blinkist to access the key insights from a collection of over 2,500 nonfiction books.
  96. Find out who’s been baking sourdough and ask them about it.
  97. Try to learn something new about every person on your team.
  98. Ask everyone for overcommunication.
  99. Balance the here and now with planning for the new normal.
  100. Share this list with your company and ask them if they have any other ideas.

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