Remote and hybrid working models are increasingly common – especially in the digital industry. Businesses are being challenged to rethink how they build and maintain a strong company culture. Without in-person interactions or shared office rituals, how do you create a sense of connection and trust?
This is where the culture score comes in. Think of it as a pulse check for your company’s internal health: a measure of how engaged your people are, how well they align with your values, and how connected they feel to the team and broader mission. For remote-first teams, it’s a critical benchmark.
At Ruby Digital, culture isn’t an afterthought, it’s a core part of how we work. In this post, we’ll explore what a culture score measures, why it matters (especially for distributed teams), and the strategies you can use to build a thriving remote culture. Plus, we’ll share how we’re making it work, virtually and intentionally.
Understanding the Culture Score
A culture score is more than just a feel-good metric. It’s a tangible way to assess how connected, aligned, and fulfilled your team feels. It typically includes indicators like:
- Employee engagement – How committed and enthusiastic your team members are about their work.
- Alignment with company values – Whether your people feel that the company walks its talk.
- Trust in leadership – A vital ingredient in any successful company culture.
- Sense of belonging – How included and supported employees feel, especially when working remotely.
These elements are usually tracked through pulse surveys, anonymous feedback tools, or dedicated platforms like Culture Amp or Officevibe. The goal isn’t just to measure sentiment though, it’s to identify areas for growth and spark meaningful conversations.
The Unique Challenges of Remote Culture
Remote work has opened exciting possibilities: greater flexibility, wider talent pools, and fewer geographical barriers. But it also comes with a unique set of culture challenges, especially in South Africa where infrastructure and connectivity can vary widely. Some of the most common hurdles include:
- Physical distance: Without casual chats in the kitchen or post-meeting catch-ups, remote teams can struggle to build genuine connections.
- Communication silos: Distributed teams sometimes fall into the trap of working in isolation, which can impact collaboration and transparency.
- Lack of informal bonding moments: Those spontaneous “watercooler” chats that help teams bond don’t happen organically online—you have to create them intentionally.
- Time-zone management: For companies working across regions, coordinating meaningful team engagement can become a logistical puzzle.
Acknowledging these challenges is the first step. The next is building a culture that rises to meet them, on purpose, not by accident.
Key Strategies to Build a Strong Remote Culture
Creating a thriving remote culture doesn’t happen by default. It requires intention, consistency, and care. These are some of the key strategies Ruby Digital uses (and that any remote-working company can adopt) to keep culture strong and connected:
Clarity of Vision and Values
When your team is spread out across cities or time zones, having a clear north star is vital. That’s why your mission, vision, and values need to be more than just a poster on the (virtual) wall.
At Ruby Digital, our values are regularly reinforced in meetings, company update meetings, and performance reviews. We align team goals to our bigger-picture purpose, so everyone knows not just what they’re doing, but why it matters.
Tip: Don’t assume alignment happens on its own. Embed values in onboarding, praise team members who embody them, and refer back to them in decision-making.
Intentional Communication
Remote culture lives and dies by how well you communicate. That means going beyond the basics and fostering transparent, consistent, and inclusive communication practices.
Some of the practices that can help keep everyone on the same page:
- Daily Huddles – Quick check-ins to share priorities and stay connected.
- Async updates – Not every update needs a meeting. Written summaries in tools like Notion help reduce meeting fatigue and respect people’s time.
- Video where it counts – Seeing faces (even on screen) builds trust. Use video for 1:1s, brainstorms, and moments of recognition.
- Clear expectations – Clarity reduces stress. Spell out deadlines, ownership, and communication preferences to avoid misalignment.
Tip: Communication in a remote team isn’t about more, it’s about better. Fewer, clearer messages beat constant noise.
Rituals and Recognition
Culture isn’t just what happens in meetings, it’s what happens in the moments between. In a remote setup, you need to build those moments on purpose.
At Ruby Digital, we’ve created touchpoints that foster connection and celebrate wins, such as:
- Coffee Pals: A virtual coffee date system where teammates are paired up to chat and get to know one another.
- Celebrating wins: Whether it’s closing a big account or a shoutout for great teamwork, we take time to recognise achievements, both big and small. These moments are celebrated on our WhatsApp group or during our Vraai sessions – a virtual braai where everyone in the company gets a chance to give a shoutout to someone and play a game together. We also run MVR nominations each month, where everyone can nominate a team member who stood out to them and show appreciation by naming them our Most Valuable Rubycan for the previous month, whether for personal or work-related reasons.
- Mental Health: All team members can reach out to a wellness councillor via our Momentum benefits.
Tip: Rituals can be simple but powerful. What matters most is consistency and sincerity.
Maintaining the Culture Score Over Time
Building a strong culture is one thing—maintaining it is where the real work begins! Culture isn’t static – it evolves as your team grows, roles change, and new challenges arise.
Here’s how to make culture a living, breathing part of your remote company:
- Create feedback loops – Regular, anonymous culture surveys give employees a safe way to express what’s working and what’s not.
- Act on what you hear – Feedback without follow-through leads to disengagement. Share results, identify key action points, and update your team on what’s being done.
- Make culture everyone’s job – It’s not just on HR or leadership. Encourage team members at all levels to call out values in action, flag issues early, and contribute ideas to improve the culture.
- Track culture KPIs – Yes, culture can be measured! Consider integrating engagement scores, pulse survey results, or recognition stats into team dashboards or reviews.
A healthy culture is built through small, ongoing efforts, week by week, team by team.
How Ruby Digital Built and Sustains Its Culture
At Ruby Digital, remote work isn’t an obstacle, it’s an opportunity. With a remote-first model and team members across South Africa and beyond, we’ve made intentional moves to keep culture strong, no matter where we’re working from.
Some of our key initiatives include:
- Mentorship Pods – Also known as “Future Focus,” these are small group connects where experienced team members guide others through leadership skills, decision-making, and navigating the company’s growth journey. It’s about preparing future leaders while deepening relationships.
- Culture Committee – A cross-functional team that keeps the human side of work front and centre. From organising events to sparking connection initiatives, they keep our culture vibrant and inclusive.
- Coffee Pals & Huddles – Structured connection points like our daily Huddle meetings and our optional Coffee Pals programme give team members a chance to catch up, connect and share the human side of work.
- Celebrating the personal – Whether someone’s adopted a new pet, run a marathon, or just had a great day, we create space to share it. These “non-work wins” build real connection and joy.
And the results speak for themselves! Ruby Digital consistently scores highly in our internal culture surveys, with a current culture score of 95%. We’ve also been recognised externally – most recently as a Top 20 finalist in The (2024) Sunday Times Best Places to Work awards. Our Glassdoor profile showcases first-hand feedback from team members, many giving trust, autonomy, and a shared sense of purpose as some of the reasons they love working here.
Key Takeaways
Remote culture presents a chance to be more intentional, inclusive, and human. When done right, it can fuel high engagement, retention, and performance, even without a shared office. If you want to build and maintain a high culture score:
- Get clear on your values and revisit them often.
- Prioritise communication that’s transparent, authentic, inclusive, and kind.
- Build rituals that connect people beyond their tasks.
- Create space for feedback and follow through on it.
- And above all, remember that culture is lived, not written.
At Ruby Digital, we believe great culture doesn’t just happen, it’s nurtured every day. Want to learn more about how we build a people-first remote environment? Read more about our approach to work-life balance.
Because when culture is strong, everything else becomes easier!
