Business

Daily Buzz: Help Employees Transition to Remote Work

Don’t leave your team hanging: When transitioning to remote work, provide resources to help employees adapt. Also: meeting trends for 2020.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that remote work is on the upswing. In fact, 43 percent of employees work remotely at least part of the time, according to Gallup’s “State of the American Workplace” report.

“Why is remote working so popular? The obvious answer is the technology that makes it possible for people to work together while apart,” says the WBT Systems team on its blog. “But the remote working trend is also driven by company finances and employee preferences for a more flexible work/life mix. In the competitive talent marketplace, remote working is a desirable benefit.”

If you’re thinking about offering remote opportunities as an employee perk, first make sure that remote work is a viable option for your industry. In professions that require a lot of in-person interaction, for instance, remote work might be more of a hindrance than a benefit.

If remote work does make sense for your association—both productivity-wise and financially—make sure to provide resources and other educational opportunities to help your team adapt to its new way of working together.

“Employers need help preparing to go remote and supporting both remote and office employees,” the team says. “You could supplement online courses, stand-alone modules, and webinars with virtual monthly or bimonthly roundtables for C-suite executives, HR teams and supervisors of remote workers.”

You might need to help team members navigate a new work-life balance, too.

“Remote workers also need help dealing with the ‘out of sight, out of mind’ mentality,” the team writes. “Offer informal virtual coffee chats … In these more free-wheeling conversations, participants can share tips and experiences while developing a support network.”

Trends That Will Rule Meetings Next Year

Wondering what’s next for conferences in 2020? For one thing, attendees want meetings that leave a green footprint.

“As consumers demand brands to develop more sustainable practices, they will also expect events to be planned in a way that will have a minimal environmental impact,” explains Michael Brenner on the Marketing Insider Group blog. “Organizations failing to follow this trend may well find that their audience votes with their feet and finds another, greener event to attend next year.”

Other meeting trends poised to make it big next year: augmented reality, a bigger emphasis on mindfulness, nontraditional venues, and artificial intelligence as a tool for event organization and analysis.

Other Links of Note

Want to bring your meetings to the next level? BizBash shares nine habits of successful event planners.

When it comes to social media metrics, which is more important: impressions or reach? The HubSpot blog explains.

If your meeting is in need of some participatory exercises, try “dot voting,” says nonprofit thought leader Beth Kanter.

(JohnnyGreig/E+/Getty Images Plus)

Jeff Hsin

By Jeff Hsin

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