With the arrival of the Internet of Things comes several innovations that help companies save time and money. One of the coolest of these is the rise of the ‘cyber secretary,’ or virtual assistant. Rather than paying a hefty salary, offering bonuses, and dishing out more benefits to an in-house employee, you can now reduce costs by hiring remote employees by investing in virtual assistant software programs to streamline your processes.

Working remotely has become the new normal because of the COVID-19 pandemic. With so many employees working from home, team managers need a remote work plan or policy to ensure that their employees stay productive. But how do you create an effective remote work plan? In this article, we’ll tell you how to build a remote work plan and what to include in it. We’ll also share a free downloadable remote work plan template to help you get started.

Managing employee tardiness, unscheduled and unexcused absence, etc., can be difficult in any business. These unscheduled leaves negatively impact employee productivity, team performance, and consequently, the firm’s income. Fortunately, you can solve these attendance issues by creating an absence policy. In this article, we’ll tell you what an effective absence policy will include and why you need one. We’ll also share a sample absence policy template for reference.

The annual ICMI Contact Center Expo provided valuable lessons for the future of call center operations. This year’s International Customer Management Institute (ICMI) Contact Center Expo was a little bit different than in years past. Instead of gathering at a large convention center in a major city, hundreds of contact center industry experts gathered at their computers to connect digitally.

With the changing times, workplace norms and employee demands have evolved as well. Employees now prefer a flexible work arrangement like the compressed workweek or remote work over the standard nine-to-fiver. And if you’re considering allowing flexible working hours or flextime for your employees, you should set guidelines that clarify how it works in your company. How do you do that? By creating a flex time policy.

Today, many business owners face a dilemma — should you prioritize core tasks or answer customer calls? Fortunately, by hiring a virtual phone assistant, you can ensure you have enough time to focus on core activities while still attending important business calls. It can be IVR (Interactive Voice Response) or real people taking calls on your company’s behalf so you can focus on critical activities.

If you’re searching for the best paperless timesheet solution, you’re in the right place! Whether you’re a business owner looking for an easy way to record employee hours or a freelancer who needs to track hours to bill clients accurately, timesheets may be the answer. But traditional paper-based timesheets are outdated and leave too much room for errors. Thankfully, there’s a better solution — using timesheet software.

Productivity tracking plays a vital role in enhancing an employee’s performance. It helps you identify unproductive activities, and avoiding them can boost the employee’s performance and improve the organization’s overall efficiency. In this article, we’ll go over how you can use a productivity report to keep track of your team’s performance, with a free printable employee productivity report template to help you get started.

Although remote working has been on the rise in recent years, it experienced unprecedented growth due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The sudden shift had people worldwide straining themselves to adapt to this new work environment. Businesses faced multiple challenges to keep up with the change and move online to continue functioning. Thankfully, with the right remote work software, you can adapt to this shift with ease.

Most business owners hire virtual assistants to handle their administrative support, email marketing, and other non-core business activities efficiently. But with hundreds of sites offering virtual assistant services, how do you find the right one? To help you out, we’ll highlight the three key features to look for in a virtual assistant website and review the 25 best virtual assistant websites for finding skilled VAs.