Looking to add some pizzazz to those oh-so dull meetings? As a workshop designer with over 20 years of experience working in Silicon Valley, I’ve made it my business to lead engaging meetings – whether they be remote, in-person, or a hybrid of the two. What have I learned about adding fun to functional meetings? Tune in to the 30-minute LinkedIn Live conversation I had with Miro Customer Education Manager Jen Clark for my top tips – or just keep reading this article!

In the first article in this series, you learned how to set up your developer environment, the first step toward creating your very own Mattermost plugins. Take my word for it: Your first attempts at writing Mattermost plugins can be quite confusing. Where do you start? What do you have to do to get your first plugin up and running? At the end of this series, you’ll be well on your way to writing your own plugin.

You’re a small business owner, but you don’t know what the most common financial risks your company might be exposed to are. Whether you are an online business or a brick-and-mortar store, without the right information you might make a bad decision. Here we explain the 10 financial risks every small business should be aware of and start planning for the future. Before we get to that, let’s review some statistics. Small businesses form an integral part of a country’s economy.

Employees can have many reasons for tardiness or absence. Some of them include personal or family emergencies, transportation issues, etc. But as an employer, you must have an accurate record of each employee’s attendance for productivity and payroll management. So how do you keep track of all these absences and indicate the reason for each? By using employee attendance calendars.

Advice from two well-loved managers who have mastered the art of constructive criticism.

Collaboration today is more global and connected than ever. As leaders of globally distributed teams in Europe, Asia, Australia, and the US—Jessica leads the Revenue Marketing team and Joshua leads the Engagement Marketing team at Asana—we live and breathe this every day. One of the most challenging aspects of managing team members located in multiple regions is team bonding. How do you create tight connections across countries (or counties), and how do you maintain them over time?

Trying to figure out how to stay focused at work? Don’t worry: you’re definitely not alone. Right now the majority of workers are dealing with burnout in some way, shape, or form. And while many of us have been fortunate enough to work from home or remotely recently, there are still plenty of well-documented distractions to contend with. Listen: losing focus happens. That said, constant interruptions are stressful and represent a massive drain on your productivity.

Remote work has existed for decades as an alternative to the traditional in-office work environment. When it first became a viable option—people have been working remotely since the dawn of email in 1971 and before via telephone—distributed work was often met with trepidation by companies and employees alike. In recent years, however, working remotely, “working from home,” and other similar terms have become commonplace.

Timesheet conversion is essential for businesses that track employee hours. Turning standard tracked time (hours and minutes) into decimal time makes payroll calculation a lot easier for companies. However, many firms have trouble with accurately calculating decimal time, resulting in problems when compensating employees. But don’t worry! In this article, we’ll tell you why timesheet conversion is important and how you can convert time for the payroll process.

Business owners have now realized the benefits of outsourcing certain tasks to virtual assistants. A virtual assistant (VA) adds tremendous value to their business and reduces their operational costs as they work from a virtual office. However, if you’re thinking of becoming a VA, setting up your virtual assistant business without proper guidance may seem daunting. That’s where virtual assistant training programs come in.