Even if your company is using the hybrid work model, most employees would want to learn virtually. It saves time for all involved and facilitates the whole learning process thanks to automation and easier distribution of information.

However, engaging remote employees, keeping them motivated, and retaining their attention could be very challenging because of all possible distractions.

In this article, we’ve prepared a list of 8 simple but very effective training ideas for remote employees.

1. Gamification

One of the main issues of remote training is the feeling of isolation that remote employees usually experience and the inability to reach and interact with their instructors.

One possible solution to these issues is the gamification of learning practices.

Brendan Roarty says that “video games reinforce and reward players for behaviors that get results and allow them to constantly test and grow their knowledge by offering a safe space to fail and experiment”.

One of the biggest benefits of online training through playing games is that your employees could be immersed in simulations of future situations or long-term goals. And that provides a better understanding of how each subject fits into the bigger picture.

2. Friendly competition

Another successful virtual training tip is to create a working environment that allows employees to enter into a friendly competition.

It would be a smart move to implement leaderboards in your virtual training program as well because some people perform way better in competitive conditions.

You can create a ranking system that stimulates employees to complete as many learning activities as possible.

The good side of competition between workers is two-folded because the underperforming employees are motivated to level up, while top performers are stimulated to continue with the good work.

3. Video learning

When talking about training ideas for remote employees, we can’t forget about video conferencing as an educational tool.

As you may already know, ever since the Internet boom occurred our attention span has drastically decreased.

Hence, many people struggle to concentrate during a long presentation or while reading an extensive paper.

In these cases, YouTube saves the day because there’s at least one tutorial or educational video on every subject that you can think of.

Why would a student want to waste an hour reading 20 complicated pages when someone could explain it to them in a much simpler and faster way?

You can simply copy-paste the YouTube link that you wish to display before everyone and click the Share button.

4. Implementation of interactive tools

When it comes to interactive training ideas for remote employees, they can be as wild and diverse as your imagination would allow.

If your remote training process is predominantly in a form of a presentation, we encourage you to implement interactive tools at least once per presentation.

They not only engage the audience but can also show you to what extent your remote employees have comprehended the material.

There are some popular interactive training examples like Quizziz and Kahoot that you can use to create your own multiple-choice or trivia quiz.

All of the platforms’ contents are user-generated, so you can also get inspired by the creations of other teachers.

For example, with Kahoot you can create a quiz, and share it on your screen during a video call There will be a unique game PIN that allows your remote employees to participate.

They can see the question and possible answers through the video meeting and use their phones to answer by clicking on the corresponding color they deem correct.

5. Make a list of previous common questions

Another clever training idea for remote employees is to make a list of frequently asked questions.

“Prepare reference documents for new employees based on common questions or concerns employees have had previously. It’s actually a form of supplemental training on the job. When working remotely employees might not always be able to get a hold of you when they have a question. If people have to stop working until they can reach you every time they’re unsure of how to proceed it can cripple the efficiency of your business.” – Tom Scarda from the Franchise Academy says.

That list of Q&As would serve as a guide for your employees in case they stumble upon something confusing or challenging.

They won’t waste time by trying to contact you or by trying to figure it out on their own and you won’t have to repeat yourself all the time, answering the same questions.

It’s a win-win situation.

6. Pair up an experienced employee with a newbie

As for the matter of how to train new employees, our best advice is to pair them up with someone more experienced.

There’s nothing better than learning all the tricks of the trade from a person who’s had their hands on the field for long enough to know all the details.

It is also a perfect team-building activity.

This practice is also called “the buddy system” and it’s mostly used in universities, high schools, and colleges.

New students have a dedicated 2^nd-year person from the same program to guide them around the buildings, help them with all the logistics, and even provide support during their first classes/exams.

The same idea could be applied to virtual training in the workplace where new employees have one well-trained worker at their disposal to ask questions and seek help if needed.

7. Apply spaced repetition

The spaced repetition method is one of the virtual training ideas that will help you jog the memory of your remote employees and improve their ability to retain information.

It could be as simple as making short summaries at the beginning and end of each session of the topic discussed during your previous virtual team meeting.

Or you can ask simple questions related to the material covered last week in relation to the new topic.

Also, you can use the interactive tools we talked about a minute ago to create fun quizzes and stimulate your remote employees’ memory.

The goal is to not let them forget the key concepts simply because you’re mostly relying on passive teaching methods.

If your remote employees know that you won’t ask questions on previously taught material, they won’t bother to remember it for long.

8. Introduce podcasts

Training remote workers through podcasts is another way to make the usual learning methods more fun.

There are many content creators for educational purposes on Spotify and affordable podcast recording software that could help you present the material in an audio format.

It is simple, convenient, and low-cost because they are usually made by experts in the respective field and distributed for free to the larger public.

Since they come in a format of a radio show, they can be accessed from any device as well as downloaded and listened to without access to the Internet.

Podcasts are a perfect way to educate busy workers since they are one of the few learning methods that works even when multitasking.

Final thoughts

These training ideas for remote employees could spice up your workers’ learning process.

However, our recommendation is to choose from the vast variety with consideration of your remote employees’ needs and struggles.

And don’t forget to take advantage of all the technological affordances – more engaging presentations, video calling software with all the extra features, interactive tools, podcasts, documentaries, and so on.

And if you are looking for a reliable video conferencing and scheduling tool, look no further – 3veta is right for you. Start your free trial today!

The post 8 Training Ideas for Remote Employees to Try in 2023 appeared first on 3veta.

It is a complicated endeavor because meeting management requires handling your team’s schedule, preparing for the meeting beforehand, and securing the right virtual environment to meet.

In order to be successful in managing remote meetings, you’ll have to acquire facilitation skills. You have to make all team-related practices easier and more accessible.

Your teammates should feel at ease when there’s an upcoming team meeting because they’d be well-informed and aware that your organization is on point.

So, if you wonder how to improve your facilitation skills, we’ve prepared a list of 5 meeting management skills that will get you there.

1. Combine time management with team management

Managing a remote team meeting means navigating through different schedules in order to find the most suitable date and time for your meeting.

Usually, it also means sending back-and-forth emails to all involved so that you can arrange all the details.

We recommend you skip that phase and use a shared team calendar instead. This way, you’ll be able to combine both time and employee management.

A shared calendar can help you in many ways – you know your colleagues’ availability at all times, you can follow their progress and productivity, and you can easily reschedule your plans in case something happens.

3veta’s shared team calendar can even help you manage time zones in case your team is international. And, thanks to the automated reminders and notifications, everyone will be invited to join the meeting when the time comes.

You can also select different calendar views.

We have a daily calendar with your upcoming meetings and tasks. The weekly calendar looks a bit further and gives you a better overview of your plans for the following few days. And the monthly one is the most extensive one that you can use to re-evaluate your meetings and rearrange to-dos.

2. Tech-savviness but make it easy

We already highlighted how important your facilitation skills are for the organization of productive team meetings and the performance of your team.

A good video conferencing software can help you out by making the actual process of meeting up online much easier.

Here are a few features that you should look for.

Top quality on all devices

Every remote meeting might be held under different conditions. You should be confident that your software runs equally smoothly on all devices.

Don’t let traveling or limited access to a computer stop you from looking and sounding professional while doing your job.

Meeting rooms

There are so many different types of online meetings — stand-ups, staff meetings, client meetings, weekly catch-ups, etc.

To have a separate link for each meeting and remember which one is the correct one when you need it should be considered as a talent.

Meeting rooms systemize and organize all types of meetings so that you and your team can easily access them with no confusion or frustration.

Engagement

Almost every article that touches upon the question of how to run meetings effectively will tell you that engaging your attendees should be your number one priority.

By engaging, we mean creating polls, using reaction buttons, and interacting in the chat.

Recordings

Creating recordings of your meetings is also a key feature that will allow team members to follow the discussion even after it has ended.

3. Prepare beforehand and make others do the same

In order to host productive team meetings, you not only have to prepare for the conversation but also let everyone know what the meeting is about.

Whether it is a routine or a strategic meeting, you have to clarify your objectives. If you are unable to summarize the purpose of your meeting in a couple of sentences, then you cannot justify hosting a meeting.

The first step is to identify your goals, the second is to create a team meeting agenda.

By systematizing your main arguments/concerns/issues/questions into bullet points and sub-points, you’ll never drift away from the main topic, you won’t forget what follows next, and your attendees will know what to expect.

You can share it with the meeting participants beforehand and encourage them to get familiar with the topic in question.

Such topic communication skills will contribute to the productivity of your session since other people will be able to add more arguments to the conversation.

The agenda is your compass toward achieving the goal of the meeting. Also, it helps you determine the duration of the session.

Make it too short and you’ll be left hanging with a couple of undiscussed issues or you’ll have to prolong it and, let’s be honest, nobody likes that.

4. Think strategically

To make the most out of each meeting, you have to think strategically about who you invite to participate.

There’s this popular saying that time is money. And meetings can sometimes take up a lot of your time. Therefore, it can cost you money.

So, don’t invite people who are not needed for the achievement of your objective.

Firstly, they won’t feel useful and their time would be lost because they could’ve used these 30ish minutes to do something else.

Secondly, they’ve taken the place of someone else who could’ve truly helped you during the meeting.

So, if you’re wondering whether someone should be there or not, we suggest two approaches.

Assign that person a role.

Every attendee should have a role or a task to complete during or after the meeting. If you can’t think of a role, you shouldn’t invite that person.

Or you can use the meeting cost calculator offered by Harvard Business Review.

You can take the number of people you’re planning to involve in the meeting, set the time limit, and roughly guess what each person’s salary is.

The calculator will tell you how much that meeting would cost.

That way, you can see for yourself if it’s worth it and check if you can save up by removing or replacing someone.

5. End with a clear overview of your discussion

By the end of your remote meeting, the most important thing you have to do is summarize.

Especially if your meeting was 30+ minutes long, people might have forgotten what you talked about in the beginning.

Therefore, when you prepare your agenda, highlight the most essential points and repeat them to your audience before you end the meeting.

Also, if your meeting was about solving an issue or distributing workload, make sure that everyone is well aware of all decisions that you’ve come to.

For instance, if you’re discussing the progress of a project you could say something along the lines of:

“Before we get back to work, I would like to quickly wrap up what we all agreed upon. The new deadline is Monday, 7 November, 3 pm. Mike will be your contact person in case you stumble upon any major issues. Joanne is responsible for X and Y. Zoe will take care of Z. The rest of us will continue as usual. Should you have any questions don’t hesitate to email me. And don’t forget to submit your weekly progress update each Friday morning.“

Providing clear actions, timelines, and owners means that you’ve stated what actions are to be taken, when, and who is responsible for their completion.

By summarizing your main points, you leave zero space for misunderstandings.

Another tip is to discuss when your next meeting will be unless you meet on a regular basis and you already know the answer to that question.

Meeting management skills in a nutshell

We might have covered the main meeting management skills and tricks but, honestly, there’s much more to cover.

Meeting management is a complex task that involves a lot of skills and practices, some are the foundation, and others are complementary.

But to ensure that everything runs without a hitch, stick to the basics and in the meantime try to perfect the details.

The post 5 Meeting Management Skills to Run an Effective Meeting appeared first on 3veta.

The duration of the video call, the number of participants, the level of formality of the conversation, and the preparedness of all participants depend entirely on the nature of the gathering.

The virtual stand-up meeting is the most informal online team meeting because it’s usually very short and happens almost every day.

In the following paragraphs, we’ll elaborate more on the nature of the virtual stand-up meetings and we’ll provide you with 6 ideas on how to conduct them well.

What is a virtual stand-up meeting?

The basic purpose of a standup meeting is to gather the whole team, usually in the morning, and answer the 3 following questions:

• What did each team member finish?
• What are they working on currently?
• What stands in their way to finish the job?

It’s all about sharing information about the status of tasks and how’s the progress going. That’s why the stand-up meeting has certain characteristics that distinguish it from the other forms of video calls.

For example, virtual daily stand-ups (also known as scrum stand-ups) are no longer than 15-20 minutes and are usually held at the same time and in the same virtual meeting room every day.

Also, all team members’ participation is required and the meeting starts on time no matter if someone is late or missing.

How long should a stand-up meeting last?

As mentioned above, the duration of a daily stand-up meeting is up to 20 minutes because people do not gather to brainstorm, discuss, or solve any issues.

It’s merely a verbal report of where each team member is in terms of tasks and projects that gives an overview of the overall team progress.

After the meeting or at the end of it people could arrange additional one-on-one follow-up meetings if a certain matter requires more consideration.

Of course, the frequency of the remote stand-up video calls is entirely up to the team leader and it could vary.

If the team gathers once per week, the meeting could be a bit longer since there will be more events to report. However, all participants should do their best to be as concise as possible.

Who should attend the stand-up meetings?

Forbes states that not having the right people in the room is a meeting-waster.

Indeed, you have to be careful when you compose the list of attendees because that determines hugely how your meeting goes.

Having too many participants, some of whose presence is unnecessary is a pure waste of time.

And people hate when their time is not respected.

Make sure to gather only the people whose input, support, and expertise would be needed and useful.

And if those attendees are currently unavailable, better reschedule than hold a meeting with no purpose.

For example, if you want your sales team meeting to be as productive as possible make sure you invite only those who are crucial to the conversation, e.g. all the sales reps and managers.

How to conduct a successful remote stand-up meeting?

The best way to effectively conduct remote stand-up meetings is to find a good video conferencing tool that offers all the features you may need.

You should look for features such as Full HD video, easy meeting scheduling, breakout rooms, screen sharing, recordings, and transcriptions.

Apart from that, we would recommend preparing an agenda so that new members know how to proceed and what to do.

To help you conduct more effective virtual stand-up meetings, we have prepared these 6 actionable tips.

Minimize irrelevant information

Every daily stand-up meeting should have a purpose.

That must be the first thing you come up with because having a purpose justifies taking on your teammates’ time.

After you know what you want to discuss, it’d be nice to design an agenda. Bullet points help people stay on track and prevent you from forgetting important things.

If you don’t have an agenda, or worse, if you don’t have a good reason to meet, then most probably your interaction will be chaotic, there will be a frequent change of topic and you won’t be productive.

But if you know what subject is with priority, you will be able to sift out the irrelevant information and focus on what concerns you the most.

Add a few minutes for appreciation

Embarking on remote work can be a solitary experience.

Some people struggle with the feeling of isolation and, although it might not seem so important, it could affect deeply their performance.

It would be nice to include a couple of minutes at the end of each meeting to give a round of applause or express your gratitude towards someone for a job well done.

This way team members won’t feel invisible. Instead, they will know that their effort is recognized and their input is valued.

After all, good motivation is what makes progress easier.

Ask for opinions

Giving and receiving feedback is also crucial for the efficiency of the team. Ask your team members what made them unhappy work-wise yesterday and what would please them today.

This tip kills two birds with one stone because it’s a nice ice-breaker for the moments you don’t know how to start the conversation and it also provides you with insights on what improvements could be made.

As a manager, you’ll make all the important decisions, but it wouldn’t hurt to ask your teammates about their experiences and opinions.

Einstein once demonstrated that we all perceive things differently, thus, sometimes it’s useful to look at things through a different lens.

Decide a frequency

The frequency of your virtual stand-up meetings is entirely up to the needs of your team and the goals of your business.

They could be on a daily, weekly, bi-weekly, or even monthly basis. The most important part is to make sure that everyone is notified in advance about the date and time.

Also, don’t be afraid to skip a meeting.

Some people say that the best virtual meeting is the one that doesn’t occur.

That’s because nobody likes to waste their time in sweet talks instead of working on the task.

So, if you think that you have nothing, in particular, to talk about and at this point, your team would meet merely out of habit, better cancel it.

Keep introverts in mind

In this digital era, working with introverts remotely presents a whole new level of difficulty.

You have to be mindful of them because usually, they’d prefer not to speak up during video calls.

Good advice would be not to oblige everyone to attend informal meetings with their camera on since some people are very shy and knowing that everyone is watching them might prevent them from sharing their thoughts.

Also, make the effort to include everyone in the conversation.

Some people could be very talkative which could be overwhelming for introverts and they’d prefer to remain silent.

Make sure to give every team member the word and listen to them carefully because they might have something important to share.

Avoid negative feedback

Virtual stand-up meetings are not a place for criticism and negative feedback.

Avoid commenting on teammates that are falling short on their tasks.

Denouncing somebody in front of others could be humiliating for that person and could lead to shifting the blame and inducing conflicts.

Even if you are not content with how certain things are carried out and you have something to say, it’d be best if you schedule individual one-on-ones with the people you have in mind.

This way your criticism could actually be beneficial and they’d be able to fix the issue without any tension arising in the team.

Our final thoughts on virtual stand-up meetings

Hosting daily virtual stand-up meetings is an essential part of managing a remote team and helps you and your team to stay on track with your business goals.

No matter if you manage a remote sales team, marketing team, or any other virtual team, it’s a good way to keep in touch with your colleagues in both the digital and the real world.

If you’d like to receive more heads-ups on how different projects and tasks are going, this type of informal online team meeting is the right solution.

However, here are some other types of virtual meetings that you should be aware of and prepared for since they are an intrinsic part of the online business world.

The post Virtual Stand-up Meeting Tips to Make the Most Out of Your Team Calls appeared first on 3veta.

Every level of sales team operations—including meetings—should incorporate the most common motivational factors to keep the team moving towards success.

The key drivers of motivation, as research by Hypercontext reveals, include competitive salary, fulfilling work, and a good manager.

Looking at these numbers, it’s clear that these three factors should be a top priority, especially when it comes to working towards becoming a better sales manager.

A low-hanging fruit that is often overlooked—and has the potential to improve how you lead your sales team—is how effective you are at running sales meetings.

Your sales meetings are a communication channel with the team and, like all other channels, the stakes are always high.

You need to communicate effectively and transparently to help your team members do their work in the most effective and productive way.

In this article, we’ll talk about how to run effective sales meetings to empower your team. By using these strategies, you’ll run more effective sales meetings that improve team engagement and productivity.

Common problems hindering your sales meetings

Meetings should leave you and the team feeling energized and looking forward to getting things done.

If you feel a loss of energy and enthusiasm every time a sales meeting ends, then there are unresolved problems getting in the way.

Before we get into how to solve them, let’s take a deeper look at the problems you’re already facing in your sales meetings.

Holding unnecessary meetings

The energy your team members need to get work done on a particular day or week is finite.

Every time you ask them to attend a meeting that could have been an update via Slack, you take up some of that energy.

Unnecessary meetings are a distraction.

They affect team productivity, which builds up to the financial cost of attending too many unnecessary meetings.

There’s also the opportunity cost that comes with unnecessary meetings.

Your team members attend meetings at the expense of getting work done, which means they have to play catch-up after every meeting, reducing the chances of hitting their KPIs.

Poor setting of agendas

Meeting agenda items need to provide clarity and set expectations for the meeting. Poor setting of agendas can involve any of the following:

• Too many agenda items: Having too many agenda items to discuss in one meeting means that your meetings run longer than necessary. Team members become distracted, and it’s likely you’ll rush through important agenda items without discussing them in enough detail.
• Too few agenda items: Meetings with few (and light) agenda items are likely to be unnecessarily short and unproductive. In such meetings, you’re likely to spend an unreasonable amount of time talking about one issue.
• Unclear agenda items: Unclear agenda items lead to sneaking in unplanned discussion topics that take up time initially allocated for the original agenda items.

For example, let’s think about a meeting with a few, unclear agenda items.

Weekly standup meetings are meant to provide updates on what team members have been working on in the past week and what they’re working on in the coming week.

There’s nothing wrong with that, as long as these updates can’t be shared via Slack or other channels.

Unfortunately, such meetings often shine the spotlight on one team member (usually the one who’s struggling to get things done), making everyone else feel out of place.

The rest of the team is likely to tune out and be resentful over being forced to meet each week, fearing they might be put on the spot in front of everyone else.

Poor facilitation

Badly run meetings, even with solid agenda items, are a waste of everyone’s time.

Think of a meeting where there is a lot of cross-talk, poor timekeeping, people leaving early, condescending tones among attendees, and unnecessary arguments.

All that ensures no progress is made by the end of the meeting.

Lack of feedback from your team

As a sales leader, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that you’re great at running effective sales meetings.

After all, we’re human and prone to positive illusions during self-assessment.

However, if you don’t collect feedback on your effectiveness in sales meetings, then chances are that you don’t know the areas in which you need to improve.

How to run an effective sales meeting?

Each meeting you run needs to help your team members get work done and improve performance engagement.

Here’s how to make sure your sales meetings are effective.

Define the goal of your sales meeting

You don’t have to hold a meeting just because you feel you should. Use this flowchart from HBR to help you decide if you need to hold that meeting in the first place:

Once you decide that you want to hold a sales meeting, think about how to manage your agenda.

It’s not quite enough to grab an agenda template, fill it up with items, and mail it to your team before the meeting.

At a basic level, having an agenda is a great step. But you need to scrutinize every item you include in your agenda and ensure it’s meaningful and worthy of everyone’s time and input.

Be clear about how the agenda items are going to push the team forward towards hitting their KPIs. Once you’re able to link the two, you’ll have laid the groundwork for an effective sales meeting.

Consult relevant stakeholders

In addition to creating an agenda on your own, talk to your team and other stakeholders to get their views on what else to include.

This process will improve your original agenda items or include items that may have escaped your attention.

For example, you may have included an agenda item related to improving team performance. A stakeholder might suggest that you narrow this down to the specifics such as defining key success metrics to avoid ambiguity.

Either way, the suggestions you receive ensure that each item aligns with company objectives.

Invite relevant attendees

Meeting rooms with too many people feel crowded.

Some team members might hide behind everyone else to avoid participating. Conversely, without the right people in the meeting, you’re likely to end up stuck and unable to thoroughly discuss what’s on the agenda.

Keep meeting sizes manageable so that everyone can participate.

Carefully think through your list of attendees when deciding on the meeting’s purpose. In a productive meeting, all team members contribute to the task at hand.

Establish expectations and conduct

Each meeting you run requires attendees to contribute—while they allow everyone else to participate without unnecessary interruptions.

Set this expectation while sharing agenda items and supporting resources beforehand so team members can prepare their talking points.

An example of a supporting resource is sales report templates to provide context and allow everyone to contribute when defining key success metrics.

When it comes to conducting, you want to make sure that there are minimal distractions.

Guidelines to govern conduct include restricting team members from leaving before the meeting ends (unless it is an emergency), banning cross-talk, getting rid of noise, making sure everyone has a proper virtual background image, and putting away mobile phones during the meeting.

Make space for collaboration to improve engagement

Encourage everyone involved in the meeting to participate by assigning roles to them during the meeting.

As a sales team leader, you’re the chair. Other roles you can delegate include timekeeper, note-taker, and facilitator.

For instance, the timekeeper ensures agenda items do not go beyond each time limit, and a note keeper notes down action points. The facilitator ensures everyone takes part in the meeting, and the chair leads everyone through the agenda.

Different people might rotate through these roles from meeting to meeting. This brings out different personalities in each meeting and keeps every remote team member engaged.

When everyone feels included, they take part in the meeting instead of passively nodding their heads in agreement (even when they have a different opinion).

Solidify your next action steps

At the end of each meeting, the note taker should provide a recap of what you’ve discussed. They should also share which team member is responsible for the next action items to make sure everyone is on the same page.

Solidifying the next steps at the end of one meeting avoids the need for another meeting later on to provide updates on discussed items.

If you’re running a large sales team, have a virtual assistant collect these updates from individual team members.

They’ll prepare a report to share with you and with the entire team via Slack or email for example.

Set constraints

Effective sales meetings need constraints.

In a 1955 essay, Northcote Parkinsonargued that work always expands to fit the amount of time you allocate to it, also known as Parkinson’s Law. The same happens when it comes to meetings.

The more time you allocate to meetings, the more things you will have to talk about. But it doesn’t necessarily mean that the meeting is effective.

To avoid falling into this trap, set constraints that keep you on your toes.

Here are a few constraints to help you get started:

Always start and end the meeting on time

Your timekeeper needs to allocate enough time to agenda items and ensure no one speaks too long.

This way, you know that the sales meeting will stay focused on the agenda items. No one will introduce a new point midway and risk running out of time.

Set a limit on the number of agenda items

Without a limit on agenda items per meeting, you end up with a varying number of meeting points to get through.

Some sales team meetings might feel intense and others might feel like a walk in the park.

Limiting the number of agenda items ensures only what needs to be on the agenda appears there. Everything else stays out.

Have a regular time and day when you meet

Meeting at the same time and day each week can seem boring, but a routine creates predictability.

Your sales team creates their schedules around the meeting, meaning it becomes part of their routine rather than an unwelcome distraction.

Ask for feedback

Every sales team is different. In addition to using the strategies above, start collecting feedback regularly from your team to identify areas of improvement.

Feedback provides an accurate picture of the terrain. It helps you know where to start when improving your meetings.

In addition to teammates reporting issues, feedback should also ask to identify what’s already working. This way, you can double down on your strengths.

With this knowledge, create a work plan that allows you to improve by keeping everyone’s considerations in mind.

When collecting feedback, make your surveys anonymous, just like you may with a customer feedback survey, to encourage your team to share their thoughts freely with you.

Run effective sales meetings with 3veta

Remote work is here to stay and the question is no longer about doing away with meetings—rather, it’s about continually assessing whether you’re running your sales meetings as effectively as you should.

3veta ensures your remote sales meetings are as effective and as productive as they can ever be.

Wanna see how 3veta can improve your sales meetings? Start your free trial today!

The post How To Run Effective Sales Meetings That Keep Your Team Engaged appeared first on 3veta.

Also, they could be intimidating for those who feel unprepared because they are unaware of who the attendees would be and what would be discussed during the meeting.

It’s the responsibility of the remote team manager to provide enough information to the participants and give the meeting a clear and efficient structure

In this article, we’ll go over 8 practical techniques for leading effective team meetings but let’s focus on the essence of virtual meetings first.

What are the five key elements of effective team meetings?

It’s important to understand that meetings are not merely a way to exchange information.

In today’s digital world, they are also ‘relationship-building’ sessions and there are some virtual meeting best practices that need to be followed.

To make sure that you conduct effective team meetings that actually contribute to your business goals, follow the five C’s.

Compelling

Be creative and imaginative and depict your point through a story.

If you incorporate your message into something that your attendees would relate to, there is a greater chance of everyone understanding your idea.

Clarity

As an expert in your field of work, you might be tempted to jump from one topic to another, providing a detailed explanation of every aspect of it.

However, try to be as concise as possible and summarize the high points.

There’s no need to talk over everything in one go, good remote and hybrid meetings usually lead to follow-up discussions.

Consistency

Get to know your meeting attendees.

You can easily connect with your audience and transmit your message by knowing where their interests lie and what previous experience they have.

Because different people would require different approaches.

Conversation

Don’t turn your meeting into a monologue.

Give other participants to ask questions, provide clarifications or add to your point.

A two-way conversation is way more productive and effective.

Close

End the meeting properly.

Either by summarizing what is expected from the attendees or by asking for support.

Otherwise, the main objective of the meeting might get overshadowed by side discussions.

What should team meetings include?

Depending on the type of meeting you host and the number of people present, there are a few variations of what team meetings should include.

Agenda

Generally speaking, every team meeting should have an agenda. A good plan of how the topic in question will be approached is a must.

Documentation

Any documents or pieces of information should be shared with the participants beforehand so that they can prepare.

Visuals

Apart from that, if the topic requires it, the host should provide good visuals to display the issue and to better engage everyone in the conversation.

Polls and questionaries

For the process of making a decision, it could be useful to incorporate polls and questionnaires so that everyone can express their opinion on the matter.

How to host effective team meetings?

We are all too busy for badly organized meetings, aren’t we?

That’s why it’s crucial to schedule and host effective team meetings and get the most out of them.

In the following paragraphs, we’ll take a closer look at how to achieve that.

1. Define the objective of the meeting

The most important part of every meeting is to have a clear objective – to know what you want to discuss with others and to be sure that it’s worth the participants’ time.

A clear objective is the foundation of the meeting. Once you know what the main topic would be, then you can start planning, providing additional information, deciding on who to invite, and so on.

Whether it’s a decision to be taken or a project update that you’d like to communicate to others, try your best to be impartial and determine whether the meeting needs to happen or not.

HBR says that you must know what the outcome of the meeting should look like and, if it’s worthy of your team members’ time, act on it.

2. Invite the right people

One of the best tips to conduct an effective team meeting is to invite the right people.

The first issue is that there might be some colleagues that would expect to or insist on participating but it’s up to you to decide whether their presence would contribute to the meeting or not.

They might be taking the spot of someone who would actually benefit from the meeting and would have something valuable to say.

The second problem is when hosts invite people to attend a meeting who don’t need to be there for the whole thing.

As Forbes prompts, don’t waste people’s time. Just send them an email.

3. Prepare an agenda and ask for input

As we’ve already stated, setting an agenda in advance is the next most important step in your to-do list for conducting an efficient staff meeting.

Such an agenda would be comprised of bullet points to provide a structure for the meeting and give participants an idea of what follows next.

And it should also introduce time limits for each section so that your meeting doesn’t turn into an endless exchange of arguments, ideas, and counter-arguments.

The agenda should be made available to everyone and, although it’s the manager’s primary responsibility to identify the priority topics, team members can be invited to contribute as well.

4. Plan your meetings adequately

A last-minute meeting would lack the preparation and the proper mindset that it requires. Therefore, do your best to avoid such occurrences.

One of the online meeting best practices is to plan ahead of time and send an invitation to others at least a couple of working days in advance.

Usually, it would be best if staff meetings are early in the morning and at the beginning of the week.

This way people have enough time to focus and work on the new tasks that popped up, meanwhile the meeting’s discussion is still fresh in their minds.

5. Share information before the meeting

Information sharing doesn’t require a meeting anymore. You can send all the files and reports prior to the staff meeting to save time and inform everyone about what’s going on.

This could be especially useful if you are time-boxing your meetings and you want to focus on being productive.

Use your virtual leadership and meeting management skills to encourage the process of co-creating, decision-making, commitment making, and planning.

6. Experiment with the format

The format of the meeting doesn’t need to be boring.

Make sure to break up the monotony at all costs and introduce some icebreakers to make the meeting more interactive and engaging especially if the attendees are not acquainted with each other.

For example, you can introduce a ‘learning roundtable’ which is the practice of having team members take a turn teaching each other something new.

Run virtual team-building sessions from time to time or engage participants in brainstorming activities. There are plenty of remote team-building apps to choose from to increase team engagement and collaboration.

Also, you could invite a guest speaker to spice up the topic a little bit and provide a different perspective.

7. Introduce follow-ups, polls, and questionnaires

An essential part of leading a remote team meeting is seeking co-workers’ opinions on something.

It could be related to decision-making on a project matter or it could be simple feedback.

Your attendees’ intel could help you improve not only your meeting management but your goal-setting as well.

Follow-up discussions can broaden your horizons and introduce new perspectives.

Polls can help you get a fast and easy answer to a question that concerns everyone.

Questionnaires can be a nice way to see what’s the overall opinion on something once you turn them into statistics.

8. Be an exemplary leader

Among all effective meeting guidelines, the most overlooked tip is to be an exemplary leader.

Hosting virtual team meetings should not be about flaunting authority or abusing power.

You have to hold yourself and your team to the highest standards of conduct.

Don’t criticize any member of the team in front of the others, and don’t make inappropriate jokes trying to be ‘the cool boss’. Don’t be cynical or sarcastic.

Keep a sense of humor and a smile on your face but don’t cross the line between the professional and the personal attitude.

The bottom line

Effective team meetings are a combination of a lot of things such as good organization, planning, and team collaboration.

In this article, we’ve touched upon the organizational part of conducting a staff meeting.

But if you’re interested in working on your team’s efficiency and unity, you can also check our guidelines on how to build effective team culture.

It’s your turn now. Find what works best for your remote or hybrid team and adjust your meeting management style accordingly.

The post Effective Team Meetings: 8 Tips to Lead Successful Remote Meetings appeared first on 3veta.

Whether it will be with your team, colleagues, or clients, you’ll have to find a way to easily arrange meetings, projects, calls, and other time-consuming interactions.

Because, as HBR says, effective teams don’t just happen – you design them.

Therefore, if you haven’t found your way to efficient schedule coordination, it’d be best to try a little bit of everything.

In this article, we offer 10 different scheduling tips for remote and hybrid teams that could improve greatly your communication and overall performance.

Use a scheduling tool

The best way to coordinate meeting times is to start using a scheduling tool that can take care of everything – from scheduling meetings to sending reminders and hosting engaging video calls.

Also, such an app would provide you with the option to set your working hours and coordinate availability with your virtual team or potential clients.

For instance, 3veta syncs your personal and work calendars and makes sure that you don’t forget or mix up anything.

Furthermore, you can see each team member’s availability thanks to the unified team calendar.

Just pick a free time slot and easily schedule one-on-one meetings, virtual daily stand-ups, or weekly catch-ups.

Share your calendar

Sharing your calendar with team members or clients does wonders when working remotely or on a hybrid work schedule.

It makes it so much easier to schedule meetings, especially in this digital era where employees prefer to work and collaborate online.

Furthermore, scheduling apps that feature calendar sharing make remote work and project collaboration quick and easy.

No more endless threads to find a free time slot for a meeting – just share your calendar and get back to work.

Consider different time zones

Most remote or hybrid teams struggle with their schedule coordination because of a considerable difference in time zones.

People working from abroad used to work till late or wake up way too early in the morning to participate in a meeting that assembles the whole team.

However, there are meeting management software and web apps that check every member’s availability, compare their time zones and suggest the most adequate time slot for a meeting.

Schedule meetings in advance

One of the best practices for online meetings is to schedule them ahead of time.

People who have a clear idea of what awaits them in the upcoming week or even month tend to be more productive and efficient.

This practice will also allow for better preparation on the topic of discussion and will ensure that everyone can make it to the meeting.

Last-minute calls might be inevitable when it comes to urgent matters but nobody likes having to deal with sporadic activities on a daily basis.

Create a scheduling poll

For those who struggle to coordinate schedules with team members (or clients), our tip is to create a scheduling poll and send it out to as many people as possible.

How does this work?

You pick one of the many survey platforms on the market and you use it to generate a poll with all the options you deem reasonable.

After that, you can share the link to the poll with the meeting participants and let them express their preferences.

Some platforms even send out notifications to those who haven’t responded in time.

Leave gaps in the schedule for unplanned activities

Don’t forget to leave gaps in between activities when you create your meeting schedule. That way, if something unexpected occurs, you’ll have the time to react.

When you work remotely all kinds of things could happen. A virtual meeting could get prolonged or one of your teammates might need urgent help.

In that case, if your schedule is airtight you’ll have to make a decision between what’s on the schedule and what has suddenly popped up.

Instead of last-minute prioritizing, make sure to foresee some minor inconveniences.

Send out reminders

Sending out reminders is one of the best ways to coordinate schedules with clients and co-workers because people can still show up even if they have forgotten about your arrangement.

No-shows are one of the most annoying downsides of virtual businesses.

Since the meetings are not to be in-person at a specific physical place, people tend to forget or overlook what they have planned.

Therefore, automatically notifying all participants a couple of days before the meeting could save both sides the trouble of rescheduling for another time.

Nowadays every good video conferencing and small business scheduling software features sending automatic reminders, so keep that in mind when choosing a remote meeting tool.

Set your out-of-office time

Microsoft recommends setting out-of-office time blocks so that whoever might be looking for you knows that you are unavailable.

This could be very helpful in case you are taking a day off or you are traveling and you find yourself unable to pick up your phone.

Think of all those repetitive appointments or activities that are non-work related.

You can also identify them in your calendar as recurring periods of time in which you shouldn’t be disturbed.

Schedule “no meeting” time blocks

Some people feel proud about being good at multitasking but when we look at it realistically it turns out that it’s neither efficient nor productive.

Thus, when you have to do a couple of important tasks in a specific time slot and they require all of your attention and focus, put them on your calendar under the label ‘no meeting’.

It could be something as trivial as responding to emails or writing a report but you’ll get zero benefits if it’s done while you are in the middle of something else.

Kick off the day with a stand-up meeting

Stand-up meetings are the best way to coordinate remote teams since they become an irreplaceable part of each member’s routine.

Usually, they are held in the morning to wrap up what has been done previously and to clarify what are the priorities for the current working day.

Also, they could be used to arrange other meetings and plan how to proceed with the completion of a group project or a task.

It’s a nice way to keep in touch and follow everyone’s progress.

Schedule coordination recap

There are multiple schedule coordination tips that will elevate your team’s communication skills but you have to see for yourself what works best.

Keeping everyone in the loop saves time, reduces the number of misunderstandings, and ensures that all tasks are well-organized.

The best part is there’s no need to do everything by yourself anymore.

You can use 3veta – an all-in-one platform that takes care of your virtual business essentials and facilitates your teamwork.

The post 10 Schedule Coordination Tips for Remote and Hybrid Teams appeared first on 3veta.

If you’re managing a remote team, you know that there are both challenges and advantages to this type of work arrangement.

One of the biggest challenges is maintaining team cohesion and culture when everyone is spread out.

But this challenge also presents an opportunity: by branding your remote team, you can create a strong sense of identity and purpose that will help your team members feel connected to each other and to your company.

Here are six unique strategies for branding your remote team + some great examples.

Let’s dive right in!

Create a cohesive team identity

One of the best ways to brand your remote team is to create a cohesive team identity. This can be done by developing a strong team name, logo, and tagline.

You should also make sure that all of your team members are using the same email signature and social media profile image.

If you want to learn more about this, check this guide on How to Build an Effective Team Culture in 9 Easy Steps.

Have regular team meetings

Another way to make sure that your remote team is properly branded is to have regular team meetings.

These meetings can be used to discuss branding goals and strategies. They can also be used to brainstorm ideas for promoting your brand.

Having regular team meetings will help to keep your team members engaged and invested in your company’s branding.

Furthermore, make sure you schedule online team-building sessions so the team can get to know each other better and get their creative juices flowing.

If you are struggling with online meetings, here are 21 Meeting Management Software Examples for Remote Workers that will help you put this process in place.

Ensure your team has a strong online presence.

Your remote team should have a strong online presence in order to be properly branded.

This means having an up-to-date website and active social media accounts. It also means making sure that your team’s branding is consistent across all of your online platforms.

Give your team members branded swag

One way to make sure that your remote team is properly branded is to give your team members branded swag.

This could include t-shirts, coffee mugs, stickers, or anything else that displays your company’s logo and branding.

Your team members will appreciate the free swag and it will also help to promote your brand and make it more popular.

Make sure your branding is consistent

One of the most important aspects of branding your remote team is to make sure that your branding is consistent.

This means using the same logo, colors, and messaging across all of your online platforms.

It also means making sure that your team members are using the same language when they talk about your company. Consistency is key when it comes to branding your remote team.

Check this out to ensure your brand is recognizable in a remote-first world.

Encourage your team members to share your content

One of the best ways to promote your company’s branding is to encourage your team members to share your content.

This could include sharing blog posts, infographics, or other types of content that showcase your company in a positive light.

You can also encourage your team members to share positive reviews and testimonials about your company.

Examples: Companies that established amazing remote team branding

Lemlist / Lempire

Lemlist is a cold outreach personalization and automation tool. Besides that, with Lempire, they focus on crafting cool SaaS products to help B2B professionals build powerful relationships for their businesses.

One of the reasons Lemlist became a huge name in the tech industry is its amazing work culture and team branding.

They heavily focused on building a strong online presence and encouraging team members to become niche influencers.

Why was this such a great move?

Well, when you as a company share posts, your reach can only go so far.

But, if you motivate your employees to do the same and talk about the company, your reach grows exponentially, enhancing your employer brand.

Their employees have the same LinkedIn banner images, similar descriptions, and visual identities across social media. Each one of them is also sharing relevant industry insights and company information.

VaynerMedia

VaynerMedia is a global creative advertising agency.

Besides the massive online presence VaynerMedia gets thanks to Gary Vee, the company has a great online presence on Instagram and TikTok, where they actively showcase their culture.

They are known for branded swag and cohesive team identity, which makes them stand out.

You may be thinking that it’s easy for them since everyone would like to work for VaynerMedia.

However, people are often anxious when it comes to working for industry giants.

That’s where social media presence comes into play. It humanizes the company by showcasing the people behind it, their daily life at work, struggles, and growth.

This way the company appears more approachable, attracting even more people, both potential employees, and clients.

CXL

CXL is an online educational platform for marketers, known for amazing, highly-skilled marketers who teach various courses, from content and SEO to growth and CRO.

Like the previous two companies, CXL has also used the power of people to brand and promote their remote team and enhance employer branding.

CXL creates short videos for LinkedIn and Instagram featuring course hosts and sharing valuable information with their audience.

They also encourage their employees to position themselves as thought leaders.

Conclusion

By following these examples, you can be sure that your remote team is properly branded and memorable.

These companies have all found unique ways to promote their company culture and attract top talent.

By doing the same, you can be sure that your company is remembered positively by those who come into contact with your team.

The post Team Branding: 6 Unique Strategies for Branding Your Remote Team appeared first on 3veta.

Online meetings are now an integral part of the new normal work environment.

However, some people still struggle to keep their virtual communication on track.

Here are some tips that will help you appoint and conduct online meetings more efficiently.

Set meeting goals

First of all, you need to set meeting goals way before you actually start it.

You can’t gather your team and only then start thinking about the things you want to discuss.

You need to know your objectives for the meeting beforehand so that your teammates can come prepared for it.

It’s best to have a limited number of goals for every meeting.

This will help you focus on specific issues or topics and solve them more efficiently.

Moreover, this will also keep your meetings relatively short and more productive.

Create a meeting routine

When working from home, it’s easy to feel like there is no structure and organization.

This is why you need to create a meeting routine that will help you and your team feel more organized.

It’s a way to make your team members more disciplined while also following a specific schedule.

Of course, you can’t add all types of meetings to this routine because you will definitely have new projects and urgent matters that will require spontaneous meetings.

However, you can still add certain meetings to this routine beforehand – virtual morning stand-ups, meetings for recurring projects, meetings as roundups at the end of the month, and so on.

Use tools to help you

It goes without saying that technology has made communication easier, so it is mandatory for you to use tools to help you organize and conduct your online meetings such as the following:

3veta

3veta is a user-friendly meeting management software designed for remote and hybrid teams and small businesses. It features video conferencing, scheduling, calendar sharing, booking page, brand customizations, and much more.

Slack

Slack is a professional messaging platform where you can send instant texts and discuss less important topics. You can also inform your team about the upcoming meetings.

Trello/Asana

Trello and Asana are project and task management tools for creating and assigning tasks and events, including meetings.

Gmail/Outlook

Gmail and Outlook are email providers that you can use to send out emails before and after the meetings with relevant information.

Google Suite/Office 365

Google Suite and Office 365 are online sets of tools for creating and managing different types of documents that can be accessed by teams and edited in real-time.

Keep relevant documentation

Some kind of meeting requires you to keep notes both for yourself and to share with your team members later on.

In addition to that, it is necessary to keep all the relevant documentation that may be needed before, during, or after the meeting.

Likewise, it’s worth creating special documentation for conducting meetings, especially in critical situations.

If you don’t know how to create such guidelines for your teammates, you can hire an experienced writer. They will help you brainstorm ideas for it and compile a manual for conducting online meetings.

Appoint a facilitator

The best way to make sure that the meeting progresses at a steady pace and that you achieve all the goals you set is by appointing a facilitator.

This person will be responsible for:

• Preparing documents for the meeting
• Informing everyone about it
• Setting up the video call
• Checking that everyone is attending
• Making notes during the meeting
• Guiding the discussion during the meeting
• Keeping an eye on the clock
• Following up after the meeting

Minimize distractions

Remote employees often suffer from all kinds of distractions that prevent them from working efficiently.

This is obviously the case for online meetings as well.

Consequently, you need to minimize distractions and ensure that everyone is focusing on the meeting. Especially if you are the one performing the role of the facilitator.

To minimize distractions, provide all your team members with guidelines on what they should do before the meeting (e.g. ask their family members not to distract them, turn off their notifications, etc.)

Don’t be too pushy with these guidelines, but make sure that everyone understands the importance of being involved in the meeting.

Decrease meeting time

Long meetings create an illusion that you are doing a lot while not actually doing much.

You think that you have a lot of time to discuss many topics, so you will end up slowing down your pace and killing time.

Besides, not many people like meetings, so making them as short as possible will help you keep your team members engaged and focused.

Don’t micromanage your team

One of the biggest problems leaders and managers encounter is the desire to micromanage their team.

No matter how tempting it may be, it’s not a good idea to do that.

As a remote team leader, you need to trust your team members and let them make their own decisions, act on their own, and think by themselves.

During meetings, don’t try to discuss every single detail – let the people responsible for a specific project or task make their own decisions.

Delegate tasks and maybe even outsource some of them to reduce the workload of your team.

Follow up on meetings

Last but not least, don’t forget to follow up on meetings.

It’s a good idea to send a short summary of the notes you made during the meeting.

Likewise, you can send relevant documentation to your team members.

If it’s possible, make sure that every person knows what they are responsible for.

If there are any questions that your teammates have, answer them and continue communicating with them until the next meeting.

Final thoughts

All in all, conducting online meetings is not as difficult as it may seem at first.

It does require some preparation and specific skills but with the right meeting management software, you can make the process much easier and faster.

It’s your turn now. Put the tips from this article into action and start organizing online meetings in a more efficient and productive way.

The post How to Appoint and Conduct Online Meetings More Efficiently appeared first on 3veta.

Call-based scheduling and paperwork approaches might still have fans, but they’re time-consuming and cost-prohibitive. Small companies have no room for this antiquated approach to appointment scheduling.

To help your small business thrive, appointment scheduling software is a must. It puts less pressure on your customer service teams and eliminates the chance of crossed wires and double bookings.

Moreover, scheduling software makes it easier for remote teams to stay connected.

Need more convincing?

Read on for nine reasons why appointment scheduling software is the right fit for a small business.

1. Increased revenues and upselling potential

Small business scheduling software is an effective tool for boosting revenues.

If a customer fails to show up, you can quickly charge them for the inconvenience. You can also monetize late cancellations by charging a penalty.

People can also use online scheduling software to upsell their services.

Use online forms to offer additional services and products.

For example, can you offer equipment rentals or other hospitality services? Spotlight these for a quick and easy way to make a premium profit on every booking.

2. Better customer relations

Some small businesses may resist managing their customer’s time.

However, taking the initiative can pay off.

Online scheduling makes it easier for customers to access and utilize your services.

An automated approach also lends itself well to last-minute bookings. A dedicated app lets you connect with clients looking for same-day services.

By honoring last-minute arrangements, small businesses will set the gold standard in customer relations.

As a result, they will quickly grow your client base and ensure high retention levels.

3. Less time wasted

Many businesses still make use of traditional appointment scheduling methods.

However, these manual approaches put considerable strain on customer service teams.

In addition, scheduling an appointment is time-consuming. What’s more, there’s always room for human error.

If you want to free up your workforce, it’s time to embrace one of the appointment scheduling software solutions out there as well as a modern document management system.

Scheduling software makes sense for small businesses and customers alike. All your customers need to do is select an available time and date that suits them.

Then, once the appointment is approved, you can send a confirmation email.

For remote employees, scheduling software is just one of many innovative tools to streamline workflows.

4. Make significant savings

Time savings instantly translate into money saved.

In addition, by freeing your staff from manually scheduling appointments, you can reduce staffing to other tasks.

In the United States, approximately 37 million small businesses have less than 100 employees.

If you want your business to thrive, it’s never a good idea to spread your remote workforce too thinly.

5. Automatic appointment reminders

If you’re struggling with no-shows, small business scheduling software can help you take charge of the problem.

It’s a very effective tool for dealing with repeat offenders, with automated SMS and email reminders helping cut cancellation rates.

Sometimes, a client can’t make it to a pre-agreed appointment. As such, it’s a good idea to make rescheduling as straightforward as possible.

Use scheduling software that makes quick work of cancellations and rescheduling.

This way, you’re less likely to encounter regular no-shows and loss of revenue.

6. Prompt payments

A significant benefit of online scheduling systems is that customers pay for the service upfront.

Prepaying for appointments is now the standard.

Offer customers multiple payment methods to increase revenue potential and speed up the process.

Even if a customer cancels their meeting before attending, you’ll have a deposit locked down to boost your revenues.

7. An effective marketing tool

Nowadays, more than 77% of small businesses use social media as a marketing tool.

You’re cutting off a lucrative revenue stream if you’re not integrating online scheduling with your business website and social media channels.

Make sure you give priority placement to scheduling buttons.

They make life easier for your customers.

The more links and pages a user has to click through, the higher the drop-off rate you’ll encounter.

Online appointment scheduling isn’t just a service; it’s a valuable sales and marketing tool.

Use it to capitalize on those customers likely to make an impulse decision.

8. Ready access to a wealth of customer information

Data analysis is crucial in improving the customer experience. However, you’ll first need to compile that goldmine of information.

The good news is that centralized customer data is a standard feature for some appointment scheduling software.

Each time a customer makes a reservation, the system logs and updates their information.

This data can help you fine-tune your marketing campaigns and improve your business strategy in the long run.

9. Streamlined customer experience

Even if you’ve replaced phone-based communications with email correspondence, you’re still light years away from automated scheduling.

Endless back-and-forth emails eat into everyone’s schedule.

By automating and streamlining the experience, customers are served better, and your teams don’t have to contend with time-consuming pleasantries.

Furthermore, there’s no room for miscommunication and human error.

Start using small business scheduling software today

Considering the benefits outlined above, it’s not hard to see why appointment scheduling software is becoming popular among business owners.

Once a preserve of big business, nowadays, even smaller operations can put automated scheduling to use.

By streamlining appointment scheduling and removing the human element, smaller companies can focus their attention on what’s important.

Ready to embrace the automated scheduling revolution? At 3veta, we can help.

The post How Small Business Scheduling Software Can Help You Thrive appeared first on 3veta.

The modern world has made us feel way too comfortable and, when Covid-19 came along, our lives were shaken and the future of work was questioned.

The isolation, the fear of being in a contagious environment, and the economic challenges; all of these factors changed forever the way we communicate, study, work, and meet.

Forbes states that technology has made all of these new approaches to our daily activities possible and it keeps altering our professional relationships.

So, now that we’ve gotten used to the changes and we’ve established new norms and rules to follow – what exactly are the post-pandemic workplace trends in the business world?

Asynchronous work

When the majority of people were working in the office and were sharing the same 9-to-5 working hours, we used to ask questions and demand immediate answers.

However, the remote work model almost entirely uprooted this practice. Working from home means that people could be traveling, be in other time zones, be in the middle of a virtual meeting, or have different working hours than the usual ones.

Therefore, unless the request is urgent, one cannot expect an immediate reaction.

The asynchronous post-COVID workplace strategy consists of everyone replying to messages whenever they find the time to do so.

There’s no pressure to interrupt what you are currently working on and answer a query.

As long as the job is complete by the end of the day or week, it doesn’t matter whether teammates work in the same time window.

Such flexibility allows employees to distribute their workload as they find a suitable time and works in favor of employers because it provides a vast range of possible hires.

Companies with no physical spaces

The post-pandemic workspace is restructured because companies that switched from an actual office to a digital working environment do not need a physical space anymore.

Team managers have ensured that employees have all the tools needed for their tasks to be successfully completed online.

The officeless approach saves both parties a lot of time and money.

Workers do not have to commute every day, meaning that no money is spent on gas or public transportation.

Employers, on the other hand, don’t have to pay for the rent and maintenance of huge business offices.

Some people with 10-15 years of experience who have formed a family and have kids to look after will most probably appreciate the fully remote work model. However, for some gen Z employees, post-pandemic alienation becomes an issue.

Even so, there’s a solution to every problem…

More team-building activities

Buffer’s survey found that 16% of remote workers experience difficulties with collaboration and another 16% feel lonely.

Companies and organizations do their best to provide employees with the opportunity to meet and get to know each other better even if they are a part of an international team.

This step is essential because forming stronger bonds between colleagues not only relieves the feelings of disengagement and loneliness but also encourages teamwork and productivity.

Therefore, in the post-pandemic work life, we can observe an increased number of organized informal in-person (or online) meetings in a form of team-building games and activities.

Team leaders, managers, and employees are brought together to tackle the issue of depersonalization that technology creates.

Care for employee’s health and well-being

One of the best post-Covid-19 workplace trends is that companies are worried about their employee’s health and well-being more than ever.

Before, workers used to expect employers to take care of their health insurance and provide some well-being packages.

Now, the demand is even stronger.

Companies that prefer their workers to operate on-site need to take all the necessary hygiene and ventilation precautions to prevent the spreading of Covid-19 and other viruses.

Not to mention that the ergonomics, proper lighting, and comfortable seating in the office are not a benefit to the employees anymore, but an absolute must.

As for the remote workers, McKinsey’s report about the Future of work found that at least 49% of them are feeling some symptoms of burnout. Meaning that the high productivity levels could be just a temporary success if measures against exhaustion are not taken.

Today’s CEOs have to find a way to grant people access to outdoor spaces and endorse a working policy that supports playing sports and taking care of one’s mental health.

AI-augmented workforce

The AI-augmented workforce is the future of work because it provides automation of boring and time-consuming tasks that deprive professionals of concentrating on the important stuff.

Lawyers use software to save time from reviewing documents and reports, meanwhile, doctors are meticulously analyzing medical records and scans thanks to their computer vision.

Marketers have a vast range of tools at their disposal to help them target the right audiences with their campaigns.

Store managers are using AI assistants to predict what individual shoppers will be looking for and better plan their inventory and logistics.

As a result, the service provided by all sorts of professionals will be time-efficient and of excellent quality.

Employee monitoring

Working from home also decreases the level of moderation among employees and it becomes difficult for companies to follow the levels of efficiency and productivity of each worker.

Coming from there, new methods and platforms are introduced to the market that could be used to oversee the performance of employees and rectify certain practices if needed.

Even though this is a necessary step to prevent employees from taking advantage of the officeless work model and ensure that no one is failing to fulfill their duties, it could be seen as an overbearing and invasive technique.

Companies that invest in employee monitoring software have a fine line to tread and the effect of it on the individual’s feeling of freedom remains to be seen.

Favoring skills over roles

Another beneficial example of the post-pandemic workplace trends is the disruption of hierarchies.

Nowadays the skillset that one possesses is more important than their assigned role in the company.

The ‘flat’ organizational structure is the complete opposite of the strictly hierarchical teams that used to be the norm.

By replacing the chain-of-command approach with open communication and problem-solving conceptualization, teams find themselves much more productive and engaged.

This change in attitude drives companies toward focusing on personal development, innovation, and success rather than encouraging the practice of climbing up the ladder.

Post-pandemic workplace trends – summarized

As we’ve established, the pandemic has changed enormously the way businesses operate.

From working-from-home entrepreneurs to hybrid employees, technology has allowed us to alter almost every aspect of the regular workplace.

Some people feel excited and welcome the changes, others feel overwhelmed as they struggle to take in the digital world.

In any case, all the above-mentioned post-pandemic workplace trends are here to stay and we have to rely on our adaptive nature once more.

The post 7 Established Post-Pandemic Workplace Trends appeared first on 3veta.