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6 Smart Ways to Ensure Remote Workers Find Work-life Balance and Prevent Burnout

Many remote workers have brought attention to their work-life balance as the separation between work and home has become smaller than ever. A 2022 Conference Board survey found that 47% of remote workers in the US are concerned about the blurred boundaries between their jobs and personal lives. While remote work can lead to a desirable work-life balance for some, it can be even more difficult to unplug and set clear boundaries for others. As the remote work workforce continues to grow, employers should focus on creating a culture of healthy work-life balance and ensuring remote employees prevent burnout. 

Read on for six ideas on how to maintain work-life balance and avoid employee burnout.

Encourage breaks

About 20% of workers say they don’t take lunch breaks because they’re worried about feeling guilty or judged when they step away from work at midday. It turns out that while these employees may have had positive intentions, they are actually doing a disservice to both themselves and the company. 94% of employees feel happier when they can take a lunch break during the workday and agree that taking a break gives them a chance to return to their work with a new perspective. These employees exhibit higher productivity levels and are more likely to stay at a company where bosses encourage employees to take breaks.

If you manage remote employees, encourage them to take full advantage of their lunch break by taking at least 30 minutes to step away from their work and from all notifications. Encourage them to go outside, take a walk, grab a bite to eat, or do something that will help them to recharge and refocus. Remind them that taking the time to refresh and reset will allow them to be more productive and successful in the afternoon.

Establish boundaries

During the virtual onboarding process, make sure that remote managers and employees discuss expectations and boundaries. 

Managers should prepare a list of guidelines regarding the following:

  • Working hours: What are the expected hours of availability, breaks, and overtime expectations?
  • Job responsibilities: Who will assign tasks, and how are deadlines communicated?
  • Communication standards: How does the organization use different communication methods? 

Employees should consider what their idea of a healthy work-life balance means and communicate any concerns.

Recognize achievements

Research has indicated that insufficient recognition can lead to burnout, with a 48% increase in employers reporting burnout when they don’t receive recognition. There are both informal and formal ways to recognize the achievements of your employees. Organizations should use a combination of the two to ensure that employees feel appreciated and motivated to continue to perform at a high level.

Informal forms of recognition are exactly that—informal. Informal recognitions are spontaneous and unplanned, and can be as simple as verbal praise, a thank you note, a celebratory team lunch, or positive feedback. These types of recognition help employees with immediate feedback and helps to build a positive company culture.

On the other hand, formal recognition is a structured program with defined processes. This type of recognition includes awards, bonuses, certificates, or promotions. It is important to note that you should save formal recognition for the most exceptional employees, and the company should clearly define—and communicate—the criteria. When employers do formal recognition correctly, it can be a powerful motivator for employees and show them that their hard work is appreciated and valued.

Look into employee recognition software such as Achievers and TINYpulse as tools to heighten employee engagement and ensure your employees are receiving the recognition they deserve. Programs like these can eliminate administrative time and effort while ensuring employees are recognized, rewarded, and heard.

Offer flex time

Flex time allows employees to work outside of the traditional 9 to 5. This can mean adjusting your day’s start and end times, or taking an extended break during the middle of the day for personal obligations. People can use flex time to accommodate different lifestyles, such as parents needing to pick up children from school, or to simply allow employees to take advantage of when they are more productive. Flex time allows employees to adapt their work schedules to their personal needs and preferences. This flexibility can help prevent burnout by enabling employees to take breaks when they need them, work when they are most productive, and manage their workloads more effectively. Clearly communicate your flex time policy in the hiring and onboarding process so that employees and potential employees can know what to expect.

Provide support

Providing support to employees can come in many forms, such as mentorship, coaching, and feedback. Mentoring programs can allow employees to develop their skills, receive guidance from experienced colleagues, and build relationships with other team members. Coaching sessions can provide more personalized support, allowing employees to discuss goals, challenges, and possible solutions in a constructive and supportive environment. Regular feedback is also important, as it enables employees to receive insights into their work performance, and gives them an opportunity to reflect on their behavior. Consider hosting virtual networking sessions within your organization or pairing new hires with current employees to establish mentorship opportunities. All these support forms can help employees feel valued, develop their skills, and contribute to a positive and productive work environment.

Invest in technology

There are many ways technology can help organizations prevent burnout. While there are obvious opportunities, such as using task management software, automating routine tasks, and streamlining processes, consider other ways your organization can use technology to improve work-life balance. Providing employees with fitness trackers or watches can remind employees to stand up, stretch, and make sure they are getting steps in throughout the day. Online wellness programs or access to virtual therapy and counseling may be another helpful resource for employees to manage stress and increase overall wellbeing.

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We know that it can be challenging to separate your work from your personal life while working remotely. Managers must recognize burnout and make conscious efforts to ensure employees can have a work-life balance. 

Frameable Spaces takes virtual meeting software to the next level, creating a persistent virtual space where coworkers can easily see what others are working on and invite each other to collaborate outside of scheduled meetings. Our software is optimized for teams with flexible working schedules, ensuring users can communicate their availability and create a culture of shared values and mutual support. Learn more about Spaces and try it for free today.

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4 Tips for Welcoming and Engaging New Remote Team Members to Your Virtual Office

Are you doing enough to ensure remote team members are set up for success?

Quickly and effectively onboarding remote team members is a lot easier said than done. It can be hard to make sure they feel welcomed, comfortable, and ready to hit the ground running when your first meet-and-greet is through a screen. But it can be done! Here’s how our fully remote team has learned to run the most effective onboardings into our virtual office and workstyle.

Share Common Verbiage, Workflows, and Meetings

The first day of joining a new team is scary enough without the added stress of learning new phrases, workflows, products, and projects. Sharing a document with common company lingo, meeting styles, and key project names right away will set your new hire up for a successful first few days. It will also make their transition into your team smoother by eliminating the need to ask others to define every term they hear. This will also aid in their feeling of inclusion from day one.

A recent McKinsey report found that since the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing employees’ sense of inclusion in the workplace has become A recent McKinsey report found that since the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing employees’ sense of inclusion in the workplace has become more and more crucial to maintaining a productive work environment for all — especially with so many now working a remote or hybrid schedule. Giving new employees a leg up on day one by laying out as much of the shared knowledge as possible is one of the most straightforward ways to ensure all new hires, regardless of location, feel included in their new team.

Initiate Relationship Building on Day 1

Make a point to have your new team member meet 1-on-1 with colleagues they will be working closely with. For smaller organizations, schedule time with all the employees! These meetings will be key to helping new team members get to know their coworkers and understand how their role fits into the bigger picture of your organization. Pre-scheduling these conversations makes joining a new team less daunting in addition to encouraging a culture of relationship building throughout your entire organization.

While using a virtual office for your hybrid or remote team comes with many benefits, oftentimes, teammates will navigate and use a virtual office differently. Having your team reach out to set up 10-15 minute meetings will provide the new hire with greater context to workflows and help them get acquainted with their new role. These quick meetings will also be a great introduction to how different hybrid or remote employees use your remote office and tools.

Encourage Engagement Throughout the Virtual Office

On a recent episode of McKinsey Global Institute’s Forward Thinking podcast, Nicholas Bloom discussed how integral a sense of connection with colleagues is to creating a successful remote or hybrid work environment. It can be difficult for hybrid and remote new hires to know how to go about engaging with their new colleagues within a virtual office space. Modeling how your team uses your virtual office before sending off your new hire to do so on their own can accelerate their learning curve and invite more opportunities for them to engage with their new colleagues.

One of the main benefits of a virtual office is the visibility and reachability of your teammates. Encourage new hires to occupy a virtual office or desk, venture to different virtual “locations”, and use statuses to convey their availability. Share how different team members use the space’s functionalities and tools and encourage new colleagues to try out the various aspects of your virtual workspace to identify their preferences.

Pair Your New Hire With A Buddy for a Day

The first few days of a new job are typically filled with onboarding and administrative tasks. Once your new hire has completed these, pair them up with another colleague who shares similar responsibilities for a day. Encourage the pair to attend the same meetings, discuss their tasks, and frequently debrief throughout the day. Depending on the size of your organization, this can help speed up collaboration between two crucial team members, or give your new hire an established team member to reference when it comes to producing great work within your organization.

Boost remote employee engagement with our free Virtual Office Manager e-book! Click to download now.

Setting your remote team members up for success does not have to be overly complicated. Learn how upgrading to Frameable Spaces can transform your virtual office and employee experience.

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9 Future of Work Conferences to Attend in 2023

Explore our 2024 roundup here.

This post was updated on July 21, 2023 to include more conferences leading into 2024.

As technology continues to evolve and shape the way we work, it’s essential to stay informed on the latest trends and advancements in the world of work. Attending conferences on the future of work can be a valuable investment to meet talented leaders, identify innovative solutions, and in some cases, even showcasing your own! With so many options to choose from in 2023, we are helping you stay ahead of the curve by identifying the top nine future of work conferences you should attend.

Future of Work Expo

February 14-17, 2023 in Ft. Lauderdale, FL

The Future of Work Expo 2023 in Fort Lauderdale is a conference program dedicated to helping companies navigate today’s hybrid workplace. The program will explore the intersection of technology and the human element, providing guidance on how to strike a balance between automation of work and processes and maintaining employee engagement. The conference’s goal is to help attendees reimagine their company’s workplace transformation, including implementing powerful new technologies.

Featuring keynote speakers from top companies such as Dell and EY, attendees will gain insight into how to develop and manage a successful hybrid workplace. At a lower cost than many other conferences, the Future of Work Expo is a great choice for those looking to improve productivity in the ever-evolving workforce and provide a better customer experience.

WorkX

February 21 – 23, 2023 in NYC and August 8-11, San Diego, CA

Formally known as Future Offices, the WorkX Conference brings together all things related to work experience. The 2023 conference will specifically explore the intersection of the future of work and workplace transformation. By offering two different tracks, attendees can explore content and presentations that are most meaningful to them. While the Future of Work track will examine challenges and issues related to most of the “people” issues, the Workplace Transformation track will look at how organizations are repurposing or utilizing their space to provide the best employee experience.

If you are looking for a multi-track conference opportunity with options to attend on each coast, this could be a great choice for you!

SHRMTech 2023

March 7-8, 2023 in San Francisco, CA

SHRM is a leading voice in the HR professional community and continues to shape how employers and employees work together. At SHRMTech, attendees will learn from and engage with HR pioneers and tech innovators who are transforming the world of work. Topics include workplace innovation, future-ready HR, disruptive technologies, ethical AI, and more.

For professionals looking to expand their HR tech knowledge and stay ahead of the curve, this conference will provide learnings, networking opportunities, and outcome-focused practices and solutions. Attendance is expected to be high as this is SHRMTech’s first U.S. event! If you are currently a SHRM credential holder, this event is also a valuable opportunity to earn Professional Development Credits towards your renewal. 

IDC Future of Work Conference

March 15, 2023 in London

International Data Corporation (IDC) is a global provider of analysis and insights, helping professionals take a data-driven approach to selecting technologies and formulating business plans. The conference aims to provide attendees with industry insights, recommendations, and valuable experiences from speakers, complete with networking opportunities. The main topics discussed will include ESG targets, democratized innovation, employee performance, and employee retention.

With a focus on data gathered from IDC’s Future of Work European Employee Survey, this conference focuses on why work is changing, from a data-driven perspective, highly focused on European trends.

WSJ Future of Everything

May 2-4, 2023 in NYC

Each year, the newsroom at the Wall Street Journal identifies who and what is changing the future to compile their Future of Everything conference. While the conference isn’t solely focused on the future of work, given the influx of news on the topic, there are dedicated sections for both technology and work. 

Hear from featured speaker T.S. Anil, CEO of Monzo, a British online bank, as he breaks down why company culture matters as much as the bottom line and what Monzo’s recent U.S. launch means for the future of online banking.

With a broader focus than other conferences listed, attendees will be able to receive a birds-eye view of, quite literally, the future of everything. 

Reworked CONNECT

May 10-12, 2023 in Austin, TX

The Reworked CONNECT conference is produced by Simpler Media Group, the parent brand of the Reworked and CMSWire professional communities. As a result, this conference is highly focused on employee experience and workplace leadership. Attendees will have the opportunity to see inside today’s most productive workplaces and make new connections within the Reworked community. 

The conference features five different tracks: 

  1. Leadership & the Modern Organization
  2. Employee Experience: Design, Build, Listen & Optimize
  3. The Digital Workplace: Intranets, Collaboration & Killer Apps
  4. Future of Work: Intelligence, Automation & Virtual
  5. Talent Development & Enterprise Learning 

The array of tracks is perfect for mid-to-senior level employees to learn how to better adapt employee experiences within their organization. 

Gartner Digital Workplace Summit

May 15-16, 2023 in London, June 12-13, 2023 in San Diego, CA, and August 29-30, 2023 in Tokyo, Japan

The Gartner Digital Workplace Summit focuses on two digital workplace trends: distributing work and enhancing the digital employee experience. The conference provides an ideal mix of insights and research-based talks to allow participants to better understand these topics and find strategies to improve their outcomes.

Attendees have the options to choose from four different tracks:

  1. Lead and Execute a Digital Workplace Strategy
  2. Optimize Technology to Get Work Done
  3. Construct Solid Infrastructure and Operations Foundations
  4. Power a Connected Digital Employee Experience

If you are an IT executive or digital workplace leader, this conference is for you! With three locations and multiple tracks to choose from, this summit will allow attendees to join peers to build their network, learn, and meet experts in the digital workplace.

Future of Work USA

June 6-7, 2023 in Chicago, IL

The Future of Work USA event launched in 2019 with the goal of focusing on the latest trends and strategies surrounding senior executives. With a smaller focus on tech, the Future of Work conference is perfect for those within the HR, communication, or employee experience realm of business. Future of Work will also host conferences in Canada, APAC, Europe throughout 2023. Attendees will have the opportunity to view panels and presentations, network, and participate in discussion groups. 

Attendees of Future of Work USA will receive great value at a competitive price, with speakers from top companies such as Coca-Cola, BP, Starbucks, and Walmart.

Forbes Future Of Work Summit

June 8, 2023 in NYC

The Forbes Future of Work Summit, hosted both in-person and virtually, centers around how to manage an increasingly distributed workforce, offering solutions for a more sustainable, profitable, and inclusive way of working.

Recently, Forbes has begun to highlight executives, organizations, and thought leaders shaping the office of tomorrow in an annual Forbes Future of Work 50 list. Expect some of these top contributors to be involved in this year’s summit.

While the agenda and speakers have not yet been announced for the 2023 summit, interested attendees can take a look at the 2022 agenda, speakers, and sponsors to get a better idea of the conference offerings and key findings.

Whether you have already embraced flexible workplaces, or you need a bit more convincing, these nine conferences are sure to provide expert insight on the future of work and help you stay ahead of the competition.

CIO’s Future of Work Summit

September 30, 2023 – Virtual

CIO’s Future of Work Summit will focus on sharing expert tips for managing a remote workforce and maintaining top talent amid a rapidly changing landscape.

Previous topics from their February summit touched on:

  • How to retain valuable team members is the face of rising inflation
  • How to approach and discuss employee monitoring
  • Ways to maximize the benefits of in-office collaboration time
  • The best and latest collaboration tools

If you are a CIO or innovative leader, you won’t be disappointed by joining this virtual summit. Previous summits have featured top leaders from Forbes, Adobe, Qualtrics, Zscaler, and more.

Future of Work Expo

February 14-15, 2024 in Fort Lauderdale, FL

Get ready for an electrifying glimpse into the future of work! The Future of Work Expo is where cutting-edge technologies, employee experiences, and ground-breaking ideas collide. This Future of Work Expo is all about empowering technology leaders, influencers, and decision-makers with game-changing strategies to maximize workplace productivity and help them to keep delivering an amazing customer experiences.

With networking events, giveaways, and an onsite start up pitch showcase, there is no shortage of exciting opportunities to interact with the leaders and future change-makers across the technology industry.

Gartner Digital Workplace Summit

March 18-19 2024 in Grapevine, TX

The Gartner Digital Workplace Summit is centered around the new and significant challenges that have evolved out of the changing work landscape. The summit’s goal is to provide workplace leaders with the tools and support as they navigate redefining their workplace culture, connectivity, and creativity in the here-to-stay world of hybrid and remote work.

At their previous summit these were the top discussion and presentation points where leaders learned how to:

  • Create a Digital Employee Experience
  • Champion Digital Skills
  • Connect Everything to Value
  • Develop Workforce Digital Dexterity
  • Focus on talent to drive the Future of Work

Previously, the conference has offered a variety of different tracks based on attendee interests and roles in their respective organizations.

The Future of Software in the Evolving Workplace

The flexible workspace will continue to be an important driver of employee satisfaction and productivity. In order to ensure success, it is essential that the software organizations use enables both remote and hybrid models.

While some executives are set on returning to the office, the reasons they’ve given for their push may not be backed by data. Developed to help with the needs of modern remote work, MultiShare offers remote and distributed teams the long-desired ability to share their screens simultaneously in a Microsoft Teams call. Discover more about what your team can do in Frameable Spaces and advance into the future of work today.

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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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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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Cutting Through the Metaverse Hype to Find the Real Future of Work

white desk with hands all around it holding various work tools including notebooks and laptops

Over the past few months, I’ve watched the business press come full circle on the Metaverse. First, there was the hype about how virtual reality and augmented reality were the future of everything. Now, it’s a ballad of disappointment about how lackluster Mark Zuckerberg’s vision of the Metaverse is turning out to be so far.

It’s important to note, however, these articles aren’t saying that workers don’t want to work remotely and don’t need a virtual environment — just that Meta’s version of the Metaverse isn’t the virtual workspace anyone’s looking for. So let’s take a look at the most shared and commented-on articles to gain insight into what people actually want in a virtual workspace.

The Metaverse in 2040 (Pew Research)

As with the rest of Pew’s research portfolio, this research provides a balanced view of the Metaverse and its pros and cons. The 624 technology experts they interviewed expect to see ‘extended’ reality become part of our daily lives by 2040. But they also foresee augmented-reality and mixed-reality tools gaining traction, vs. the more-fully-immersive virtual reality worlds currently synonymous for many with the Metaverse.

This article also has some pretty on-the-nose criticisms, including this one, which delves into the motivations behind some of our biggest ad-tech companies being the pioneers of the Metaverse:

“The term metaverse was coined to describe a corporate, dystopian hellscape where a completely financialized world is stripped of any culture and value. Advocates of the metaverse are currently trying to bring that vision into reality in the hopes of creating new digital surfaces that can be covered in new advertising and made as addictive as possible. As the physical world encounters saturation of existing advertising surfaces and data collection, augmented reality is the new frontier of surveillance capitalism. If it does come to fruition, it will be as terrible as social media is today.”
— Justin Reich, associate professor of digital media at MIT and director of the Teaching Systems Lab.

Reich has a good point, even if you aren’t a social media naysayer. We’ve seen the unintended negative consequences of how platforms like Facebook have monetized their users’ data for the benefit of advertisers. Imagine what could happen if those companies who couldn’t handle your personal data already had access to your workplace’s intellectual property and private information.

Meta Quest Pro: A $1,500 Virtual-Reality Headset for Working in the Metaverse (WSJ)

While Google Cardboard is an affordable way of accessing the Metaverse’s VR worlds, no one wants to strap cardboard against their face for hours of meetings. It’s designed for occasional use for a leisure activity—not for wearing all day in a work environment.

While Facebook already had a $400 headset in the market, it wasn’t meant for prolonged use at the office. So they introduced a $1,500 virtual reality headset that’s more comfortable, has improved controls, and can track your eye and facial movements and sync them with your Metaverse avatar. Presumably, the buyers of this state-of-the-art headset are, as the WSJ surmises, architects, engineers, and designers, plus tech early adopters.

Unfortunately, the article notes, the new headset’s charge only lasts for 1-2 hours, depending on what you’re doing while wearing it. It then needs to recharge for two hours before you’re ready for your next meeting. I guess that could work for those who have chosen the 4-hour workday. But for busy professionals who can have days of back-to-back meetings and collaboration sessions, it’s problematic on many levels.

As the author quips in closing, “I just think we’re going to need something a little cooler than avatars gathered around three-dimensional Excel sheets for this whole metaverse thing to take off.”

The Metaverse Doesn’t have a Leg to Stand on (Literally)

While there were dozens—if not hundreds—of articles making fun of the floating bottomless avatars populating the Metaverse, these two stood out for their approach to covering the announcement from the Meta team that legs were in the works for their floating avatars.

Presumably, the developers who are surprised by the general public’s lack of enthusiasm for this news may also be unaware that MMORPGs like the World of Warcraft have had 3-D avatars with legs for almost two decades. And to be fair—we’re not controlling those avatars with our body movements. But the fact is—no one cares if it’s going to be hard to do. The current offering just doesn’t meet modern consumers’ expectations.

Legs are finally coming to Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse, Vox

“The fact that now Zuckerberg is prioritizing legs in the metaverse shows how much public perception of the metaverse matters, and that the toughest challenge to Meta succeeding may be solving the technology’s seemingly simple (although technically complex) visual problems. Meta needs to show that it’s in touch with reality, even as it builds an alternate universe.”

(Vox)

Legs are coming to the Metaverse and everyone is…underwhelmed, Mashable

This Mashable article rounds up Tweeted reactions to the addition of legs to the Metaverse, including these:

“Unsurprisingly, people are underwhelmed by the update, just as they seem to be about the metaverse. The same can be said for Meta’s employees, apparently.”

(Mashable)

So What Do People Want From a Virtual Office?

One recurring theme across these pieces, and other metaverse coverage, is people want a reason to log in to these virtual spaces to work. Not a mandate from the C-suite that they have to use these tools. They want these spaces to have unique persistent tools, resources, and frameworks that help them work better together.  Novelty is not enough!

While remote work has freed many people from the office, it hasn’t changed their desire or need to collaborate and have face-to-face time with their colleagues and managers—even if it is virtual. It’s our job to do our best work, and that means working together in many cases.  As one of the companies committed to making these virtual worlds of work inclusive and accessible to all, we know that in the end, the work is only as good as the people who can and do put their shoulders into it. VR headsets should not be required.

Categories
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
remote work

Frameable Launches ‘Spaces’ Virtual Office Platform, Commits to Accessibility and Sustainability Initiatives

Frameable Spaces logo

Frameable launched our virtual office platform Spaces to the public yesterday at the conference Engaged @Work: Employee Experience & Talent Acquisition in New York City. As part of the launch, we have committed to an enhanced focus on accessibility and environmental sustainability throughout our product offerings.

It was exciting to share our platform with the conference attendees and hear first-hand the struggles they’ve had in creating a virtual work environment that meets the same standards as the physical workplaces they spent so much time honing to meet their employees’ unique needs. 

These conversations reinforced the decision we made to ensure WCAG 2.1 AA compliance throughout our software products, creating an inclusive user-experience for both administrators and guests. In addition to this accessibility commitment, we have also pledged to offset our annual carbon emissions on behalf of users.

We understand decision makers’ current apprehensions about committing to remote or hybrid work for the long term. Our ways of working have evolved, but the tools we are using have primarily stayed the same. At Frameable, we provide teams with a new way to effectively work remotely, while ensuring your virtual office is professional, reflects your culture, and is on-brand. Our focus on beautiful and intuitive graphic design and interaction design creates an experience that is easy to understand for the people using our platforms and easy to set up for the workspace manager.

Communication in the workplace is essential, but overreliance on legacy tools like email, text chat, and video meeting software can actually hinder productivity due to a constant state of filtering, interruptions, and stimulation. The average user sends and receives hundreds of business emails per day, killing focus and productivity. By uniquely supporting both impactful scheduled and unscheduled collaborations as well as individual ‘deep’ work, Spaces helps employees produce their highest-quality work by making it easy to ask for and receive help.

Learn more about how Frameable Spaces is an ideal remote and hybrid work platform and try it free for 14 days to see for yourself!

Transform your virtual office with Frameable Spaces.

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remote work

Why Hybrid Work Is STILL The Best Way To Keep Your Employees Happy (2022 Data)

Woman in kitchen looking at computer.

The U.S. Labor Day holiday, or the first Monday in September, has long been seen as the imaginary line in the sand for when employers would require employees to return to the office—and brands like Apple, Prudential Financial, and BMO Financial all plan a return to office-based work this month.

But if you’re contemplating an entirely in-person work environment, you clearly haven’t been paying attention to what your employees want.

Data from recent months reinforces that employees demand workplace flexibility, and employers that mandate a full return to the office could destroy their workforce morale, likely causing a wave of departures in search of remote- and hybrid-friendly cultures.

Let’s look at data from the past few months to understand what employees want in terms of workplace flexibility and where employers may be misguided in their future of work strategies. 

The Current State of Remote and Hybrid Work — Summer 2022

The majority of U.S. employers currently offer remote or hybrid work settings, in part given rising COVID infections from new variants. Here is the most recent data available:

  • The majority of U.S. workers have hybrid work flexibility, with 35% being able to work from home full-time, and 23% working from home part-time—that reflects 92 million people (McKinsey). 
  • When employers offer some degree of remote work, 87% of employees work remotely at least one day a week, meaning just 13% reject the flexibility. The majority (58%) work from home at least three days a week (McKinsey). This data is supported by the Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes (SWAA). 

When looking to the future, 31.7% of U.S. employees want to work from home five days per week, and 16% want full-time office work. However, 27% of employers plan to not offer workplace flexibility post-COVID, and 22% plan to offer just one or two days per week to work from home (SWAA). 

This disconnect will continue to fuel the ‘Great Resignation’ and newly discussed trend of ‘quiet quitting,’ in which workers meet bare-minimum productivity levels. A Gallup poll found that at least 50% of U.S. workers are quiet quitters, which is caused by employers failing to provide clear job expectations and learning and growth opportunities for their team, as well as failing to prove they care about their employees.  

How To Future-Proof Your Workplace Culture

As shown by recent work-from-home data, most employees want at least a 50/50 split between time spent working from home and working from an office. Employers that fail to meet their employee needs will face waves of turbulence, including decreased employee satisfaction and productivity, and increased turnover.

So what is the best way to plan for the future of work? Ask your employees. 

It is vital to actively poll your team and understand what level of flexibility they need from their work arrangement. Managers play a key role in facilitating these conversations and reducing their team’s disengagement and burnout. 

Forcing everyone to return to the office is a radical shift from the freedom that employees have now come to accept, but you can find a middle ground that makes everyone happy—but it will also require you to redefine how you measure success. 

Building Connections in Remote Work

When looking at the commonly cited benefits of in-person work, employees value face-to-face collaboration and socializing the most. Both of these concerns can be addressed in a remote-work world—but a combination of Slack channels and Zoom rooms will hardly help your employees thrive.

We’ve built Frameable Spaces to give your hybrid and remote teams the same collaborative work experience the most productive in-office teams enjoy, enabling them to meet and collaborate in a natural and fully integrated way. Learn more about how Frameable Spaces is an ideal remote and hybrid work platform and book a demo today.

Transform your virtual office with Frameable Spaces.

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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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