In more and more organizations, allowing remote working is becoming a common practice. There is even a desire to encourage working remotely in the hope of saving on office space costs. In the most progressive organizations, there is talk of working independently of time and place. There is a willingness to take a step in the direction where the time spent at the workplace is no longer the decisive factor, but the fact that results are generated. Here, new skills for leadership in remote work are needed.

Remote Working Can Make You Feel Even More Distant

If interaction in the work community has not been genuine and sufficient in the past, it can disappear completely with remote working. Workers’ feelings of not being known, not being interested in what they are doing or not being supported are likely to increase during the period of remote working. The same anxiety is certainly true for the manager; can I be confident that the work will get done, quality will not suffer and my employees will stay well? How should I improve my leadership in remote work?

Although interaction is always multi-directional, the main responsibility for maintaining it and developing an organizational culture lies with management.  Even good systems or skills will not help if they are not supported by the organizational culture. It is worth documenting principles and engaging people in agreed ways of working, but the strongest impact on leading people is by example.

In this blog post, we want to focus specifically on the topic from a management perspective. In the past, we wrote about the challenges of remote management. Now we want to highlight the issues raised in various studies. The aim of this article is to help you identify the areas that need to be developed in your own organization or in your own leadership in remote work and virtual teams to be succesfull.

Test If You Are A Great Remote Leader

• Do you demonstrate and build trust?
• Do you share responsibility?
• Do you keep in touch with employees on your own initiative and do this regularly?
• Do you pay attention to the tone of communication? Do you remember to start emails with a greeting?
• Do you reply to messages promptly, at least with an acknowledgement that the message has been received?
• Do you listen actively? Do you ask questions?
• Do you stick to agreed remote meetings?
• Do you organize opportunities for participation?
• Do you value collaborative intelligence and harness the innovative power of the network?
• Do you encourage experimentation?
• Are you aware of risks and proactive, especially in the area of well-being at work?
• Do you know your employees on a personal level, below the surface?
• Do you understand and value diversity?
• Do you coach? Do you support your employee’s growth and development?
• Do you set targets and monitor progress together with your employees?
• Do you share information to the appropriate extent?
• Are you a clear and systematic virtual leader? Do your digital collaboration tools run smoothly?

Benefits Of Remote Work From a Management Perspective

Leading remote and virtual work is no more challenging than managing a same-site team, but it is different. On the other hand, many managers find it more challenging to lead a virtual team. We are not really at all surprised because typically we humans try to operate in the same way even when circumstances change.

If you’re trying to lead a remote team with the same principles you’re used to leading a same-site team, you’re bound to find it challenging. Managers are therefore asked to question their own behaviour and change their management practices to adapt to new circumstances.

In particular, traditional ways of managing, supervising and organizing work are a barrier to better use of virtual work. In many organizations, old management cultures and attitudes still prevail. For example, the value placed on controlled and time-controlled work is holding back the uptake of virtual working.

Studies have shown that remote and virtual working increases employees’’ autonomy. It has also been found to allow better concentration on work tasks. Virtual teamwork has also been found to often be more task-oriented and business-focused.

Interestingly, virtual teams are also more egalitarian, which allows, among other things, better access to the ideas and expertise of their members. At its best and when managed properly, a virtual team is also capable of more effective decision-making.

Challenges For Management

A more challenging aspect of managing virtual work is building a functioning team. If it is remote management and people are in the same place part of the time, it is much easier to build a team. However, in the case of a multi-site team, building a good team spirit and team identity requires more effort and planning.

People have an innate need to feel a sense of belonging. If team members do not feel a sense of belonging, the result is less communication and team cohesion, and lower employee morale and organizational commitment. However, the feeling of isolation is not only due to physical distance, but the psychological feeling of closeness is more essential than the physical one for belonging.

Studies have shown that remote and virtual working increases employees’’ autonomy. It has also been found to allow better concentration on work tasks. Virtual teamwork has also been found to often be more task-oriented and business-focused.

Interestingly, virtual teams are also more egalitarian, which allows, among other things, better access to the ideas and expertise of their members. At its best and when managed properly, a virtual team is also capable of more effective decision-making.

Those working virtually or at a distance easily perceive a lack of support from the work community as a problem. This social support is also a challenge for managers. Social support includes emotional support, appreciation, caring, trust, listening, giving feedback, advice and guidance. Social support is an important work resource, as it prevents feelings of job fatigue, stress and dissatisfaction in uncertain situations.

Building trust is also a challenge from a managerial perspective: trust can be superficial and elusive; and giving employees sufficient attention, motivation, involvement and coaching.

Information Management Is Emphasized in Leading Remote Work

The vast majority of remote working is self-directed information work and in many ways the employee has become the manager of their own work. In order for workers to become self-directed, it is even more important that work and decisions can be made on the basis of reliable and up-to-date information.

This raises questions such as:

1. Is there a shared vision of strategy, work objectives and quality within the organization?
2. How should they be communicated and dealt with in the work community?
3. Is relevant information collected to support decision-making? For example, is customer feedback collected on a regular basis?
4. Does the employee keep track of what is going on? Is information about changes in customer satisfaction, for example, passed on to those who can influence it?
5. How do you ensure that everyone has access to relevant information? Are process descriptions, work instructions and other documents also available remotely?
6. Do information systems allow for self and community management by employees?  For example, organizing their own shifts within the team?
7. How do you ensure that individuals learn and transfer their skills into the organization’s knowledge and competence capital?
8. Does everyone know how to use the information systems?
9. Is information security in place?

Pay Attention To These In Your Management

• Reject ineffective policies
• Inspire people to work for a common cause
• Lead people instead of things
• Focus on connecting people
• Questioning assumptions and beliefs
• Break old rules

Reject Ineffective Policies And Inspire People To Work For a Common Cause

Leading a virtual team is likely to require a critical examination of your own and the team’s performance. Ineffective approaches need to be rejected and the manager needs to find new ways of managing.

In practice, this may mean new ways of motivating people, new ways of communicating the vision and creating a shared culture. Also new ways of thinking about how work should be done and what the organization should look like.

A common purpose motivates. Especially in the case of a virtual team, it promotes interaction and facilitates the creation of a virtual team atmosphere. The manager needs to get the team members excited about the issue and working towards a common cause.

Lead People Instead Of Things And Focus On Connecting People

Leading remote and virtual work is first and foremost about leading people. Focus more on leading people, not things. Increasingly, the responsibility for things and results is shifting to the people themselves.

It is important to recognise that management is about connecting people, not technologies. Suddenly, when managing the collaboration of telecommuters and virtual workers, technology can take over. So remember people first, and don’t get too hung up on a particular technology or pick too many different working tools.

Question Assumptions And Beliefs And Break Old Rules

Leaders need to be reminded to question their own actions. Shaking your assumptions and beliefs is healthy, and you won’t find new ways of doing things without questioning them. In a good spirit, also seek to question your employees’ beliefs. In some organizations, there is still a strong belief that remote workers should not be called during the day because it will distract them.

By discovering policies that don’t work and questioning your own leadership in remote work and team performance, you may also come up against old rules. Dare to throw out old rules and create new ones.

Communication Plays An Important Role

Building trust between staff and management is one of the most important tasks for getting the job done. Open and regular communication with team members is important, as is demonstrating the manager’s trust in team members.

Communication is therefore of paramount importance when managing a virtual team. Successful managers manage to build personal relationships with staff, regardless of distance.

In addition, good virtual team management requires discipline and focus. The management style must be clear and consistent. Follow-up plays an important role in managing virtual work.

Concrete ways to increase and improve communication include telephone and virtual meetings, the use of agendas in meetings, different visualization materials, documents and notes provided before and after meetings, and facilitation and participation techniques used in meetings.

Starting Points For Successful Remote Leadership

There have always been exceptional situations, and they are a good opportunity to stop and think about how things could be done differently from the way they have been done in the past. Would a new way be better than a bag of old ones? In remote leadership, the focus should be on clarity, which consists of the following elements:

Tools

In remote working, it is very important to have the remote management tools in place and clear rules on how to communicate about what is going on. In many organizations, there are plenty of tools: Slack, Whatsapp, email and other instant messaging tools, with the result that messages get lost in the shuffle. Is less more? What is our toolbox for communicating?

Contact

What are the rules of communication? What, when and who do I contact? As a chaperone, what kind of example do I set of what is important? If the organization used to have a tradition of coffee breaks, which everyone thought was important, what is its role now? Can it be replaced by something virtual?

Objectives

Objectives should be clear, but not too strict, imposed from above. Avoiding micro-management and trust are important issues in managing remote teams.

Roles, Responsibilities And Powers

The same requirement for clarity applies to roles, responsibilities and powers. What is someone’s responsibility and what are their powers. These roles are even more important in remote working.

Monitoring And Reporting

What is expected of me, how to get the job done, and how to verify it. Monitoring and reporting gives structure and structure to the work. This is particularly useful for team members who need stronger leadership and support.

Transparency

Openness means that team members can ask questions about issues that are on their minds and share problems and successes. Openness works both ways.

Tips For Successful Leadership in Remote Work

1. Build an open communication culture, create common processes and guiding models for working together.
2. Provide regular feedback to those being led.
3. Take time to communicate the vision and clarify objectives.
4. Build trust and foster team spirit.
5. Be aware of and take into account the different needs of different employees.
6. Adopt a coach-like approach to leadership. Learn to ask good questions instead of giving ready answers.
7. Share leadership in remote work with your team – for employees, freedom also brings responsibility. Make it clear where employees can make independent decisions.
8. Adopt an open, positive and solution-oriented attitude.
9. Be empathetic, firm, decisive and focused on results.
10. Coordinate the activities of employees and adequately communicate what people are doing among team members.

Facilitate team activities by finding ways to improve communication, humanity and social interaction.

Leadership In Remote Work Requires New Skills

Create remote working structures together with employees. This means thinking together about inclusive, functional meeting practices, how work processes run in the world of remote working, how to communicate and where to store information. It’s also important to go over roles and responsibilities, i.e. who does what and who does what.

Show you care. It is worth arranging regular, one-to-one meetings with members of the work community if possible. Front-line workers may think, “I’m available, but employees may not want to be bothered.”

Be consistent and systematic. Stick to promises and deadlines, because organizational skills are what is expected of a frontline worker when leading remote work.

Take care of your own well-being. This is easier said than done. But you can seek counseling and take care of your recovery. Frontline work is often quite lonely, and in the world of telecommuting, frontline workers can be even more lonely.

Approaching critical business decisions and taking on projects based on your instincts may work, but it’s unreliable and unlikely to result in the long-term success of your small business.

Every small business aims to grow. To do that, it needs to provide excellent products and services through an ever-improving process. This requires project management, which, for small businesses, may seem easier since projects would tend to be smaller in scale, but that can’t be farther from the truth.

What Is Project Management?

In simple terms, project management is a systematic approach to the fulfillment of project objectives. This systematic approach may include the application of processes, techniques, knowledge, skills, and experience relevant to the achievement of set goals.

Sticking To The Budget And Schedule

Effective project management shall help a small business stay within its budget and stick to its plotted timeline. Given that small businesses have little to no room for error, spending only what’s needed and hitting deadlines is crucial for success. Project management methodologies involve the use of software and charts that make tracking a project’s progress easier. These project management tools allow you to divide tasks into smaller ones, so they’re easier to track.

These tools also allow project managers to keep a close eye on major expenditures, estimated costs, and other purchases and payments. Furthermore, the transparent nature of project management methodologies helps managers to spot discrepancies in purchases early, giving them enough wiggle room to renegotiate purchase orders. Not only will you be able to stick to your budget, but you will also be able to ensure a project is headed in the right direction.

Time and money are just a fraction of all the resources businesses draw on to function, and managing these resources is an integral part of project management. You can use a resource management software to ensure your small business’ limited financial, human, material, and intangible resources are being used efficiently.

Staying In Control

Small businesses have a tougher time when projects spin out of control since they don’t have enough people to move around, and this is why project management plays a critical role in their operation. Every project will face a problem, big or small, but an adequately managed project can keep them to a minimum and deploy corrective measures immediately.

To stay in control of projects, managers should set milestones, which should function as indicators of whether a project is still on track or not. Failing to hit a milestone means corrective measures need to be taken to regain control of the project.

Another important practice in staying on top of projects is field reporting. It’s a standard method of accurately tracking the day-to-day progress of projects and other adjacent events. Field reporting made easy an industry like construction as it allowed companies to find tailored solutions to improve their daily processes.

Promoting Accountability

Having fewer employees doesn’t exempt small businesses from accountability problems. A poorly managed project is likely to have confusion as to who was responsible for something, resulting in all sorts of issues and, ultimately, project failure. On the other hand, a well-managed project will have clearly defined roles for everyone involved.

When accountability is at the core of your company culture, employees will know when it’s their turn to act and be able to finish tasks on time.

Getting Actionable Insights

To ensure a company’s processes constantly improve, it needs actionable insights from its projects. Through project management, getting actionable insights is easier because it always involves excellent documentation, data collection, and, as mentioned, accountability. Every time a well-managed project is completed, a business can review, assess, and hypothesize as to what practices should be maintained and avoided. This enables a company to make the necessary changes to future endeavors.

Getting actionable insights also allows companies to perform an effective evaluation. Good project management promotes learning from one another’s mistakes as it encourages team members to voice out observations and concerns, which they can back up easily using data accumulated while the project was ongoing.7

Read also: Best tools for data collection

Conclusion

Project management is more challenging for small businesses than it is for large ones, but it isn’t any less important. If anything, small businesses need to do a better job at managing projects since their limited resources only allow for a small margin of error. For any small business that seeks growth, project management should be at the forefront of operations. If you are a team leader in your organization, you should also evaluate your skills of leadership in remote work.

Kat Sarmiento, Content Writer

How can teams collaborate effectively even if they’re rarely in the same room? While tools like Zoom and Slack help us stay connected when working remotely, they simply don’t replicate the many advantages of being together in a shared space. Such tools are really just streams of information without structure. Without the right context and structure, collaboration tools can waste time rather than create impactful change.

Howspace is an AI-powered digital collaboration platform that provides everyone with the same context, which helps to replicate the benefits of being together in a shared physical space. By encouraging everyone to participate in collaboration and social learning, you can help unleash everyone’s potential and creativity. The newest major Howspace features help you do just that.

• Super Chat with sticky notes: Brainstorm, categorize, and prioritize discussions and topics in a visual and inspiring way.
• Built-in AI Insight: Understand and analyze group discussions and make sense of large-scale dialogue in real-time.

Unleash Everyone’s Creativity

Howspace was developed to give people endless possibilities for designing structured discussions. We believe that change happens conversation by conversation. As people have the intrinsic need to be heard, we aim to offer ways for organizations to hear their employees and collaborate.

Howspace’s Super Chat widget has two chat modes: discussion & sticky note. Sticky note mode allows you to unleash everyone’s creativity—ideate, collaborate, and play all together. You can move, categorize, and prioritize color-coded comments so it’s perfect for collecting ideas and making sense of a huge amount of comments. You can activate and engage participants by inviting them to categorize comments.

Super Chat with sticky notes can be used in project management, workshops, or even learning processes where you start at step one and move forward.

Large-scale Sensemaking Is Just a Click Away

With the help of built-in AI Insight, you can build a better and more comprehensive understanding of discussions. Watch a word cloud assemble in real time from large-scale dialogue, and make objective summaries of current discussions.

Getting the interactive insights available for everyone in the workspace makes large-scale sensemaking easier than ever. You can pull the analysis to your page and enjoy the insights in real time. Or you can add AI Insight widgets to the different pages of your workspace and filter based on user list, profile fields, and much more.

For example, you might want to see a word cloud analysis of what everyone from the marketing team says about the current organizational culture. Or you might want to see an overview of the themes created when the finance team discusses the future of work.

The possibilities are endless, your imagination sets the boundaries of how and what you want to analyze with the new AI Insights.

Design Your Own Way To Facilitate Collaboration

At the core of Howspace is not what we do, but what you do. You know best how to facilitate the collaboration process so that things move ahead smoothly and generate a feeling of togetherness. Howspace is the platform that will help encourage participation and help you make sense of discussions so that everyone’s efforts play a role in the greater impact.

If you’re curious about Howspace, why not give it a try? You can access Howspace free for 30 days and experiment with the tips shared in this article by starting your free trial—no credit card required.

– Howspace Team

There are two main reasons why virtual meetings run late: people are not showing on time or there are some technical issues in the beginning or during the meeting. This time we will focus on the people aspect of the issue.

We’ve all been there: a virtual meeting has already started some time ago when someone comes in late. They apologize for being late, give an explanation and soon ask for a chance to speak. Then they comment on a topic and with the same arguments that the speaker has just moments earlier already addressed.

This has been a constant problem with virtual events. In the beginning of each event, meeting and workshop, the things that are usually discusses are for instance:

• planned structure of the event
• goals of the event

In addition, you as a host have probably also created a base for the meeting. The ones that come in late have missed this and they might then miss the concept and the bigger picture.

Some people seem to think that the beginning part is usually boring and they end up skipping these on purpose. As individuals these people get the points that they want out of these events but while doing so the entire community is hurting.

There are also various examples of situations where the participants of a virtual event have been having fruitful, constructive discussions. People have been able to get their voices out and different kinds of points of views have been addressed. New ideas have come up and problems have been already solved.

The ones that have been late and joined the event in the later parts have not been aware of what has already been discussed and solved. The late comer has then started to criticize the solutions without knowing the reasons and logic behind them.

Things You Can Do Before And During The Event

Probably everyone agrees that the participants who came in late are themselves responsible for adjusting to the event. Still, to make things run as smoothly as possible, there are things that you as the host can do. Good people skills in remote work and in general come handy here.

When reading your tips, remember that hybrid events might require two sets of instructions.

Prepare instructions for people that are late.

At least in our experience it’s a lot better to have instructions for people being late already before the meeting. Then, when someone arrives late, you can quickly share the instructions. The idea in the instructions is to encourage the participant to keep other participants in mind and to shortly get to know the materials first before starting to make any questions.

Make the inference path as clear as possible.

You can also make things easier for the participants that are late by utilizing the shared files or a digital collaboration platform that you have been using during the event. You can encourage the ones that are late to get to know the content of these files and platforms before making questions.

Have a short recap of the session so far

If you think that it’s possible to make a short summary of all the things that have already been discussed without it being a problem to the other participants, do that. While doing so, you can ask the participant who came in late to draw the focus already to things that are important next.

What If Someone Is Always Late?

If you are just a guest host or a presenter, you most likely have no prior experience of the ones that are late in your event.

If however, you are the one usually organizing virtual meetings and events in your company or organization, you might already know that for some, there’s a pattern of being late.

Now you can ask: is it fair to you or any of the participants who show up on time that the event gets interrupted and usually by one or two people? No, it’s not. A change in behavior is needed and sometimes it needs tougher actions than one might expect.

You can start preventing people from being late by not allowing them to be late.

1. Start the meeting always as scheduled and do not let late comers in.
2. Document the meeting rules and make sure that everyone is aware of them.
3. Create a system where a participant should make up the time they have lost from arriving late.
4. Make it mandatory to be there on time.
5. Consider leaving some time or arrival before the beginning of the actual meeting.
6. Have meetings start the day.
7. Have punctuality as a part of the performance review.

Also, to avoid delays on your end, make sure that you have sent all the needed materials and logins to each participant.

What Participants Who Are Late Should Do

If you are the manager or the leader of the organization, you need to communicate to your team what you are expecting from them. This can mean various things and include also letting them know what to do when they know they are going to be late to a meeting

1. Communication: Make it clear that they know they are going to be late, they need to call or send a message to their supervisor or some other person nominated for this.
2. Estimation: Ask the team member to give an estimation of the time of arrival. This way the meeting can continue and you are aware of where you might be when the one who’s late finally gets there.
3. Planning. Make it very clear that the time that they were late from the meeting is a time they also need to cover. Meetings are an equal part of working time as anything else.

Read next: The Role Of Project Management In a Small Business

The tasks of a facilitator are mostly very rewarding but also at times challenging to say the least. Now, when companies are shifting from remote work to hybrid model, the hybrid events and new kinds of challenges are here.

Facilitating Hybrid Events

To many it seems that at the moment setting up the events and preparing for them takes twice as much time. This comes as no surprise, since in hybrid events there are actually two different events or workshops happening at the same time. Unfortunately, this can be stressful for both the facilitator and participants.

According to our latest discussions with professional facilitators, many of them feel that to have the hybrid event run smoothly it actually needs two separate facilitators: one for the online participants and one for the ones that are on venue.

One of the key points that arise in discussions with facilitators (and organizations that use them in their events) is to evaluate what kind of added value a hybrid model in events is actually bringing. Some even say that it’s best to have the entire event as a remote one: this way every participant is equal. A remote event is also much easier to handle

What Is A Hybrid Event?

A hybrid event is simply a combination of different ways to participate. In hybrid events the participants and the speakers are partly present on location and others remotely. In other words, hybrid events are combining in-person and virtual event experiences. This means that there’s basically two events in one – or at least two different kinds of experiences for the participants. (Lakkaneva & Tirronen 2021)

Hybrid events can be live ones or recordings. The way you want to organize the event depends on your goals for it. To make the hybrid event a success, you need to find a way for the physical component to integrate well with your online audience. Each participant should hear the speakers well and participate in all activities as planned. (Chapa 2021)

One thing to keep in mind is that a live stream does not yet make an event a hybrid event. When we are talking about real hybrid events they need to include the best parts of both worlds. These events are expected to create an interactive and engaging experience from all locations. (Chapa 2021)

Benefits of Hybrid Events

• You can grow your audience with offering a chance to participate also virtually
• You can reach the attendance numbers you are hoping for
• Your sponsorship value also increases
• Offers flexibility
• Reduces costs

Three Examples Of Hybrid Events

Hybrid events can be formed in three parts that are as follows:

1. Speaker(s) and part of the participants are present and part of them are present remotely.
2. Speaker(s) are present and all participants are participating remotely.
3. Speaker(s) and a part of participants are present and some of the participants are joining from remote offices together. (Lakkaneva & Tirronen 2021)

In our experience the majority of all hybrid events are the ones where speaker or speakers and part of the participants are present at the venue and part of them present online.

Different Roles In Hybrid Events

Hybrid events require more planning than you might think. In many cases they also need more people than just one person trying to conduct the entire show.

If you really want your hybrid event to succeed, you should think about setting up people for each of these positions:

• The facilitator / host
• An expert / presenter
• Technical support
• Moderator for the chat
• Note taker
• Graphic facilitators

It’s understandable that not all have the possibility to have all of those positions filled. The most important parts that should, however, be always covered, are the facilitator and someone taking care of the technical matters. (Lakkaneva & Tirronen 2021)

Hybrid events must always have at least someone leading it. This does not automatically mean a facilitator, but it can also be a speaker or the organizator. For the hybrid event to run as smoothly as possible it is essential to have a separate person in charge of the technical things – especially during the event. This person can also be in charge of moderating the chat, if you don’t have anyone in particular assigned to that. (Lakkaneva & Tirronen 2021)

Note! Participants are of course an important part of the event. They should be informed about all the possible aspects of the event well before it. One thing to note is that participants are responsible for themselves, too. This means that they should get to know the event beforehand and to make sure that they know all the technical requirements to attend it.

In our experience the more roles you have covered during a hybrid event the more pleasant it is for the attendees. Having attended various hybrid events over the past few years it’s also good to point out that no matter what you as an organizer do, there will always be those attending that have not read your or listened to your instructions. These people are not your responsibility or your fault, and all other participants do understand that.

How To Facilitate a Successful Hybrid Event

1. Double plan
2. Set up a clear schedule
3. “Over-instruct”

To facilitate a successful hybrid event there are certain steps you should take. First of all, make the goal of the event as clear as possible. Once it’s done, double plan. This means that you really need to plan two events simultaneously. (Lakkaneva & Tirronen 2021)

The next step is to make sure that there are no technical issues. The only way to do this is to test the software and gadgets that you are using. Make sure to test the speed of your internet connection, too. (Lakkaneva & Tirronen 2021) Participants usually understand that sometimes there are issues with software and internet connections but if the entire event starts with problems, it sets a certain, not-wanted tune for the rest of the event.

Remember that it is always better to “over-instruct” the attendees, not only before but during and after the hybrid event. And last but not least, to be prepared to react. (Lakkaneva & Tirronen 2021) From a participant-point-of-view it’s better that everything is explained in detail. This makes the participants feel safe and calm, even without that much prior experience in attending hybrid events.

For you to deliver a successful hybrid event, you must also have a deeper understanding of different profiles and roles. This means that you should consider the participants’ objectives for participating in your events and what kind of content they would most likely like to see and experience. One key factor here is also choosing the right type of digital environment and a venue. (Fletcher 2021)

Sometimes facilitators are sending questionnaires before the actual event to find out about these. In our opinion that can make the participants feel like they need to come up with the content of the hybrid event, which is not always the best feeling.

Something to think about is also that in a hybrid event environment most participants are usually there online. It is still important that all the speakers are actually speaking to both audiences, not just the ones there in the venue or online. (Fletcher 2021) This might be clear for you already but in reality, in many hybrid events that we have participated in, the other audience has been forgotten or at least not taken into consideration that well.

• Make sure that the agenda is well balanced.
• Have host-speakers
• Make sure that the in-person audience and online audience can connect easily.
• The better you are prepared the better chances you have to succeed

Basically, when you are planning a hybrid business event, it means that you need to plan two events at the same time. If you think this is too much work, you shouldn’t try to organize a hybrid event in the first place. (Lakkaneva & Tirronen 2021)

If that’s really the case, we recommend that you plan a virtual event only, or an on location event only. You can also test the hybrid event with a smaller audience first and see how it feels.

Before the Hybrid Event

It’s not only what happens during the event that requires two different ways to plan and instruct it. You need to inform the participants twice: one set of instructions for the ones that are arriving at the location and one set for the ones that are participating remotely. (Lakkaneva & Tirronen 2021)

Instructions For The Remote Participant

Let the participants know when and how they can access the event. Also inform them about all the additional technical requirements or recommendations for instance for the best browser. (Lakkaneva & Tirronen 2021) The browser point is surprisingly important – not all understand what types of affects it has.

You can also recommend a headset microphone etc. If someone wants to test the platform before the event, tell them how this can be done. Also share the contact information of the technical support, if you happen to have one. (Lakkaneva & Tirronen 2021)

Instructions For The Ones At Location

Let the participants know where to arrive (the address, parking lots etc). You can also add a link to a map. Also, if the event requires laptops or other tools and gadgets, ask them to bring them. (Lakkaneva & Tirronen 2021)

As said before, there can always be those participants that have not read your instructions. This can be disappointing and stressful, but you are probably already used to that. Remember also, that on most events someone is always late. Tips on how to deal with that – read more here!

During The Hybrid Event

If there are a lot of technical newbies participating remotely, it’s best to use the first fifteen minutes or so to be reserved for them to test the software. Introduce the participants to all tools used in the event. Instruct people with microphones also. (Lakkaneva & Tirronen 2021)

For people that are used to participating in hybrid events and are familiar with various digital facilitation tools, these instructional parts are usually easy and sometimes tiresome to follow. Could you come up with something that would make the beginning of the instructional part slightly different from the usual ways of doing it?

If you are going to record the event, tell the participants about that. Instruct them on how to make their voices heard during the event. You can also share information about the breaks, rules etc. (Lakkaneva & Tirronen 2021)

From a participators’ point of view it’s very important to hear why and when the event is recorded. This is important especially when the participant has little or no prior experience in attending remote or hybrid events. If the reason for recording the event is not presented, it might cause uneasiness in the participant. So the better everyone really is informed the safer they feel and the more likely they are also active participants during the entire event.

After the Event

It’s important that after the hybrid event you as a facilitator/organizer have a short feedback discussion. Here you can all go through the event: what went well, what should be improved for the next time and how you go forward. (Lakkaneva & Tirronen 2021)

In our experience it’s also nice to have a feedback questionnaire as a participant. Of course not everyone likes to give feedback, no matter if it’s a short questionnaire or a larger poll. But as long as the feedback asked is voluntary, it’s better to send out those for all participants and preferably right after the hybrid event is over. You can also ask about the tools for remote work that you used in the event: this way you’ll know if some remote project management tools need to be replaced.

Sources:

Chapa, K. 2021. How to Host a Hybrid Event: A Hybrid Event Checklist. Delta Marketing. Accessed 7 December 2021. https://www.godelta.com/blog/how-to-host-a-hybrid-event

Fletcher, M. 2021. Four Pillars for Planning Virtual and Hybrid Events. Cvent. Accessed 7 December 2021. https://www.cvent.com/uk/blog/events/four-pillars-planning-virtual-and-hybrid-events.

Lakkaneva, T., Tirronen, U. 2021. Hybridiopas Käytännön vinkit hybriditilaisuuden järjestämiseen ja fasilitointiin. Bluescreen404. Accessed 7 December 2021. https://f.hubspotusercontent10.net/hubfs/5844313/Hybridiopas.pdf.

Being a facilitator is rewarding but challenging. Now when organizing and facilitating hybrid events is becoming the new normal, we are interested to learn more about facilitators’ experiences about the challenges they are facing. If you are a facilitator and would like to share your thoughts, drop as a note at contact@digitalcollaborationtool.com!

People skills in remote work and studies have become increasingly over the past couple of years, but what are those skills and can you learn them?

Even though we are talking about digital tools and are working in various teams at the moment, the majority of our team members – me included – are not huge fans of group work and assignments during studies.

This is mostly because students tend to have different levels of motivation and this sets challenges to the cooperation, at least when you want it to be effective. However, be it remote studies or remote work, each of us needs people skills, and to us it seems like these are put into a test especially in a school environment.

Since many students seem to be coming with different reasons and levels of motivation, the workflow might be different than to which you have been used to in working life. On the other hand, during our remote studies, we’ve learned that people skills are not as big of a test as they are when you are in a traditional class environment.

When you don’t see the people in front of you, it’s easier to let things go and not be stressed over every single detail.

If you have been studying somewhere over the past 20 years or so, you have probably heard more than enough about the importance of group work. Yep, they keep telling us that group work teaches you valuable lessons that you can utilize in working life.

But up to this day, I have failed to see the value of those endless times I have been trying to reach team members, asking them to be ready by deadline and so on. One of the most important people skills in working life is patience and this, this indeed has been tested during my studies.

Group work skills are of course important, there’s no denying of that. On the other hand, it feels like the emphasis is too much on group work, when in fact it should be in people skills.

At least in my experience, people skills are the most important skills and group work skills are only a small part of a bigger picture. But how about people skills in remote work and remote studies? Are there some things that are different from the traditional way of working or studying? To me it seems like, not really.

What Are People Skills?

Before we dive deeper into the wonderful pool of people skills in remote work and studies, let’s break the term down quickly.

Basically, people skills are about how you communicate, listen to others and relate to them, be it on a personal or professional level. In my experience, you can put empathy and respect for others, and problem solving skills to this category, too.

TOP 10 People Skills in Remote Work and Studies

• Self-confidence
• Empathy
• Assertiveness
• Understanding boundaries
• Communication
• Leadership skills
• Active listening
• Negotiation
• Ability to delegate
• Good manners

Based on my own experiences in both student and working life, I gathered this list of the top 10 skills for remote work and studies. These are just my own opinions and not something that is set in stone.

You may feel like some of the things listed above are not important at all and your list might look a lot different. Please do share your views in the comment section, very much appreciated!

When you look at the list you might spot the same thing as I did: many of these skills are intertwined and basically, can even be seen as just different ways of expressing the same thing.

Also something I would like to note here is that if you feel like some of these skills don’t come out as naturally for you, there’s no reason to worry. We can all learn these and in fact, I believe that this is a never-ending process that goes on both in remote work, studies and in your personal life.

Empathy, Active Listening and Good Manners

Empathy is probably the most important skill that you can have both as a working professional and as a human being in your personal life. Closely linked to empathy, I’ve listed active listening and good manners there, too.

Active listening is not the same thing as just listening to someone. People tend to listen to each other in a way that instead of actually listening to what they are being told, they are already thinking of their own response. This is not active listening.

Active listening means that you focus on what the person is saying and trying to say. Listen carefully, ask questions and take your time before giving your response. Active listeners do not interrupt the speaker but they really make an effort on listening and giving their response accordingly.

Active listening is a win-win for both parties: you can identify even the smallest details more easily and the other party feels respected and heard. Active listening is important also when you are using digital facilitation tools in your projects.

Active Listening In Remote Communication

How does this work in remote communication then? Is it possible to practice active listening online? Of course it is. You can be a great active listener in Skype/Zoom/Teams meetings and lectures.

In fact, for many of us it seems like active listening is much easier online: you are not face-to-face with the person and you have your own space, where you can process what you are hearing.

Also, when communicating by writing, you really have more time to take in what the other one is saying. On the other hand, with writing especially, there’s greater risk of misunderstandings.

Empathy and compassion might sound something that you cannot express that easily when working or studying remotely. In my experience, this all depends on the relationships that you have formed with your peers in remote teams and remote classes.

Compassion and empathy are skills that come especially handy in those situations, where you need to be diffusing heated discussions. These heated situations can occur because people feel overwhelmed or preoccupied, or they are having personal stress for instance. Empathy is all about being able to relate to others and their feelings.

To me it seems like expressing empathy is slightly more difficult in remote communication since people can hide their emotions more easily than when interacting with them face-to-face.

Anyways, the most important thing that you need to remember is that you make sure that others know that you understand their positions and feelings. When you add general good manners to this behaviour, you are mastering many important people skills in remote work and studies all at once.

Politeness shows others that you respect them and value their time and opinions. It’s usually the most simple things that make the difference: a hello, how are you, as your first Skype message to your remote team members is already a great starting point.

Delegate and Lead

A huge part of people skills in remote work and studies, at least in my experience, are also leadership skills and the ability to delegate. This applies to all positions within your organization and your career.

Great leaders are able to recognize strengths and weaknesses of each team member. I can understand that in remote work it’s more difficult to delegate tasks for those that are not physically at the office, but in today’s world, this is almost a must.

I myself appreciate and think very highly of the biggest client company that I have at the moment: they have given me huge responsibilities even though I am working from another country and never was a part of their team in the office before joining the project.

I’ve worked with leaders that are unable to delegate and trust their employees or freelancers. That is simply the biggest mistake these leaders can make. Even if they try to delegate they usually end up micromanaging which leads to people thinking that they are not trusted and respected.

In general, I’d say that leadership skills are important for us all, no matter where you work and in what position. When you recognize the weaknesses and strengths of others, assign tasks to them accordingly and are an active listener, you learn how to delegate effectively. Delegation is important in all aspects of the processes, also when you are using remote project management tools for instance.

Negotiation Skills and Communication

All of the people skills in remote work and studies that are already mentioned above, are boosted with communication skills and negotiation skills.

Whatever the industry you are working and the position you are in, clear and productive communication is the key to success. When you can express yourself in a clear way and are able to understand others’ way of communication, many problems and misunderstandings can be avoided.

This again requires things like active listening. To help others understand you, learn how to communicate in a clear way: take into consideration what you are really wanting to say and who you are talking to, what type of communicators they are and so on.

Negotiation skills are beneficial in all positions and in your studies, too . In fact, these people skills in remote work will benefit you not only in your professional but personal life, too

People Skills In Remote Work Are The Same Than In Other Parts Of Your Life

As I mentioned already in the very beginning of this post, each of the people skills in remote work are intertwined. And to remind you: these are not set in stone, these are just the people skills that I personally have found as the most important ones.

Each of these skills are important not only in business but in personal life, too. The key to success, at least in my experience, is that you just need to remember that these skills are about continuous learning and you will never be ready: there’s always room for improvement.

Read next: Leadership in Remote Work

Well-being consists of multiple parts. Each of us have our own definition for well being and factors that are affecting it. When it comes to our well-being, we also tend to value different things related to it.

Generally speaking one might say that things like health, environment, social relationships and the ability to do the things that are important to a person, are all parts of well-being. Today there are multiple tools for monitoring well-being, which are becoming increasingly popular.

In this post we will discuss big data, open data and myData in relation to well-being data and data management. The article addresses the use of data in well-being services and everyday life, but also the challenges and threats data management systems can have. For this article our team got help from an Master’s student in Xamk, physiotherapist Saija Hyvönen.

Well-being Data

To produce well-being data we need to collect it. This can be done differently, depending on things like the registrar and the facility. In Finland for instance, well-being data is currently collected in various registers. These registers have been in use for a long time already, and the data collected has been used in research and product development for years and years.

But what is data? It is digitally recorded information (symbols, marks) that machines can read. With the help of this data we are able to create documents, databases, transcripts of hearing and audio recordings. Basically, data is just raw material and by processing it, we can create meaningful information that we can use in various ways.

Data is being analyzed and utilized in different levels of organization and processes. With the help of data we can get answers to questions such as

• What has happened
• Why something is happening
• What should be done to make something happen

“In my work as a physiotherapist I collect data from the customer visits. Will the customer book a new appointment or not? If they don’t book another appointment, is it because their issue got resolved already on the first visit? I also collect data about customer satisfaction. This I do by a simple but effective questionnaire that the customer can fill after the visit. With the collected data I can see the quality of my treatments and also make changes for the future” Saija Hyvönen says.

Well-being Information In Finland Now And In The Future

The health and well-being data collected from citizens and the data collected by social services, the use of health and well-being data from the population and the use of health services and quality of the information available to citizens, social and health service providers and the public system, research institutions and businesses.

In Finland, however, the situation has long been that well-being data collected on individuals, such as patient and lifestyle data, is scattered in different systems and difficult to use. (Parikka et al. 2020, 10).

“In my own work as a physiotherapist, I find it challenging that when my clients come to my practice, I rarely get complete medical records on them, which could have a big impact on the course of treatment and speed up the initial assessment. For example, the information may be in my own file, in two different private hospital health records and as a multiple envelope during a visit. In addition, the client may still show the data measured by the smartwatch, which, depending on the device and measurement method, may either be useful or not” says Saija.

According to Tuomisto (2015), the patient himself will in future become an important information provider and may provide the doctor with, for example, exercise data collected by the mobile phone, which should enable an assessment of its relevance to health. On the other hand, patients will be able to make more thorough self-assessments and comparisons online and offer their own diagnosis and treatment recommendations to the doctor (and physiotherapist). The role of the doctor is changing from expert authority to coach.

“The problem I see in the work of physiotherapists is that, as self-diagnosis becomes more and more common, clients increasingly come to the doctor’s office with a ready-made diagnosis that they have worked out themselves, but this is not necessarily the case” Saija says and continues:

“This is a collision course with the first treatment session, when the client’s perception of the condition in question may be completely changed and the course of treatment may be different from what had been anticipated. It may seem strange, but some people may be disappointed when a sore shoulder is treated with rehabilitation rather than being put on the operating table.”

Three Different Types of Data

High-quality data is an extremely important raw material for research and innovation. In the future, access to data and the ability to use and combine it creatively will be key to developing new business models and effective governance. (Parikka et al. 2020, 1.)

In the future, people will have even better ways to manage and promote their own health as applications, data and genetic technologies develop. It is estimated that by 2030, an AI-enhanced platform economy and new data-driven services will account for at best 30% of the Finnish economy. (Parikka et al. 2020, 1.)

Big Data

Big data describes data volumes that are so large and diverse that they require technologies and practices that differ from traditional data processing to store and process them. (Sutinen 2016, 11.) Big data includes, for example, log data from websites or social media usage data, which are constantly growing and changing. We constantly leave a trace when we use the internet and getting rid of it can be challenging, usually impossible.

There are three commonly recognised characteristics for identifying Big Data. These characteristics, which distinguish big data from ordinary data, are:

• volume,
• velocity, and
• variety.

In terms of volume, big data deals with data that cannot be measured in terabytes or petabytes. Big data operates at a scale where non-traditional storage and analysis methods are required to analyse and store the data. Speed refers to the speed at which new data is created and the time it takes to be able to analyse the data. (Sutinen 2016, 11.)

A good example of Big Data is the use of social media data. Social social media can be used to track users’ interests, which can be used to influence, for example, targeted marketing.

There may be concern about how much data is available on one’s own online behaviour and targeted ads appear in front of the eyes. Every day, social media presents online services, courses and products related to health and well-being.

Mass data is becoming more and more common and more and more data is becoming freely available. In Finland, mass data is used in areas such as molecular biology and public health, making use of datasets related to these topics, especially from a Finnish perspective.

There are several important datasets in our country that are not yet being used effectively. Mass data has already provided significant benefits, particularly in understanding cellular phenomena, but the public health and individual choice benefits are only beginning to emerge. (Tuomisto, J. 2015.) Data and evidence can be used to better improve welfare services, bring clarity to decision-making and meet the need for services.

Open Data

Open data is information in digital format that is freely available to anyone for any use, as long as the original source is acknowledged. (Avoindata.fi 2021.)

The Avoindata.fi website lists three things to consider with regard to open data:

1. The data must be discoverable and accessible on the Internet in its entirety and free of charge in a usable and editable format.
2. It is freely viewable, downloadable, copyable, modifiable, sharable and accessible by anyone for any lawful activity without any economic, legal, technical, social or practical constraints.
3. Its terms of use and licenses guarantee the data producer the right to be duly identified, if he so wishes, and the user certainty as to the origin of the data. There are no other conditions restricting use.

For example, THL is constantly producing a lot of open data related to well-being data. THL makes the data it produces and collects openly available and promotes the widespread use of social and health data resources. The data published as open data does not contain personal data or other confidential information. When data is opened, all direct identifying information is removed (THL 2021.)

“The importance of open data in the development of welfare services will certainly increase in the future. The importance of information and data will become more important and health services will rely more and more on researched data and look at the big picture in the light of numbers. Both open data and mass data will contribute to quality data management, making statistics and research more and more part of the future of health services.” Saija points out.

Read also: Best data collecting tools

MyData

MyData is the principle of personal data management and processing, whereby people must be able to manage, access and share the personal data collected about them. If a person does not have the possibility to make use of personal data collected about him or her by someone else, it cannot be called MyData. (Poikola et al. 2018, 5.)

MyData (also omadata) refers on the one hand to human-centered models of personal data management and use that give people the right to their own data, and on the other hand to personal data managed according to such models. The idea is that people themselves can access, manage and pass on data collected about them, such as shopping, mobility, financial or health data.

People-centric data management creates interoperability and minimizes the creation of service locks as data platforms evolve. It reconciles individual rights and high data protection standards with the promotion of data accessibility and business. MyData is a phenomenon, model and future scenario in international development, around which technology and business are gathering momentum. (Poikola et al. 2018, 4.)

Biochipping

As mentioned earlier, people who measure themselves want to acquire information about themselves that will enable them to make decisions about themselves and improve their performance.

The ease and relative affordability of collecting self-reported data has led to a situation where many people are already tracking their activities at some level, for example through a smartphone or smart watch. (Koivunen 2014, 12.)

People already spend much of their time with technology, and it is now an inner curiosity and problem-solving drive to use technology to measure individual or other life-related characteristics. This purposeful monitoring of one’s own activities is known worldwide as self-tracking and these individuals are called self-trackers. In Finland, the term is biohacking and people who do biohacking are called biohackers. (Koivunen 2014, 12.)

“The disadvantage of biohacking is that the more you test, the more you find. It is not always possible for the person to judge whether the findings are necessarily a reason for further action. For example, taking an MRI scan of the back and finding a small bulge or insignificant abrasion may make a person more ill than they really are, because they have data about the finding in their own body.”, Saija says and adds:

“Excessive health monitoring can also cause stress and fear, even anxiety. In my opinion, technological tools and applications that come onto the market should have some form of control and accountability and their use should be based on researched data, or qualitatively good technologies/applications should be given a separate ‘researched good’ label. There are many different sources of health information, but the average consumer may not understand the need to pay attention to the reliability of the information sources.”

Information Security

Information security is the protection of data, systems, services and communications by administrative, technical and other measures. We now live in a world where almost all information and services must be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Digital security enables the digitalisation and uninterrupted functioning of society as a whole.

Digitalisation in an organization means being able to maintain its operations with controlled risks through guidelines, training and exercises. In the workplace, it is the organization’s management that is responsible for the implementation of the digital security aspects. (Eoppiva.fi, 2021.) Digital collaboration tools might also be needed.

Phone-related Security

“In my own life, I have had to think about information security in relation to my own phone usage, among other things. Behind a single code, or often a fingerprint, on a smartphone, there is a huge amount of sensitive personal data: bank details, emails (work and personal), prestored credit card details on websites, phone numbers/addresses, location histories, permissions given to applications (the ones in small print) and all social media channels. “ Saija says and adds:

“For many people, a mobile phone is a communication tool, a work tool, a hobby tool, a streaming service player, etc., which they carry in their pocket or bag more or less from morning to night. We are very vulnerable if our phones fall into the wrong hands.”

Data Security In the Work Of a Physiotherapist

“In my own work, data security protects a huge amount of data. Every day I deal with a patient information system which contains names, addresses, personal identifiers, telephone numbers and patient records. To access this data I need to know many passwords and sometimes double-check my access to the registry with my phone.” Saija says and continues:

“I have undergone the security training required by my employer, but I feel that it has not been comprehensive enough for me to know what to do in the event of a threat. For example, if I discovered a security breach of a medical record, I would have no idea who to report it to first.”

“When dealing with a large amount of sensitive data, the risks inevitably increase. For my own work, for example, maintaining a patient register is a necessity, not only to maintain personal data but also to protect both the physiotherapist providing the treatment and the patient by means of visit records. “What has not been recorded has not happened” was already taught during my physiotherapy studies.”

Thanks, Saija, for letting our team use your school assignment from your Master’s studies in Xamk as a base for this article and thank you for your valuable insights on the topic! Hope to get to work together in the future as well! – DCT team.

You can follow Saija and her studies (in Finnish) on her Instagram account @fysioterapiaa_ja_hyvinvointia

Sources:

Avoindata.fi. 2021. Mitä on avoin data? www-document. Available at: https://www.avoindata.fi/fi/opas/mita-on-avoin-data [accessed 27 September.2021].

Eoppiva. Digiturvallinen työelämä. 2021. Available at: https://www.eoppiva.fi/kurssit/digiturvallinen-tyoelama/#/ [accessed 28 September 2021].

Koivunen, S. 2014. University of Jyväskylä. Tietojenkäsittelytieteiden laitos. Progradu.  Dataa itsestä – kriittiset tekijät omaa toimintaa mittaavan teknologiapalvelun käyttöönotossa. Available at: https://jyx.jyu.fi/bitstream/handle/123456789/45151/1/URN%3ANBN%3Afi%3Ajyu-201501231171.pdf [accessed 27 September 2021].

Parikka, H., Sinipuro, J., Hämäläinen, H,. Kalliola, M,. Luoma-Kyyny, J., Malkamäki, S. 2020. Huomisen hyvinvointia datasta. Sitra. Available at: https://media.sitra.fi/2018/11/27161423/huomisen-hyvinvointia-datasta.pdf [accessed 27 September 2021].

Poikola, A., Kuikkaniemi, K., Kuittinen, O., Honko, H. & Knuutila, A. 2018. Open Knowledge Finland. Liikenne- ja viestintäministeriö. MyData – johdatus ihmiskeskeiseen henkilötiedon hyödyntämiseen. Available at: https://julkaisut.valtioneuvosto.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/160954/MyData%202018.pdf?sequence=4&isAllowed=y [accessed 27 September 2021].

Sutinen, M. 2016. University of Jyväskylä. Tietojenkäsittelytieteiden laitos. Big data ja analytiikka terveydenhuollossa. Available at: Tuomisto, J. 2015. https://jyx.jyu.fi/bitstream/handle/123456789/51135/URN%3ANBN%3Afi%3Ajyu-201608313919.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y [accessed 22 September 2021].

THL. 2021. Avoin data. Available et: https://thl.fi/fi/tilastot-ja-data/aineistot-ja-palvelut/avoin- data [accessed 14 November 2021].

Remote therapy is a convenient way of getting a therapy session. There are many reasons why you might want remote therapy—the first and most common being time and the current conditions. With COVID-19 spreading, digital tools for remote therapy are now needed.

Already before COVID pandemic, most of us didn’t have the time to juggle between work, studies, family, and therapy.

We have to prioritize, and something like therapy might take a back seat. Remote therapy ensures that you get to speak to a professional who can render some aid. It ensures that you can have peace of mind and some time to cater to all the different issues you might be facing. Some of the platforms to use can include recordings, messages, and emails.

Remote Therapy – How Does It Work?

The goal of therapy is to have better mental health. Remote therapy works in the same way but online. You get to take advantage of the available tools to reach out to a therapist who, in return, replies using the same tools or platform.

Also known as online or tell therapy, remote therapy works over secure connections and platforms like Skype. For remote therapy to succeed, you need to have a proper internet connection and find a reliable remote therapist.

Reviews can help you in finding a therapist. You should consider choosing a mobile carrier that’s widely available in your vicinity for the best internet connection.

More so, you must pick a communication channel that you are comfortable with. If you want the feeling of a real-life session, you should consider video platforms like Skype and Zoom.

On the other hand not many therapists let you choose the platform yourself, since majority of them are using a digital tool designed specifically for telemedicine.

Digital Tools for Better Mental Health

Remote therapy takes advantage of technological advancements to ensure that you have better mental health. Some of these digital simple tools for virtual meetings that the therapist can utilize will include online support groups.

A therapist can refer you to some online support groups to better your mental health. Since everything is happening online, you’ll find it easier to share your issues even if you want to remain anonymous. You can also learn from the issues that other people within the group are going through.

Meditation and mindfulness apps are other digital tools that some therapists will recommend. These apps work towards helping you reduce depression, anxiety, and stress.

Apps are convenient since you always have them with you and use them whenever you want to feel relieved. Different apps can help you in specific areas like sleep, pain relief, and stress management. Most of these apps can have timers and relaxing music to ensure that you can easily calm down.

Your remote therapy session will in most cases be held through some kind of software. Typically a session is not held in Skype because of security issues. To avoid any issues with the safety and privacy of your sessions, your therapist might use platforms such as Doxyme.

Doxyme Makes Online Sessions Safe

Doxyme is a simple, completely free and fully secured telemedicine solution. The company behind this product has made telemedicine very easy for professionals around the world.

A psycho therapist for instance can simply create a personal room in the platform and start practicing.

Who Is Online Therapy For?

Online therapy can work for everyone. However, it’s ideal for anyone who wants a convenient platform that will save them time. Online therapy helps people better their mental health by dealing with and solving the different issues they face in their day to day lives.

Therefore, it is a perfect solution for someone who doesn’t have the time to visit a therapist’s office or in the current situation wishes to have a remote session instead of a contact session.

Besides, if you reside in a rural community, you might opt for online therapy, since it can take longer to visit a therapist in the nearest town or city. Online therapy helps people who have additional problems like disabilities or illnesses.

It provides them with a chance to speak to professionals who can provide the best psychological support. More so, it can benefit young people who love to use technology every day. Most young people are comfortable on their phones and computers, and online therapy can be convenient and easier for them to appreciate.

Benefits Of Online Therapy

Convenience is one reason why most people love online therapy. You can seek help from anywhere since you can speak to a therapist when at home, work, travelling, or when you can’t attend an in-person session.

There is also another advantage of approachability. As stated earlier, some people are comfortable on their devices. Online therapy provides such people with a platform to air out their troubles to a therapist and obtain some aid.

Using online therapy will also provide you with a chance to express yourself. Unlike an in-person meeting, you can opt for messages and emails in online therapy. If you don’t want to see the therapist, you can leave your camera off while talking to them so they can’t see your face.

Not everyone is comfortable speaking face to face with a therapist, and these messaging options eradicate these issues.

Is Remote Therapy Effective?

Yes, it is. The advantage of remote therapy is that you can follow up with the therapist any time you would like. Therefore, when you encounter a problem, it’s easy to deal with it and lead a healthy life. Studies have also proven that remote therapy is as effective as in-person therapy. You, therefore, shouldn’t worry when considering this form of therapy. With remote therapy, the therapist can utilize some digital tools to ensure that you get the best help.

It’s easier for them to understand you since you can use a communication platform that you are comfortable with. Additionally, since it is cheaper than in-person sessions, you can spend more time with the therapist to ensure that you always iron out all the issues you might be facing.

Remote therapy is effective while being convenient and more approachable than in-person therapy. You can also consult with multiple therapists from different corners of the world without any exorbitant charges.

How Much Does Remote Therapy Cost?

Unlike in-person therapy, remote therapy is cheaper. In some places, you can pay between $100 and $200 per session. The session can be longer since you won’t have to commute to the therapist. You will also find that most of these professionals won’t bill you per hour. Most who bill per hour are the ones who offer in-person sessions that can cost you up to $250.

Remote therapy gets to be cheaper because the therapists, too, won’t have any overhead costs. They can work from home and provide you with the same help they would if it were in person. Besides, you can speak to different therapists around the globe without the need to travel to them.

When paying for remote therapy, you always get to enjoy the best services. However, in-person sessions will require you to be comfortable with the best therapist in your area. Remote therapy, therefore, provides you with more convenience since you can attain immediate and local aid.

Read next: Well-being data and tools

According to many studies, more than 50 percent of the U.S. parents reported that they have had little outside childcare mostly during this coronavirus pandemic.

This was alongside the closure of several schools and child care centers across the nation. The decision by some district schools to resort to “virtual learning only” comes at significant expense and concerns for parents. Also, child care providers across the nation are tirelessly engaged in activities to create more safe spaces and care scenarios for children.

Things Changed Quickly

The pandemic has had grave consequences and our businesses have had to switch to virtual working following the stipulated protocols. Because in corporate life people needed to communicate and collaborate with different departments and executives, Zoom came in handy to prevent unnecessary travels and promote work-efficiency.

For many, working virtually through screen sharing applications, audio and video conferencing was difficult in the beginning. Imagine the amazing experience of having the ability to communicate with colleagues at your own convenience, at minimal cost – if any – while maintaining timeliness.

School schedules are difficult, but solutions need to be smooth. Care centers currently run under their own pandemic protocols for the children, mostly at a crippling expense. It is essential to prepare for online learning in case your school closes or becomes exposed to COVID-19.

Remote learning was a required alternative for schools in the USA because the communities were devastated by coronavirus quarantine. Another reasonable alternative for schools for older children is a mix of live Zoom lessons, streaming images, and virtual assignments.

School Systems Adjustments Towards Virtual Lessons

A combination of online and face-to-face learning is expected to be initiated in schools. This would either be by replacing classrooms with virtual lessons or encouraging students to undertake “in-person” lessons for some months at home.

Several public school systems plan to begin the virtual learning or meetings to stand in the place of a normal learning process. Parents could prefer to make their kids also do distance learning in school districts with virtual meetings instead of going into a school this year.

Legislators and administrators and those who deal with them require timely information on COVID-19’s effects on public education programs and legislative strategies to resolve the problem.

Many school districts are committed to implementing the required systems that would support virtual sessions on their premises. This would allow individual parents, learners, and teachers to easily access the students’ process. Administrators have vouched for the virtual meetings as essential to the learning experience amid concerns from different aspects relative to such undertakings.

Daycares Are ‘In Crisis.’

The diverse demands for childcare emerge after childcare centers are limited to meet the requirements of social distancing. A survey conducted in July by the National Youth Education Association (NAEYC) revealed that 40 percent of US childcare centers in the United States said that they were confident that they would be closed down indefinitely without additional public support.

The research also indicates that 86 percent of open childcare centers serve fewer children than before the pandemic, with the average registration decreasing by 67%.

• A decrease in daycare registration signifies the crisis that this sector is suffering. When a daycare cannot offer its intended services, the crisis escalates.
• The regulations that advocate for the need for social distancing have proved to be significant within the community. These protocols have worked to create problems and challenges for virtual learning.

Throughout the world, teachers experiment with tasks that parents are able to do at their own pace with their young children. Many want to bond with their children’s live Zoom lessons and want much more to do at home to fill their children’s day.

Teachers would still like to stay in contact with the learners and live connections are important so that they are not too distant. Virtual meetings would then be crucial for the parents to consider.

Parental Concerns Over Virtual Lessons And Meetings Owing To Distractions And Effectiveness

The objective of daycare and pre-schools is questioned from the perspective of virtual classrooms. Parents pay for instructional resources and programs and caregivers to look after their children as they work. Quarantines have rendered this difficult as childcare.

Parents worry about the costs associated with these daycare and preschool classes. In addition to their worries, Zoom calls easily become less effective when pre-school children miss friends, neglect the guidance of the teacher, and eventually become distracted, while parents attempt to corral them to interact.

Virtual learning could also be a critical burden for parents who are making conference calls and aim to optimize their professional performance. Parents of young children who aren’t yet able to use computers or sophisticated technologies or even sit down for more than a couple of minutes are particularly concerned with virtual classrooms.

They also have a growing concern over the effectiveness of this approach towards their children’s curriculum and career goals. Most parents argue that technology affects their children negatively at times.

Costly Childcare In Relation To Virtual Meetings

Many households face financial challenges. Childcare services across the United States are still expensive, especially for struggling parents to afford them. Over the pandemic period, the costs have further risen in childcare centers.

According to the COVID-19 Child Care Study of Care.com, 52 percent of the parents expect childcare to be more than before and 47 percent are more worried about the cost of childcare than previously. Childcare is more costly than it was and this has further scared parents into supporting virtual classrooms.

The Insecurity Associated With Virtual Lectures And Meetings

During this corona virus epidemic, several school districts across the world have begun to restrict the application of Zoom for online learning from homes. This is due to the increasing security concerns and the usefulness of teleconferencing tools by parents and other entities.

FBI warns of the “hacking and breach of privacy that could be related to online classrooms and teleconferences”. Some parents agree that disabling Zoom access could help protect against hacking instances that could harm either teachers or students.

• Teleconferencing and online learning are valuable for children.
• However, it comes at a great cost to parents and guardians.

Virtual Meetings And Lectures Could Be Another Burden For Parents

Parents working on a full-time basis can work at home during this corona virus quarantine. They believe that virtual learning has crucial benefits for their children, especially in this pandemic period.

However, parents could have further trouble providing childcare if they lack employment amid costly childcare which may vary between $12,000 to $16,000 annually. Some parents consider that most early childhood educators are not capable of teaching or using digital meetings for online lessons to handle classroom skills. This, to them, is an extra burden.

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Affiliate marketing is nowadays a very digital form of business. Has Covid-19 had impacts on this very digital business?

Digital entrepreneurship is a new form of entrepreneurship that makes it possible for people to work remotely from anywhere in the world with clients from anywhere in the world. In this article we will shortly describe how Covid-19 changed the conditions in digital entrepreneurship in the field of affiliate marketing.

A digital marketing company X is being used as a case example. Digital entrepreneurship is discussed here shortly too, separately from the impacts of Covid-19.

Company X focuses on affiliate marketing both with client projects and own. It has one bigger client and two smaller ones. 80 percent of the time goes with the biggest client and 20 percent is reserved for the two others.

All these companies the company has had close relationships with for almost four years now. The company has only one employee who is currently working as a consultant for search engine optimization (SEO) and content management, closely with people from all over Europe.

Ever since the company was started (2018), the entire business has been completely digital. The services the company owner as a consultant offers are all related to affiliate marketing.

The services include content creation, content management and search engine optimization, both off-page and on-page.

Shortly On Digital Entrepreneurship

Digital entrepreneurship is a form of entrepreneurship that includes entrepreneurial pursuits that are occurring on digital platforms and IT. Digital entrepreneurs are expanding the traditional ways of working since participants are evolving constantly and the markets and work spaces are very diverse with a lot of digital opportunities. (Hattingh et al 2020)

Digital entrepreneurship has made it possible for freelancers in the field of digital marketing to start working remotely from anywhere in the world. Even before Covid-19 it was possible to start a business in one country, for instance in Finland, and be working full-time for marketing agencies all over Europe.

How to Succeed As a Digital Entrepreneur

To succeed as a digital entrepreneur, be it before the Covid-19 or now after, there are certain characteristics one needs. For having a digital entrepreneurial mindset an entrepreneur needs to be able to evaluate, discover and exploit opportunities and at the same time be adopting to digital technologies.

In today’s world these are needed even when the business is not mainly digital, but a digital entrepreneur needs to adapt to these quicker than regular entrepreneurs. (Soltanifar et al 2020, 7)

In company X’s case the key for the success in a digital environment has been high work ethics and the ability to learn new things very quickly. The company owner is very interested in technical search engine optimization and wants to learn more constantly.

The owner follows the industry news and blogs and is connected with SEO professionals around the world in LinkedIn. The owner also has very experienced SEO colleagues in the client companies.

The curiosity and passion for content creation, content management and search engine optimization are something that the clients value. In addition, the owner has a BBA in international business, marketing, which supports here performance.

The fact that the owner learns more constantly and is following what is happening in this very digital industry of affiliate marketing, makes the company as whole a more reliable partner than many other freelancers that could be seen as the company’s direct competitors.

Affiliate Marketing – A Challenging Business In Digital Environment

The process of earning commissions every time one promotes a certain company’s services or products and drives a sale, is called affiliate marketing. One example of a site that could be used for it is explantit.com. It is similar to a commission-only sales representative: the affiliate marketer gets paid only when a sale is made.

On the other hand there are exceptions to this since some companies are ready to pay also for instance for a loan application, which itself does not necessarily lead to a sale yet.

All the client companies of company X are working around affiliate marketing and all of the company X’s own projects are affiliate sites, too. The entire business environment is digital. The company owner does not go to face-to-face meetings but instead can join affiliate programs online. The company is also contacted on LinkedIn for new deals both for its own and its client’s affiliate sites.

The clients the company X works with have never seen each other face-to-face but instead they are using different digital collaboration tools for communicating. This has not changed with Covid-19: this was actually how things were done already before the pandemic.

Tools Used As A Digital Entrepreneur

Company X needs to use various digital collaboration tools for communication and project management. Some client companies are using tools such as Slack and Asana, others rely simply on Skype and Google Drive. Over the 4 years of working as a digital entrepreneur the owner has learned to adapt very quickly to new tools and has increased IT skills significantly. The company owner has even learned some coding, mainly HTML.

Other tools that digital entrepreneurs typically need are related to banking and accounting. In Finland a very popular tool for accounting is Netvisor, which company X is also using. In today’s digital economy it’s possible to open a business account for various platforms.

One does not need to use a traditional bank account, not even in Finland where the trust for national banks is usually very high. Many entrepreneurs are choosing services such as PayPal business accounts.

Changes After Covid-19

Covid-19 has had impacts for many workers around the world in various fields. Self-imposed isolation, lock downs and quarantines have forced people to work remotely. Covid-19 has broken technological and cultural barriers that were earlier preventing working remotely. Now, with the experience of being forced to work remotely, the benefits and also limitations that remote work has are more clear to organizations across the world. (Lund et al 2020)

As said, Covid-19 had massive impacts on remote work in many fields. This was seen also in the field of digital marketing. In company X’s case for instance, the pandemic had only positive effects on the working conditions. Now it was possible to get to higher positions with better salaries and benefits than it was before. Affiliate marketing companies understood that working remotely was as effective, if not more effective than the traditional way.

Earlier company X was producing SEO-friendly content for client companies, but content management and SEO-related tasks were assigned to people working in the client company’s head office. The digital marketing companies X was working with, at that time, thought that it wasn’t possible to have  for instance a Country Manager or an SEO Manager, working remotely when the rest of the team was at the office in another country. Covid-19 changed this way of thinking significantly.

Now the digital marketing companies were forced to work remotely, managers included. Companies quickly discovered that managerial positions can be handled from abroad also. This way company X was soon offered more demanding positions.

Covid-19 forced all kinds of companies to change the way they see remote work. Even though one might think that this had no impact on a business that is very digital, such as affiliate marketing, there were changes, and in company X’s case, only positive ones.

When digital affiliate marketing companies noticed that even the more demanding positions could be done completely remotely, things for digital entrepreneurs working as freelancers changed dramatically. The positions that were earlier impossible to get because one didn’t live in the same country as the client company, were now open for freelancers working remotely from anywhere in the world.

References

Hattingh, M., Matthee, M., Smuts H., Pappas, I, Dwivedi, Y.K., Mäntymäki, M. 6 March 2020. The Characteristics of Digital Entrepreneurship and Digital Transformation: A Systematic Literature Review. Accessed 3 December 2021.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7134220/.

Lund, S., Madgavkar, A., Manyika, J., Smit. 23 November 2020. What’s next for remote work: An analysis of 2,000 tasks, 800 jobs, and nine countries. McKinsey Global Institute. Accessed 3 December 2021. https://www.mckinsey.com/featuredinsights/future-of-work/whats-next-for-remote-work-an-analysis-of-2000-tasks800-jobs-and-nine-countries.

Patel, N. 2021. What is affiliate marketing. Accessed in 3 December 2021. https://neilpatel.com/what-is-affiliate-marketing/. Soltanifar, M., Hughes, M., Göcke, L. November 2020. Digital Entrepreurship. Impact on Business and Society. Researgate. Accessed in 3 December 2021. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/346009512_Digital_Entrepreneurship_Impact_on_Business_and_Society.

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