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Author: Erika Heald

Erika Heald is a content marketing consultant and writer. She works with technology companies to define and document content strategies that drive business growth. Erika led and grew high-performance content marketing teams at Highwire PR, Anaplan, and Achievers. She hosts the weekly #ContentChat Twitter chat Mondays at noon Pacific.

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Future of work remote work

The 5-Step Onboarding Plan Playbook to Go From New Hires to Raving Fans

First impressions leave a lasting mark on your employees. This is especially true when their entire experience with your company is virtual.

Employees onboarded prior to the pandemic report “significantly higher” satisfaction with their company than those onboarded virtually. In recent years, new hires have even quit before they started or shortly after their first day because of a disappointing—or nonexistent—onboarding experience.

So what are brands getting wrong? Too often, HR teams or supervisors improvise the new hire onboarding, which means employees get an inconsistent depth and quality of experience. In other cases, HR teams still use their in-person onboarding playbook, which fails to address issues vital for supporting hybrid and remote employees.  

To engage new hires, companies must reinvent their onboarding process to reflect the realities of virtual and hybrid work. Luckily, creating a fulfilling virtual onboarding is easier than you might think. Here’s how.

5 Steps For Building a Successful Virtual Onboarding Plan

An employee’s onboarding experience will set the tone for their future with your company, so you should plan each element with careful consideration. 

Follow these five steps to create a hybrid and remote employee onboarding process that makes a positive first impression and sets them up for ongoing success:

Step 1: Pre-boarding Activities

New hires will be eager to officially start their roles from the moment they sign the paperwork. Provide employees with pre-boarding activities and resources that help them become familiar with your company culture and values and begin to prepare for their work. 

Think through your employee’s experience from the moment you hire them: How will you welcome them to the team, and what questions will they have? A few essential things to provide include:

  • A series of welcome emails that share vital information and explain what the employee’s first day or week will look like
  • Company handbooks or resources that detail your company’s culture and procedures, as well as guidelines for effective written communication in virtual settings
  • Mailed swag packages with branded items, such as notebooks, laptop stickers, or apparel
  • A schedule of introductory meetings that will foster engagement 

Before your new hire starts, ensure that you plan to get them the tools and equipment they’ll need for virtual work. 

Step 2: Orientation and Training

Your pre-boarding activities should answer your employee’s initial questions and clearly explain what they should expect on their first day. Now, it’s time to plan their official orientation and training process.

  • Plan a Day 1 schedule and prepare assets that give an overview of the employee’s core responsibilities, team dynamics, and company processes. 
  • Use video conferencing tools to facilitate interactive sessions and connect the new hire with coworkers and company leadership. 
  • Provide hands-on training and help overcome technical hurdles. 
  • Establish clear guidelines for virtual communication etiquette, including response time expectations and office hours. 

Step 3: Job-Specific Training

It can be difficult for many people to adjust to a new hybrid or fully remote work environment. Onboarding is a perfect time to share remote work tips and job-specific advice for navigating your company’s virtual workplace.

For example, consider hosting online courses and webinars that explain key concepts or give a tutorial on your workplace tools. Provide training materials that cover the specific tools, software, and processes that will help them feel more productive and fulfilled in their work. Store all help documents and FAQs online so employees can access them whenever needed.

Step 4: Mentorship and Coaching

Mentorship and coaching programs provide ongoing support and guidance to remote employees. Pair experienced team members with new hires to help them understand their roles, navigate the team dynamics, and receive career guidance. Connect new hires with mentors during their first week, and encourage frequent check-ins during the first 90 days. Afterward, mentors and mentees should meet at least once monthly.

Step 5: Performance Feedback

Remote employees need performance feedback to understand how they can improve in their roles and progress to the next level. Schedule regular evaluations and check-ins to discuss each employee’s progress, address their challenges, and provide constructive feedback for continuous improvement. There are useful online feedback tools that can streamline this process.

Communication Makes Remote Onboarding Successful

New employees naturally feel anxious about joining a company and engaging primarily through text and video. Help alleviate potential negative feelings by fostering open and regular communication channels to invite questions and provide updates, clarifications, and guidance.

Carefully plan each step of your onboarding process, and continually refine your approach based on employee feedback and new insights you gain. Employees with an engaging onboarding experience can more quickly integrate into your culture and support a healthy workplace.

Of course, many other considerations go into conducting virtual employee onboarding. For a complete guide packed with tips and step-by-step instructions, download our virtual onboarding e-book.

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Categories
Future of work remote work

A Manager’s Checklist of Opportunities to Build Meaningful Connections in Virtual Offices

Building a healthy and collaborative workplace culture requires a consistent strategy, but the rewards are well worth the effort.

Employees who feel connected to their company’s culture are much more likely to thrive and stay. And those happy employees can even be up to 20% more productive than those who are dissatisfied. The key is to help employees build genuine relationships with their peers to foster healthy communication and overcome potential conflict—and that’s easier said than done.

Managers play a major role in building connections in virtual offices and reinforcing the company culture. For those who may be new to managing virtual teams, it can be challenging to know where to focus your effort to drive the best results. Let’s explore the main opportunities for managers to connect employees, regardless of where they are based.

5 Ways to Connect Employees Across Your Distributed Workforce 

To perform their best, virtual and hybrid workers need a clear understanding of their “purpose at every level.” This means that everyone—from your entry-level employees to executive leadership—should feel confident that they are working toward your mission with purpose.

Rallying virtual employees behind your company mission requires a different approach for each level, and relationships will make or break your experience. Implement these strategies for building relationships in virtual teams to strengthen your culture:

  • Prioritize Your Virtual Onboarding: Your company needs to make a solid first impression on all new employees. To do so, create a virtual onboarding plan that provides a smooth transition into your company and clearly explains how new hires can succeed as part of your distributed team. Onboarding is also the ideal time to get to know new hires and encourage them to share their outside-of-work interests and previous work accomplishments. Not only does this help new hires start building their own internal network, but it also gives leaders more insight to connect employees based on their commonalities and shared hobbies. 
  • Establish Mentorship Programs: Pairing early career professionals with mid and senior-level employees can be incredibly effective for building relationships and breaking down potential cultural barriers. New employees can more quickly learn about your company’s culture and understand their potential career progression with guidance from their mentor, and both the mentor and mentee will benefit from the new relationship. 
  • Create Space for Non-Work Conversations: In the physical office, a company’s water cooler or kitchen was a hub for quick conversations and friendly banter. Likewise, virtual workspaces should also offer places for employees to chat about matters not related to work. Consider creating dedicated channels in your communication tools for employees to talk about personal hobbies and interests, and offer open networking rooms where employees can catch up throughout the work day.  
  • Start Meetings With an Icebreaker: Team meetings are a key opportunity to check in with employees. At the start or end of your meetings, host a quick conversation where everyone can share something about their week or personal life or recognize each other for their accomplishments. Taking a few minutes from each meeting to focus solely on your employees as humans can spark connections and help them build and find commonalities. 
  • Live By Your Values: When implementing the above strategies, your team needs to live the values you are trying to nurture. Encourage managers to dedicate time each week to actively work on building relationships within their team, and openly discuss the challenges that people are facing. 

Start to Build Employee Connections on Day One

There are challenges—and distinct advantages—to building genuine connections in fully remote, distributed, and hybrid teams. Try out a few different tactics, and find out what works best for you and your team. But ask for ongoing feedback and be open to adapting as your team grows and develops. 

One of the most important times to help an employee embed themselves into your culture is during their new hire onboarding. The onboarding process presents many key opportunities to connect employees and establish a healthy foundation that will help them overcome any challenges they face in your virtual workspace.

To bring a new-found sense of community to your virtual or distributed team, add Spaces to Microsoft Teams and see what a virtual office can do for your team’s productivity.

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remote work

Five Virtual Office Pitfalls to Avoid For Stronger Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

diverse group of people working at a table with laptops

In the classic 80s movie Heathers, a popular clique—comprised of three teenage girls named Heather—let in a new member, Veronica, and sets about bullying her to conform to their norms or face returning to her prior status of a nobody. 

To the dismay of many managers, that’s what the traditional workplace felt like for many employees.

In almost every workplace, cliques create a perceived “in” group, leaving many employees wondering where—if anywhere—they belong. Louder voices speak over or silence their less assertive peers during meetings, depriving the team of valuable perspectives. And employees that need time away from the office to address personal and family needs may be seen as disengaged—and subsequently passed up for promotions.

It’s no wonder that women, LGBTQ+ individuals, and people with disabilities are more likely to leave a company if it doesn’t offer hybrid work. Virtual and hybrid work arrangements can alleviate many of these issues and give all employees a more level playing field to work, collaborate, and achieve their professional goals. 

Of course, remote and hybrid workplaces face diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) challenges. But they aren’t that difficult to overcome—here’s how.

5 Common DEI Challenges and How to Overcome Them in the Virtual Office 

The good news is while remote and hybrid teams are not immune to the DEI challenges associated with in-person work, these challenges can be easier to overcome thanks to the innate characteristics of hybrid work. Let’s look at five of the most common DEI challenges associated with remote and hybrid work and how to overcome them. 

Relationships and Trust Are Harder to Build Virtually

When teams don’t trust each other, internal conflict is more likely. And unless you’ve been an online gamer for most of your life, it is harder to build relationships and earn trust with colleagues when you primarily engage through a screen. This is one area where workers from large companies with distributed workforces have an advantage—I had direct reports in Denver and Phoenix (and no travel budget) in the late 1990s, so it can be done even without the latest collaboration and communication tools.

Building trust in hybrid teams starts with communication. Managers need to set clear expectations about each person’s role and responsibilities. Provide a deadline to all team members for their contribution to a task or project. If someone is struggling, encourage them to be open about their challenge and have the team brainstorm solutions. Over time, this will help teams build trust as everyone demonstrates a shared commitment to helping the team succeed. 

To build relationships, start each meeting with a short icebreaker activity or ask everyone to share something about their personal life. This intentional sharing allows everyone to learn about each other and identify commonalities that can be the base of a relationship, regardless of their culture or background.

Networking and Mentorship Require Conscious Effort

There are often limited opportunities for networking and mentorship in the workplace—including virtual or in-person environments—which is especially harmful to underrepresented groups.

As Deloitte recommends, your team should establish cross-generational mentorship opportunities where seasoned professionals can mentor early career professionals. This enables newer professionals to learn more quickly about the company culture and gain an advocate to mentor them on their career progression. Encourage mentors to meet with their mentees at least once a month, and include a budget for in-person meetups when people live in the same city. 

In addition to mentorship, other ways to foster connection within your hybrid team include:

  • Host local meetups for employees that live near each other at least once a quarter.
  • Plan optional monthly virtual networking and team-building activities.
  • Coordinate “lunch and learn” sessions that spotlight team members and their knowledge or work.
  • Encourage employees to form Employee Resource Groups aligned with a shared purpose or identity.

Your Corporate HQ Design Can’t Provide Cues for the Company’s Culture

Many companies lean heavily on the design and decoration of their physical offices to telegraph their brand values. From having lots of collaboration space to projecting the values on the walls, many employees live the company culture daily through osmosis from being surrounded by it.

Without those visual cues, there is potential isolation and disconnect from the company culture. And these feelings can be amplified for remote workers based in different locations than the bulk of the team. 

That’s why you must actively shape your company culture. Positive company cultures will rally team members behind a shared mission and sense of togetherness, encouraging healthy dynamics and conflict resolution. On the other hand, toxic company cultures result in high turnover because employees lack direction and often face hostility or unfair working conditions.

To build the foundation for a healthy culture, start by hosting a virtual all-hands meeting to align your team and explain the reasoning behind your hybrid or remote workplace strategy. Reinforce your mission and values, and invite questions from team members. The goal of this meeting is for every employee to clearly understand your company’s purpose and how everyone can work together successfully.

Reinforce your culture by providing all current and future employees with company swag and materials that detail your culture and the qualities that team members should exemplify. From there, you need to reinforce those values in every meeting and through day-to-day work—managers should provide models that employees can emulate. 

Employees will feel connected with your company when they feel recognized. Regularly acknowledge their achievements in public channels and celebrate them on birthdays, holidays, and important milestones. 

It’s Easy to Misinterpret Virtual Tone and Body Language

Understanding a person’s tone or body language when messaging or speaking on a video call can be tricky. There is plenty of room for miscommunication, misunderstanding, and unconscious bias. For example, not everyone agrees that using a thumb’s up emoji is considered disrespectful, or that they aren’t engaged if they don’t have their camera on for a video meeting.

Setting virtual communication guidelines will reduce these types of misunderstandings. For starters, create an explainer illustrating how it can be easy to misinterpret tone and body language online. In it, provide examples of how your team can communicate in a respectful and healthy way.

For example, explain what emojis will mean at your company and when it is appropriate to use them. Reinforce how team members can communicate deadlines, such as what to do instead of saying that something “must be done ASAP” or using bold and capitalized words to convey importance. 

When a misunderstanding eventually arises, encourage employees to speak with their manager about the situation. Managers can help team members overcome their virtual communication challenges and stress the importance of patience and understanding. As a former marketing leader I worked for always said, it’s important to assume positive intent. But for that saying to become reality, it takes work on everyone’s part to earn each other’s trust.

Multiple Time Zones Create Scheduling Hurdles

Time zone and cultural differences can make coordinating meetings, collaboration, and work schedules challenging, leading to potential exclusion or marginalization of specific individuals or groups due to differences in working hours or cultural norms.

For teams that do not have significant time zone differences, it’s best to schedule meetings and events for times when everyone can join, which is often in the middle of the work day. But if your organization has a distributed workforce in various time zones, this simply may not be possible.

Before scheduling an event, conduct a poll that solicits the preferred time(s) to hold it. If you see one or two clear preferences, host two events, if possible, based on its goal. Even after taking this step, ensure that the preferred dates are not ones of cultural and religious significance or regional holidays that span your team’s geography.

Host social events and networking activities on different days and times to include people each time who could not attend the previous event. 

Despite the Challenges, Hybrid and Remote Work Deliver Some DEI Advantages

Overcoming the above five remote work DEI challenges becomes easier as you continue to prioritize employees as individuals and foster spaces where their voices are heard.

By building a healthy company culture that enables everyone to thrive, you’ll be on the fast track to enjoying some of the best benefits of remote and hybrid work, like access to a diverse talent pool that spans geographies and potentially reduced bias and discrimination in your hiring and promotions.

Most importantly, flexible work arrangements allow people to work from the comfort of their homes. This helps them work in a way that suits their needs and alleviates uncomfortable feelings or exclusion they potentially face in a traditional office setting. 

Often, one of the best solutions to improve your hybrid strategy is to hire someone dedicated to the task: a virtual office manager. Download our virtual office manager e-book to get started building a virtual office environment where everyone feels seen, heard, and valued.

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remote work

3 Ways Your Remote Hiring Process Is Costing You Your Best Candidates

A stressed man at a computer

After hearing countless horror stories about remote interviews, it’s clear that the worst practices from in-person hiring have transferred online—and they’re destroying the candidate experience.

A long time ago, I applied for a role at a Fortune 500 company where several former colleagues worked. I passed the initial screening and was scheduled to visit the company’s downtown office and meet who would have been my manager and coworkers. 

On arrival I had to check-in with security, who clearly were not told I was coming. After 30 minutes trying to contact the company, I was finally allowed into the office—to then be told that my interviewers were no longer available; so, they threw anyone they could at me. 

The first person I spoke with had no idea what I was supposed to do, and it was clear he didn’t like his job. Others asked me a generic list of questions. The person who would have been my manager had decided to work from a remote office that day, so I sat in her empty office and had a phone call with her. Good thing I took the whole afternoon off to come into their office, right?

Poor communication, unprepared interviewers, and a clear disregard for my experience made it easy for me to decide to not move forward in the process. The disappointing thing, though, is that these are all simple areas to address with the proper care. And, they should not still be a problem in the age of remote hiring. Yet they are!

If you’re hoping to hire great people, then you need to structure the whole process from the interviewees’ standpoint. Let’s explore what companies are doing that is hurting their hiring process, and what to do instead.

The Current State of Remote Hiring

We’ve been hearing from many industry peers that remote work has led to an even longer, more involved hiring process—and that’s not a good thing for candidates and companies alike!

Let’s look at the current reality:

  • A standard job opening will receive 118 applicants on average (250 or more for corporate jobs). Understandably, this applicant volume can overwhelm a hiring team.
  • Job seekers who apply to 21-81 jobs have the greatest likelihood of landing an interview. This numbers game means that candidates are likely to become critical of every step of the process for each job opportunity.
  • Most entry-level positions involve 2-4 interviews, but executive-level positions often require more than four. 
  • Recruiters and hiring professionals generally agree that it takes 60 days to fill a non-managerial professional role. But what if you can accelerate that by creating a better process?

How To Improve Your Remote Hiring Process

Instead of creating a more efficient process, too many companies have taken what they were doing wrong in the pre-pandemic world and ported it over to the virtual interview process—so now, people take a half day off to sit on video calls with people asking them the same questions.

In talking to our peers, the following are the most commonly cited criticisms about remote hiring processes, and tips to help you build a better experience.

Improve Candidate Communication

A lack of communication, communications intended for another candidate, and slow response times cause anxiety and frustration for job seekers. To help alleviate these feelings, companies should clearly explain:

  • How long candidates should expect to hear back after they apply
  • How many steps the interview process may take, with an overview of what each step involves and an estimated timeline for each
  • How candidates can ask questions and seek help during the process 

Start by reviewing your job listings. In addition to the job description and company background, include a section about what the interview process involves and how quickly you’re looking to fill the role. Be as specific and transparent as possible, detailing exactly what happens at each step of the process and how long it will take—and be sure to fulfill those expectations!

Consider setting up automated responses at every step of the hiring process to let people know when they will hear back from you, and the next steps. Automated — but personalized — messages will greatly improve your hiring experience.

“People often spell my name Andy instead of Andi, which is understandable if you have not seen it spelled,” says Andi Robinson, Hijinx Marketing. “But I had a recruiter call me by a completely different name in an email communication. I also had an interviewer not show up for the interview.”

As you receive questions and feedback from candidates, create an FAQ document with approved messages that your team can use when addressing specific needs and questions. Even better, you should share that FAQ with candidates to preemptively address their needs.

Trim the Excessively Lengthy and Complex Hiring Processes

Interviews are an essential way for candidates and hiring teams to assess each other and decide if it’s a mutual match. The issue, though, is that teams often coordinate too many interviews, which take too much time, and often involve unpaid work projects that the company plans to use (don’t do this!).

“I have been to interviews that have five rounds,” says marketer Amy Higgins. “However, each round requires multiple people and presentations. In all, I’ve interviewed sometimes over three months, meeting with 10+ people individually, completed multiple presentations that are in-depth enough to be event sessions, and still end up waiting for a decision. The higher you are in your career, the longer the process. I’m actually ok with the multiple people—it gives me a better feel for what I can expect working with the company and how their culture is internally. It’s just the time that can be painful.”

In many cases, extending a hiring process over a month or two is enough time for your preferred candidate to find and accept a job elsewhere. This makes it critical to map out your current hiring process to identify where you can streamline things. How long should each step take, and how long does each step currently take? What can you do to optimize each step without sacrificing the candidate’s experience or your ability to assess candidates?

For starters, host fewer interviews and use panel interviews to connect more team members with your candidates. Provide interviewer guides that help them understand how to effectively assess a candidate (we’ll share more on that next).

A Word About Those Unpaid Marketing Interview Projects

Back to those interview projects. I strongly recommend that you compensate interviewers if you assign them homework. Alternatively, you can host real-time tests that can be done in the course of an interview, which also allows your team to immediately assess the output and determine the next steps. 

So why shouldn’t you ask candidates to draft a content strategy or do a content audit?

“If you have job applicants create some type of work product as part of the application process, the applicant retains the rights in their work,” says Ruth Carter, Esq., Geek Law Firm. “You don’t own the rights unless they’ve assigned it to you. (If you make all prospective employees assign the rights in what they create as part of the application process, you suck, unless you’re compensating the applicants for their work.)”

The good news for applicants is you can use that project as an example of the caliber of work you do if you don’t get the job. 

“Let’s say you don’t have the prospective employee sign over their rights,” says Carter. “The applicant retains copyright ownership of their work, and can copy, distribute, and display it wherever they want. If their work contains IP owned by your company, such as a company logo, they will likely need to change this to a fake company logo to avoid giving the impression that there’s a relationship with the company that doesn’t exist.”

One senior marketer friend went through a month-long interview process, with three rounds of interviews with multiple people in each round, and a final content audit project. They didn’t get the job, yet noticed the company implemented many of their ideas. While this is perfectly legal since there is no legal protection for ideas in the U.S., it’s yet another reason why it’s better to pay even a small fee to candidates creating a work product that your company intends to use.

Prepare All Interviewers 

One of the easiest areas to address is also one of the most common issues with hiring processes in general: unprepared interviewers. 

Every interview should dig into unique areas to decide if the candidate is the right fit for the role and company. Instead, most interviews rehash the candidate’s work history, reconfirm the role they’re applying for, and explore a script of questions. 

Make this experience better by ensuring that every interviewer has read the candidate’s resume, understands the job description for the role, and reviewed the candidate’s LinkedIn profile or portfolio. Your goal is to make the candidate feel valued and gain an understanding of what it is about them that compelled your company to interview them for the role.

“I was interviewing with a hiring manager and the first question she asked was about my book,” said Andi. “It showed that she had done her research on my background.”

Ensure that every team member prioritizes interviews the same way you would treat a client—there should be no reason for an interviewer to be late or miss a scheduled interview. If your team has a virtual office manager, they can remind your team members about an upcoming interview. 

In the worst case scenario where an interviewer misses their meeting, then you should immediately call the interviewee to apologize and alert them of the next steps. If someone is waiting to be interviewed but receives no update, then they will understandably become frustrated with the process.

Prioritize The Remote Candidate Experience

The shortcomings of most remote hiring processes are not unique to remote environments, but they cause greater harm to the candidate experience because there isn’t an in-person connection to compensate. 

Provide clear and direct communication throughout the entire process, and ensure that everyone involved with the interview understands their role. Prepare interviewers so that they can host a meaningful conversation with the candidate, and consider hosting panel interviews to streamline the process.

If you see an increase in candidate turnover, then you may need to assess if you have too many interview steps or are taking too long to interview your candidates. 

After you find the ideal candidate and they’re about to join your team, follow these four tips for welcoming and engaging your new remote team members. To encourage ongoing connection and collaboration in your remote team, learn how Frameable Spaces empowers your team to interact just as you would in the physical office. 

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virtual events

Why Event Attendee Surveys Are Vital to Your Success (And What To Ask)

Your conference attendees shouldn’t feel helpless when they seek assistance or raise concerns. This may sound extreme, but it is an all-too-common experience for many conference-goers—and something I recently faced at a hybrid industry event.

Like 32 million other Americans, I have food allergies. I can usually find some safe food at events (especially large, multi-day conferences). But I always pack snacks just in case. On day one of a recent event, however, I couldn’t find any food labels or clearly allergy-friendly options, and I was unsuccessful in finding someone who could help me identify my options. Good thing I brought snacks! Day two, same problem, and I noticed numerous other attendees complaining amongst themselves. By day three, we knew we were on our own, our snack piles were dwindling, and many of us started venting our hanger-fueled frustration on social media.  

This example is just one of the many ways that a disappointing conference experience can spiral if event planners are unaware of their attendees’ needs. But there is an easy way that the event organizers could have anticipated or corrected this issue—attendee surveys! 
Although many event challenges can be unpredictable, any attendee issues can be addressed if you effectively survey them and create healthy feedback loops to correct issues in real time. Here’s how.

Why Virtual Event Attendee Surveys Are Vital To Your Success

Building a successful online event requires you to have an unwavering focus on your attendees—what they want to learn, who they want to hear from, and how they want to engage in the event experience.

As an event planner, your budget and timing will drive many decisions. It’s understandable that you cannot factor in every possible event hiccup during your planning. However, pre-event attendee surveys can help you cover your bases and address areas you may have previously overlooked (like dietary needs or accessibility considerations). 

Once your event starts, your team will be busy and urgent needs will arise—and you don’t want your team’s time to be taken entirely by attendees who are seeking help. Field surveys during your event through your event app or in the virtual event platform interface to quickly identify immediate areas of concern and fix them before they spread. You should assign two or three team members during the event whose sole responsibility is to address concerns raised in the surveys.
Post-conference surveys are the most common—and they are critical for improving your next event strategy—but the damage is already done to attendees who felt you inadequately addressed their needs during the event. Yes, you need to use post-event surveys to improve your next event. But fielding surveys before and during your event is most helpful for addressing your real-time attendee needs and keeping an urgent issue from becoming a crisis.

Sample Event Attendee Survey Questions To Help You Improve Their Experience

To help you get valuable attendee insights to strengthen your event experience, consider asking the below questions in your pre-, during, and post-event attendee surveys.

Pre-Event Attendee Survey Questions

Before the event, ask your registrants questions that will help you finalize your conference agenda and address your attendees’ needs. Automatically send a pre-event survey as soon as an attendee registers for your event, and remind your attendees to fill out the surveys through your ongoing email and social media communications. Pre-event survey questions can include:

  • What is your preferred session length at an event like ours?
  • Were you disappointed in a recent event experience? If so, what is the biggest challenge you faced that detracted from that event experience? 
  • Who would you want to hear from at the event (you can name specific people or tell us general titles or industries)?
  • What are your food or dietary restrictions? (include a fill-in field)
  • Do you have any food or dietary preferences?
  • What kind of networking events or activities do you prefer?
  • Is there anything we can do to make your time at the event remarkable?

During the Event Attendee Survey Questions

During the event, surveys give you real-time feedback on your sessions and the overall event experience. The key is to assign at least two event staff members to monitor these submissions and route concerns to the appropriate team members as soon as possible. Sample questions to ask attendees during a virtual or hybrid event include:

  • How would you rate the food and beverage options provided at the conference?
  • Are you comfortable with the temperature throughout the event space?
  • Have you faced any challenges in navigating the event experience?
  • What can we do to make your event experience even better?
  • How would you rate the quality of service provided by our event staff?

Post-Event Attendee Survey Questions

After the event, surveys are a vital way to understand if your event was successful—did your event meet its goals and fulfill your attendees’ hopes? If your event was unsuccessful, then you will have a harder time getting attendees at your future events. Consider asking these types of questions in your post-event attendee surveys:

  • On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your overall conference experience?
  • What are the three things you think we did best during the event?
  • How could we have improved your experience?
  • Would you recommend our event to a colleague? Why or why not?
  • Would you be interested in attending a future event with us?

Designing an Attendee-Obsessed Experience

Virtual and hybrid events are far more common than before, and your prospective attendees deserve an intuitive and engaging experience.

Use event attendee surveys at each stage of your event to up-level your attendee needs and identify potential issues before they escalate and destroy your attendee experience. It is impossible to host a perfect conference, but attendee surveys empower you to be truly attendee focused.
Once you understand what your attendees need from your event experience, you’ll need a virtual or hybrid event platform that can enable the dynamic spaces that allow them to mix, mingle, and engage with the event experience. We’ve built Frameable to help people make real connections at your event through a beautiful and easy-to-navigate interface. Learn more about Frameable Events and get started with us today to host your next event.

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remote work

Countering 7 Return to the Physical Office Benefits Myths

modern office conference room with computers and cups on the work table, but no people

Every few days, there seems to be a media frenzy around another large company’s CEO calling their workers back to their physical offices. The reasons they’ve cited include everything from productivity losses to remote work being unsuitable for inspiring creativity and innovation. 

But as someone who has worked fully remotely for the past six years—and worked from home weekly in my decade at a Fortune 500 company—something didn’t ring true. So I took a look at the data. And guess what? The data tells a different story about some of the most commonly cited reasons about the benefits of working in the physical office.

Read on for some of the most frequent reasons companies are recalling their workforce into the office and recent research that provides a different perspective.

Myth 1: Working in the office is necessary to enable collaboration and foster teamwork.

Scientific American’s review of research found that the larger the in-person group, the fewer novel ideas each person has—but the opposite is the case for electronic brainstorming. The more people included in your virtual brainstorming session, the larger number of novel ideas per person. Now that the majority of workers have access to digital collaboration tools, according to the Gartner, Inc. Digital Worker Experience Survey, there’s little reason to get the team together in person for many collaborative tasks. Still not convinced? Consider the sustained success of fully remote companies such as GitLab, Automattic, and InVision.

Myth 2: You can’t build a cohesive company culture without everyone in the office together.

SHRM’s Organizational Culture toolkit mentions numerous factors that go into creating a cohesive culture, but—spoiler alert—having your entire workforce in the same physical space isn’t one of them. Similarly, McKinsey’s research into the factors influencing last year’s Great Resignation found employees seek greater connection with leaders and aspire to be part of a cohesive team. But that didn’t mean they wanted to come into the office. To retain employees, organizations need to evolve their approach to building community, cohesion, and a sense of belonging at work. 

Myth 3: Workers are more productive in the physical office than working remotely.

Gallup research indicates that remote workers are more productive than on-site workers. That’s because workers with the opportunity to work from home are more engaged, which has been shown to improve productivity and lead to the best business outcomes. The WFH project’s ongoing research similarly found that nearly six out of 10 workers reported being more productive working from home than they expected to be, compared with 14 percent who said they got less done. On average, respondents’ productivity at home was 7 percent higher than they expected.

Myth 4: Remote workers have low morale and feel isolated.

A survey by the mental health research website Tracking Happiness found that the ability to work remotely is positively correlated with employee happiness. Those fully remote workers reported a happiness level about  20% higher than full-time office workers. A study from the ADP Research Institute — titled People at Work 2022: A Global Workforce View — agreed with those findings, finding remote employees to be more optimistic (89%) than their on-premises coworkers (77%) and have more job satisfaction (90%) compared to those that commute to the office (82%). Additionally, a mid-2020 McKinsey study found a 55% increase in job satisfaction for remote workers. So while some employees may have felt isolated or had low morale in the early days of the pandemic when Covid restrictions replaced much of their daily routines with being stuck in their homes 24/7, that doesn’t appear to have persisted.

Myth 5: Workers need to be in the office to access specific resources and equipment that is only available in the office.

Not every job lends itself to working from home. For example, if you are a machinist, you need to be on the shop floor where the machine you’re employed to run is physically located.  But many jobs—even blue-collar jobs typically associated with being on-site only—have found ways to be remote-friendly. McKinsey’s American Opportunity Survey found 58 percent of Americans who have the opportunity to work from home do so at least one day a week. Further, 35 percent of respondents report having the option to work from home five days a week. If you’re thinking they must have just surveyed coastal knowledge workers, think again. Their respondents work in a wide range of jobs across the country and include workers in jobs commonly thought of as “blue collar” positions requiring on-site work.

Myth 6: Digital work makes it harder to protect sensitive information and data.

A recent article in CPO magazine suggests that a home office might be as safe, if not more secure, than an office cubicle. Why? They hypothesized that perceived trust in physical office settings makes them less secure than many remote working environments. For example, unencrypted network protocols are extremely common on a corporate network, while most home networks have firewalls and password encryption. Then there’s the physical data theft aspect. While someone can easily tailgate employees into the company HQ and access computers or data on thumb drives, that’s pretty unlikely to happen at someone’s home office. And, if working from home was truly more of a security risk than being in the office, you’d expect to see at least one of the most significant data security incidents from 2022 in this report to have mentioned being caused by a remote worker.

Myth 7: It costs businesses more to subsidize workers working at home.

Some company leaders have said it’s costly to support allowing people to work remotely. But, in most cases, few employers are paying for much, if any, of the home office costs. So that argument may not hold much water. Also, starting in 2021, The WSJ reported companies expect to reap millions of dollars in savings in the years ahead as they scale back on office space. Global Workplace Analytics estimates companies could save over $500 billion a year in real estate, electricity, absenteeism, turnover, and productivity. And let’s not forget that those huge physical company HQs also required that companies pay for utilities, janitorial services, security, maintenance, office supplies, coffee and water service, parking spaces, transit subsidies, ADA compliance, and furniture, to name a few recurring expenses.

It doesn’t take a physical office to give your people a sense of being part of a cohesive team. But it is important to bring your remote workers together in a virtual space that inspires collaboration and interaction. See how Frameable Spaces can give your distributed teams all the benefits of working together, no matter where they are.

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remote work

How A Virtual Office Manager Can Support Your Remote or Hybrid Team

black woman working on laptop in a modern office

After three years of remote work, more than 80% of employees agree that their overall wellbeing has improved because of remote and hybrid working arrangements, and 64% would even look for a new job if their employer made it mandatory to return to the workplace full-time. 

But as many teams have learned the hard way, simply allowing employees to work remotely does not mean you are providing a great work experience. Just as with the physical office, your virtual workspace needs someone charged with making your company a great place to work. 

In this blog post, we explore a new essential company role: the virtual office manager. Read on to learn about which organizations may benefit from hiring this position, what a virtual office manager’s day-to-day job entails, and what to include in your job description to attract the right candidate to your remote team.

Who Needs A Virtual Office Manager

If you are a team of two or three, a virtual assistant may be a better role to add than a virtual office manager. But, if you have five or more remote workers using one or more digital technologies to collaborate, it’s worth evaluating if a virtual office manager makes sense. Ask yourself these questions to decide if a virtual office manager is a good fit for your team:

  • Do our executives spend significant portions of their day on administrative tasks? 
  • Is our company growing quickly? 
  • Are we disorganized in our processes and systems?
  • Do we make it a priority to address our employees’ needs quickly and effectively?
  • Is our general company email inbox overflowing?
  • Can we bring on a new team member, given our financial situation?

If you answered no to any of these, it might be beneficial to spend some time developing your remote work policy—we share five steps to get you started here. On the other hand, if you answered yes to all the above questions, read on to uncover your path to hiring the right virtual office manager. 

What Does a Virtual Office Manager Job Entail?

Virtual office managers can complete many tasks to free up your executive team’s time and support your remote employee needs.

A virtual office manager job will greatly vary company by company. But a few things a virtual office manager can do include:

  • Handle all internal communications
  • Plan and manage company events
  • Support finance teams with billing and payroll 
  • Onboard new employees
  • Assist with tech setup and support
  • Research new office software tools and solutions
  • Coordinate the use of software tools across teams
  • Arrange executive travel
  • Book appointments and meeting spaces
  • Field and manage any inbound emails from prospective clients
  • Create guides and how-to docs to improve the employee experience

An office manager was previously seen as a luxury for smaller offices. However, one of the many benefits of remote work is it allows companies to find the right full or part-time office manager, without any geographic restrictions, to fit their budget. This makes it significantly easier to justify adding this much-needed support to your team. 

Before you bring on a virtual office manager, you need to understand how they will help your team. Align your cross-departmental leadership to understand what you’re looking for in a virtual office manager. What is your goal for hiring a virtual office manager? Will they support your executive, HR, and finance teams? What specific tasks does the team need them to handle?

Document the various responsibilities you envision for your virtual office manager and identify who they will report to. This background will help you to prepare your job posting. 

Key Elements of a Virtual Office Manager Job Description

Most of the current virtual office manager job openings are positioned as an office manager that works remotely. That works, but there’s room for the job to evolve and reflect its unique role in the future of work.

We recommend you include these elements in your virtual office manager job description: 

  • Your company description: What does your brand do, and what do you seek to accomplish? A compelling company description can help candidates understand if they connect with your company’s mission and purpose. 
  • Time commitment: Is this position full-time or part-time? When will your office manager be expected to work, and in what time zone? Be specific in this section so candidates can decide whether the time requirements are right for them. 
  • Key responsibilities: What do you expect the office manager to do? Provide as many details as possible, including possible day-to-day and recurring duties. For example, if several departments will share your virtual office manager, it could help to disclose what portion of their job will be spent on specific needs (such as 25% on executive support, 25% on HR administrative tasks, and 50% on general office management). 
  • Soft and hard skills: What are the required skills for the job? Consider both hard and soft skills, such as prior experience in your field or familiarity with specific programs, as well as ideal behavioral traits like an eagerness to learn and being a problem solver. 
  • Virtual office tools: What tools power your remote office? List any platforms the virtual office manager will need to use or champion—but remember that an ideal candidate can quickly learn how to use your tools, regardless of prior experience. 
  • Expected salary or pay rate: Some states require you to post a salary range with any published job listing. Even if a state does not require this, your candidates will appreciate it, and it can help filter out candidates seeking higher compensation. 

Give Your Team a More Engaging Virtual Workspace

The virtual and hybrid remote experience will increasingly become a competitive differentiator for brands, but there’s one team hire that could give you a serious advantage—a virtual office manager.

Virtual office managers play an integral role in orchestrating your remote work experience and ensuring your employees can thrive. The job varies across companies, and a virtual office manager can help with everything from administrative work to key culture activities that strengthen your team morale.

Having the right team for remote work is essential for protecting your business, but you can’t forget about the tools you use to connect.

We’ve built Frameable Spaces to provide online spaces for modern remote work, empowering teams to self-organize and interact just as they would in the physical office. Learn more about what your team can do in Frameable Spaces and try it for free today: https://frameable.com/spaces

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virtual events

10 Activities for a More Festive Virtual Holiday Party

Asian woman enjoying a virtual workplace holiday party

The holidays are just around the corner! Is your team planning a workplace holiday celebration?

Although many work holiday parties were curtailed in 2020, teams now have a much better understanding of how to host a fulfilling online team event—and that includes the classic workplace holiday party.

To help your company plan an online holiday party that your team will actually want to attend, let’s explore how you can adapt 10 common holiday party activities for a virtual setting. 

Online Workplace Holiday Party Activity Ideas

Before you get too far in your holiday party planning, be sure to talk to your team and understand what they are looking for in a virtual holiday celebration. Gauge the ideal day, time, and length of the party, as well as what activities everyone is interested in and how they’d like to celebrate the season with each other. 

While there certainly should be some element of mystery or holiday surprise, you should gently gather the key information to guide your virtual holiday party planning. 

Consider adding any of these activities to the lineup to make your virtual holiday party one that your team will love:

What says “I appreciate you” more than a homemade or gourmet bakery cookie? Cookie swaps are a holiday-time favorite, and you can easily host a virtual cookie swap during your workplace holiday party. 

Depending on how dispersed your team is, you can approach this a few different ways:

  • The most straightforward option is to encourage your team members to bake or buy their seasonal favorites and drop them off with a local team member. This person will collect everyone’s baked goods and then mail them out or drop them off. However, this idea works best if your team primarily works out of the same city.
  • Alternatively, your team can share holiday cookie recipes for everyone to bake before the party. Then, you can spend a portion of the get-together discussing everyone’s recipes, sharing a story associated with each recipe, and enjoying the baked goods. This option is a perfect one if you have team members with special dietary needs or food allergies.

Cooking or Other DIY Classes

A hands-on cooking lesson or similar crafting or do-it-yourself class—like painting, soap making, or creating air plant terrariums—is a naturally engaging activity for your workplace holiday party. If a member of your team is an outstanding chef with a holiday recipe they’d love to share or a hands-on crafter, ask if they would like to host or co-host the class. Alternatively, you can hire a professional chef or crafter to lead the online activity. If you choose to host this yourself, first determine what DIY activity your team is most interested in and then mail the supplies to them ahead of your party. 

Gingerbread Decorating Kits

Do you want a casual activity for everyone to work on as they celebrate the holidays? Host a gingerbread decorating party or competition! Mail gingerbread decorating kits to your team, and have everyone work on their houses throughout the online holiday party. You can create breakout rooms for people to rotate through as they catch up with their colleagues, show off their gingerbread creations, and get some well-deserved catching-up time.

Holiday Virtual Happy Hour 

Who’s ready for drinks?! Traditional in-person holiday parties often feature fun and festive drinks for everyone to enjoy. Mail your team non-alcoholic supplies (branded Yeti wine tumblers make a nice gift) plus a BevMo, Costco, or similar gift card for them to purchase alcohol or other beverages. Create recipe cards that explain how to make a few seasonal drinks. Bonus points if your team submits their seasonal favorites for everyone to try! If you need ideas, check out this list of 50 holiday cocktails or these 15 holiday mocktail recipes.

Tabletop Game or Card Game

Sometimes the best holiday party games are the most simple. Consider hosting a tabletop game or a card game for everyone to play in breakout groups. There are 12 potential board games to play in this article, while PlayingCards.io is one option for hosting a virtual card game. 

Trivia Game

Trivia is perfect for an online holiday party. Create breakout rooms in your virtual holiday party platform so that each team can collaborate. Designate one spokesperson from each team to share answers, or create Google Forms that teams will submit their answers through. You can host any theme for this trivia. You can keep it holiday-focused with a theme like classic holiday movies, name that holiday tune, or holidays around the world. Or you can explore any theme that will delight your team (and you can ask them during your pre-event planning conversations). 

Scavenger Hunt 

A virtual scavenger hunt can be a high-energy activity for teams, especially if there is a prize to win. Create a list of items that most of your team members should have at home, including some obscure or lesser-found items. Read off the item and ask everyone to go grab that item if they have it. Whoever returns the fastest wins.

Another way you can approach this game is to deliver a series of clues that will take your team across the internet or throughout locations in their homes. Then, give them 10 minutes to work through the list and take a photo or screenshot of what they think each clue is referencing. 

“Ugly Sweater” Contest

It’s not the holidays without a holiday sweater contest. Make your online workplace holiday party a little extra special by encouraging everyone to dress to a theme. Designate a portion of your party for everyone to show off their costumes. You can designate a “winner” based on team votes (just don’t let people vote for themselves).

Virtual Escape Room

Escape rooms skyrocketed in popularity over the past couple of years, especially as a go-to team-building activity. Now, you can host a virtual escape room, too! Check out this article for 24 possible rooms to explore, with details on pricing for each. 

Virtual Holiday Party Gift Exchange

A staple of most workplace holiday celebrations is the gift exchange. No matter how your team usually describes its gift-giving—Secret Santa, White Elephant, homemade gifts only—you can easily host a gift exchange during an online holiday party.

Provide pre-paid shipping labels to your team and set a deadline of no longer than 2 weeks before your party for team members to ship their gifts. During the event, take time for everyone to open their gifts, potentially in small-group breakouts if you have many people attending the party. 

Pick a Virtual Holiday Party Platform That Puts Your Team At The Heart of the Experience

The ideas we explored are just a few thought starters for hosting an engaging virtual holiday party. Consider these activities when discussing your holiday party plans with your team and gauging what they would like to do. 

Throughout your planning, remember the true purpose of an online workplace holiday party: to celebrate your team and provide an optional space to come together.

If you force everyone to attend your holiday party only to maroon them in a sub-par online meeting platform, their holiday spirits will instantly dampen. You need to pick an online event platform that gives your team the flexibility they need to hop in and out of rooms, network in small-group settings, and occasionally join as a full team for any announcements from your leadership (are bonuses on the horizon?).

We’ve built Frameable Events to host engaging online holiday parties for teams of all sizes. Our platform allows you to create fully customizable holiday events with networking spaces, full-group discussion spaces, and intuitive features that your team will love. Book a demo to see how easy it is to host your holiday party with Frameable Events.

Categories
virtual events

Yes, You CAN Take the Author Tour Virtual—a Conversation with J.D. Netto

Author J.D. Neto

Despite decades of predictions of their demise, print books are far from obsolete, with U.S. sales up 8.9% to 825.7 million in 2021, up from an estimated 757.9 million in 2020. These figures include approximately 1 million new books (or new editions of previously published books), which traditionally would have been marketed in part through multi-city book tours and exclusive book launch parties.

But just as the Duvet has killed the top sheet, COVID-concerns have largely killed —or at least significantly scaled back — publishers’ appetites for large-scale in-person gatherings. Many publishing industry events went virtual, while others, including BookExpo, BookCon, and Unbound, were permanently retired. That left many authors looking for a new way to regain the connection with their readers and the sense of closure these parties offered.

We reached out to artist, multi-genre best-selling author, and entrepreneur J.D. Netto to find out if he could recapture some of the joy and connection of his previous book launches with the Frameable Events platform. Here are the highlights he shared with us about his experience hosting his launch party for his latest book, Immortal Crowns, online.

The Initial Transition Away From In-Person Book Events Was Disappointing 

“For my first book launch, I threw a Gothic masquerade party,” says J.D. Netto. He continued with book tours and in-person book launch events until COVID safety concerns pushed most book events virtual-only in 2021.

“One of the first virtual book events I held was on Zoom, and I felt so disconnected,” he said. “As an artist, I really enjoy meeting and interacting with my community. I enjoy talking about my work with people, and I want them to get to know me beyond the curated social stream. With a one-way video event platform, it cut out that entire aspect of what made those events meaningful for me.”

Unfortunately, many virtual event platforms require designated moderators to move people around manually to enable 1:1 networking and advance planning to give specific attendees permission to talk. While these limitations may work for some passive viewing events or very small group breakout room conversations, it significantly limits the ability to curate an event with a spontaneous flow and impromptu interactions.

How Frameable Events Brings Back That Book Launch Energy

One of the first things J.D. noticed as attendees started to arrive at his virtual book launch party was the wide array of unexpected guests who quickly found their way in the door.

“Some of the readers who attended the event shared what they were doing on their social channels, with the registration link,” he says. “So, as we were kicking things off, new people I didn’t already know were joining.”

The ability of the platform to allow spontaneity extended to changing up the flow of conversation by inviting community members to share the virtual stage and ask J.D. questions or talk about their experience with his books.

“The best part [about the platform] was, I or my co-host, author Sasha Alsberg, could invite someone up from the audience to be on stage to talk,” he says. “And as the conversation progressed, we could see the reactions from the audience and questions in the chat feed. It felt so much more natural, and like an in-person event.”

Thanks to the positive, engaging experience he and Sasha had with the platform, J.D. plans to continue hosting virtual launch events, even when large-scale, in-person book events make a comeback. Why? Because of their ability, to enable him to connect with readers around the world whom he couldn’t otherwise meet. 

“Virtual launch tools like Frameable Events will continue to be valuable, as a sustainable and attainable way to connect with the entire world,” he said. ”I’m looking forward to hosting an even bigger, more interactive virtual event next time.”

Host Your Most Engaging Book Launch yet with Frameable Events

Are you planning a book launch? Request a demo today to see how Frameable Events can make your virtual book launch party almost as fun as celebrating your book in person.

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Categories
virtual events

10 Virtual Event Accessibility Tactics To Maximize Your Event Reach

Man wearing headphones and dark glasses, participating in an online meeting on a desktop computer.

Many event planners mistakenly view accessibility as a nice-to-have, which is a disservice to your event community and greatly limits your event’s potential. 

You may not realize that more than 430 million people worldwide experience ‘disabling’ hearing loss, and 247 million experience moderate to severe visual impairment or blindness. Crafting an accessible event spans more than physical ability, too, to include considerations like internet and technology access and literacy, work/life commitments, and mental disability. 

We connected with two accessibility and user experience experts, Melissa Eggleston and Rachel Wendte, to explore what accessibility means in the virtual and hybrid event space and how event planners can prioritize accessibility at every step of their planning. 

What Is Accessibility For Virtual and Hybrid Events?

Virtual and hybrid event accessibility aims to remove barriers when your audience seeks to join and engage in your event. Accessibility impacts every step of the event process, from registering for the event to joining sessions and navigating the virtual event platform.

“Web accessibility is making your online offering as simple to use for as many people as possible. That means considering tools, your language, and your presentation so that everyone can be involved,” Rachel says. “For an online event, that may mean using a platform that enables closed captioning, or offering a transcript for attendees. It’s also ensuring that your event is hosted on a platform that’s friendly to multiple kinds of devices.”

Not only is it the morally right thing to prioritize event accessibility, but blatant disregard of accessibility could pose a legal threat to your team, Melissa warns. “Accessibility lawsuits continue to be on the rise. Although the courts to date have been split on whether a website is a public space of accommodation, the Department of Justice recently put out guidance on compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.” 

What Are The Main Accessibility Considerations for Virtual Events?

To ensure that your event adheres to accessibility best practices, consider and address each of these key areas:

  1. Audio and Visual CAPTCHA: “For any CAPTCHA verification, make sure that the registration website offers an audio and visual version,” Rachel recommends. 
  2. Camel Case Hashtags: Melissa says you should “use hashtags that are more readable, using camel case. For example, use #DigitalMarketing instead of #digitalmarketing. The capital letters make it easier to read. Using a camel case hashtag also signals to your audience that you are paying attention to accessibility.” 
  3. Image Alt-Text: Every image used to promote your event through your website, email communications, or paid advertisements must include alt-text. “Make sure that you add alt-text to your primary event image with the name of the event in the photo,” Rachel says. “This helps people using screen readers verify that they are on the right page. [Include alt-text like] ‘People are gathered in a mixed group for the 1st Annual Discussion on Accessibility Trends, hosted by ABC Company.” 
  4. Live Captioning and Sign Interpreters: Some of your event attendees will be unable to access your event audio. Melissa advises that you enable live captioning for those without hearing or who can’t have sound on. As a best practice, you should also include sign interpreters alongside all event sessions. 
  5. Make Slides Available for Download: Give attendees the ability to download optimized and accessible slides ahead of each event session. Provide slides in a reduced-file size, so they take minimal time and space to download. Melissa says that “having slides available helps anyone who might be running into technical issues due to low bandwidth, internet connectivity problems, etc.” Giving attendees advanced slide access will also allow them to review the materials ahead of time in case they have difficulty processing everything during the live session. 
  6. Plain Text Versions of Invites: Many event organizers share flashy, heavily designed invites through email. Be sure to include a plain text version of your invite (and all event communications) so the message is accessible to everyone. 
  7. Pre-Field Questions: A submission form for questions ahead of each session enables anyone to submit questions at their convenience without speaking up during the session or accessing chat features.
  8. Share Replays or Recordings: Virtual event session replays or recordings are a core element of event accessibility. Rachel explains that “sometimes people sign up for things and then at the time have limited energy. Others need to listen to things more than once to get it. Having a replay or recording is a simple way to include your largest audience share.”
  9. User Test the Experience: Once your event materials are staged, test the experience using a screen reader. Can someone effectively engage with the entire event platform and agenda with a screen reader? 
  10. Write Out and Repeat All Questions:  “If you do a live Q&A, have the moderator write out the question in the chat, and phrase it out loud so that everyone can hear,” Rachel recommends. “So if I were taking a question from the audience, I’d listen and then read it back. For example, ‘Marcee just asked a question around captions. She said [what Marcee said]. Here is my answer.’ This ensures that everyone hears, reads, and understands what’s being asked.”

Accessibility Is An Ongoing Event Essential

Event accessibility—for virtual and live events alike—ensures that everyone in your ideal event community can fully engage with your event and gain the most value from that experience. Put simply, accessibility cannot be an afterthought for event planners.

“I promise you that there are people who would love to be part of your audience, and accessibility measures don’t just help those with disabilities. They help everyone,” Rachel adds. “Even if your audience appears to be one without limits, who’s to say that that will still be true tomorrow? People go through phases of need, and assuming that you’ve got it all covered and ‘don’t need accessibility’ does a disservice to your future (or current) customer.” 

Address the ten event accessibility considerations we explored above to keep accessibility top-of-mind throughout your event planning. To help you further, check out our full Q&A with Melissa and Rachel.

We built Frameable Events with key event accessibility concerns in mind, including in-app messaging, concurrent video streams for interpreters, and a web-based experience so anyone can join from a desktop, tablet, or mobile web browser. Learn more about the platform’s accessibility features and book a demo to see them in action.

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