A lead in San Francisco is closing out the week. It is 5:00 PM on a Friday. A quick Slack message goes to a junior developer in Manila. It says, “Can you make a small UI change before Monday?”
The lead logs off and assumes the request is clear enough. The task sounds simple. The team has done similar changes before.
Saturday morning in the Philippines, the developer reads the message and pauses. “Small” is not a spec. It could mean changing a button label. It could also mean adjusting spacing, layout, and components across the page. There is no screenshot. There is no reference.
So the developer fills in the missing details. The developer works through the weekend to avoid a miss. Monday arrives with something that works, but it does not match the brand. The lead sees a quality mismatch, and the developer feels overworked.
A strong culture with a remote team is built in moments like this.
What team culture is, and what culture fit is
Team culture is the shared values, behaviors, and goals that shape how work gets done. It is often described as the personality of the organization.
In an office, culture is easier to pick up. People watch how others act. They learn the “normal way” through small daily moments like hallway chats and lunch breaks.
In a remote or offshore team, those signals are mostly gone. There is less to observe. It is easier to misunderstand tone. It is easier to feel disconnected.
So culture has to be built on purpose. It comes from clear ways of working. It shows up in simple things like how the team treats deadlines, how mistakes get handled, and what people do when no one is watching.
Culture fit is a hiring judgment about how someone will work inside those habits. It can help when it is specific. It becomes risky when it is vague.
Vague “culture fit” usually means “this feels off.” That does not help anyone improve. It also makes bias more likely, especially in remote teams where tone is easy to misread.
A safer approach is to name the exact behaviors the role needs, then teach those behaviors in onboarding with clear examples.
Term | Simple Definition | Cultural Impact | Potential Risk |
|---|---|---|---|
Team Culture | The shared "rules of the road" for how work gets done. | Determines speed, quality, and psychological safety. | Can become toxic if not actively shaped by leadership. |
Culture Fit | How well a person matches the team's values and style. | Improves retention and collaborative efficiency. | Can hide unconscious bias and limit diversity. |
Culture is the set of unwritten rules people follow at work. Culture fit is whether someone can follow that rulebook once it is clearly explained.
10 decisions that build culture through everyday work
1: Establishing Asynchronous Communication Standards
A team leader notices that her remote team spends four hours a day in "quick sync" video calls. Despite these meetings, the project details are still not consistent. Onshore seniors end up watching every step to keep the work on track. Over time, they get tired and frustrated.
Relying on live meetings all day creates a distracted team. It sends the message that replying fast matters more than doing focused work.
Without one written source of truth, like a dedicated project management dashboard, they fall into the "I thought you meant" trap. Trust and quality drop.
What to do: Put important details in writing first, especially anything that affects deadlines or quality. Use project management tools like Monday.com or Asana to document every requirement and update.
Record short Loom videos to explain complex tasks so the offshore team can watch them at their own pace.
How to apply it right now: Cut down recurring status meetings. Ask everyone to post updates in the project management board. Book a call only when there is a specific blocker that needs urgent attention.
2: Defining Overlap and Boundary Expectations
A founder in London expects his virtual assistant in Manila to be online during his afternoon. That pushes the assistant into a 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM shift in the Philippines. Over six months, the assistant's health declines, and the quality of work suffers. The founder calls offshore hires “unreliable,” but the real issue is the schedule.
Working a permanent graveyard shift is a major driver of attrition in the offshore industry.1 If a leader demands 24/7 availability without regard for local time zones, they create a "mercenary" culture where employees feel like interchangeable parts rather than human beings.
What to do: Agree on a 3 to 4 hour overlap window for calls, handoffs, and decisions. Keep the rest of the day asynchronous so the offshore team can work normal hours.
Do not expect the offshore team to live on the onshore schedule, and do not send “urgent” messages after hours with an expectation of immediate replies.
How to apply it right now: Add everyone’s local time zones to your shared calendar. Before sending a message, check if it is after 6:00 PM for the recipient. If it is, use the "schedule send" feature to deliver the message during their next working day.
3: Transitioning Seniors from Fixers to Mentors
A senior developer spends half the day fixing bugs from offshore code. The senior tells the CEO it would be faster to do it alone. The senior becomes the bottleneck. The offshore team stays stuck because learning never happens.
When onshore seniors act as "fixers," they reinforce a culture of dependency. The offshore team stops taking initiative because they know the senior will catch any mistakes. This stunts the growth of the entire organization.
What to do: Use a review process where the senior checks the work, rejects it when it misses the standard, and explains why with specific feedback. Use a short recorded walkthrough when it helps. Add small checks before work moves forward, like tests, clear acceptance criteria, and review gates.
How to apply it right now: The next time a task misses the standard, do not fix it yourself. Record a three-minute video that explains the error and the expected approach, then send it back for a redo.
4: Balancing Strategic and Supporting Workloads
An operator hires three team members in the Philippines. The work stays stuck on data entry and repetitive admin. When a higher-trust project shows up, the operator gives it to someone local instead. The offshore team notices the pattern. Motivation drops because growth starts to feel impossible.
Work distribution signals value. If the offshore team is permanently relegated to "grunt work," they will never feel like true members of the team. This creates a "us versus them" dynamic that leads to high turnover.
What to do: Hand an offshore teammate at least one project where they have to think, decide, and solve, not just follow instructions. Set a clear goal and what “success” looks like, then let them propose the approach and run with it.
Do not assume strategic work has to stay onshore. Do not keep offshore teammates out of context, like goals, priorities, and the real problems the team is trying to solve.
How to apply it right now: Look at your current to-do list for the next quarter. Identify one task that requires creative input or a decision. Delegate it to an offshore team member and set up a 1-on-1 to discuss their proposed strategy.
5: Managing by Outcomes Instead of Activity
A founder is worried about remote productivity, so he installs software that tracks mouse movements and takes random screenshots. The team becomes experts at "looking busy" while their actual output doesn't improve. Trust is completely broken.
Surveillance culture breeds resentment and fear. It prioritizes "presence" over "performance". A culture built on trust allows team members to self-manage, which leads to higher intrinsic motivation and better results.
What to do: Define success for each role in clear outputs. Use deliverables, deadlines, and quality checks.
How to apply it right now: Ask each team member to define their "Top 3" priorities for the week. Agree on what the final output should look like by Friday. Do one midweek check for blockers, then focus feedback on output instead of online status.
6: Adapting Feedback to Cultural Communication Norms
An American operator reviews a Filipino graphic designer’s draft on a Zoom call with the whole team watching. He’s frustrated and speaks too sharply. “The colors are all wrong. This is a waste of time.”
The designer goes quiet for the rest of the call. After that, the designer stops sharing ideas and keeps changes minimal. Two weeks later, the resignation comes through.
Western communication is often low-context and direct. Filipino culture is high-context and values "saving face". A leader who does not adapt their feedback style will accidentally create a culture of fear and silence.
What to do: Give constructive feedback in a private 1-on-1. Start with the outcome you want, then ask a question that invites a fix. Try, “How can we make this design feel more modern?” instead of “This looks old.”
How to apply it right now: In the next 1-on-1, ask the designer to talk you through their draft first. Then share your notes in plain language. End with one clear next step, so there is no guessing about what to change.
7: Make room for casual connection
The team only interacts when a problem arises. There are no casual greetings or shared jokes. Over time, the onshore and offshore teams feel like strangers, and "mercenary" behavior increases as workers feel no emotional connection to the company.
Remote work can be isolating. Work can start feeling purely transactional when the team only talks about tasks. It is harder to build trust when every message is a handoff or a deadline. A strong culture requires people to see each other as humans.
What to do: Create a Slack channel for light, non-work chat, like #random or #lounge, so casual posts have a home that is not tied to deadlines. Use a team-specific version when it fits. In marketing, a channel like #marketing-unfiltered can work well.
How to apply it right now: Start it yourself. Post a simple photo in the channel, like your coffee, your pet, or the view outside your window. Add a short line, then invite others to share a small snapshot from their day too.
Some teams also add a light wellness touchpoint during work hours. These activities improve remote employee retention. One example from our internal approach is Thrive on Thursday, with a short breathwork session or a quick reflection prompt. Keep it optional.
8: Maintaining Transparency in Operations and Decisions
A leadership team changes the product direction in a private office meeting. The remote team is not told right away. For the next three days, work continues on the old roadmap. Then the update is finally announced. The remote team feels excluded.
Transparency builds trust. When remote teammates do not get the same information, they stop taking initiative. Alignment breaks because people cannot make good decisions without context.
What to do: Share key decisions in a simple, repeatable way. Run a monthly or quarterly town hall where leaders explain what changed and why. Keep meeting notes in a shared folder that the whole team can access.
How to apply it right now: The next time you make a decision that affects a project, write a short summary of why you made that choice and post it in the relevant project channel for everyone to read.
9: Investing in Long-Term Career Pathways
A high-performing virtual assistant has been with the company for two years. Her salary has stayed the same, and her responsibilities haven't grown. The role starts feeling like a dead end. A competitor offers a small raise, and the assistant leaves.
When offshore teammates are treated like temporary help, they will treat the job as temporary too. A mercenary mindset often shows up when there is no visible future.
Culture is strengthened when employees see a future with the company.
What to do: Make growth visible and practical. Set up mentorship with a senior leader. Offer a small training budget for skill development.
How to apply it right now: Schedule a "Career Path" call with your longest-tenured offshore employee. Ask them what skills they want to learn in the next year and identify one way the company can support that growth.
10: Building a Culture of Accountability and Ownership
A developer misses a deadline and blames a "slow internet connection." Instead of addressing the missed deadline, the manager ignores it to avoid a difficult conversation. Soon, missing deadlines becomes the team norm.
Culture is defined by what you tolerate. If there are no consequences for poor performance, the high performers will become frustrated and leave. Accountability requires clear expectations and consistent follow-through.
What to do: Use a shared dashboard to track progress. When a deadline is missed, do a simple blameless review to find the real cause and prevent a repeat. Focus on what broke in the process. Do not let small delays slide without discussion, and do not avoid accountability just to keep things comfortable.
How to apply it right now: Create an end-of-week update template. Ask each person to list what they finished and what is rolling into next week, with one reason. Review it every Friday and agree on the next action for anything that slipped.
LevelUp’s internal approach is weekly L10 meetings across departments. Each department runs its own L10.
The meeting follows the same structure, with set segments for last week’s data and measurables, key updates, and issue-solving. The team ends by rating the meeting, so the process keeps improving.
Culture fit and hiring in the Philippines
Building a successful team in the Philippines takes clarity on work expectations from the start. Technical skill matters, but day-to-day alignment matters just as much.
Filipino professionals often value "Pakikisama" (harmony) and "Kapwa" (shared identity). This means they thrive in environments where they feel respected and included in the company's "family".
When hiring, define culture fit as the ability to work in your communication style. Look for someone who has the skills and can handle clear feedback and structured reviews.
Avoid hiring cheap just to save money, because it often leads to churn and quality issues. Focus on people who want stability and growth, then support that with a clear onboarding system.
If you want a practical starting point, read How to Prepare Before Hiring Offshore (Step-by-Step Checklist). If you want to see what usually breaks when teams skip the basics, go through Why Offshore Hiring Fails and Why Cheap Offshore Talent Creates More Work. If you are still sorting out what is true versus hype, Common Outsourcing Myths is a useful reality check.
