As the WFH abbreviation and its essence become an integral part of our professional lives, understanding its implications and mastering productivity techniques is essential. In this article, we’ll explore the meaning of WFH, delve into its advantages and challenges, and provide seven practical tips to enhance your productivity while working from home.

What Does WFH Stand For?

WFH stands for a flexible work arrangement where employees perform their job duties from their residences. This trend, significantly accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, has seen a remarkable adoption rate.  88% of organizations worldwide implemented WFH policies. 

The rapid shift has transformed how we perceive work-life balance and company culture, making remote work a mainstay in today’s professional landscape.

As more companies recognize the WFH meaning and the benefits it delivers, the trend shows no signs of slowing down. Studies suggest that by 2025, approximately 32.6 million people will be working remotely. 

This shift is driven by several factors, including advancements in digital technology, changing employee expectations, and the global push for work-life balance.

While often used interchangeably, the WFH abbreviation, remote work, and telecommuting have subtle distinctions. 

• WFH stands for specifically working from your home. 
• In contrast, remote work can include different locations such as coworking spaces, Airbnb, libraries, or coffee shops. 
• And telecommuting implies working from any place outside the office, often involving commuting to different work locations periodically.

The WFH Meaning and its Advantages

Working from home offers numerous benefits, including:

1. Enhanced work-life balance – employees can create schedules that suit their personal and professional needs. This can lead to improved job satisfaction and better work-life balance.
2. Increased productivity – studies indicate remote workers can be 20-25% more productive than their in-office counterparts.
3. Cost savings – both employees and employers save on commuting costs and office space expenses once they embrace the WFH meaning. Employers can save up to $2000 per employee annually.
4. Environmental benefits – reduced commuting results in lower carbon emissions and less traffic congestion.
5. Access to global talent – employers can attract skilled professionals from anywhere, enhancing diversity and innovation.

Challenges With WFH

Working from home offers many benefits, but it also presents unique challenges for both employees and employers. One major issue is maintaining team cohesion. Remote workers may feel isolated from their colleagues. Coordinating meetings across different time zones is another hurdle, demanding clear communication and planning.

More specifically such challenges can be:

1. Maintaining team cohesion. Remote workers may feel isolated, making it crucial to use virtual communication tools and apps to stay connected when working from home.
2. Time zone management – coordinating across different time zones requires clear communication and strategic scheduling.
3. Work-life boundaries – remote employees may struggle to separate work from personal life, potentially leading to overworking.
4. Technical issues – ensuring reliable internet connections and dealing with technical problems can be challenging.

However, work-from-home benefits usually outweigh the challenges. Therefore, remote work continues to gain popularity. Thus, besides understanding the meaning of WFH, let’s see what you can do to be excellent at it! 

Tips for Working From Home

Let’s imagine you’ve been offered a new remote job and started working from home. The first few weeks are likely to be pretty chaotic and unusual since the WFH meaning and its practical implications are a bit different.  

That’s why we’ve prepared some foundational and practical tips for your routine. These are tried-and-tested tips that work for the majority of the WFH community. 

Figure Out What Works For You: Create a Routine

Understanding your unique productivity patterns is key to working from home effectively. Everyone has different peak productivity times and sources of distraction. 

If you assess your daily habits and identify when you work best, you can tailor your schedule to fit your needs. 

Ask yourself questions about your distractions, sleep patterns, and commitments to determine the best times for focused work.

Use WFH Technology to Maximize Your Efforts 

Working from home often brings challenges like background noise and the need to multitask, which can disrupt virtual meetings.

But technology can help overcome these obstacles. And this is where Krisp comes in as an essential tool for remote work. It is among the tools that can optimize your remote communications without much effort from your side.

Krisp’s advanced noise cancellation technology eliminates background noises, ensuring clear communication during important meetings. Whether it’s construction noise or a pet’s unexpected vocal performance, Krisp filters out distractions, allowing you to focus on the discussion. 

Additionally, Krisp is invaluable during multitasking situations, as it ensures that your background activities don’t interfere with the meeting. 

Moreover, Krisp handles your meeting notes for you. Its AI-powered meeting assistant is there 24/7 to automatically transcribe your meetings, record them if you need to, and provide meeting summaries when necessary. 

Overall, Krisp enhances the remote work experience by providing a quieter and more focused virtual meeting space. With technology like Krisp, working from home is less boring and tedious.

Set a Productive Work Environment 

Creating a dedicated workspace is crucial for maintaining focus and productivity. Choose a quiet, well-lit area free from distractions, and ensure it’s organized and equipped with everything you need. 

A well-defined workspace signals your brain that it’s time to work, helping you transition smoothly between work and relaxation.

Prioritize Your Physical and Mental Health

Maintaining your health is essential when you’re dealing with the WFH abbreviation in real life. 

Ensure you take regular breaks to move around, stay hydrated, and eat nutritious meals. Incorporate physical activities like stretching or short walks into your routine. 

Don’t forget to incorporate some form of mindfulness practice or meditation to manage stress and maintain mental well-being. 

Take Mindful Breaks From Work

Regular breaks are vital to prevent burnout and maintain productivity. Schedule short breaks to relax and recharge, whether it’s a walk, a power nap, or a quick snack. 

These breaks help refresh your mind and keep you focused throughout the day. Opt for the healthiest possible!

Manage Your Distractions 

Minimize distractions by setting boundaries and rules for yourself. Keep your phone on ‘Do Not Disturb’ during work hours and limit social media use. 

Communicate with family or roommates about your work schedule to ensure they respect your focus time. 

You can also try communicating about your challenges with your co-workers. Distractions are inevitable in this day and age. Thus, try opening an honest discussion where you can talk about how all WFH workers can overcome the challenge of distractions. 

By managing distractions, you can maintain a high level of productivity and efficiency.

Conclusion

Finally, as we discussed, the WFH meaning indicates working from home. Thus, it requires more discipline and self-reliance than working from the office does. Working from home presents a unique blend of benefits and challenges. 

You can optimize your productivity and well-being by establishing the tips for working from home we discussed above. Remember to maintain work-life boundaries, prioritize your health, and manage distractions effectively.

As remote work continues to evolve, these strategies will help you successfully navigate the WFH landscape, ensuring a balanced and productive work-from-home experience. 

Frequently Asked Questions on WFH Meaning

The post WFH Meaning Explained + 7 Tips for Improved Productivity appeared first on Krisp.

• Online ice breakers range from simple introductions to creative challenges or trivia games. They’re designed for large and small groups as well as remote and hybrid teams.

• You can enhance your remote ice breakers by using an AI-enabled meeting assistant. It’ll minimize distractions and automate note-taking, keeping participants engaged and productive.

Well-planned virtual ice breakers are enjoyable and beneficial for team building. Did you know that engaging and enjoyable work is the #1 factor for almost 50% of knowledge workers to achieve their best work, according to Asana?

I know many hate online ice breakers, especially when these activities are accompanied by background noise. So, imagine being able to select the perfect virtual ice-breaker activities while ensuring a noise-free environment to encourage interaction and strengthen team bonds.

Let’s explore 12 engaging ice breakers designed to enhance team closeness. We’ll also discover how to eliminate background noise to facilitate seamless online interactions. Lastly, we’ll uncover how you can transcribe, record, and summarize your virtual meetings to preserve valuable memories and insights.

What Is a Virtual Ice Breaker?

communicating virtually discussing via computer

An ice breaker is a game, activity, or question that prompts discussion. It has two main goals:

• Make participants feel comfortable talking to each other and avoid miscommunication.
• Help participants get to know each other.

But they remind many of childhood when the teacher made them stand up and state their names and one “fun fact” about themselves. Then, they realized they weren’t that fun and didn’t remember their names when under pressure.

While the word’s origin is disputed, I like to think of its physical equivalent. An icebreaker is a type of boat that breaks the ice to allow it to keep cruising along smoothly, so it doesn’t get stuck in one place.

Virtual meeting ice breakers can be a powerful tool if organized well. Specifically, they keep the conversation flowing and prevent awkward silence. Most importantly, as many of us study or work from home, virtual ice breakers create a conducive environment for collaboration and help us feel connected.

Here are some ground rules for doing ice breakers right.

5 Tips on Doing Virtual Ice Breakers Right

virtual communication via computer

1. Exercise Sensitivity and Emotional Intelligence

Are you trying to find the best answer to “How do you break the ice with friends online?” First, know the difference between a fun virtual ice breaker and a cringe-worthy one. Because the best answer depends on the level of closeness between those interacting online.

Specifically, personal-question-based ice breakers are the best fit for team members who have worked together. What about new team members? As a rule, personal questions posed to meeting attendees who have never met can create awkwardness and embarrassment.

2. Have a Backup Plan for Virtual Ice Breakers

Some ice breaker questions won’t go over well with some people, and that’s okay. So, try giving them something easier to answer. For instance, if they can’t tell something good that happened to them last week, ask, “What’s one goal you have for the upcoming week?”

Pay attention to their tone of voice and facial expressions. If that person is uncomfortable, thank them for trying and move on to the next.

3. Don’t Do Virtual Ice Breakers for Every Meeting

Remember an important point when looking for the best answer to “How do you break the ice in virtual meetings?” Some ice breaker activities, such as “Item on Your Desk” and “Two-Word Check-In,” are suitable for weekly team meetings.

Other options should be used sparingly. Because they become cumbersome and dreaded if you do it every time you have a virtual meeting.

4. Consider “Breakout Rooms” for Virtual Ice Breakers with More Than 10 Attendees

Some video conferencing tools, such as Zoom and Google Meet, include breakout rooms for multiple attendees. Specifically, this feature lets you organize groups of three to six attendees to complete the meeting activities separately.

Why? Virtual ice breakers with more than 10 participants can become unwieldy and time-consuming.

5. Know When to Move On

One of the biggest complaints about virtual icebreakers is that they waste valuable time. So, don’t let them drag on.

Set a timer for your meeting and start the official part once it goes off. Additionally, you can give people a set time limit to answer a question, such as 30 seconds.

Bonus Tip: Use Krisp to Enjoy Noise-Free Virtual Ice Breakers

Krisp AI meeting assistant for calls virtual ice breakers

Virtual meetings are essential to our daily lives in our increasingly digital world. So, it’s no surprise that the global market share of videoconferencing software witnessed nearly 68% growth in 2023.

But that’s only part of the story: not all online meetings succeed. That’s where AI meeting assistant Krisp steps in to cancel the background noise during your virtual ice breakers to make them successful and productive.

Krisp, a must-have noise cancellation and note-taking app, eliminates background voices and echoes during ice breakers for meetings to make them more productive. Moreover, Krisp automatically records, transcribes, and summarizes virtual meetings to simplify collaboration.

Now that you’re set up for success, let’s go through great virtual ice breaker ideas.

12 Unique Virtual Ice Breakers That Won’t Traumatize Your Team

people communicating online via computer

1. This or That

Level of effort required: Low

Level of team closeness required: Low

Best for: Larger meetings with people who don’t know each other well.

Are you googling “What is a fun, quick ice breaker?” Here is a lighthearted and quick idea: you throw out two options. Then, the participant chooses one and tells you why they chose it.

Consider these options:

• Dog or cat
• Hot or cold weather
• French fries or a side salad
• Beer or wine
• Los Angeles or New York City
• Travel by train or travel by plane

Use The Game Gal “This or That” to generate ideas for quick ice breakers for virtual meetings.

2. Song on Repeat

Level of effort required: Low

Level of team closeness required: Low

Best for: Informal, less corporate virtual ice breakers for team meetings.

For such virtual icebreakers, people can share which song they’re listening to or repeating these days. “Song on Repeat” also allows people to get new music recommendations. Why not? Almost everyone loves music.

“Song on Repeat” helps reveal personality types. How? Our preferred music style is tied to our personality type. Specifically, our musical tastes reflect our personalities, emotions, and social identities. Did you know people with higher openness enjoy sophisticated music genres like classical, opera, and jazz?

3. Tell Us Which City You’re in Without Telling Us Which City You’re in

Level of effort required: Low

Level of team closeness required: Low

Best for: Remote or distributed teams.

Here is another type of virtual ice breakers for work. Each attendee states a unique fact or description of their city, state, or country. Importantly, they mustn’t use the actual name of the city, state, or country. Others try to guess.

For example, someone working from Austin, Texas, might say, “This capital city used to be called Waterloo.” Someone working from Los Angeles might say, “This city is known for famous people and terrible traffic.” The same goes for cities and states.

4. Zoom Background Charades

Level of effort required: Medium

Level of team closeness required: Low

Best for: Informal environments and large groups.

Such virtual ice breakers for Zoom or Google Meet work if your web conferencing tool allows you to upload images for backgrounds. Specifically, have your team upload a background based on a theme before the meeting. Then, have everyone guess where they took the photo or what it depicts.

Given the global video conferencing market is projected to almost double, reaching 19.1 billion U.S. dollars, this online ice breaker is a go-for option.

Ideas to consider:

• A photo from a scene in their favorite movie
• A photo from a favorite vacation
• A place they’d like to visit
• The best meal they’ve ever had: have people guess the name of the dish and where it’s from

5. Item on Your Desk

Level of effort required: Low

Level of team closeness required: Low

Best for: One-time use at a weekly or quarterly meeting.

Are you googling “What are some fun virtual ice breakers”? Virtual ice breakers like “Item on Your Desk” are sentimental and humorous. Have participants choose an item on the desk and hold it to the camera for everyone to see.

Then, have them explain the meaning behind the item or why it’s on their desk. For example, someone might hold up an empty bowl and say, “I haven’t had time to do dishes yet.”

Experiencing fun either in job-related activities or socializing with coworkers boosts job satisfaction and lowers employee burnout.

6. Show and Tell: Pet Edition

Level of effort required: Medium

Level of team closeness required: Low

Best for: Virtual ice breakers for students or any other group.

People are often much more comfortable talking about others than themselves. Have everyone show a photo of their pet and talk about it. If someone doesn’t have a pet, they can show an animal they used to have or wish they could have.

How can participants show the pet during the virtual team meeting ice breakers?

• If the pet lives with them, have the attendee show the pet or point the camera at it.
• Have the photo be pulled up on their phone and face the screen toward their computer camera. However, this doesn’t always work and may lack good quality.
• Share their screen and have their pet photo pulled up.
• Submit the photo file or link to it in the group chat.

What can attendees share about their pets?

• Name
• Breed
• The story behind adopting or buying the pet.
• One quirky thing their pet does.

7. The View from My Office

man looking out of window

Level of effort required: Medium

Level of team closeness required: Low

Best for: Virtual ice breakers for any group, especially for distributed teams.

Such virtual icebreakers help remote coworkers have fun, that is, enjoy the experience of liberating engagement. Have everyone share the view from their window or show their desk setup. You have two options:

• Alert participants beforehand to prepare a photo to share during the call.
• Have attendees pick up their laptops and show you the view in real time during the call. However, the latter option can place more pressure on people, so option A is safer.

8. Two Truths and a Lie

Level of effort required: Medium

Level of team closeness required: Low

Best for: Virtual ice breakers for any group.

What is the most common ice breaker? Have each participant come up with two factual statements and one lie. Then, the other participants will guess which statement is a lie. Why not find out how sneaky some people can be?

For example, an attendee might say, “Hi, I’m Janet. I once met Justin Timberlake. I own a dog. And I can’t whistle.” People might guess that her comment about Justin Timberlake is untrue. What if she used to be a roadie and worked on the setup of one of his concerts? People might assume having a dog is relatively common, so it must be true.

Did you know that, according to a study published in the National Library of Medicine, people tell one to two lies daily?

9. Two-Word Check-In

Level of effort required: Low

Level of team closeness required: Medium to high

Best for: Regular check-ins, such as at weekly team meetings.

Two-Word Check-In involves emotions and moments of vulnerability. So, avoid using it for one-time meetings with people you’ve never met.

Begin the meeting by saying, “Let’s go around and say two words that describe how we’re feeling today. I’ll go first. My two words are tired and hopeful.”

To facilitate discussion, pull up a photo of the emotional wheel, also known as the Plutchik wheel, developed by psychologist Robert Plutchik. According to Plutchik, people experience eight core emotions, including sadness and joy, anger, and fear.

For example, someone who is upset might use the word “angry.” But if they dig deeper, they’ll find the word “frustrated” to describe their feelings.

Such virtual ice breakers build emotional intelligence (EQ), the ability to understand and manage one’s and others’ emotions.

Additionally, “Two-Word Check-In” helps you eliminate the question, “How are you doing?” And that’s why I love it. That question always elicits the same automatic and socially conditioned response of “good” or “fine,” whether true or not.

10. Highs and Lows

Level of effort required: Medium

Level of team closeness required: Medium to high

Best for: Regular check-ins, such as at weekly team meetings.

Such virtual ice breakers involve sharing vulnerable moments, too. And emotional vulnerability can be a path to connection. They’re best for teams already sharing some closeness.

Go around the virtual room and share something good or high and bad or low that happened this week. Often, attendees prefer to flip the order: do lows first and then highs. Why? Because it can be a downer to end on a low. But it’s up to you.

Say something encouraging or meaningful after each person goes. After all, sharing something negative and receiving no reaction can feel disappointing.

11. Common Ground

Level of effort required: High

Level of team closeness required: Low

Best for: Group meetings for the first time, and longer meetings.

Common Ground suggests finding the one thing participants have in common unrelated to work. For example, “Common Ground” is a fun virtual ice breaker that reveals more about each person.

Have participants share random facts, ask questions, and see where they can connect, even if it’s a stretch.

For example, you might say, “I love to cook.” Another coworker might say, “I’m a terrible cook, but I love to eat. My favorite food is Italian.” Someone else might say, “I studied abroad in Rome during my senior year of college.” From there, you might discover you’ve all been to Rome.

As a result, participants can share stories about those trips and find a common hobby, like playing the piano. And storytelling is a vital human tool for building a connection during virtual ice breakers.

12. Play to Your Strengths

Level of effort required: High

Level of team closeness required: Low

Best for: Team meetings about a particular project.

Are you googling “What are the most popular ice breaker questions?” Why not try these question-based virtual ice breakers that help identify which strengths are best for particular projects?

Have everyone take this University of Pennsylvania Brief Strengths Test. It consists of 25 questions measuring people’s strengths, from bravery to humor. Then, have each attendee share their top strengths and brainstorm one way they can apply them to a particular project.

Conclusion 

As you can see, virtual ice breakers don’t have to be awkward. It’s all about assessing the group’s dynamics and picking an activity or question appropriate for your team. Specifically, online ice breaker ideas such as “This or That” and “Play Your Strengths” help teams create stronger bonds and build trust.

AI meeting assistant Krisp can help you filter out noises, take notes, transcribe and record your virtual ice breakers, and localize speakers’ accents for enterprises and call centers. As a result, you can enjoy effective and productive meetings online.

Frequently Asked Questions

The post 12 Actually Not Awkward Virtual Ice Breakers for Remote Meetings appeared first on Krisp.

Here, we’ll discuss some of the best iPhone noise cancelling apps on the market. We’ll also look at some Android noise cancelling app options, so everyone will be covered.

Let’s dive in!

Best iPhone Noise Cancelling Apps

Denoise – audio noise removal

Denoise is a iPhone noise cancelling app that removes background noise from your videos and audio recordings. It comes with a significant upside: it works as an iOS extension. This means that when you record video or audio with any app, Denoise will automatically start working. You don’t have to worry about launching it every time you finish a voice memo or a video.

Denoise is not designed for live calls or teleconferencing. Instead, it’s designed for content creators, so you can get studio-quality sound on the go. You can shoot videos and record voice memos and don’t worry about background noise as Denoise will remove all of it.

And if it fails to eliminate a particular noise, you can go back and fix things later using the interactive waveform analyzer with this noise cancelling app for iPhone. There, you can manually mark the spot where noise is interfering, and it will be removed. The developers are also working on a built-in DropBox uploader, but that feature has not yet gone live.

That said, Denoise is not free. It costs $1.99 and for this upfront fee, you can use it for the rest of your life. And there are no ads or watermarks to muck up the experience.

Best noise cancelling app for Mac and Windows: Krisp

Krisp is an AI-powered noise-cancelling app for Mac and Windows 10. It recognizes and removes background noise on your side of the call so the other call participant can’t hear it.

Krisp is free to use. The free version will cancel noise for up to 240 minutes per week. With the paid tiers, you get unlimited noise cancellation for use, so head to the pricing section to learn more.

[demo-new]

Best Android Noise Cancelling Apps

Neutralizer

Neutralizer is an Android-only app that’s designed to work for your own individual hearing with specialized Android noise cancellation. Everyone’s hearing is different, so a noise cancelling app that works well for one individual may not work well for another. That’s where Neutralizer comes in. When you first launch the app, you take a short hearing test, which measures your ability to hear different frequencies at different volumes. This enables Neutralizer to build a custom profile just for you.

This serves two purposes. First, for noise cancelling purposes, it means that Neutralizer can predict which noises are most likely to distract you. For example, if you hear high frequencies better than low frequencies, Neutralizer will respond to high-pitched background noise more than it responds to low-pitched background noise.

Second, for overall listening purposes, it means that Neutralizer can adjust your EQ (equalization) to a setting that’s best for you, enhancing your experience with noise cancelling headphones. Rather than a one-size-fits-all “bass boost” or “country music” setting, you get an EQ that compensates for your individual hearing. This eliminates the distortion you may experience from using more generic EQs.

So if you listen to music with headphones and there’s a lot of noise around, Neutralizer will automatically increase the sound volume in the headphones, thereby suppressing the noise around you.

Neutralizer is free to use.

Noise Killer – Stop the Noise!

Noise Killer is another Android noise cancelling app. It’s designed to filter out noises in public spaces such as train stations, airports, or crowded streets. When you activate the app, it will instantly begin noise cancelling. One nice feature it offers is that it works even when your screen is turned off. This can help you save batteries.

Noise Killer can also automatically adjust the volume based on background noise. When used in this mode, it doesn’t just cancel background noise; it straight-up blocks them out. Better yet, it will lower the volume automatically when background noise decreases, saving battery life.

There’s an optional “shake” function, which can be used to adjust volume based on phone movement. This is a great feature for joggers. When you start running, your phone will shake, and the volume will automatically go up. There’s also a geo-location feature. This is great if you use your phone to listen to music in your car. As you accelerate and the wind and noise get louder, your volume will increase. When you come to a stop, it will return to a normal level.

So whenever you want to pull back from your surrounding noise and side talks, Noise Killer is a great and free app to use.

Safe Headphones – Hear Background Noises

Safe Headphones is an Android app that does the opposite of what most of these other apps do. In fact, it might be best described as a noise “un-cancelling” app. It has a variety of purposes, depending on exactly what you’re trying to do.

First off, as its name implies, it can helps you stay safe when you use headphones in public places. When it’s enabled you can hear your surrounding background noises without taking off headphones. So if you have to walk through a sketchy area, you can turn the app on to ensure that you’re able to hear anyone around you. It’s also useful for hearing car horns when you cross the street while listening to music.

Secondly, you can use it to listen in on conversations. Admittedly, this could be used for nefarious purposes, but there are also legitimate uses. For example, you could use Safe Headphones while riding in the back seat of a car, to participate in a conversation with the people in the front seats. Now you can sit at the back seats in the lecture hall and perfectly hear the question if the professor asks you.

You can even use Safe Headphones as an alternative to a hearing aid. The app can improve your hearing ability to hear sounds more clearly and loudly.

Safe Headphones is free to install and use.

Noise Generator

Noise Generator is a little bit different than the other apps on our list. Strictly speaking, it’s not a noise cancelling app at all. In fact, as its name implies, it’s a noise generation app. But why would you want to actually generate noise? Turns out background noise can boost productivity. It can help you sleep, reduce stress, or help you focus. It’s actually commonly-used in offices to help workers remain concentrated on their tasks.

But there are several other colors of noise. In addition to white noise, Noise Generator can also produce brown, pink, violet, or blue noise. Each of these colors can serve different purposes.

Brown noise has less “static” than white noise, and sounds more like a waterfall, with most of the sound in the bass frequencies. Pink noise is similar to brown noise, but with a little more activity in the high frequencies. Think of it as a waterfall with soft, high-pitched water droplets plinking away. Blue and violet noise are more concentrated in the high frequencies, with a more energetic, active sound.

You can customize any of these sounds by using Noise Generator’s high and low cutoff filters. All of these noises are generated dynamically, rather than recorded, which means Noise Generator doesn’t take up a lot of storage on your device. At this time, Noise Generator is available on Android devices only. You can get it free of charge.

Best of Both Worlds: Android and iPhone Noise Cancelling Apps

myNoise

myNoise is an iOS alternative to Noise Generator, although it’s available on Android as well. myNoise works like an old-school bedside noise generator. You pick a noise, and it will play until you stop the app. Depending on what you want, you can get access to a variety of sounds to help you sleep, focus, or even meditate.

Some of the available sounds include rain noise, spring walk, temple bells, and binaural beats. Rain is often used for sleep and meditation. Temple bells can also help with meditation and relaxation. Spring walk has sounds of rushing wind and twittering birds, which can help cheer you up on a rainy day. Temple bells is useful for meditation, as is the binaural beats sound. And this just scratches the surface of what myNoise has to offer.

The app is free as well as ad-free. However, that “free” comes with a caveat: by default, myNoise only plays white noise. For most of people, that’s going to be good enough. You can enjoy relaxation and improved focus without having to listen to an ad every time you start up the app.

If you want to have access to additional sounds, you’ll have to pay a small fee. You can pay for each sound individually, or pay a bit more to get the entire myNoise catalog at a significant per-sound discount.

Want to know which sounds can help you focus? Read about top relaxing sounds to increase focus.

Parrot Zik

Parrot Zik is another noise cancelling app for iPhone and Android users. The Parrot Zik app will automatically measure the level of noise around in your surroundings. If there’s a low level of noise, all is good. But when noise spikes, the app will kick in, immediately cancelling out noises that could distract you from your music, audiobook, or phone call.

One neat feature of Parrot Zik is that the app will notify you when there’s too much background noise for it to work effectively. By default, your phone will vibrate when this happens. If you don’t want any notifications, you can turn this function off in Parrot Zik’s settings.

The app is free both for Android and iOS users.

UrbanDenoiser

UrbanDenoiser is primarily designed for music, but it’s also perfectly well-suited for teleconferencing with its advanced Android noise cancellation capabilities. When you’re listening, it offers automatic noise compensation. As background noise goes up, it will mask specific frequencies, as well as automatically adjust the volume to compensate. This ensures that your perceived volume will be the same, regardless of the background noise. It also has several built-in algorithms that you can choose from.

If you have trouble hearing higher or lower frequencies, for example, you can choose an algorithm that will compensate. For music lovers, UrbanDenoiser even has a bass booster, which can be customized to various EQ profiles.

In addition to blocking noise, it also has a “surrounding sound” mode that can be activated at will. This mode allows you to hear more ambient noise, which can improve your situational awareness.

UrbanDenoiser is available for Android, iOS, and Windows Mobile, so it will work with just about any smartphone.

It’s also free. As with most free apps, though, there’s a downside: it’s ad-supported, so you’ll have to deal with a bit of advertising every time you launch the app. Still, that’s not a huge deal, considering what you get.

Noise Wall

Noise Wall is available both on Android and iOS. It’s a traditional noise cancelling app, but it has a couple of extra features that make it worth a second look. By default, it simply compensates for ambient noise by cancelling out distractions. Jet engines, crowd noise, and traffic will all fade into the background when you’re using the default mode.

But what about the extra features?

First off, Noise Wall can dynamically adjust your volume based on background noise. Rather than simply cancelling out the noise, it will actually turn the volume up if background noise is louder, or down if you’re in a quiet location.

Noise Wall also has a transparency mode. In this mode, you simply tap a button, and outside noise will actually get sent through your earbuds. This is a great feature for quick social interactions. You can listen to music while you’re standing in line at the grocery store, then use transparency mode to interact with the cashier.

Noise Wall is free to install, however it has some in-app purchases. The Pro version costs $1.93 for Android users.

Best Android and iPhone Noise Cancelling Apps in 2021

These are just 10 of the best Android and iPhone noise cancelling apps available out there in 2021. Which one is the best for you? It mainly depends on why you want to use a noise cancelling app and what the most important features are for you. But one thing is certain: having an Android or iPhone noise cancelling app will save you time and make your calls sound professional.

Which ones do you use? Share them with us on Twitter.

Looking for noise cancelling apps on Mac or PC?

Read more about the 5 best noise cancelling apps for Mac.

Read more about the 5 best noise cancelling apps for Windows.

The post 10 Best Android and iPhone Noise Cancelling Apps (2024 Update) appeared first on Krisp.

While recruitment has largely moved virtually, many organizations don’t yet have a clear view of what the future of their workplace should look like. Resources are limited and managers still feel that their teams are equipped with the right skills to handle long-term distributed work. Some employees have already returned to the office for good while others are still trying out the hybrid model. 

The state of remote work in 2022 has seen an increase in new challenges and trends managers need to prepare for. Among these:

• A first try at hybrid work
• Reliance on video conferencing tools and further improvements
• Employees getting used to the benefits of remote work and learning to say no to anything below their expectations
• Advancements towards digital reskilling
• A future global workforce without excuses
• Continuous work on developing employee-employer trust
• Remote work as a core diversity and inclusion strategy

The current state of remote work

A first try at hybrid work

2022 is yet another year for experimentation. 

66% of leaders are working towards changing their previous office spaces to suit a hybrid work model. Changing office layouts and pathways, adding new technology to connect remote and in-office employees, and creating safer rooms for virtual communication are three of the most common steps taken towards the new workplace.

This is the safest attempt at making new work demands suit everyone. On one hand, you’ve got employees who are enjoying their flexible time from home but would still like in-person interactions with their colleagues for collaborative work. On the other, you’ve got companies who are still unsure whether letting employees work away from the office can help them maintain the same performance levels in the long run.

A hybrid solution also aims to reduce employee turnover. This is because it allows each team member to choose how they want to work. A Qualtrics study on the future of remote work reveals that preferences towards each work style are fairly distributed:

Improving workspaces will significantly increase an employee’s experience and support high performance levels with minimal effort. This hybrid approach takes into account everyone’s opinions, supporting the well-being of every team member. 

The key to making everyone happy is ultimately communication. A McKinsey report reveals that organizations with clear communication patterns are seeing the benefits to employee well-being and productivity even in a remote setting. 

The same report highlights the uncertainty that’s still floating around what the future of work will look like. 40% of employees claim their organizations haven’t yet communicated a vision for post-pandemic work with only 32% of them aware of how their work will be:

Reliance on video conferencing tools and further improvements

In the meantime, video conferencing tools have replaced the traditional office and are settling in for good. 

The hybrid workplace will continue to rely on them as at-home employees need to be kept up-to-date with everything even when they’re not in the office. This means that any person showing up to the office will still have to maintain the same remote work practices as if they were working from home.

Owl Labs looked into the challenges that video calls will pose over the next few years, including:

• Uncertainty related to the management of a meeting
• Booking and finding empty conference rooms [especially as some companies have reduced the size of their offices]
• Deciding on a single solution for all needs as 89% of organizations still use multiple video conferencing apps

Briefing this up, most executives still haven’t got the hang of video conferencing. In this context, Krisp has become a go-to solution on the market for keeping remote meetings productive and insightful.

Krisp reduces misunderstandings during meetings by removing background noises on both ends of a conversation. This makes for more professional client calls and you can even use the tool to record podcasts and webinars with HD voice quality and no echoes. 

[demo-new]

A newly launched feature enables teams to look closer at how they’re spending their time in meetings. The Insights section tells you exactly how much time you spend on a call and what apps you used. This gives you a better idea of what video conferencing apps are worth keeping and can indicate if you’re spending too much of your day in meetings.

Employees getting used to the benefits of remote work and learning to say no to anything below their expectations

Access to a better work-life balance, working from a dream location, spending more time with their families, and working according to a flexible schedule are four core benefits that employees have simply gotten used to.

These are now basic, mandatory perks that employees demand from their future workplace. In an increasingly competitive job market, it’s worth looking into offering unique perks to attract and keep your hires. Some organizations are already ahead of this trend, offering one-of-a-kind benefits like:

• A four-day workweek
• Unlimited vacation time that’s paid for
• Equal pay for all team members and full transparency into the salaries they offer
• Covering the cost of house cleaning, child care, fitness memberships, and even vacations
• Paying for sabbaticals as long as one year
• Delivering free lunches and dinners straight to employees’ homes
• Contributing stocks to new hires at no cost
• Regular trainings and mentorship sessions for any new skill [work-related or not] they want to learn

Advancements towards digital reskilling

66% of L&D managers agree that learning and development efforts should be the main focus for companies looking to rebound or grow in 2022. Prior to 2020, this wasn’t at the top of the priorities list as the same LinkedIn report reveals an increase from 24% to 63% in executives’ interest in L&D over the course of a single year. 

Among all training efforts, executives are implementing more upskilling and reskilling opportunities:

Learning new skills and improving their current knowledge helps team members build the resilience and digital fluency they need to handle potential new challenges and threats. Companies like JPMorgan Chase and Amazon have already invested hundreds of millions of dollars into upskilling their employees and helping them future proof their careers. This will help employees stay confident, keep up with demands in their industry, and retain their jobs. 

What the future of remote work looks like

A global workforce without excuses

Working with global talent is becoming a necessity for companies as the future will bring more interest in remote work and reduce the number of available talent on a local level. Demand in certain industries is also exceeding the available talent, making executives look for hires beyond their close proximity. 

77% of leaders believe in the gig economy and freelance workers replacing full-time employees over the course of the next four years. This is expanding talent access even further, tapping into multiple nationalities and even generations as retirees and recent graduates will work on the same front.

Labor laws and policies as we know them are also likely to change in order to handle the demand for global talent. In the absence of new laws, working with international talent will cause compliance problems for organizations that don’t know how to handle this change.

Consequently, the issue of data security will continue to threaten organizations. Offices are being replaced by coworking spaces that aren’t yet prepared to handle the security operations and logistics of big companies. In 2020 alone, 20% of corporate workers used coworking space at least once a week with an increase of 6% from 2019.

Continuous work on developing employee-employer trust

53% of people believe corporations are responsible for sharing the information that the news media fails to deliver. The same Edelman Trust Barometer shows that employee-employer trust is increasing on a global level with 76% of workers trusting their employer above other forms of communication including the Government and NGOs.

But as employees are free to move around, companies will have to maintain employees’ trust no matter where they are in the world. One way they’re already doing this is by implementing workplace mental health programs and building a culture of trust that starts at the top of the organization. Maintaining the mental wellbeing of employees is proving efficient at reducing work-related stress, improving absenteeism, and reducing turnover.

Each year employees are self-reporting more anxiety and depression occurrences caused by their work situation. This is often the result of a poor work culture or management issues. If employers don’t show any interest in fixing problems and helping employees overcome these issues, people will be leaving the organization. This is the exact driver behind companies investing millions of dollars into their mental health programs as well as the increased interest in mental health startups.

Remote work as a core diversity and inclusion strategy

The expanded global talent pool has eased efforts for building a diverse workforce. Two out of five DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) professionals admit that hiring remotely is a DEI initiative they introduced in 2020. More organizations will go down this path to promote diversity as part of their culture, train recruiters to implement inclusive recruitment practices, and diversify their talent pool by opening up to new locations and minorities.

Gartner has revealed that previous D&I initiatives have been largely ineffective so focus on them remains a top priority for 69% of CEOs. New programs are being built starting with a talent acquisition process that focuses on gradually eliminating hiring bias altogether in the future. Organizations are also looking into setting up networking opportunities for underrepresented talent within the organization. The bottomline approach is for employers to improve the relationship they have with every single employee, regardless of their representative group.

Key takeaways on anticipating the future state of remote work in 2022

Organizations that have successfully passed through 2020 have one thing in common: they were able to anticipate future trends and employee needs. The companies have established employee engagement and inclusion programs ahead of time and opted for reskilling their remaining team instead of pausing their activity. 

You can start thinking about the future of work within your own company by looking at your daily activity. Over the next few years, some tasks are more likely to be done remotely than others. McKinsey has studied each type of activity workers in the U.S. do. They determined that it’s tasks and activities [as opposed to occupations] that indicate whether a job can be done remotely or requires a hybrid approach. 

Comparing these types of activities will give you a good idea of whether the hybrid work approach is right for your team or you can stick with a fully distributed workforce. For example, if work is largely based on discussing business strategies and analyzing trends, a remote setting will be enough. Once you need your employees to create physical prototypes or attend client meetings, the hybrid model is a clear choice.

Finally, remember to maintain an open communication loop with your employees. One-on-ones and anonymous feedback surveys can give you a lot of insights into how your team feels and what they’re struggling with. Read more on how to have a productive remote one-on-one through our guide.

The post State of remote work in 2022 (7 Big Trends to Follow) appeared first on Krisp.

If that’s the case, I invite you to look at this topic with new eyes: If you spend hours of your week taking calls as you work from home, shouldn’t you be doing it right?

So before you hop on your next call, be sure to read about these game-changing remote meetings tips.

1. Sometimes, an agenda isn’t enough.

Yes, you should always have a meeting agenda. But beyond that, it’s helpful to provide context around who is attending and what their role is in the scope of the meeting and its topic. This is particularly true for cross-functional collaborations, where people from different teams or organizations who have not met before are coming together to solve a problem or work on a project. You can save time on introductions if you do this and ensure everyone is in the loop.

2. There is an ideal meeting attendee number: fewer than 10 people

1. Richard Hackman, who was a professor of organizational psychology at Harvard, spent years studying effective teams and concluded: “My rule of thumb is that no work team should have membership in the double digits (and my preferred size is six), since our research has shown that the number of performance problems a team encounters increases exponentially as team size increases.”

Now, this will depend on the type of meeting. If you’re hosting an all-hands, and your organization has 200 people, you’ll have to break this rule. But it’s just a general guideline: try to keep your meeting attendees to fewer than 10. Any more than that, and it’s diminishing returns.

3. Draft a remote meetings policy for your workplace.

Your remote meeting policy should address questions like:

• When is a remote meeting appropriate?
• Does our office default to video on or off?
• Are virtual backgrounds acceptable?
• Do we use chat during video meetings? If so, in what way?
• Will our video meetings be recorded?

4. New attendees need to know the policy before the call. 

This should be documented in the office meeting policy we talked about earlier, but if the attendees are from outside of your organization, they obviously won’t know about this, so give them a heads up about these four items:

• Who will be leading the meeting?
• Should they arrive at the meeting with their cameras on or off?
• Should they keep their cameras on throughout the meeting?
• Is it okay to use a virtual background?

5. Lighting matters.

Don’t stress out too much about this; just make sure your face is well-lit enough that people can see your face. Meeting virtually already means we lose some key pieces of communication (body language, for example), so make it easier on your teammates by allowing them to read your facial expressions in good lighting. 

Avoid having light directly behind you, such as a sun-filled window, which can create a silhouette effect that obscures your face. Try to place a light source, such as a desk lamp, behind your laptop so the light falls on you.

6. Avoid a busy background. 

Busy backgrounds are visually distracting, and depending on what’s back there, might not be appropriate for a work call. The safest bet is a bare wall behind you or, if in line with your workplace’s culture, a nice virtual background.

7. Your laptop microphone or headset microphone picks up annoying background noise.

To remedy this, you’ll need to manually eliminate as many noise-making items in your vicinity before the call. If you’re calling in from home, prep your workspace beforehand. Turn off any distracting noises, such as fans that blow directly on your microphone or a TV you left on in the living room.

Of course, home life isn’t always so easy to control. If you’ve got roommates, family, kids, or pets, your best bet is to install a noise-cancelling app like Krisp to automatically eliminate any distracting sounds at the click of a button. Krisp works in the background on your calls, and it goes both ways: It ensures your voice is heard and that you can hear your attendees’ voices as well.

[demo-new]

8. If you expect issues or interruptions, say so ahead of time. 

Virtual meetings introduce the potential for all sorts of issues. To prevent confusion and awkwardness, shoot a quick email or Slack to attendees and call it out. Let them know if:

• You’ll be in the middle of your commute on the subway, so your camera will be off.
• You’re dogsitting for a friend today, so there might be barking in the background.
• You’ve been having internet connectivity problems, so your video might freeze up, and in that case, you’ll turn the camera off.

That way, if the issue does come up during the meeting, you don’t waste time explaining what’s happening or come across as rude.

9. Use icebreakers sparingly.

Icebreakers exist on a spectrum, from the downright cringey to the heartwarming. Choose a virtual icebreaker that takes into account how close the team is and how much time you have in the meeting. 

10. Put the popcorn method on the backburner.

“Popcorning,” or waiting for someone to “pop” up and speak during a meeting, is just plain awkward. And you’ll usually get the same people speaking first and speaking most often. You can certainly use this method for some of the questions, but if you find that certain people are dominating the conversation while others are staying silent, it’s time to switch it up.

If you are the meeting host, call on people who haven’t spoken and say, “I’d like to hear from you. Do you have anything to add?” Similarly, you can ask each person that you call on to “pass the mic” to someone else when they’re done speaking. That way, you’re not always the one calling on someone to speak.

If you are not the host but an attendee who tends to be the first to speak, next time, take a step back and say, “I’d be happy to go first on this one, but I wanted to give ____ an opportunity to speak because they’ve been instrumental in this project and have a lot they could share. _____, would you like to add something?”

11. Pretend the meeting starts 5 minutes before it actually does. 

If a meeting starts at 10 a.m., put 9:55 a.m. in your calendar. This will help you mentally prepare to arrive early, and it provides a buffer in case a meeting beforehand runs over.

12. Learn basic troubleshooting

You don’t need to be an IT whiz. Just some basic troubleshooting can go a long way in having effective remote meetings.

• Video freezing and audio skipping? Turn off your camera, switch to a faster internet connection, and make sure someone in your household isn’t streaming videos or doing something else that takes up a lot of bandwidth.
• Running a VPN? Realize it’ll slow down your connection. Consider disconnecting.
• People can’t hear you? If you’ve got headphones in, take them out. Or, check your audio input under settings to ensure the meeting app knows to pull audio from your headset, not your computer’s internal mic.
• Being Zoombombed? Always protect each meeting with a unique password shared only among designated attendees so outsiders can’t join. This is an important part of online meeting security.

13. Don’t be afraid to reschedule when things go wrong

If technical issues persist despite troubleshooting, don’t be shy: Suggest rescheduling the meeting for another time or excuse yourself while the others carry on with the meeting. This shows you respect others’ time and don’t want to keep troubleshooting during valuable meeting time.

14. Give time warnings.

This is really the meeting leader’s responsibility: To make sure you end on time and wrap up smoothly, give a 10- and 5-minute warning.

15. End the meeting on time.

Whatever you do, don’t go over. At the stated meeting’s end time, on the dot, announce that you’ve run out of time and that people are free to leave. If you have more items to discuss, ask anyone who has the time to stay on longer, but don’t hold back those who have other commitments.

If a meeting is going over, and you don’t want to interrupt, feel free to just leave. Ideally, you’ll want to send a text message to the chat. Interrupting to say “I’ve got to go” creates a longer delay for everyone else because now they’ve all got to say bye to you.

16. If you’re the meeting leader, pretend you’re narrating a film. 

When we’re in remote meetings, it’s so easy to forget that other people cannot see what you are doing. So, if you’re the meeting leader, pretend you’re the narrator in the film. Announce everything that you are doing. Overcommunicate. This prevents people from feeling awkward, getting confused, or thinking they’ve lost you.

Here are examples of how this might play out:

• There’s that awkward silence at the start of the meeting while you’re waiting for everyone to join. Say, “So I’m just checking my email here to see who responded yes to this invite. We’ll wait a few more minutes because it looks like Lucy and Joe are supposed to join.” 
• You ask a question soliciting feedback from the group, and you see one person in particular nodding emphatically as though they have something to say. Say, “James, I see you nodding over there. Would you like to say something?”
• There’s the fumbling at the end of the meeting with goodbyes as some people don’t know if they’re allowed to leave or if you want them to stay on. Instead, if you want one person to stay on the call to discuss something, you need to call it out clearly. For example, “Okay, that wraps up this meeting then. I’m going to ask Chase to stay on for five more minutes to talk about the financial report. Everyone else, sign off now, and I’ll send an email followup on everything we discussed. Thanks for joining!”
• Narration works for any awkward silence, in fact! These lapses in conversation often happen after you’ve asked a question and people are thinking about what to say or aren’t sure who’s supposed to speak first. To remedy this, you can say, “I know you’re thinking about how to answer this, so take your time. I’ll wait, and whoever wants to jump in first can do so.” Or you can even say, “Lucy, I’d love to hear from you first,” if ample time has passed, and no one has spoken.
• While you’re waiting for your presentation to load on your computer before sharing your screen, simply say, “I’m just waiting for the presentation to load. Sorry, my internet has been super slow today! I’ll let you know once I’ve gotten it up.”

Yes, narrating can feel weird, and obviously you wouldn’t do it in an in-person meeting. But unlike an in-person meeting, your attendees can’t see what’s going on on your end. Narrating helps them understand the context of the situation.

17. Communicate action steps and takeaways.

Research by meeting management software Fellow found that one of the top five problems with meetings is that there are no clear takeaways, while on the flip side, one of the top five characteristics of a great meeting is having actionable takeaways.

That means many people are leaving meetings going, “Um, why did we even have that meeting?”

Don’t let your attendees think it was a waste of time! When you’re wrapping up, state what you learned and what will happen next. If you run out of time, let the attendees know you’ll email them with next steps. 

18. Take a break from video every once in a while.

Not every remote meeting needs to be a video meeting. In fact, too much can lead to Zoom fatigue, a now well-documented effect caused by way too many video calls over the pandemic.

Stanford University researchers found four reasons for this—and they all have to do with the visual component of these meetings:

• Excessive, close-up eye contact
• Seeing yourself during video chats
• Decreased mobility during video chats
• Higher cognitive load in video chats

So, the easy fix? Occasionally allow meeting attendees to keep their cameras off, or just schedule audio meetings more often.

Which of These Remote Meeting Tips Will You Try Today?

You likely have a video call coming up. It is 2022, after all. Now that you know these remote meetings tips, you’ll have even more reasons to make it your best one yet. 

And if you’re feeling overwhelmed by all the tips, start with this easy one: Try noise-cancelling app Krisp for free today.

[demo-new]

The post 18 Remote Meeting Tips Everyone Should Know (But Doesn’t) appeared first on Krisp.

This poses new demands for managers who need to speed up the way they build a lasting culture while they continue handling classic communication and work structure challenges.

But these hybrid workplace challenges are not exactly new.

They’re tidbits you might have experienced in a remote or in-office setting and now need to adapt to as some employees are choosing to stay home while others are dropping by the office.

Nevertheless, there’s 6 challenges your hybrid team is likely to encounter at some point. Here’s how to overcome them and prevent similar pains from reappearing. 

1. Keeping communication in one place

The biggest team and productivity killer is miscommunication. The root cause is a simple one: Team members not sharing everything in one common place or not giving the right instructions. The results range from simple “Sorry, I’ll fix this ASAP” messages to delayed deadlines and lost funding or clients because you couldn’t ship something on time.

The fix:

You can fix all of these time delays, bugs, or team conflicts by setting up a central company hub. Specifically, you’ll want a platform for knowledge sharing and decision making. Pick either a project management software with a complete set of feature for your team’s needs or a dedicated knowledge management tool.

But there’s another facet to ensuring both your remote and on-site team have access to timely and accurate information. The policies you’ve set from the very beginning. Here’s some ideas to consider:

• How often managers should sync with their teams
• If meetings or their notes are recorded for absent team members to review when they get back from their day off
• If you want to replace daily stand-up meetings with a quick Slack check-in
• What your company’s communication goals are and how you track these

Another big factor that goes into messing up communication in the hybrid workplace is distractions. Whether it’s background noises during meetings or your friends’ texting you during work hours, these play a big part in lowering overall productivity. 

While a phone is easy to put away, to get rid of background noises you’ll need a solution like Krisp. The app eliminates unwanted background sounds and extra voices from other people in the room on both ends of a conversation. This way, your employees can rest assured they’ve got a professional meeting set-up, complete with virtual backgrounds and echo cancelation. No matter where they are.

[demo-new]

2. Facilitating social connections [and ensuring no one is left behind]

31% of employees leave their job within the first six months. And it’s not because of money. The biggest problems include poor leadership and team culture. 

In my own experience working with both fully-remote companies and hybrid ones, I’ve noticed one common pattern: The companies with a high employee turnover rate didn’t invest in culture. To be exact, they didn’t build connections between their employees. So it was all about work and more work.

Social connection at work help teams bond over something that’s of value to them besides their work. Truth is that outside of the office, connections need to be scheduled. Otherwise, they just don’t happen naturally like they would in a regular office setting. 

The fix:

I remember at some point I was the only one working remotely while the rest of the team was working from the office. Opportunities to really connect were non-existent so I often felt isolated. This left me struggling to create such social interactions for myself. Worked for a while, but ultimately, you want these initiatives to come from the leadership.

There’s dozens of activities to consider if you want your hybrid team to stay connected:

• Having mandatory coffee chats for each team and switching teams around every now and then
• Connecting random employees, regardless of the team they belong to, for a virtual 
• Regularly holding in-person [or not] events where all employees can meet up
• Making team building activities a weekly [not quarterly or yearly] habit
• Creating social groups [can be just channels in Slack] but making sure everyone is part of at least one or two of these
• Getting anonymous feedback from your team to see what else needs improvement

3. Re-building team culture from the ground up

You’ve probably been working remotely for the past years so there’s already new rules [written or not] your team probably got used to. But switching to hybrid mode means you’ll need to adapt these to the new norm.

Team building events will no longer always be online. Everyone will expect a lot more flexibility. Teams still need to stay accountable and have a shared purpose. The topic of fairness will often be brought up so you need to work on maintaining equity. You’ll need new ways to manage conflicts across both the physical and the virtual realms.

And the list goes on.

The fix:

The best solution is to finally start working on a Company Handbook and sticking to its best practices. 

On one end, there’s the basics you need to cover, like:

• How communication works
• How you manage projects and tasks
• What resources managers can use
• How a project handoff happens
• How you do meetings

Then come the aspects you’d be tempted to forget about:

• How the team socializes
• How employees should share their appreciation for other colleagues
• What missions and values the team shares

You can only re-build and reinforce a strong hybrid culture by taking ALL of the above into account and making sure everyone is aware of their role within the team and their contribution to that shared vision.

4. Finding talent

Let’s face it. Everyone got a taste of the flexibility remote work offers so very few are willing to go back to working from the office. 97% of people would like to keep working remotely at least some of the time.

In fact, there’s now a much higher demand for remote jobs than actual remote opportunities. So most companies are staying open. They want to hire the best talent after all. Remote or not.

The fix:

The worst mistake companies could make right now is to only advertise their roles as hybrid ones. This automatically removes you from the feed of anyone looking for a remote role. Even from someone open to working from the office for one day a week or a week/month.

But job categorization is difficult to bypass. Trick number one to “fool” the system is to list your job opening on both remote and on-site job directories. For a platform like LinkedIn, you can have multiple listings. One for the hybrid opportunity and a separate one for the remote role. 

Did you know companies list their jobs for multiple locations [i.e. cities, countries] to ensure a wider reach? Take a similar approach but be transparent about your hybrid work policies.

Plus, remember there’s always room to upskill your current team members and improve your staff retention rates in the process. It also pays to be open to junior-level professionals. There’s fewer remote and hybrid roles out there for people at this stage of their career. [Note: This will require some extra policies for training and mentoring new employees.] ?

5. Setting performance evaluation standards

Among the challenges of hybrid work models comes the following question:

Where and how do I get reliable data on my team’s performance?

Your first thoughts will likely lead you to search for one solution to give you all the performance analytics in one go.

In reality, your projects are managed separately from where your team’s wellbeing is monitored. And your software development team uses completely different tools from your marketers. Nothing’s ever in a single app even when both remote and in-office employees share solutions.

The fix:

Take a step-by-step approach to tracking and measuring performance in a hybrid team setting. One channel/problem at a time. Next are some common challenges you’ll find in the hybrid workplace:

Checking in on the team’s pulse: Send anonymous pulse surveys on a regular basis to get an idea of how each employee is feeling and what challenges they’re facing but aren’t ready to talk about.

For lengthy meetings: Monitor engagement levels during your calls and review the amount of time you spent in meetings with Krisp.

[demo-new]

For the dreaded task of tracking OKRs: Use a tool like Hyperontext, Mirro, or Fellow to set the right OKRs and see how you’re progressing.

Seeing if your team’s wasting time: Experiment with time tracking tools to find out if certain tasks are blocking your team. You might want to assign more people to an activity or reorganize your time estimates if milestones are repeatedly missed or postponed.

Remember that teams in a hybrid workplace might require more frequent check-ins and reporting to ensure alignment and prevent any tasks or goals from falling through the cracks.

6. Facing the omnipresent productivity challenge

Finally fixed all productivity issues for your remote team?

Great! Time to take those learnings and adapt them to the new hybrid reality.

In a hybrid team environment, employees could find themselves lost in communication [see point 1 above], missing meetings, or simply not trusting the work a colleague is doing. All of this is highly a matter of individual preferences.

The fix:

Staying open to flexible working arrangements is likely to boost productivity and employee satisfaction. But each person will have different productivity drivers, depending on their role and day-to-day duties.

I’ve taken a couple of common team roles and had a look at what drives optimal productivity for each:

• Team leads: These individuals do best when they’re given all the tools they need to properly coordinate team members. Schedule regular feedback sharing sessions, help them get everyone in their team to share their thoughts during meetings, and create coaching opportunities.

• Marketing specialists/managers: This role is highly dependent on every individual’s duties. A content manager might prefer a quiet work environment to focus on deep work such as writing or content ideation. A partnership manager, on the other hand, will feel more productive either coming into the office to hold meetings or even going to a partner’s headquarters.

• Product owners: Teamwork is key here. So if your product documentation and tasks are scattered or separated from the engineering tasks, you’re in for a huge mess. Instead, stick to classic methodologies and frameworks. Have regular sprint meetings and organize fun brainstorming sessions that involve multiple team types.

Next steps to handle these challenges of the hybrid workplace

Regardless of the challenges you’ll face, remember to outline your boundaries and make them a part of your culture. Is it ok for certain team members to never show up in person? Who’s in charge of monitoring employee engagement and making sure no one is left behind? Are there any blockers your employees are staying quiet about?

Most of the challenges above could be hidden at the moment. So run anonymous employee surveys to get their true thoughts. Pair this with regular performance analysis. Look at missed milestones, progress that’s slower than expected, and unjustified behavior like employee absenteeism from both work duties and the fun team chats.

The post 6 Top Challenges of a Hybrid Workplace and How to Overcome Them appeared first on Krisp.

While work-related tension and fatigue is not new phenomenon, it has been amplified by the pandemic. In fact, a recent survey by The Hartford, a leading provider of employee benefits and absence management, found that 68 percent of female workers in the U.S. and 52 percent of male workers are experiencing burnout at work.

And because workplace burnout can significantly impact business growth, productivity, and retention, leaders can’t afford to ignore this growing problem. As a result, it is imperative to not only understand what causes burnout but to develop strategies to manage this issue.

Grasp the Signs and Causes of Burnout

According to the World Health Organization, burnout is emotional and physical exhaustion brought on by unmanaged chronic workplace stress. The mental signs include feelings of depression, sadness, frustration, apathy, helplessness, indifference, disassociation, exhaustion, and irritability. Physical signs include headache, fatigue, body aches, appetite changes, sleep problems, and gastrointestinal issues.

The common causes of burnout in the workplace include a lack of control over workload and schedule, as well as stressful office dynamics, unclear job expectations, chaos, lack of social support, long work hours, heavy workloads, and a lack of work-life balance.

Understand the Effects and Methods of Addressing Burnout

In addition to decreased productivity, the inability to make decisions, a loss of motivation, and increased absenteeism, employees who are experiencing burnout are more likely to look for a new job.

Moreover, according to The Hartford study, of the employees who are extremely likely to look for a new job, 55 percent say they “always feel burned out,” and 16 percent say they “often feel burned out.” The survey found that the top five factors inspiring employees to initiate a job search included:

• Better salary or wages: 74%
• Career growth/promotion: 44%
• Attractive benefits: 38%
• Flexible schedule: 38%
• Strong workplace culture: 38%

“The pandemic has changed the workplace – including the hiring landscape,” explains Jonathan Bennett, head of employee benefits at The Hartford. “The need for flexibility in the workplace has never been greater as the lines between work and home continue to be blurred amid the pandemic. Fostering an open, inclusive work environment that provides flexibility is an important step in addressing burnout and helping employees remain productive at work.”

Additionally, The Hartford’s study found that employees want their employers to address burnout by offering additional paid time off, a four-day workweek, remote work options, mental health days, and a lighter workload.

Reevaluate Employee Benefits and Perks

Because each organization is unique, it is vital to find the right benefits and perks for your employees. Collecting feedback via surveys, emails, and focus groups can help you figure out how to improve the workplace experience. Since the pandemic began, many companies have found it beneficial to adjust benefits to include virtual mental health support, casual dress codes, extra days off, and flex scheduling.

Encourage Work-Life Balance and Time Off

Time off and work-life balance are critical to well-being, productivity, and the bottom line. Consequently, it is important to take time off, which includes refraining from checking emails, voicemails, and messaging apps.

One of the most effective ways to encourage this behavior is to create a company culture that embraces this mindset. When leaders use their days off and completely unplug, they model this behavior for all employees and motivate direct reports to follow suit. The best thing you can do for your employees is to develop a workplace culture that supports the idea that having other priorities outside of the office is a positive and true necessity for everyone.

Promote a Positive Mental Health Culture

It is possible to reverse the effects of burnout through a strong mental health strategy. To achieve this, business leaders should consider the following:

• Develop ways to decrease overwhelming workloads
• Establish new workplace policies to create greater flexibility for employees
• Consistently promote your company’s Employee Assistance Program and beef up this program if necessary
• Encourage senior managers to talk to employees about the importance of mental health breaks and boundary setting
• Develop programs that offer exercise, meditation, and yoga at work
• Communicate the need to use all vacation time
• Create a culture that encourages open communication and understand the need to express concerns, feelings, and emotions

Revisit the Idea of the Traditional Workday

The traditional 9 to 5 workday is a thing of the past. Instead, many companies are moving to flexible schedules within core working hours. This ensures a set period of time where employees are available for meetings and collaboration sessions, but can develop their own schedule within this timeframe.

Reinventing the workday not only empowers employees to work when it suits them, but also makes employees feel independent and reduces stress. In fact, some companies are developing “no meeting days” or “no meeting afternoons” where employees can work without interruptions or distractions. In addition, this fosters a great deal of trust between managers and employees, which helps to increase productivity and engagement.

“Ownership of tasks and their outcomes–not clocked time–are what matter. The rest will work itself out,” explains Kevin Knopp, CEO of 908 Devices. “You can’t relegate individuals to stick to a 9-to-5 clock. The focus needs to be flipped. Individuals with a sense of task ownership get their job done more efficiently and work better with their teammates, while respecting their time constraints and being understanding of their team members.”

Combat Burnout via Key Capabilities

To understand burnout, meeting effectiveness, collaboration, and productivity, Dimensional Research, and Webex conducted a global survey of business leaders and employees. The study found that fatigue from video meetings and burnout levels have heavily increased since employees began working from their homes. In fact, of the survey respondents:

• 96 percent believe that specialized technology can help reduce burnout
• 88 percent feel that meeting-free days would help them be more productive

To decrease the growing feelings of burnout, respondents also suggested taking work breaks (52 percent) and changing their daily schedule to improve work-life balance (47 percent).

When asked specifically about tactics to improve collaboration, 97 percent believe that advanced collaboration features would make them feel more included in video meetings and could help boost meeting productivity.

And 49 percent of respondents believe they could enhance collaboration by removing distractions at home, which includes eradicating unwanted noise. In addition, 39 percent suggested adding more conferencing devices and digital whiteboards (32 percent) to their workspace.

With the pandemic continuing to drag on, it doesn’t look like the stress and uncertainty of COVID are going away any time soon. As a result, do not wait until it’s too late. Employee burnout is only getting worse—and it must be addressed today.

In the words of Suzie Finch, a recruitment and HR expert, and the founder of The Career Improvement Club, “Once an employee has lost the motivation, drive, and trust of their employer, it’s very hard to get it back.”

The post Effectively Tackling Workplace Burnout During the Great Resignation appeared first on Krisp.

What is Agile methodology?

Before we define the term Scrum, it’s important to understand what Agile methodology is first. 

Agile methodology is an approach to project management. You’ll also hear about it in the context of software development. With Agile, teams work in short cycles that are often referred to as sprints. The goal is to take an iterative, collaborative approach in order to deliver the most value to the customer in the shortest time possible. 

But you might be wondering how this is different from other methodologies. Doesn’t every team follow this approach? While Agile is very popular, it’s not the only option available to organizations. 

For instance, with the Waterfall Method, you create and follow a sequential plan that’s made up of multiple phases. For example, you may have analysis, research, design, and testing phases. Each phase must be completely wrapped up before moving on to the next one. 

Understanding the basics of Scrum

Now that we’ve established the differences between the methodologies, let’s define what Scrum is. Scrum is one of many types of agile methodology. Other examples include Kanban, Extreme Programming, and Crystal. According to The Scrum Guide: 

“Scrum is a lightweight framework that helps people, teams and organizations generate value through adaptive solutions for complex problems.”

It’s also important to understand the three pillars that Scrum operates on, which are: 

1. Transparency

With Scrum, transparency is vital. And it’s not just about having high visibility within the team—it’s about making the work visible to all stakeholders of the project. A lack of transparency may lead to poor decisions, diminished value, and increased risk. 

2. Inspection

Scrum also operates on frequent check-ins, or inspections. The purpose of this is to detect potential problems early on and give the team a chance to iterate as needed. That’s why Scrum has four meeting types, which are crucial to this project management approach. We’ll discuss these more later in the post. 

3. Adaptation

Finally, adaptation is key to any teams that use Scrum. Unlike other frameworks that commit you to a specific path from start to finish, Scrum is all about adjusting as you go. So if a process isn’t working or the resulting product fails to achieve its goal, the team has to make adjustments as needed. 

The pros and cons of Scrum

Like any other framework, Scrum has its strengths and weaknesses. If you’re trying to evaluate whether Scrum is the right approach for your team, check out this list of pros and cons first:

Pros

• Helps teams complete projects quickly and efficiently
• Creates more visibility for key stakeholders
• Saves time, money, and resources 
• Leads to a more collaborative, feedback-focused process 
• Great option for both in-person and remote teams 
• Can reduce the chances of significant mistakes

Cons

• Deadlines may be more uncertain 
• Disagreements among stakeholders can slow down the process
• More meetings 
• Challenging to implement with larger teams
• Highly dependent on the skill level and commitment of individual team members

Now that we understand the basics of Scrum, let’s explore one of the most critical aspects of this framework: the various meeting types. 

What are the 4 Scrum meeting types? 

Meetings are one of the most important features of Scrum. These checkpoints—which can be in-person or remote—are essential to the collaborative, iterative process that defines this Agile methodology. Here are the five types of meetings to be aware of: 

1. Sprint planning meeting

Time required: A maximum of eight hours for a one-month sprint, but less for shorter sprints

The Scrum framework uses sprints to define the start and end of its projects. These sprints can be anywhere from one to four weeks. The planning meeting kicks off the beginning of a sprint and lays out all the work needed for the project. During this meeting, the team should be able to answer the following questions: 

• Why is this sprint valuable?
• What can we accomplish during this sprint?
• What does success look like (for all stakeholders) at the end of this sprint? 
• How will we complete the work that needs to be done during this sprint?
• Who will be responsible for what during the sprint? 

2. Daily standups

Time required: A maximum of 15 minutes per day 

The purpose of daily standups is to check in on progress toward the goal. Daily Scrum meetings are valuable because they improve team communication, identify issues early on, promote quick decision-making, and potentially eliminate the need for other meetings. 

Typically, each team member shares a brief update of what they’re working on, how things are going, and the obstacles they’re facing. These standups also provide an excellent opportunity to problem-solve with the rest of the team. 

For instance, let’s say one of your team members is struggling with an obstacle and shares their dilemma during the meeting. You dealt with the exact same problem the week before and figured out a simple solution. So you offer to walk your colleague through the steps to unblock them. This saves your teammate a ton of time and keeps the project moving forward smoothly.

3. Sprint review meeting

Time required: A maximum of four hours for a one-month sprint, but less for shorter sprints

At the sprint review meeting, all the stakeholders get together to share the results of their work. Rather than presenting the outcomes, this type of Scrum meeting will benefit more as a working session or an open conversation. This creates the right environment to share feedback and discuss potential changes. Here are some phrases you can use during the sprint review to make suggestions to your teammates in a helpful way: 

• “What are your thoughts on approaching the problem this way?” 
• “Have you considered this particular edge case that could occur?” 
• “I really like how this turned out and think it could be improved even more with this addition. What do you think?” 

4. Sprint retrospective meeting

Time required: A maximum of three hours for a one-month sprint, but less for shorter sprints

The last type of Scrum meeting is the sprint retrospective. Think of this as a postmortem. The goal is to inspect the project outcomes and discuss what can improve for future sprints—whether in terms of individual work, processes, tools, or even communication. During this Scrum meeting, everyone should: 

• Review what went well and what didn’t 
• Share feedback about their overall experience with the sprint
• Identify potential solutions to the problems that were identified
• Discuss ways to incorporate changes to the next sprint 

The retrospective is critical because it helps you continually improve their project management approach—allowing teams to become more efficient, collaborative, and in tune with one another moving forward. 

5 tips to have more productive Scrum meetings

Regardless of the type of Scrum meeting, there are best practices you can follow to get the most out of your time with your teammates. Here are five of our best tips to improve productivity during your meetings: 

1. Respect the time allocation

Scrum is about efficiency. Even though there are frequent meetings, the goal isn’t to drag them out for as long as possible—it’s about using the time wisely for their intended purpose. So if your standup meetings are limited to 15 minutes, respect that timeframe. It’ll keep everything running smoothly and minimize frustration from team members. 

2. Have an agenda

On a similar note, it may help to go into some of your Scrum meetings with an agenda, which outlines the goal, topics of discussion, and action items. This will help keep the conversation on track and serve as a North Star to refocus the meeting. If people raise topics that don’t align with the agenda, they can find additional time outside of the meeting to discuss them with the appropriate stakeholders. 

3. Be open minded

Since Scrum is all about taking an iterative approach to project management, all the meeting types leave room for feedback. Knowing this, it’s essential to go into these conversations with an open mind. Try not to take it personally when someone suggests improvements to your ideas. And be receptive to learning new ways to approach a problem.

If you find yourself getting frustrated or offended during a meeting, take a deep breath and shift your mindset to one of curiosity rather than judgment. Remember: the goal is to choose the process, tools, and approach that will lead to the best outcomes. 

4. Use the right tools

When you’re trying to maximize efficiency as a remote team, the last thing you want is to run into technological issues. That’s why it’s critical to choose the right tools, depending on the type of Scrum meeting you’re having.

For instance, if you’re looking for a daily standup tool, consider a noise-cancelling software like Krisp. By using artificial intelligence, our product removes unwanted sounds from both sides of a call, creating a smoother meeting experience. You can also use tools like Slack to share virtual updates if there are days when everyone is heads down or pressed for time.

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5. Change it up

Some Scrum meeting types, such as the daily standup, can get old after a while and cause people to lose interest. So don’t be afraid to change things up occasionally! Change up the order of who speaks, start with a quick virtual icebreaker, or even have everyone physically stand up when sharing their updates. These small changes can help your teammates feel more engaged and attentive during the meetings. 

Incorporate the Scrum meeting types into your next project

Now that you’re familiar with Scrum and the different meeting types, you’re ready to start implementing the framework with your own team!

While there are tons of different ways to approach project management, there’s a reason why Scrum is one of the most popular methods out there. Use this agile methodology to get your project deliverables done more efficiently and with better outcomes—for both the team and your customers. 

If you want to enhance the quality of your virtual Scrum meetings, request a demo of Krisp. We’d love to hear from you. 

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The post What are the 4 Scrum Meeting Types? Explained for Remote Teams appeared first on Krisp.

What are virtual teams? 

Hybrid. Remote. In-office. As we transitioned to different models of work during the pandemic, we’ve seen many new terms emerge. But these words can be confusing—and the definitions tend to vary from company to company. 

So before we get started, we want to clearly define what we mean by virtual teams. 

Virtual teams are typically made up of individuals who either work remotely or in different geographical locations. The most defining characteristic of virtual teams is that they work entirely through online platforms—whether that’s Zoom, Slack, or Asana (or all of the above!)

So while remote teams can also be virtual teams, both terms are different from hybrid teams, which refers to a model where some employees work in the office. 

The challenges that come with leading virtual teams

Of course, there are difficulties that come with any leadership position. But virtual teams present unique challenges—and being aware of them can help you better understand how to overcome them. 

Less visibility

One of the biggest challenges with virtual teams is the lack of visibility. When you work in an office, you have the advantage of seeing your team members on a day-to-day basis. This means you can drop by their desk to see what they’re working on. Or notice when they’re stressed out. But in a virtual setting, these signals become harder to see. 

Fewer opportunities for connection

When working together in person, there are more organic opportunities to connect. Whether it’s eating lunch together or catching up while grabbing a snack from the kitchen, it’s much easier to build relationships with your colleagues when you’re physically together. But in a virtual setting, building connection needs to be approached more intentionally. 

Different time zones

If your team is geographically dispersed, you may run into logistical challenges. How do you find a meeting time that works for everyone? What are the rules for communicating when some team members are working, while others are offline? These are the types of questions you need to think about as the leader of a virtual team. 

12 tips to improve the way you lead virtual teams

1. Clarify expectations around communication

When teams aren’t physically together, clarity becomes even more essential—especially when it comes to communication.

Your employees don’t have the benefit of clearing up misunderstandings face-to-face or reading each other’s body language, so you need to establish clear expectations when it comes to communication. We encourage virtual teams to create a document that answers questions, such as: 

• When is the ideal time to schedule team meetings?
• What is the purpose of each communication channel (Slack, email, etc.), and when should each one be used?
• What are the etiquette guidelines for communicating with team members in different time zones? 

2. Check in frequently

As we mentioned before, visibility is much lower on virtual teams. That’s why it’s critical that you, as the team leader, find time to check in with each of your team members regularly. The purpose of these check-ins is to understand how your employees are doing—both professionally and personally. 

So try to go beyond the transactional status update. Check in on how your direct reports are feeling about their workload. Ask questions about their hobbies. Invite them to an open conversation about their mental, emotional, and physical health.

3. Invest in the right tools

Using the right technology is vital when it comes to leading virtual teams. While every team’s needs will look different, we encourage most organizations to invest in leadership tools, online meeting apps, and noise cancelling software like Krisp. These technologies can improve processes that your virtual team relies on every day—whether that’s daily standups or performance reviews. 

4. Sync with company leadership 

Part of your job as a team leader is to bridge the gap between your employees and the leadership team. This means that you need to find time to sync with the company executives to see if any significant announcements are coming down the pipeline. 

By communicating these high-level updates with your team, you ensure that your employees feel connected to the rest of the organization. It’s also a great way to build trust and show your team members that you’re committed to being transparent with them. 

5. Plan virtual activities 

Connection is hard when you’re not physically together. But thanks to advances in technology, there are tons of ways to bond with your teammates virtually. If you’re not sure where to start, here are a few ideas: 

• Try virtual icebreakers before the start of team meetings to help everyone relax.
• Use an app like Donut to schedule virtual coffee dates with team members. 
• Schedule virtual watercooler activities, such as trivia nights and escape rooms.

6. Host “office hours” 

Another way to make yourself more visible and accessible to your team is to host office hours. This is a time that you block off your schedule to make yourself available to your employees—whether that’s to talk through problems, answer questions, or simply check in. 

To get started, find a time in your schedule when most of your employees are available and mark it on your calendar as “office hours.” Let your team members know that this slot is available and encourage them to reach out. 

7. Give your team members autonomy

When you lead a virtual team, you have to accept that you won’t see, hear, and know about everything going on with your employees. And that’s OK.

Instead of trying to control every moving piece, give your employees autonomy. Trust them to make the right decisions and meet their deadlines. Not only will this make your life easier, but research also shows that autonomy drives motivation, performance, and well-being. 

8. Track progress 

Even though we encourage you to give your team members autonomy, you can still find ways to promote accountability. One of the best ways to do this is to track progress on different projects in a shared platform or document. 

With this approach, you can ask your employees to regularly post updates on their progress—allowing everyone else on the team to see what they’re working on and how the project is going. Creating this type of visibility will improve productivity and collaboration on virtual teams. 

9. Encourage feedback 

No leader is perfect. And it’s totally normal to make mistakes—especially if you’re leading a virtual team for the first time. But the good news is that these mistakes present fantastic opportunities to receive feedback on what you can do better. Here are a few ways to elicit constructive feedback from your virtual team: 

• Ask during your one-on-one conversations. During your next check-in, ask your direct reports to share feedback on how you’re doing as a team leader. What would they want you to change? How do they feel about your communication style? Are there any processes that aren’t working? These questions may be challenging for employees to answer on the spot, so give them time to process and share when they’re ready. 
• Send out an anonymous survey. Many of your team members may feel uncomfortable sharing constructive criticism with you directly. In this case, send out a survey that allows everyone to answer questions anonymously. This relieves any stress for your employees and ensures you receive honest responses. 
• Use 360 reviews. Another option is to request a 360 performance review. With this approach, your boss collects feedback from your colleagues and your direct reports so you fully understand your performance. 

10. Create opportunities for in-person interactions

Even virtual teams need opportunities for in-person interactions. When it’s safe to do so, consider planning a team retreat to give everyone the chance to meet each other.

During these gatherings, you can schedule fun activities—whether that’s playing mini-golf or enjoying a nice dinner together—and also block off time for brainstorming, planning, and coworking. You’ll be surprised to see how much a few days of in-person time can strengthen your team’s relationships!

11. Recognize your top performers 

Another critical aspect of leading virtual teams is recognition. You want your high-performing employees to know that you see and value the work they’re doing every day. And the best way to accomplish this is through recognition. 

Recognition comes in many forms. It can be verbal, experiential, or monetary. Casual or formal. Big or small. Regardless of the type of recognition you share, make sure it follows the following criteria: 

• Timely. When an employee does fantastic work, they should receive praise immediately. If you wait too long, the impact of the recognition fades away. And your direct report may become resentful because their contributions aren’t recognized in a timely manner. 
• Personalized. You also want to recognize your employees in a way that’s meaningful to them. For instance, if you have a team member who cherishes one-on-one time, take them out to a nice lunch with just you. Or if you know they want to spend more time with their family, give them an all-expenses-paid getaway for the weekend. 
• Aligns with the contribution. Finally, the type of recognition you give should align with the level of contribution. When an employee does a great job on a project, it’s definitely worth giving a shoutout and possibly a gift card to their favorite coffee shop. But an employee who takes on extra work and goes above-and-beyond expectations may deserve a more substantial reward.

12. Set a good example 

Finally, one of your most important roles as a team leader is making sure your virtual team is taking care of their well-being. Burnout is incredibly common for people who work from home. When the lines between work and home are so blurred, it can be challenging to know when and how to unplug. 

For this reason, leaders of virtual teams need to set an example. Instead of sending emails late at night, log off at 5 pm and encourage your employees to do the same. Block off an hour on your calendar every day to work out or cook yourself a nice lunch. And, after an intensive project, give your team a collective day off to recharge. 

It’s time to take your virtual team to the next level 

It’s no easy task to lead a virtual team. Between the logistical challenges and the absence of in-person interactions, it takes a lot of work to ensure your team is productive, collaborative, and well-run. But by using the recommendations we outlined in this post, you can take your leadership to the next level and help your virtual team members maximize their potential. 

If you’re curious to learn more ways to increase collaboration among your employees, check out our article on how to improve team communication.

The post Leading a Virtual Team for the First Time? Here are 12 Tips to Help appeared first on Krisp.

There’s a dizzying array of options from which to choose. Talk to a dozen remote workers or companies about what they consider the best tools for remote work and you’ll soon have a crazy list of options to consider.

To save you time, we’ve compiled a list of resources and tools for remote work that suit multiple needs. 

Keep in mind we’re looking beyond the basic solutions to offer you the most creative and useful alternatives to platforms you might already be using. Before starting, put together a checklist of features you must have based on your team’s daily tasks so you’ll be able to shortlist the apps below.

Remote team collaboration and communication software

Without being in the same physical space, something as simple as sharing a piece of paper or asking a simple question becomes far more difficult. Solve this challenge by trying some of the following best remote software for text, voice, and video communication and remote collaboration.

Hassle-free virtual meetings, video conferencing, and chat for remote employees

Combine your remote work tools for video or audio with the best technology for working remotely. One of the vital working remotely tips and tools in any good remote work guide is to ensure clarity in the communication process. That’s just what the next remote work tools do.

Krisp

Krisp is a noise cancelling tool that blocks unwanted background sounds on both ends of a conversation, preventing misunderstandings from affecting work. Krisp works with any conferencing app you’re already using by making use of more than 2.5 thousand audio, 20,000 noise samples, and 50,000 speakers. The recording feature also lets team members share review meetings and share them with colleagues who missed the call.

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Flowdock

Similar to Slack, Flowdock is a remote office platform that focuses on providing chat requirements for teams. It also brings conversations, work items, and resources to one single place. This makes it easy for you and shareholders to organize tasks and discussions without resorting to switching between multiple apps.

Twist

While Slack offers a powerhouse of features, some criticize it for being too distracting for remote workers. The need to stay connected and watch for (often distracting) notifications from the real-time chat can prevent you from “getting in the zone” of deep, focused work.

Twist aims to circumvent these distractions by providing a more asynchronous approach to remote communication. It’s more akin to an organized collection of email inboxes rather than a chatroom. This makes it an interesting alternative for communication tools for remote workers.

Doodle

Part of the art of remote communication is to be mindful of interrupting your coworkers and disrupting their productivity. This calls for specialized remote work tools like Doodle that let you schedule meetings and appointments in no time. Perhaps sending a poll through Doodle is all that’s needed to see if a meeting is even necessary.

Howspace

Larger projects (like social learning, events, and workshops) aren’t always easy to manage through traditional video conferencing apps. Howspace earns its place in your managing remote worker’s toolkit, giving a platform to create programs centered around learning, organizational change, and collaborative growth.

Timezone.io

One of the more challenging parts of the transition to remote work can be collaborating across multiple time zones. Quickly see which team members are available right now with the simple interface that Timezone.io provides.

Join.me

When you need to ask your coworker a quick question, creating and scheduling a meeting through traditional conferencing software can be a hassle. Join.me lets you quickly spin up a meeting with a link to a quick video chat. This convenience makes it one of the remote work tools likely to increase the quality of your team’s communication.

Tip: You can always connect Krisp to join.me or other video conferencing tools to remove background noises in real-time. This will prevent misunderstandings and make for a complete and efficient video call experience.

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Store and collaborate on virtual assets and documentation

Most project management and collaboration tools include some functionality to share documentation and files. However, your remote team likely needs a more robust way to store assets and documentation in an easy-to-find and searchable place. 

Confluence

Need a wiki to centralize your team’s documentation? Look no further than Confluence, which comes with an array of quick-start templates for common document types to save you time.

Canva

Popular due to its ease of use, Canva provides diverse graphic design functionalities that anyone on your team can use. It also lets you share your images, branding, and files with other team members and is gradually adding advanced features to help replace the classic but clunky Photoshop.

Adobe Creative Cloud

If your team needs something more professional than Canva, you might want to shell out for Adobe Creative Cloud’s features. Adobe has been a mainstay in creative work for years, and you’ll find every collaboration feature your creative team needs in Adobe Creative Cloud.

Loom

A picture is worth a thousand words, but a video can be worth a thousand pictures when you’re explaining a complex topic or just need to maintain that face-to-face connection with your colleagues. Use Loom to create a quick video recording of your screen and/or face. You can use these recordings for official documentation, reports, demos, or to send explanations to colleagues and clients.

Markup Hero

Markup Hero helps you capture ideas, communicate clearly, and save time. Instantly snap and share ideas with Markup Hero’s screenshot app and image uploader. This tool for working remotely allows you to clearly communicate messages on any image or PDF with easy-to-use annotation tools. Markup Hero also has a really nice Slack integration that enables users to annotate files with one click, directly from Slack.

Project management for remote teams

Keeping track of which team members are working on which tasks can be challenging with a remote team. Staying on top of their assigned tasks, related updates, and upcoming deadlines can be even more challenging for the team members. Avoid confusion or wasted work by trying out some of these winning options for remote workforce management software.

Trello

As one of the most intuitive (and free) remote work management tools, it’s no surprise that Trello is some of the most widely-used software to work remotely from home. Simple drag-and-drop Kanban cards allow you to organize tasks, add attachments, and host discussions in a simple web interface — minimal app onboarding needed.

Todoist 

Todoist has more in common with a to-do list than a Kanban-style product like Trello. Still, this solution may be everything a small team needs — or you can just use it as a personal addition to your organization’s planning software. It provides an intuitive, quick-and-easy task list with basic collaboration features for your team and contractors.

Milanote

Milanote is primarily a visual note-taking platform but can be used to manage creative projects. It’s a perfect choice for creatives and design studios who will still be able to use classic task management features like project templates, to-do lists, and file storage.

Basecamp

No discussion of tools to manage remote employees would be complete without Basecamp, used since 2004 for managing projects. Created by a team as a way to manage their tasks, you’ll get all the necessary remote working essentials — automatic check-ins, task scheduling, group chat, etc.

Airtable

If Excel or Google Sheets aren’t enough for your business, consider Airtable. It’s a user-friendly mix of spreadsheet and a relational database, allowing complex functionality in a pleasant interface (without requiring a developer team to create a custom tool).

Tracking remote workers’ progress

Staying on top of multiple team members’ progress can be difficult when they’re scattered around the globe. One of the best tips for working remotely is to keep abreast of your team’s (and your own) progress with these handy work-from-home productivity and time tracking tools.

Toggl 

Toggl makes it easy to record how much time is spent on each task and has multiple integrations for quick one-click tracking. The tool gives you a streamlined, no-frills approach to tracking time spent on projects. You’ll also find the Chrome extension and variety of integrations handy for connecting with other work management and invoicing solutions.

And.co

And.co offers a bit more than Toggl, including tracking business expenses and handling invoices. The tool is primarily used by freelancers, but teams can also turn to it for keeping track of client contracts, sending proposals, accepting payments, and even time tracking.

Time Doctor

Toggl keeps it simple, but Time Doctor is a remote employee software that adds a few extra features that might be considered as work-from-home requirements. For example, Time Doctor records all time spent on all activities (including things like watching Netflix). It can even send a pop-up to remind a distracted remote worker to get back on task.

Tools for finding remote employers and clients

If you’re already still looking for your next dream remote role, go over the following best online resources for connecting remote workers with jobs:

• We Work Remotely – The most popular remote jobs website for all kinds of professions and experience levels.
• Dynamite Jobs – This is your safest choice if you want to check out new daily roles.
• DailyRemote – This job listing website often displays opportunities that aren’t posted elsewhere, but note that most of the jobs are for U.S. citizens.
• Remote.co – Another resource for finding remote jobs here that companies haven’t posted somewhere else.
• AngelList – A go-to source for open positions in startups. You can also find more internships here than on the other websites.
• Twitter – This can be a convenient resource for finding new jobs as soon as they’re out there. Use search terms like “hiring remote [your role]” or “remote job” and you’ll get in touch with your future teammates who are more than eager to get to know you.

Tip: It’s always a good idea to check out the Careers page of your favorite company. You can also reach out to them directly to see if they’re planning on hiring for your role soon. Don’t forget about the classic job boards like LinkedIn or Indeed, but use these along with the websites above and industry job boards for more diverse opportunities.

Set your team members up for success with these remote work tools

Working remotely creates some challenges — but that doesn’t mean that you or your team have to struggle with those challenges. Getting started with remote work doesn’t require you to purchase and learn a dozen new programs. 

Instead, save your focus for what matters and pick what you need from these tried-and-true tools for remote workers. You can improve the collaborative situation within your remote team with these popular remote work tools combined with our favorite working from home tips.

Did we miss your favorite app or useful resource? Let us know in the comments below and it might just make our list!

The post 20+ Best Resources and Tools for Remote Workers in 2022 appeared first on Krisp.