Category: Remote Work

The Best Work From Home Products

It’s year 2, 3, 4, or who knows how long of working from home. For some of us, it’s been even longer. We would say it’s about time to toss aside the folding chair, upgrade the shakey table and toss out that mouse with the broken right click. Today, we’re talking about the best work from home products with a view to improvements and upgrades!

The Best Work From Home Chairs

I’ve been working from home for a couple of years now, and the most important and best purchase I’ve made has been a proper ergonomic chair. A good chair, I feel, has good lumbar support for your back to help you sit with proper posture.

It also should have breathable material, so you don’t get warm and uncomfortable or keep the warmth locked in if you get cold quickly. It definitely should have adjustable height and adjustable arms again for ergonomic support.

I chose the Herman Miller Aeron chair, but I acknowledge these are expensive. While there are a variety of cheaper chairs, I do think this is the one thing you should put money towards to buy something that either lasts or has a good warranty, as the Herman Miller chair has. So whichever route you go, make sure it lasts and if you have the chance, try to take a test sitting.

A person sat in front of a computer with a webcam on it on their desk using the best work from home microphone.
Photo by Hillary Black on Unsplash

Computer Storage

A fast hard drive is essential if you work with multiple PCs, like a work PC and a personal PC at home. Unless you’re playing it fast and loose with your time, nothing is worse than waiting for a slow hard drive to transfer files. This also helps if you need to leave the home office and take your files on the go.

Generally, you will want to go for NVME drives like the Samsung T7 or Sandisk Extreme Pro. These drives are fast enough to edit 4k footage off of. Now they aren’t the cheapest, but if you wait long enough, you can usually get these drives on sale.

One last note is the Samsung T7 drives do have biometrics if your security is a concern, while the SanDisk drives can be hung on a keychain and are a bit more durable than the average hard drive.

The Best Work From Home Background Removal

I’d be remiss not to mention our technology for the work from home or work from anywhere crew. XSplit VCam allows you to remove, replace or blur your background. You can try it for free, and we’ve recently added some new features like auto-framing, the ability to take screenshots, and adding watermarks.

A Good Audio Setup

You’re going to be on a lot of calls on your computer. You want to be able to properly hear your co-workers and talk to them. So I recommend getting a good pair of headphones, and no, I don’t mean the 7.1 surround heavy gamer headphones. Getting a solid pair of comfortable headphones is a good investment.

Depending on your situation, you may want noise-canceling wireless headphones like the Sony XM series or Bose QC35 headphones. These are comfy and will block any background noise so you can focus on your call. If you’re doing multimedia work or don’t need noise canceling, you may opt for studio headphones like the Audio-Technica M50s or the Beyerdynamic DT770s. Now people need to hear you!

Microphones get expensive, so I recommend a solid dynamic USB microphone like a Shure MV7 or a Rode Podcaster. These will help reject background noise, save on the cost of needing an audio interface, and sound pretty lovely.

Person looking at their phone using the best work from home wireless headphones with their laptop on their desk next to some coffee.
Photo by Nubelson Fernandes on Unsplash

Lighting

This one may sound weird or obvious, but try to get some lighting if you’re doing video calls.  If you’re working with clients or freelancing, some lighting with your camera will make you look much better and more professional. It can be a room light, opening a window, or buying a lighting magnetic light like this Aputure MC. Whatever you can get your hands on to brighten yourself up.

So these are some of the work from home products we’d recommend getting an upgrade or a first-time purchase. Let us know in the comments what has been your best upgrade since working from home!

How to Maintain Online Privacy

Online privacy as a concept has evolved and changed as time has gone on. While it still includes things like never giving out your personal information, new ways we communicate can impact your online privacy. Anything could leak information online, from screen sharing to what’s behind you in a video call, so maintaining online privacy is paramount! So no matter if you’re a content creator, entrepreneur, or even an educator, we’ll discuss some tools and tips to help!

Online Privacy While Screen Sharing

Always be aware when sharing or recording your screen. If you’re hosting a webinar on eCommerce or recording a video about online deals, check if you’re logged into your accounts in your browser or not. A lot of the time, your zip code will be stored, revealing your location. There are, however, a couple of ways to remedy this.

If you are screen recording with XSplit Broadcaster, queue up the sites you will be sharing, then use the color matte tool to block the areas that can reveal your location. You can also use a VPN to spoof your location, so if you accidentally allow a website to detect your location, it won’t reveal where you actually are.

A person sitting on the floor using a laptop that is a part of online security.
Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash

Hide Your Background

Working by a window can be pretty nice for your mental health. However, sometimes your window can reveal your location. You can easily circumvent this by removing, replacing, or blurring your background with XSplit VCam. XSplit VCam uses AI to remove and replace your background in any video application. Not only can you use images, but you can also use a YouTube video or a gif as your background! You can use any webcam or even your cell phone.

So people can think you’re in Italy, while you’re safe in Romania! Or are you? They’ll never know!

Password Management

It’s been a rule of the internet since the beginning, but many people still don’t follow it. Never use the same password more than once. The second there is a data leak, or just one of your accounts is hacked, now all of them are. However, strong passwords are almost impossible to remember, especially as you increase the number of websites you use.

This is where password managers come into play. Now I use LastPass, but basically, all managers work in the same manner. You install a plugin to auto-fill your passwords and generate unique passwords for each site.

The password manager has a single login, which creates a point of failure, so make sure to do something special for that password, as long as you can remember it. Set a recurring date on your calendar for digital spring cleaning, where you clear out all your cookies and change your passwords.

A person using a laptop in a public space is a place to consider your online privacy.
Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash

Private Search Engines

Speaking of cookies, aren’t you tired of spending all your hard-earned money because targeted ads are just too good these days? So you can reduce some of that endless harvesting of your data through search results by using a private search engine.

A page like Startpage will block cookies from being generated from your searches and when visiting various pages. You can install this as a plugin to Chrome, but generally, having a different web browser for your work is good, especially if you’re using a work PC. You don’t want any risky searches popping up in auto-fill. There are alternate tools as well, such as duckduckgo and hidemysearches.

Secure Messaging for Online Privacy

Having messaging services open while streaming or sharing your screen in a meeting is risky. Whatsapp will reveal phone numbers, and Facebook Messenger will reveal, well, I mean, Facebook just wants everyone to know your business, right?

So if you’re doing any type of screen capture while broadcasting, it’s probably best to keep your messaging services closed. Discord does offer a streamer mode for just these circumstances. Discord’s streamer mode will hide personal information like user IDs, hides server invite links, and disable any pop-up notifications.

Best of all, it is automatically activated when it detects that software like XSplit Broadcaster is open, so there is no need to panic if you’re live and notice that Discord is open.

One final tip would be, don’t log in on your browsers or use a different browser when you’re live anywhere. Use incognito modes and stay aware of what you’re doing!

How to Run an Effective Virtual Meeting

Virtual meetings have become more and more common over the years. With hybrid work becoming more regular and some people fully transitioning to working from home, they have become essential. Hopping on a Zoom call or into a Slack space has become essential to staying connected and coordinated with your team. It’s still easy, however, to fall into some of the same problems that made meetings something people would dread. So, let’s discuss how to run an effective virtual meeting!

Prepare for your virtual meeting

“This could have been an email” is one of the familiar cries you’ll hear after many virtual meetings. A lot of this is down to a lack of preparation. People will tend to have a vague idea about what the meeting should be about “we need to discuss this project,” which will be all the prep they do. This will only lead to a vague chat with some people not even sure why the meeting is happening.

The best remedy is to write out a full agenda for your meeting beforehand. In bullet points, type up everything you want to discuss. This will help guide the discussion, and it can help everyone prepare for it. Also, it can tell you if this indeed needs to be a meeting. Only have one thing you need to let people know? Maybe that is an email after all!

We mentioned helping others prepare; using something like the Google suite for your virtual meeting will really help with this. You can type up your meeting notes and add them to a calendar event you create. This calendar event can also be the link to the call, meaning everything is linked. Now, everyone can see a few days in advance what is going to be discussed in the meeting. This is also great for setting expectations, as people will know what they are meant to bring to the virtual meeting.

A person attending a virtual meeting with one other person on their laptop screen using a long desk with a printer and many other items on it.
Photo by Maxime on Unsplash

Make time for conversation

Also, be sure to set how long the meeting will be. Don’t block off an hour thinking you’ll only need half an hour. Respect people’s time and your own! Try to use the exact amount of time you need. However, one thing you should prepare for is allowing time for conversation.

It’s not a bad idea to consider having a set amount of time, 10 minutes or so, for people to catch up. With remote teams or even hybrid ones, these meetings can be the time when people get to connect. It will more than likely happen anyway, and not having it scheduled can lead to it running into the time you had planned to discuss things.

Another option would be if you really don’t have the time to set aside, plan to make that time available to people. Make sure it’s during work hours, but having a weekly catch-up can be great for team morale. This could even take the form of a virtual water cooler or break room. Slack will let you set up drop-in audio channels where anyone can come in and say hello. These can provide these spaces for people working remotely!

During and after the meeting

Designate someone to take notes! It’s important that notes are taken for a few reasons. Thanks to things like XSplit Broadcaster, a meeting can be easily recorded. However, it is still essential to take notes. The main reason is to designate responsibilities agreed upon during the meeting. So, for example, you’ve agreed that it will be your job to file a report? Note it down.

You can then take these notes and, in a Google Document, tag the relevant people. They will then receive an email letting them know they are tagged. From there, they can see a reminder of the area of responsibility they agreed to take on. This makes life easier for everyone as nobody has to remember everything, it’s all there and easily accessible.

A virtual meeting taking place on a laptop with multiple participants with a mug sat next to the laptop on a kitchen table.
Photo by Chris Montgomery on Unsplash

Make sure you keep track of the time. Whoever is leading the meeting should watch how time is moving along. Be sure to move points along as needed and keep the discussion on track. The chances are everyone else has somewhere else they need to be after the meeting. For this to happen, the meeting now needs to stay on time. If something feels like it needs further discussion, you can always take time at a different point to discuss this. Or it could be something to discuss separately or even in an email!

Virtual meetings don’t have to be tough or feel like a waste of time. Using some of these tips, you’ll get a successful meeting running in no time. The point of a virtual meeting, after all, is for everyone to leave more informed than when they joined the meeting. Decisions have been made, and discussions have been had. Nobody wants to think “this could have been an email” again!

The Best Video Backgrounds for your Next Call

Since more and more meetings have been remote and online, we’ve become familiar with Zoom backgrounds. For those who don’t know, many people opt to remove and replace their zoom background. This means you’re now using a virtual background for your webcam shot rather than whatever happens to be behind you. This can be useful for a number of reasons. Maybe you are sharing the space you’re in with others? Perhaps you just don’t fancy cleaning up your spare room before the weekly check-in?

Best video Zoom Backgrounds for calls

We’ve got a nice list detailing some great still image backgrounds you can use for your next call, but what about video? Well, it just so happens that you can use YouTube videos in XSplit VCam as your background. XSplit VCam uses AI to remove and replace your background, keeping things consistent across all call platforms beyond just Zoom. It will, in fact, work with anything that accepts a camera feed!

All you have to do to use these videos is once you’ve downloaded VCam, click “Add Background” and select YouTube Video. From there, you can just paste the link in! You can also use videos from your computer if you have some you’ve made yourself!

The videos we’ve selected here are mostly animated soundscapes but don’t worry. The sounds won’t come through in VCam, just the video! The advantage we found was that these videos are pretty long, so whatever length of call you are in, these should do the job! Also, as a bonus, these videos are pretty great for relaxing or studying, so they work outside of being a video background for Zoom! Be sure to give these videos a like if you end up using them as Zoom backgrounds!

Video Backgrounds for Meetings

https://youtu.be/sZdgGAlp_A0

Sci-Fi and Fantasy Backgrounds for Zoom Calls

These backgrounds may not be perfect for every meeting, but they are still pretty fun nonetheless as virtual backgrounds for a zoom call.

Hopefully, these add a bit more to your calls without being too distracting as Zoom backgrounds! Using them with XSplit VCam, as we noted, is easy! You can check out XSplit VCam for free by heading over here and downloading the app today!

The How and Why of Hybrid Events

We’ve discussed all-digital events before but one of the big trends we’re seeing lately is the hybrid event. A hybrid conference is something that combines the advantages of an in-person event with the accessibility of an online event. For example, a big gaming convention like PAX will have all its vendors and exhibitors in a physical hall while panels and tournaments can also be watched online. So, how do you conduct hybrid events and why would you want to? Let’s discuss!

What is a hybrid conference?

So as we touched on above, a hybrid event is a combination of both physical and online events. We have some experience with those here at XSplit having run some gaming stages from conventions in the past. These catered not only to the people on the show floor but were also streamed online for people to watch on Twitch.

These indie[dot]XSplit stages were a big collaborative effort to pull off but ultimately a great tool to connect with people at the event and online. Now, this was just one part of the larger show as a whole, as we mentioned above PAX itself is very much a hybrid conference.

On an even larger scale, keynotes like Apple Events are traditionally hybrid of both physical and online. The press is bought in to be in the room for the stage presentation and to get a hands-on look at the products. This is also streamed online giving the viewing public the chance to see Apple’s message while also opening it up to the press to give their own impressions.

Why run a hybrid conference?

There are a number of good reasons, as we mentioned above it gives everyone a chance to be involved. Inclusivity is important, and not everyone can attend an in-person event due to a multitude of reasons. By running some, or all, of your pillar content online you’re allowing a much wider audience to experience it.

Not only that, but a hybrid conference can showcase a wider variety of guests for panels that wouldn’t be possible in an offline-only event. Your panel could not only include guests in the room, and guests calling in over Zoom. All of this can in turn be broadcast online easily using software like XSplit Broadcaster.

There are also examples, like New York Comic Con, where you can purchase a digital ticket. This enables guests from across the globe to watch all the panels live as they happen. Also, it means you can open a new revenue stream for your event for everyone who would love to watch but can’t make it to the venue in New York.

A person stood on the stage of a hybrid conference presenting a slide to a large watching audience on a big screen while also broadcasting to viewers watching at home online.
Photo by Teemu Paananen on Unsplash

Including online elements at your hybrid event

So, the most obvious online element that we have mentioned already is streaming panels and keynote speakers. We’ve actually put together a thorough course online! The video below shows you exactly how you can produce an event that can be done in person and online.

Beyond that though, there are ways you can have an online and an offline audience interacting! You can incorporate live chat for questions for panelists and speakers. Or, you could really go next level and play games together! WiFi Wars is a show that uses proprietary tech to beam games through your browser. Allowing people in the room to compete as one team against people online. This is some creative thinking and it could only be the start of a melding of online and offline hybrid conferences!

We really see the future belonging to hybrid conferences and events and we can’t wait to see what people come up with! As technology intersects with in-person gatherings more and more, the future is bright! More people get to see the shows and presentations you’re putting together with hybrid conferences!

Top Tools for your Remote Staff

Some of us are slowly, perhaps begrudgingly, coming back from WFH. The remote work industry, however, has been growing for years and will continue to grow. In this age, if you’re a business owner, you may have to look towards being WFH first and therefore you need to offer the proper tools for your remote staff.

Webcams

It’s really easy for your staff to feel isolated in a remote work environment, so it’s good for team building and overall morale for people to see the face behind the Slack messages and ClickUp tasks.

Webcams are fairly cheap these days, and we would recommend something like the Logitech C922. You may not have considered that your staff may have great webcams already on devices they own! Try using XSplit Connect: Webcam and XSplit VCam to turn their phones into webcams. If you’d like more details on how this works you can check the video below, but generally, all you need to do is have the devices on the same wifi network.

Unified Calendar Tools for Remote Staff

Having staff in different parts of the world can make things tricky when trying to coordinate a meeting. That’s why it’s good to have a unified calendar for your organization as a tool for your remote staff. GSuite from Google offers these tools, basically, it gives everyone in the team a personal calendar they can opt to share. You can also set up a company-wide calendar for important events like team meetings or for people to post their vacation schedules.

A person sat on a sofa talking to someone on a call using a laptop computer which would contain tools for remote work.
Photo by Surface on Unsplash

Team Building

It’s good to find time for the team to bond and unwind together, while it would be nice for everyone to go out to eat, in the meantime, you can play games together online. Some great games are Jackbox Games, which you can play in a browser or on your phone with other people. You can also play games like Pictionary or host a trivia night using something like XSplit Broadcaster.

Task Management Tools For Your Remote Staff

Now if you’re a small business, it might not seem like you need task management software, but without people interacting in a single space, it can be easy to lose track and progress of what’s going on in each project. 

Something as simple as notion, monday.com, or ClickUp, whatever let’s you assign tasks and keep track of what is going on will really help your team stay organized and help you track how your projects are going. This blog is organized via ClickUp as you can not only schedule your events in a list but export a viewable calendar that can be seen by the wider company.

A person using a smartphone next to their laptop which is on the table in front of them next to a cup of coffee they could be using tools for remote workers on both!
Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

Headsets or Microphones

Circling back to start of this blog post, as nice as it is to see your staff, it’s probably even more important to hear them. Your remote staff could be working anywhere, from home, from a cafe, maybe even on the beach. So it’s important that external noise doesn’t interfere during meetings, which is why you should look to give your staff a decent headset for calls.

If you’re in an indoor, home office environment and they have headphones they like, a simple USB microphone like the Blue Snowball or one built into their webcam would work fine.

Headsets do, however, have the versatility we mentioned of being able to plug into a laptop and be taken anywhere. They will also offer that noise isolation. They don’t have to be expensive fancy ones, just something with a mic built-in.

Communication Tools For Your Remote Staff

So having a messaging app is a given, but keep your sanity and keep all communication to one app. It can be a nightmare to sort through PMs from various apps. Now you don’t need a paid service like Slack, but it can be extremely useful to have any app with a solid search function, the ability to make channels and threads.

Discord does most of this for free, but it is tailored to gamers rather than the working crowd, so it does have a bit of a learning curve.

What tools for remote staff have you found useful for getting your staff collaborating from different parts of the world? Let us know in the comments below!

Top Online Tools for Entrepreneurs

Being an entrepreneur isn’t an easy path, but nothing is better than setting your own schedule and being in charge of your own destiny. The best part about it is in today’s world you don’t even have to leave your bedroom! So today we’re going to talk about online tools for entrepreneurs.

Meeting Management Tools for Entrepreneurs

So when you kick off your business, it’s going to be meetings. Tons and tons of meetings. And the worst thing you can do is double book meetings, especially if it’s a prospective client or potential investor.  It’s even worse to keep going back and forth on when a person is available to meet. So instead of trying to keep a running tally of meeting times you are available and converting time zones, you need something that helps you schedule these meetings

That’s why it’s helpful to have online meeting schedulers like calendly, which you can start with for free. Basically, set up your event type, designate the times you are available and send the link calendly creates to whoever you plan to meet with. They’ll select a time and you’re good to go!

A person sat in a coffee shop using online tools for entrepreneurs on their laptop which is on the table in front of them along with a cup of coffee.
Photo by Jenny Ueberberg on Unsplash

Online File Storage

Everything lives on the cloud these days. Unless it’s ultra-private/secret info, your files are going to be on some cloud storage system instead of on a thumb drive that can be easily lost.  Now while I know the default is Google Drive for many people simply for the number of services it offers, it may not always be the best choice. If media files are a core part of your operation, like videos, gifs, images, I’d strongly suggest using Dropbox.

I live in Singapore, which is like the top 3 in terms of internet speed in the world. Not to mention hosts tons of data servers and Google Drive is still painfully slow with loading video files or zipping multiple files for download. I’m not sure what sorcery Dropbox does, but files download instantly and playback almost immediately as well. However, if you just are focused on productivity, contracts, presentations, etc, then Google Drive is still the best ticket in town as far as online tools for entrepreneurs go.

Screen Capture

Things move fast and it’s important to get feedback on things quickly. It could be a mockup for a graphic to use in a presentation or showing the proposed UI for a website you are launching. That’s where XSplit Capture and Cloud come in.

You can quickly capture and record your screen with XSplit Capture, which will then upload to XSplit Cloud and give you a link that you can share with colleagues for comments. A pro tip for video is that you can add timestamps of your comments if you want to call out a specific part of the video for feedback.

Project Management Tools for Entrepreneurs

Once the work starts coming in, you’ll need to delegate tasks and keep track of important deliverables. If you’re using or interacting with a remote workforce, you can check out our video below on tools for managing your workforce, but one of the most important is having project management software.

Now there’s a variety of tools like Trello, meistertask and ClickUp. The most important part is that it’s a system you can understand and quickly access via web or mobile app. My personal preference is meistertask, but any type of Kanban board system is a good starting point for online tools for entrepreneurs.

Wire/Money Transfer

Continuing with remote work, if you’re working with remote staff, you need to pay them. Depending on where you are located, doing an international bank transfer, especially in different currencies can be quite challenging and expensive with local banks. In this case, Wise is a useful tool if you can access it. Wise allows you to set up a multi-currency account and allows you to transfer money between a variety of currencies all online.

It is important to check with your local banks though, for example, Singapore banks are pretty top tier with international money transfers.

Presentation

Likely every meeting you’ll be doing will have some form of presentation. You’ll be hoping from Zoom to Google Meets to Microsoft Teams. Each time figuring out how to share the right screen. You can make this process simpler with XSplit Presenter!

XSplit Presenter allows you to load your PowerPoint, pdf, or Google Slides then add various elements like videos, cameras, and web pages. Once you have everything set up, just add XSplit Presenter as your video camera source in your video chat software. No more sharing the wrong screen!

All these tools I’ve recommended are free to try. If you have any tools that have helped you in your business let us know in the comments below!

Why Email When You Could Send Video Messages for Work?

There are lots of good reasons to communicate via email – it’s a great tool when you need to quickly and easily share information like your point of view, a case study, or whitepaper. However, there are times when the written word doesn’t quite feel like enough and you might prefer to show the recipient what you’re trying to communicate. With XSplit Capture, it’s easy to send video messages for work with screen capture, or a bit more.

Why would I send video messages for work?

If you’re trying to tell someone how to perform a process, make them aware of a bug in a piece of software, or show off the latest design of your website, it can be easier to present a visual rather than send an email. Not only does it save time but also makes it easier to demonstrate the relative point – so, why not make a recording of your screen while you run through the steps on your own computer? This will make what you’re doing obvious to the viewer, as well as allow them to see exactly what the process involves. It will also make it much easier for them to retrace your steps if they need to. 

Recording a video doesn’t have to be a slow process either – you can record in the same time that it takes you to run through whatever you’re showing, and the recipient can watch it just as quickly, or slow it down if they need to catch the details. It can also be much easier to explain something out loud than in a text format, especially when you need to point at things for emphasis.

A person sat at a desk in a cafe using a laptop sending a video message for work with a mug next to them and books on the desk.
Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash

How would I make this video?

XSplit Capture makes recording your screen easy. Simply select the area of your screen that you want to record, then carry on using the computer as normal. Once you’ve finished your recording, you can add any additional notes, or annotations, to cover anything you missed, then use the link provided in the software to share your video with your colleagues. There’s no need to worry about hosting or sending large files as the software will handle that for you seamlessly, automatically saving your videos to the cloud. 

If you want to make something a bit more complex, you can use the videos from XSplit Capture as the starting point for something more in-depth. This could involve joining multiple videos together, or even using them as part of a presentation. All of your captures, screenshots, and recordings are easy to access from your XSplit account so retrieving them is a quick and straightforward process. 

With XSplit Capture, it’s just as easy to attach a screen capture to your message as it is to send a text or a voice clip, so why wouldn’t you share that extra level of information? You could even give your clip a quick edit before sending it to make sure you’re completely happy with what you show in editing software. But the ease of doing everything quickly and in one take is what Capture is all about!

How to Balance the Hybrid Office Workflow

The hybrid office is becoming more widespread than ever. With many workplaces now adopting a hybrid model, there are big questions for employees. Let’s discuss how to best manage time in order to make the most of working in both the home and the office and find a hybrid office balance.

Find a hybrid office balance with time management

One key to achieving a hybrid office balance is to think about when you really need to be in the office versus when it might be better to work from home. Of course, this will depend a lot on individual schedules and positions. But there are some guidelines you can use.

For example, you might group together all of your weekly tasks that require concentration. Then do these tasks in whichever environment is quieter and more productive for you. If possible, it can also be effective to group all of your meetings together on one or two days of the week. Then come into the office for these “meeting days”. This will give you a chance to connect with colleagues in person.

Some tasks, like training in new processes, onboarding new colleagues, and mentoring may be more effective if done in person. Others, such as writing reports or conducting research, may be easier to do from home. Once you have decided which tasks work better at home and which in the office, you can organize your schedule accordingly.

Four people sat in a conference room with a large screen at the end of it to help with a hybrid office balance.
Photo by Campaign Creators on Unsplash

Keep it inclusive with digital workflows

One-size-fits-all does not work well for a hybrid company where employees have the flexibility to work when and where they wish. So, many organizations and employees will need to rethink how they connect and engage with colleagues. Digital workflows are a key part of achieving this hybrid office balance.

Digital tools can be used to make many work tasks more inclusive, so both those at home and in the office can participate together on an even footing. The first step here is to use the meeting features on a tool like Zoom or Google Meet. You can use software like Google Docs or Office 365 to enable direct editing on long-distance shared work. Make sure to create a well-organized set of Slack or Teams channels so the team can communicate quickly and clearly from anywhere.

Digital meetings can sometimes feel static and uninteresting. To remedy zoom fatigue, use XSplit Presenter to make them more inclusive and engaging. Add your webcam on top of your presentation so everyone can see you as well as your materials. You can even add live annotations and guests to your presentations! You can also use a work management system, such as Asana or the Servicenow’s Now Platform, to capture key decisions and action items so they are easily accessible from anywhere.

Curated collaboration

Curated collaboration is all about designing your workflows so they suit a hybrid model. The goal is to create a system of working that helps people to collaborate no matter where they are working.

One way to look at this is similar to how a university operates. Everyone has different schedules but shares the same resources, such as classrooms, labs, etc. Groups are brought together in common spaces like lecture halls and cafeterias, and this thinking can be extended to the workplace.

One way to do this is to re-organize both physical and digital space. Physical offices can be transformed to include micro hubs, meeting points, or touchdown areas where those working from home can connect with those in the office. This can also be replicated at home, by setting aside dedicated times and platforms for different types of meetings, such as project meetings, brainstorming sessions, and socializing.

As hybrid workforces take hold, there’s a risk that we’ll all end up working two jobs – one at home and one at the office. To bring these together, it’s necessary to create both physical and digital solutions to ensure that work processes are as inclusive and efficient as possible.

Making the Most of Virtual All-Hands Presentations

With meetings going digital, you’re likely to need to organize a virtual all-hands presentation at some point. But what’s the best way to do this? How can you make the most of the available technology? Are there any advantages of virtual over real-world meetings? There are plenty of things to consider and many powerful tools available. So let’s run through these questions!

The advantages of a virtual all-hands meeting

After two years of working from home, we’re all quite used to attending meetings on Zoom or Teams and some of the big advantages are starting to become apparent. If everyone’s joining the meeting from home, it cuts down dramatically on travel time and costs, especially if you have a number of widespread sites. It also means you don’t need to maintain an overly large, rarely used meeting room or shell out for conference space.

Plus, if you’re broadcasting the meeting with XSplit Presenter, you can also record it to allow anyone who was unable to attend to see it afterward. Finally, going virtual allows you to have more control over what your attendees see – whether that’s through video, slides, or other media.

A laptop on a desk with a large virtual all-hands meeting displayed on it with a mug sat next to the laptop.
Photo by Chris Montgomery on Unsplash

How to make the most of a virtual meeting

If your meeting is going to be virtual, take advantage of the digital format by adding in some media. You could include video clips, animations, or other multimedia to spice things up a bit. Just make sure your slides are interesting and polished since they’ll be front and center. Remember to have your webcam on to give a more personal feel to the meeting, and it’s a good idea to use software like XSplit Presenter to integrate it with the presentation. By having your feed appear over the top of the slides, it will put a human face to content that might otherwise feel overly businesslike or impersonal. The function to annotate in real-time can also be a clear and engaging way of highlighting the main points. 

Since you know that everyone will be watching on a computer, you can also include things like polls, using a third-party website, to allow people to vote on questions or give feedback. Use the chat system to allow people to ask questions and get involved. Adding images to your XSplit Presenter slides will give them a lot more depth as well. Whether you go for subject-relevant photos or humorous cartoons and memes depends on the feel you’re going for with the presentation – or maybe you just want to lighten the mood!

Bring a friend to your virtual all-hands!

Consider having multiple presenters, inviting external guests. Or calling on individual managers to report on their departments in order to break up the meeting and add some variety. If you can add multiple webcam views to your video stream, that can help too. But consider checking that the feeds have a similar feel with regards to lighting and quality – it can look quite strange if one presenter is well lit and clear and another is in pixelated shadow. 

This advice applies to backgrounds as well – virtual backgrounds are fine, but they can look strange and distracting if the lighting is completely different and looks wrong. If you’re superimposing your webcam feed onto your presentation, XSplit Presenter will allow you to use a transparent background so the slide is visible around your head. This also lets you move out of the way if your face covers any of the content!

Virtual meetings have a lot of advantages, especially with the help of today’s technology. They can cure a lot of the logistical problems of trying to bring people together, but it’s worth putting in the effort to ensure that you’re making the most of them.