Building team culture in an era of remote work

As international remote work becomes a key feature of modern employee value propositions (EVPs), a leading academic says New Zealand businesses must embrace this trend to retain top talent—despite the country's geographic and economic constraints.

“The big challenge in New Zealand is retaining good staff - employers are struggling to compete on a wage basis, so they have to offer something else,” Dr Rebecca Downes, senior lecturer at Victoria University’s School of Management, told HRD.

“If you maybe really like your job, or perhaps your employer really likes you because you've got a really important set of skills for that organization, it might be good for the employer to actually be able to have that person work remotely—because the alternative is losing them altogether.”

Her comments follow new global research suggesting that international remote work is reshaping how employers view flexible arrangements.

The findings, from global immigration specialists, Vialto Partners, found that 75% of all flexible work requests were approved.

“As many organisations look to bring employees back into the office, they’re facing a new challenge: employee resistance,” the company state.

Organisational culture issues due to geography

With New Zealand facing alent shortages – how can HR leaders retain talent and avoid corporate isolation?

Downes, who has worked in teams that are both fully and partially remote, believes organisational culture plays a massive part.

“One of the first things I’d ask leaders worried about culture is, what are you actively doing to nurture it? Culture isn’t just proximity—it’s the result of deliberate effort,” she said.

“A lot of employers worry—if our staff aren’t in the office, if I can’t see them, what’s going to happen to our culture? How will we keep this organisational culture that we have? But we need to refocus our attention to creating a culture that’s intentional.”

Time zones, for instance, are a common barrier to collaboration. Dr Downes pointed to research indicating that companies often allow geographic flexibility but limit employees to certain time zones for smoother coordination.

“The biggest risk is that remote workers drift away from organisational goals—but that doesn’t have to happen. It just means we need to be more proactive. It gives us an opportunity like never before to really focus on what we offer and why people want to stay working here.”

Opportunities for organisational culture growth

Downes argues that international work may be able to enhance company culture if leaders focus on intentional connections.

Small and medium-sized enterprises, for example, can tap into global innovations and best practice often inaccessible in New Zealand’s borders.

“Typically, in New Zealand, when we see innovations coming in from overseas, it’s most often through larger companies, because those larger companies are spanning multiple countries, and so they create a sort of conduit for innovation to come into New Zealand.”

“Now there’s plenty of scope for smaller companies to be doing that as well, right? So if the main thing you need is somebody in another locale, it’s totally doable,” Downes added

Focusing on connection at all times

But the transition isn’t without pitfalls. Remote working can lead to siloed communication and weaken interpersonal bonds, especially if traditional office-based management techniques are blindly applied.

Dr Downes referenced research from Microsoft during the pandemic, which showed how remote work can lead to "siloization" without deliberate cultural investment.

“There’s a risk that those staff will drift away from your organisational goals or your organisational culture... it does require effort right on the manager’s part and the organisation’s part,” she said.

“It requires a different approach and more emphasis on keeping those connections live at all times, more time from the managers particularly, more emphasis on relationship-building and keeping those lines of communication open all the time.”

Ultimately, Downes concluded, this shift could align with New Zealand’s cultural DNA.

“We’ve always had a strong culture of wanting to explore the world. International remote work might just be the way we keep that spirit alive—while still contributing to our local economy.”