On the other hand, many employees may miss the in-person time spent with their colleagues, feeling isolated and lonely most of the time. Furthermore, many can also feel invisible while working from home, fearing that their achievements aren’t as visible as before.

For all these reasons, managers need to find a happy middle, take the best of both worlds, and offer hybrid work models that combine remote work with working from the office.

But if you’re unfamiliar with this increasingly popular work arrangement and have many questions about it, don’t worry. We have prepared answers to 3 questions that will help you better understand hybrid work and make it work for you and your teams.

What is the Best Approach to Hybrid Work?

If you want to get the best out of hybrid work, try to make a combination that will align with your employees’ wishes and your core business goals.

You can start by asking your employees crucial questions that will determine their need for a hybrid work model and offer you insight into the ways they want to work in the future.

You should try and find out whether your employees would leave your company if the hybrid work option wasn’t on the table. This is a crucial step in preventing surprisingly high turnover rates. Then ask them about the ideal proportion of the remote and office-based days, as well as what work may require work from the office compared to tasks that can be completed remotely.

When you gather this invaluable insight, analyze all the responses, and create a well-devised Hybrid Work Policy, containing clear and relevant answers and guidelines. Use this policy to define the situations and processes when you would require your employees’ presence in the office, like onboarding of new team members, cross-team collaboration, or working on innovative concepts and solutions.

Of course guidelines in your Hybrid Work policy aren’t written in stone. This said you can adjust these rules over time to better fit your employees and your business needs. Use the trial period to work out which combination of remote and office-based days best fits the different needs of your various teams.

How to Ensure Inclusivity in a Hybrid Workplace?

The issue of inclusivity can be challenging when trying to create a hybrid workplace. This is why you need to make sure all of your employees have the opportunity to work remotely when it suits them best. You can achieve this in two ways, by pooling or rotating or by providing remote training opportunities.

Pooling and rotating require specific teams and employees to switch on specific jobs during a workweek. Imagine that you have a team of five IT experts working in a Control Room, you can let two of them work remotely 1 or two days a week while the rest of the team covers for them. They can rotate each week until every team member gets an equal number of remote days. You can also make some room for your employees to work from home by digitizing numerous business processes.

If you still have employees whose responsibilities tie them to the office, you can offer remote learning and training opportunities. Ensuring that every employee has the opportunity to develop their skills remotely and grow professionally adds to the sense of inclusivity in your company.

How to Help Employees Adapt to Hybrid Work Environment?

Even though the hybrid work option is high on their wish list when it comes to enhanced working conditions, many employees need time and help to adjust to this work model. If you want to ensure that your transition to hybrid work goes smoothly, you need to devise detailed plans, explaining every step you intend to take in the process.

First, you need to define shared goals that you want your employees to achieve.

Then, define clear individual roles and responsibilities to avoid confusion and potential projects and tasks overlapping that can affect your teams’ performance and success.

You also need to offer let your employees know what resources they can use to be productive and collaborate effectively in the hybrid work environment.

Besides ensuring tight cross-team collaboration, you also need to find a way to track hybrid workers’ performance helping them to stay highly productive. Here is where reliable monitoring software for employees can be of great help, showing you how your employees spend their work hours minute by minute. You can analyze this data to identify and eliminate specific roadblocks to productivity, helping your remote and office-based teams to manage their time and workload better.

1. Make sure your employees have the proper setup.

Remote working can be challenging for many individuals, as it requires a fairly working office setup. A good laptop or computer, high-speed internet, and webcams are some of the essential things you need while working remotely. If your company decides to work remotely, it’s best to provide your team members with the necessary office devices and tools to set up their home office.

Having the proper office setup will ensure that your team has everything necessary to work and communicate with other team members. For example, the team members must have webcams to be able to participate in virtual meetings. It helps to maintain transparency in communication and avoid confusion.

2. Incorporate workplace culture

While working remotely, it can be challenging to create the same office work culture. As the team members are not physically present in the office, keeping everyone connected and working towards the same goal can be challenging. The human resources department usually leverages different approaches to create the same environment as the office by encouraging team members to communicate and share their ideas.

3. Promote team building activities

Team building activities are very effective to promote teamwork. The team leaders engage the team members in different activities to encourage collaboration. It can be funny games, activities, show your talent or trivia games to engage the team members more. As some team leaders find it challenging to host team-building activities online, numerous businesses help other companies to promote a work culture through engaging in different team-building activities.

4. Recognize and reward achievements

Rewards are a great way to encourage team members. When you recognize and reward the efforts of the staff, they get inspired to give their best for the company. The feeling of being appreciated for your hard work and efforts helps to build self-confidence. That self-confidence reflects on the actions of the team members. Make sure you recognize and reward even the small achievement of the team members and encourage them to give their best.

It can be challenging to do that while working remotely. In such cases, you can host a virtual event to recognize the individuals with the best performance and encourage them.

5. Improve the productivity of meetings

Meetings are one of the effective ways of communication and collaboration in remote working. You can utilize the time in sessions to discuss the details of different projects and tasks. It’s the best time to delegate the responsibilities, set deadlines and take reports from the team members. If any team member fails to attend the meeting, the Webex record meeting feature lets the host record the session on the cloud. The absent members can request the recorded meeting to get to the speed. It’s also good to avoid unnecessary meetings. As the team members are working remotely, it can be a little difficult to connect every time. The power cuts or slow internet connection can cause connectivity issues. It’s best to keep the meetings short and on the topic.

6. Maintain clear communication

Clear communication is the key to efficient business operations. It’s crucial to maintain clear communication among the team members and management to be on the same page about goals. Though business communication is essential, it becomes challenging to maintain the transparency of communication while working remotely.

The miscommunication is more likely to happen because of the team members’ poor connectivity and physical distance. It gets easier to communicate while working remotely with the right approach, such as clear email communications, telecalling, and video conferencing.

7. Take regular feedback

Feedbacks are highly effective when it comes to improving any system. It helps to improve the system by taking constructive feedback and criticism into account. While taking feedback, it’s also essential to take the necessary steps to act on the input. The employees are more likely to be expressive about their problems while working remotely if the management perceives them constructively. The team leader and the administration need to take active steps to solve the problem. It will not only streamline the workflow but helps to improve the efficiency of remote work.

8. Follow Digital wellbeing policies

It’s easier to lose track of time while working from home. Constantly using the computer can put a lot of strain on your eyes and cause lower back pain. It becomes imperative to take care of your physical health, as constant exposure to the digital screen can cause numerous health problems. Digital wellbeing is all about making efficient use of digital technology without causing any harm to your health.

An ideal company incorporates digital wellbeing policies to save its employees from the adverse effects of computer use. It also helps to improve productivity in the long run.

9. Set clear responsibilities and roles

It can create miscommunication and misunderstanding while communicating online through video conferencing platforms. Poor connectivity and other technical problems can confuse the responsibilities and the roles assigned to the team members.

It’s essential to set clear responsibilities and roles while working remotely to avoid such confusion. Companies can use different solutions like Webex record meeting to keep track of the session and watch the recorded video to prevent confusion.

10. Follow an efficient work schedule

Remote working can put a lot of physical and mental stress on the team members. As your home and office are at the same place, you are more likely to spend a lot of your time at your home. You are more likely to overwork your schedule and lose track of time. In such a case, it’s essential to follow a flexible and efficient work schedule. Many companies allow their employees to follow flexible office timings to improve their efficiency and productivity.

These are 10 of the many practical tips to improve the efficiency of remote working. Use the right technology and maintain clear communication to reach the business goals.

Transport and Innovation: Air Taxi Industry Pioneers

One innovative sector is tackling the challenge of coming up with a faster way to transport people and goods with minimal chances to get stuck in traffic, which is how the concept of an air taxi is born. Air taxi is not only a concept – aircraft technology in testing has transformed into an entire industry with fully functioning prototypes of aircraft vehicles. Astro Aerospace is one of the companies leading the innovation and setting up future standards for the air taxi industry. Air taxis might become mainstream in a matter of years to a decade, so how will the air taxi industry work?

SATS and eVTOLs: The Future of Transportation and Aircraft Vehicles

When talking about the industry of air taxis, two concepts emerge as the prototypes of aircraft vehicles. The technology has come so far that we can freely say that air taxis could become a serious part of the aircraft industry as the technology is being further improved and developed. The two concepts for aircraft vehicles and air taxis are known as SATS and eVTOLs. SATS stands for Small Aircraft Transportation System, and eVTOLs is abbreviated from Electronic Vertical Take-Off and Landing. Both concepts represent different models of aircraft vehicles.

One of the leading companies in innovating the industry of air transportation is Astro Aerospace, which produces and develops eVTOLs for different purposes, which includes medical emergency and emergency response, transportation of people, and transportation of goods. Astro Aerospace (OTC:ASDN) already has a functional prototype with working technology. This prototype has a carbon fiber shell with 16 separate rotors and is accessible, affordable, and user-friendly. Precisely thanks to these features and innovation in aircraft technology, This prototype could pose as the first mainstream and commercialized air taxis. The rapidly-growing company’s eVTOLs could reduce the time taken in transport, as well as cut the costs of transportation and tackle challenges such as rural connectivity and late cargo deliveries.

SATS also pose as aircraft vehicle models, promoting light design, fast transportation, and convenience. The plan for building transportation infrastructure for the United States is to set up over 5,000 different small, local airports where passengers could board a small, affordable and safe aircraft to get to their destination in minutes instead of hours. As there are already working prototypes for both aircraft models, the air taxi industry could soon boom in some parts of the world while global expansion and adoption might take up to 20 decades.

Improving the Future of Elevated Mobility with eVTOLs

Electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles are said to be the future of air transportation, making the future of elevated mobility more cost-efficient, faster, more convenient, and with the possibility to transport people and cargo quietly and under significantly reduced time. Astro Aerospace eVTOLs prototypes are already built and designed although the exact date of release is not yet announced. AERO model has both automated piloting and manual flight mode and is extremely compact which makes it a perfect aircraft vehicle for the air taxi industry. Air taxi could be one of the later use cases for this aircraft vehicle as there should be changes and adaptations in the infrastructure of existing transportation systems. Some of the first use cases that could see the use of eVTOLs are emergency response and medical emergency. These aircraft vehicles can be used to transport sensitive medical cargo and patients with direct hospital-to-hospital flights. The future infrastructure of air taxis would call for the design and development of aircraft stations that could be located in urban environments as well as eVTOLs are small-sized air vehicles when compared to helicopters and airplanes. Even though Astro Aerospace company has already built a fully functioning eVTOLs prototype, there is more room for improvement as the industry of elevated mobility is still in development especially when it comes to integrations with existing local transportation systems.

How will the Air Taxi Industry Work, Exactly?

A great number of science fiction films allows us to easily imagine how it would look like to have a local and compact air transportation system – traveling around the city as well as taking longer destinations would take fewer times while passengers could be picked up from the comfort of their 40-story apartment in New York for example. Moreover, aircraft transportation systems could tackle the challenge of reducing the time spent in traffic or solve the issue of traffic jams for good. The future of mobility and air transport seems to be moving in the direction of cutting the time needed for people and cargo to get from one destination to another, which is how air taxis and the industry of aircraft vehicles see a bright future. It will take some time to popularize and commercialize this concept among the broader public, while it may take up to 2 decades to create a new infrastructure to enable eVTOLs for public transportation and adjust it to fit the existing transportation systems.

What speaks in favor of the development of aircraft vehicles by far is not the demand itself, but rather the technological advancement and efforts made by the companies such as Astro Aerospace.

Online learning is a critical method of education delivery, as opposed to only an addition to the one on one training. Here are various reasons to consider enrolling for online courses.

Shows you possess exceptional skill sets.

During interviews, candidates regularly find it difficult to discuss what they can accomplish for an organization. Talking confidently about a range of skills you have acquired gives you an upper hand in an interview.

Online courses are likewise an extraordinary way to show your unique skills that distinguish you from other qualified applicants. Online courses place students for professional success even as they work, in-between jobs, or raise their families.

Nowadays, numerous companies look for candidates with broad knowledge and experience. Gaining a degree shows potential bosses that you are driven and inspired. Such scholarly work will also clarify any irregularities or spaces in a resume. Register for remote work courses online to secure your future with competent skills.

Easily accessible

Do you live in places where it snows?

It can be troublesome to attend classes when there is a storm. It would be best if you rose early, scoop your way out, move in the frosty streets, and walk over the freezing grounds.

Online courses empower you to learn or teach from anyplace on the planet. That implies there’s no compelling reason to commute from home to college or follow a fixed timetable. Furthermore, it allows you to save more on time and money to use on different needs.

Perhaps you are learning abroad or you need to work from home. Enrolling for online courses is the ideal choice.

Enables you to concentrate more

It can be hard to concentrate in class. Occasionally, you are worn out, and the person seated next to you smells bad. At times there may be construction works going on directly outside the study hall. Your study team wants to discuss a movie instead of solving your math assignment in certain instances.

With online courses, it’s a lot simpler to concentrate. If you experience noise in your surroundings, you can put on earphones. Online courses provide you the freedom to place yourself in a comfortable environment.

Do you find it difficult to concentrate during classes? It would help if you considered enrolling for an online course.

Provides flexibility

Students who have obligations besides school work will profit from online training. They can sign up for online classes and even finish their degree program while doing part-time jobs.

Today, many students are forced to work while pursuing studies in college or universities due to increased school expenses. Online programs allow such students to work as they study.

Online education allows students to study when it fits their schedule. Regardless of whether it is 4 am before children are awake or for a couple of hours late in the evening. Therefore, students need not stress over missing lectures due to work or failing to attend to their kids.

It’s convenient

Studying online does not limit you to a specific dress code. Students can attend a lecture with their pajamas while relaxing on their beds. Students have more freedom to do various things that makes the study more comfortable.

Not every student finds it easy to commute to class. Some students are obliged to travel long distances to attend classes. Other students’ medical issues that make it challenging to go outside.

Provides you with new technical skills

In case you are not so technically knowledgeable, online classes will help you gain new technical skills.

During online projects, you will figure out how to download or transfer materials, edit or share documents, and communicate on the web.

That might be surprising for certain individuals; however, such things are basic in this digital age allowing you to stay abreast of new technologies.

Since online courses provide students full authority over their studies, students can learn at their own pace. Usually, students learn faster on online platforms. They can move quicker through topics of the course they feel good with, yet slower in challenging topics.

Enhances your self-discipline

For anyone to be successful in online courses, they have to be self-disciplined. Teachers are not available to tell you to finish up an assignment. You need to login and engage in the debates to acquire participation credit. A lazy student will easily fail the course.

Attending web-based classes builds your self-control, which frequently impacts your life, including your health, hard working attitude, and relationships.

Bottom Line

The future of online learning looks bright and allows training to a larger population than at any time in recent memory. On many occasions, online learning is an easily accessible, versatile, and productive strategy for learning that any person can enjoy.

Infographic brought to you by Wrike free project tracking tools

Running a small business is your chance to make your mark on the world. Maybe you and your team have developed a game-changing product or service, or maybe you are making the best cakes in town. Either way, you doing your own thing is what it is all about. One of the more mundane aspects of running a small business is financing. Even if you aren’t a Wharton MBA, you do need a plan to track your business’s finances, so to help you out here are four hacks that work:

1:- Contract It

Whilst this might not appear to be a finance trick, using contractors is a great way to better manage your labor expenses. Even though contractors might be slightly more expensive on an hourly basis, they allow you to tap into skills which you only need on an intermittent basis. These short-term work arrangements help you to lower your fixed labor costs and by extension your insurance costs.

2:- Invoice, Invoice, Invoice

This is how you get paid, and you need to invoice as if the future of your business depends on it. But this hack is not just about sending out the invoice, it is also about invoice accuracy. This means making sure that all details are correct and that you have set up clear payment terms with your customers. Remember, a customer who does not pay is charity.

Invoicing correctly also has the added advantage of forcing you to keep your eye on the ball every day. A late delivery can cost you money, so you want to make sure that orders are delivered on time, every time.

3:- Banks Are Not the Only Funding Source

In this past, a business owner only had one choice if they needed financing. That is to put on their best suit and head down to the local bank to beg for a loan. However, times have changed and banks are no longer the only funding source. In fact, for most small businesses today, banks are the last choice.

As such, a small business owner should develop a list of reliable lenders who understand the needs of their business. This is especially true when borrowers look at a working capital loan. In recent years a number of lenders have cropped up who specialize in this form of finance for small business, and this means there is more choice than ever.

First, these lenders understand that small businesses owners need working capital loans fast. As such, there is no need to fill out forms in triplicate. Second, they have special programs which look at your ability to pay based on your actual sales and not a fixed monthly payment. This affords greater flexibility and allows business owners to focus on what is most important to them – running their business.

These lenders know that you don’t have time for filling out forms in triplicate. They know that what you need are straight answers which can help you solve liquidity challenges today. These programs can include purchase order financing, equipment financing, and even merchant advances – which is when you get a loan or a line based on future credit card sales. Times are changing, so why continue to go back to banks to meet the funding needs of a small business?

4:- Have a Plan

Without a plan, it is impossible to know where you are going. This not only includes long-term goals for your business but it also includes a process to track the financial performance for your business and how to review those results and affect change. Having a plan is hard work but not having one can be even worse as it leaves your business open to being blindsided. Look at the news, surprises happen.

The first step to having a plan for your business’ finance is sitting down with your accountant or trusted advisors to map out what is important. For example, if your business is highly seasonal, then you need to plan for this. If not, then you will face severe challenges in making ends meet. Furthermore, what is your plan for capital investment or inventory or even to set up a rainy-day fund? The only way you can be prepared to meet these challenges is to have a plan, track its progress, and adjust as required.