Why You Should Spend More Time Near a Fire

Posted on May 12, 2021 by Alex Sanders

Fire is often treated as a natural element, alongside earth, water, and air – a fundamental aspect of nature that’s necessary for life to flourish. There are many good reasons for this, including the fact that fire can trigger the activation of certain types of seeds, fostering life directly, and the fact that humans have harnessed the power of fire to cook food.

But there’s also something more fundamental about the appeal of fire that’s harder to pinpoint precisely. Why is it that human beings are drawn to fire, and why should you spend more time next to one?

Fire and the Hearth

There’s a reason the hearth has become a central gathering place in many cultures. We’ve been using the fire as a gathering point for thousands of years all over the world. There’s even evidence of prehistoric hearths, created and used as a place of social gathering in ancient caves and campsites. In Ancient Greece, the hearth was such an important cultural touchstone that there was even a goddess of the hearth: Hestia.

Today, modern hearths are an inviting aesthetic design choice for our living rooms, adding a layer of coziness and warmth to the most social area of our homes.

The Value of Fires

These are just a few of the reasons you should consider spending more time near or around a fire:

Visual stimulation

First, fires offer a form of visual stimulation with a bright, flickering series of flames. Many people report feeling almost hypnotized by the fire, drawn into it. It’s interesting to watch, and it can break you away from other distractions, like the TV or your smartphone.

Comforting crackling

If you build a wood-based fire, or if you have a fireplace that can replicate the sounds, you’ll hear a distinctive crackling sound that many people find soothing. It’s a bit of background noise to make you feel calm, and it may even work for ASMR.

Natural heat

Fire is also hot, of course, which makes it the perfect addition for an outdoor event in cool weather – or a supplementary source of comfort in your living room during the deep winter.

Smell and memory

Did you know that smell is closely connected to memory? When you smell something connected to a memory, or even a previous time in your life, you’ll often be hit by a wave of nostalgia. Holding a fire regularly can fill your nose with that signature smoky aroma – which by itself, is pleasant for many people. Over time, as you spend time with friends and family members, laughing and enjoying yourself, that smell will be tied to powerful, positive memories you’ll always be able to recall.

Open time for discussion

When people gather around the fire, they’re choosing to eliminate distractions. You’ll have open time for discussion with the people around you, giving you a chance to explore new topics and get to know your loved ones a little bit better.

Cooking and meal prep

Fires are commonly associated with cooking and meal prep; hosting a fire is a great opportunity to cook some hot dogs or roast marshmallows over the flames. You can also think fancier by grilling halibut, steaks, or burgers. These dishes are perfect for a beach party, camping, or an outdoor cookout. And if you ask your family or some friends to join you, it’s another opportunity for bonding as well.

Ideas for Your Next Fire

If you’re not sure where or how to host a fire, there are several ways you can get started.

Install a fireplace

One of the best ways forward is to install a fireplace in your home (assuming it’s legal for you to do so). Today’s fireplaces come in a wide variety of styles and functions, and they can often be installed with minimal cost and effort. Choose a wood-burning fireplace if you want that classic texture, or an electric or gas fireplace if you want some clean-burning efficiency.

Purchase (or build) a firepit

If you don’t like the idea of having a fireplace in the house, or if you don’t have room for it, consider purchasing or building an outdoor firepit. It’s an easy choice that can support your fires for years to come.

Water Vapor Fireplace

Install a water vapor fireplace. There are numerous other advantages of water vapor fireplaces, such as their low energy consumption and environmental friendliness, but the bottom line is that they provide stunning flame realism that rivals gas while maintaining the safety and convenience of an electric fireplace.

Rely on others

If you don’t have much space in your current house/apartment, consider getting a friend to host the fire, or keep an ear out for invitations.

Head to a campsite

Consider going to a local campsite and setting up a fire of your own; there are often rings or firepits you can use to build a fire from scratch. Just make sure you read the rules of the campsite prior to starting one.

After you have a successful fire and bond with the people around you, you’ll likely want to repeat the experience again in the future. Hopefully, if the others are on board, you can turn this into a regular event – and relieve stress while connecting with the people most important to you.

11 Straightforward Ways to Improve Your Small Business with Technology

Posted on May 8, 2021 by Tony Uran

The world runs on technology these days. Nothing seems to move forward except it imbibes technology.

Do you want to make an impact in your industry? You will need technology to make this possible. The strategic use of technology in your business can also give you an edge over competitors.

You do not have to be a scientist to effectively apply technology to your business and bring about the desired growth. Just reduce the time you spend on frivolous things such as watching TV and spend your valuable time on things that can move the needle in your business.

The information in this write-up is put together to guide you on how to start making use of technology as a tool for business growth. Check below for 11 ways you can boost your small business with technology.

1. Communication can help

One of the many benefits of technology is that it boosts communication. You can use this benefit to your advantage in that technology enables you to communicate via more easily with potential clients and partners.

For example, you can use some of the best email marketing software to engage your prospective clients.

No need to make the trip anymore since you can simply make the call. Technology makes communication faster and more qualitative. You can opt for a video call since it enables you to see the other person face to face from your individual remote locations.

2. Boost marketing tactics

Technology, if used properly, can boost your marketing tactics. The traditional marketing strategies do work just fine, but they can never be as effective as the technology—based marketing strategies.

A very good example is social media marketing. A small business such as camper repair service can leverage the power of an effective social media strategy to reach potential customers faster via social media and direct clients to their website.

Technology can equally help you to prepare a business plan even if you do not have much knowledge or experience about it.

In fact, you can build great websites using special technology-based tools even if you have limited knowledge about website building.

3. Social media can be a viable tool

Social media opens up your business faster than ever. It gives you access to so many people from the comfort of your home.

One of the best ways to harness the incomparable power of social media for business growth is via digital marketing.

Working with a social media marketing agency enables you to get the words out about your products and services without physically advertising your business.

The internet reaches virtually every corner of the earth. So, things you post on social media can be seen globally. What is more, you can choose your preferred target audience in social media marketing.

4. Save time via remote workplace

As a small business, you will need to save as much time, effort, and money as possible. One of the best ways to do this is by resorting to a remote workplace.

A remote workplace enables your employees to work from home and also helps you to connect with them all without meeting at a physical office. If the employee possessing a particular skill is unable to report at your physical office, such an employee can connect with you via remote workplace platforms.

5. Build a website

You will need a website to tell the world about what you have to offer. So, you should invest in a website if you want to grow your small business faster.

It is not enough to build a website; you must make it responsive and attractive so that the potential clients will be willing to do business with you.

A functional, responsive website will give your business identity on the World Wide Web. It will also serve as a source of tenable information about your business to anyone searching for such information online.

6. Search engine optimization is essential

It is not enough to build a website, but you must make your website visible. Increased visibility will bring in more clients to patronize your business, leading to faster growth of your brand.

This can only be possible if you carry out the search engine optimization of your web content. You may have to hire SEO experts to do this for you if you do not have the required knowledge.

7. Secure your business

While technology can showcase your business to the world faster than the conventional way of doing things, it also has its risks and challenges.

For one, your website may get hacked and this can lead to data loss or theft, as well as, the possibility of financial loss.

You can curtail this by securing your online business. This can be done by using an encrypted password and creating active firewalls for your website.

8. Cloud storage can help

You do not have to keep all your data stored on your computer; you can move some of the data to the cloud. Cloud storage frees space on your hard disk and can even help your system to run faster.

Additionally, it can make your data and files available if you have to access them outside your office or when you are in a remote location far away from your computer. This way, you can obtain the necessary information at the tip of your finger.

9. Improve your customer service

Technology can help you to boost the quality of your customer service. One of the best ways to do this is to provide live chat services whereby your existing and potential customers can chat with you and get a response in an instant.

You can equally offer toll-free call service so that your callers will not have to pay for calls.

10. Automate your routine tasks

One other way to boost your small business is to automate tasks. A good example of tasks you can automate is customer service. Automated messages can provide answers to a good percentage of the questions that customers ask. You can equally automate your social media posts. This way, you can focus on some other aspects of the business.

11. Video marketing always gets the attention

One other way to get the words out is via video marketing. However, make sure that the videos you create are related to the products and services that you offer.

Search engines can rank your website higher if you have related videos uploaded on the website. You can also upload such videos on your social media platforms.

Bonus tips

Content marketing is one of the best ways to boost your brand popularity via technology. You can submit search engine optimized content on your website and popular websites like Ezine.

You can also build backlinks to your website so that you can connect with authority websites. If this is too technical for you, you can simply hire SEO experts to do it for you.

In addition, it’s very essential that you sleep well, exercise enough and optimize your health so that you can effectively muster the needed positive energy to move your business to the next level. These little things do move a needle. Try them!

Project Management and Collaboration Tools that You will Definitely Keep Using After Trying

Posted on April 26, 2021 by Angel Anna

It has already been more than a year since many people across the world left their offices and started working remotely. While employees have struggled since then to establish a ‘working from home’ routine and manage their time well, the executives have pondered a question on how to maintain the same level of productivity and efficiency when there is no direct contact with and between the employers.

In that regard, one of the solutions applied by many small and big companies is the use of project management and collaboration software. In fact, this is a worthy solution not only for remote work but also when you have the whole team in one place. Such software makes the working process easier, enhances productivity, and assists in solving other issues that can be encountered in project planning and implementation. Considering that, we have composed a list of project management and collaboration software, that you will definitely give a go once you try them.

1. GanttPRO

GanttPRO is a project management and collaboration tool to create a Gantt chart online that helps handle personal as well as team tasks. Thanks to a Gantt diagram view, all the tasks, and their dates are plainly seen on a timeline. With GanttPRO, users have the ability to track responsibilities along with the whole progress. Staff members are always clued-up about the project’s state and also avoid risks and misconceptions in organizing.

Why can GanttPRO be your choice?

Collaboration opportunities in the cloud-based GanttPRO are noteworthy. Project participants can work together in real-time: comment tasks, affix documents, leave summaries to assignments, export their charts in PDF or PNG as well as share them through a public link. With the real-time notifications, project participants will certainly know all changes. In terms of project management functions, this Gantt chart app offers loads of possibilities to manage tasks, resources, costs, and also schedules what makes it outstanding project management and collaboration software.

2. ClickHelp

ClickHelp is a contemporary online documentation software. It’s used by businesses all over the world to create and publish different sorts of documents like manuals, customer guides, help documents, frequently asked questions, and so on.

ClickHelp is easy to use for doc teams. It is browser-based and supports multiple systems: Mac OS, Windows, and also Linux, so you don’t need to set up anything. This makes it easy to create and provide your documentation from any location in the world.

In this online project collaboration and documentation software, you can also work on your documents together with your staff members in one online portal. Absolutely nothing will be missed since notifications will certainly keep everybody from your team updated.

Why can ClickHelp be your choice?

Password-protected online assistance.
Easy importing and exporting.
Effective full-text search.
Branding features.
And many more.

3. Google Docs

This widely-known web-based project collaboration software needs no introduction. You could not know the applications from the project or time management category. However, if you have ever dealt with records online, it is 100% certain that at least you have heard of Google Docs.

This powerful software allows developing and editing documents any place you are as well as talking and commenting. These incredible collaboration functions make all word-related work a breeze. Google Docs provides lots of templates and add-ons. You just need to log in and that’s it. Everything else you need to do is to enjoy smooth online work with the documents.

Why can Google Docs be your choice?

No lost data — everything is immediately saved online.
Awesome web link sharing with various accessibility levels.

Rich functionality.

4. Wiredrive

Wiredrive makes media management and collaboration processes smooth and easy to handle. This project collaboration software can become a centralized place where creative teams can keep project-relevant files.

Shared workplaces for tasks and groups enable quick web-based collaboration between project participants: you can review, comment, and track all tasks. On top of that, shared work is encrypted so you do not have to fret about protection concerns.

Why can Wiredrive be your choice?

Notifications that keep everyone from a team updated.
Powerful search and filtering functions.
Presentations in secs.

5. Creativity 365

Even though this software is not as all-purpose as the above-mentioned one, Creativity 365 is a great option for creative industries. It offers Individual, Business, and also Education content production solutions. With the help of this software, groups can quickly collaborate online and implement their concepts across desktop and also mobile devices.

This software consists of 5 applications: Animation desk for producing your own animation, GIFs or storyboards; Write-on for making and editing movies; NoteLedge for taking notes, sketching suggestions or videotaping moments; Markup for making notes of Websites, ePub or PDF files, and sharing them; Pocket Scanner for scanning documentation and digitalizing it.

Why can Creativity 365 be your choice?

Great for creative groups.
Enormous storage space capacities.
Presentation feature.

6. Hightail

Hightail will certainly be your selection if you require working opportunities for file sharing, creative collaboration, as well as task management within your projects.

File sharing possibilities allow for sending out big multimedia data easily. For this, simply select, drag & drop or import your files from other services – Hightail will cover you. Creative online collaboration gives a single space for groups that eliminates miscommunication concerns. With project monitoring features, individuals can gather employees, set up to-do lists for them, discuss tasks, and also appoint follow-ups.

Why can Hightail be your choice?

Accessibility codes as well as expiry dates.
Lots of file formats accessible for previewing.
Data track delivery.
Version control.

7. Quip

Quip arranges online collaboration on documents and task lists in a very fluid way as it helps teams work faster and be more productive.

This online document collaboration software serves well for making collective meeting notes as well as handling tasks. Quip will be the place where you as well as your group will keep all documentation to get work done.

Why can Quip be your choice?

Opportunities to add project trackers, calendars, as well as numerous other tools right into a Quip document.
Combines group conversations, lists, documents, as well as spreadsheets in one place.

A Beginner’s Guide to Affiliate Marketing

Posted on April 21, 2021 by Gremal Ebal

Now that we are in the digital age and most of us rely heavily on the online world, we tend to spend so much of our time browsing and surfing the internet. Throughout the years, the worldwide web has become an effective platform for marketing. We even now have the term “e-commerce” or electronic commerce.

With e-commerce, transactions for buying and selling products are entirely made online. Business owners and manufacturers can just put up their products on a website, and buyers can easily purchase whatever they need. Now, all they have to do is find ways to promote their business — and trust me, with the power of the internet, marketing opportunities are endless. Gone are the days where you have to buy a slot for a TV advertisement or a section in a newspaper just to advertise. And this leads to one type of online marketing, which is affiliate marketing.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a type of online marketing where a merchant or a business owner boosts their product sales by providing existing content creators or potential affiliate marketers with the same niche links that they can incorporate into their content. Once clicked by the audience, these links will direct them to the website’s shop to purchase the products.

Affiliate marketers or affiliates earn a commission when someone purchases an item through their link. Their income is solely based on the number of items sold using the link. Depending on the affiliate network, the commission can be a percentage of the sales or a fixed rate per sale. Although no training is required to become an affiliate, there are classes that you can take that can guide you in the industry. Look for the most recommended courses on affiliate marketing to have an in-depth introduction about being an affiliate.

What do you benefit from affiliate marketing?

It is very easy to start.

To be an affiliate marketer, all you need is a device and access to the internet. Other than that, you must be able to create content consistently. You also must study how to learn affiliate marketing in a professional way. Your content, it can be a blog post or a YouTube video, must be in line with the merchant’s niche or you can simply review their product.

It would not cost you anything.

Merchants do not require any fees for aspiring affiliates, so you have nothing to risk at all — except maybe your time and effort for content creation. However, beginners in this industry must ensure that they can widen their audience as their income solely relies on the number of people who purchase with their links.

You get an opportunity to increase your income.

As soon as they get into that groove and people start to purchase products through their links, affiliate marketers can easily earn an income. For your income to constantly grow, you need to keep promoting your website or account through your content to gain loyal followers who can potentially buy your chosen merchant’s products.

It can be done with several platforms.

Affiliate marketing works with almost all platforms, including blogs, Youtube, as well as Instagram. So, if you have been a long-time video creator on Youtube or you already have thousands of followers on Instagram, then you might have an advantage as an affiliate. Building your audience through those platforms can now be easy nowadays.

You can create a wide variety of content.

Depending on which type of content you prefer, you can find an appropriate merchant through affiliate networks. It is at your advantage if you are flexible and can create several forms of content, like blogs, videos, posts, etc. Instagram has this new feature where you can add affiliate links to your stories, and interested followers can just swipe up to get directed on the website.

It can elevate your platform.

If people keep interacting with your affiliate links, the more engaging your account becomes. As a result of this, you get better standing on these platforms’ algorithms, especially with Instagram recently, where the more engagements you have, the more visible you become.

How to become successful in Affiliate Marketing?

Although it is easy and risk-free to start getting involved in affiliate marketing and possibly earn an income, you still have to maintain good practices to help your earnings grow and be more consistent. To help you with this, here are nine tips and steps that you can follow to become successful as an affiliate marketer:

1. Choose proper platforms for you.

As we mentioned, you can choose from a lot of platforms for affiliate marketing. One factor that can help your success in this career become faster, you must select a platform that you are comfortable using. If you are not a writer, then blog posting would not work for you at all, and you would not need a website. You can always try Instagram, YouTube, or Facebook, where creating accounts is free, and content posting can be pretty straightforward.

2. Stick to your niche.

Before you start, you must choose two to three related niches that you want your content to revolve around. For example, one of the most popular niches nowadays is sports and fitness. If you are a woman who religiously works out and an enthusiast of anything health and fitness-related, you can post about those things and choose merchants that maybe sell workout clothes, protein shakes, sports equipment, etc. In addition to this, if you love fashion, you can post content about that too. Remember, too many niches mess up your content, confuses your audience, and you lose the potential of gaining loyal followers.

3. Build your credibility to attract followers.

Credibility is vital for you to gain organic followers or followers that are legitimately engaging with your posts — in short, not bots. Remember that for affiliate marketing to become an effective source of income, your stats are key. You need to have more followers or an audience that anticipates every post and reacts to each of them. The more followers you have, the more chances of having people that purchase with your affiliate link.

4. Find an affiliate network.

The easiest way to find merchants or sellers that seeks additional promotion through affiliate marketing is by visiting affiliate networks. These networks are what serve as middlemen between merchants and affiliates. Merchants have their products listed in the networks, and affiliate marketers just search through them to find the products relevant to their niche, and they can create content about.

5. Carefully choose the products.

Only choose relevant products and merchants. This way, your content becomes consistent, and you stay within your niche.

Create high-quality content consistently.

Lastly, you have to keep your audience engaged and interested in your content, so they stick around. And when you finally post content on your affiliate links, make sure that you will be able to captivate their audience and persuade them to buy the product. Writing positive reviews about the products is the most common way to incorporate affiliate links.

The secret to becoming successful in this career is to be consistent and dedicated to your content. You have to lure in your audience and convince them that they need these products, so they should click your link and purchase. In affiliate marketing, this is pretty much the only way to earn income.

Best Side Jobs You can Do From Home

Posted on April 14, 2021 by Jessica Cam

Time is money and people realize that now. The one who owns money owns others’ time. Every moment you waste you are losing the value of time in terms of opportunity cost. This is one of the reasons people spend most of their time working even after 9 to 5 office jobs as side jobs. Few do this because they are introverts and they prefer doing something productive rather than interacting with others. Nonetheless, there are some workaholics as well who want to make as much money as they can in their initial time to invest in long-term projects.

Working abroad is no longer a dream now. Remote jobs abroad are in search of you. Today, not only there are freelancing platforms and remote jobs in the US for web designers and writers but for remote engineering jobs as well. Regardless of why and what you do, there are multiple companies based in Los Angeles offering remote jobs in Los Angeles and anywhere else. All you need is a device to work on or some telecommunication network to connect to your workplace and perform your job no matter which corner of the world you are sat in. There is no compulsion of time and place either. If you want some assistance in terms of guidance and detailed information that can get along well with your skills and interests, here are some of the side jobs explained by Hirewithtogteher.

1. Blogging

This is something that is never out of trend or demand. People like to read experiences that they are unable to do due to shortage of time or anything else. First, establish an online presence for yourself by creating a blog. Do not forget that you can be a jack of all trades but a master of none. Hence choose a niche to target with your content. Better choose something that you are really good at and that excites you. It can be beauty tips, cooking, travel logs, fitness, consultancy and what not. Once the website is established well and traffic starts generating, it is time to affiliate links and post ads. It requires consistency and patience to establish a good blogging website.

2. Virtual Tutor

This is quite similar to writing blogs. The only existing difference is direct interaction with your audience. This is a must recommended side job for ones who love to read, write and teach. Basic requirement of this job is to possess strong communication skills and expertise in a certain subject. This has worked best during COVID19. A plus point of this job is that you get to learn about different cultures and civilizations when you interact with people from different regions of the world. Create a profile on any of the online tutoring platforms like Brighterly.com and begin to teach today. Additional features of screensharing and white board have added to its effectiveness.

3. Customer Support

Easiest side job with no technical work or expertise is customer support which has huge demand. Customer queries keep arriving 24/7 and organizations are always short of staff to deal with the potential prospects and existing customers. They pay you extra for being available during late night hours. Nature of this job is such that it keeps on grooming you and increasing your networking. Dealing with different kinds of people every day enhances your emotional intelligence. Do not miss such an opportunity if you find one.

4. Virtual Assistance

Virtual assistance covers various fields. If you are good at multitasking and want to grow, this is a perfect job to do. Assisting in scheduling of posts on social media and blogging websites, managing emails, handling customer queries, handling social media accounts, paying attention on how to pitch potential clients, remote data entry, and many others are the possible range of options you can have.

5. Voice over

Selling your voice to make money sounds quirky? Yes, this is true. With the world becoming a global village, there is an increasing need and demand for content to be either translated or spoken in native languages. If you understand and speak a certain foreign language, start selling this skill of yours. From children cartoons to record breaking TV and web series, people are demanding dubbed content in their native language. Organizers look for talented people for video dubbing and voice over and pay as demanded. Few minutes of speaking make you hundreds of dollars. Also, this is an exciting job that refreshes your mind and mood.

Conclusion

In short, whatever reason is behind you doing a side job, be it a financial crisis you are facing or savings for future investment, side job online is never a bad idea. It is a guarantee to secure the future and save some money for the rainy days. Who knows it can be a career changing point for you once you are into it.

Here’s Why You Need Employee Management Software

Posted on March 23, 2021 by Charlene Brown

If you operate a business, you should know that your management style determines its success or failure. Managers need to keep the employees active and engaged from the different places they operate from. This can only be possible if you have a digital work-related communication system that promotes engagement amongst all parties involved. For instance, employee management software can go a long way in helping managers and employees to achieve organizational goals. While management software may seem optional, it has recently become more common and it’s not as costly as you’d think.

Here is why you need employee management software to improve the operations of your business.

Fosters Real-time Communication

Regardless of size, there is no organization that can survive without communication. Happy and motivated workers are productive while unmotivated and unhappy employees can tear your company down. One way of achieving success in your business is to promote open and real-time communication with all your team members. With the right employee management system, you can maintain an environment that fosters communication. The system helps managers and employees to work together toward the attainment of the company goals.

Employee management software also helps reduce some of the pressure and stress that can develop between the employees and the managers. In other words, a better management tool helps create a good relationship between the managers and employees that leads to increased productivity and more efficiency. A good work environment also leads to better employee retention and less conflict amongst workers. A major cause of employee turnover in different organizations related to strained relationships.

Enhances Employee Engagement

Employee engagement plays a crucial role in boosting productivity, enhances company culture, employee retention, and encourages good customer satisfaction. When you have the right employee management app, you can engage all the workers in a meaningful way on top of busy schedules and this fosters a good relationship. It is important to engage with your employees from the very first day of their work. You can achieve this by using the right employee management system. There are different stages involved at every stage of the employee life cycle like hiring, on-boarding, staff scheduling, tracking time, task management, and more. Your software can determine the workforce you need and help you ensure that you meet your labor targets and stay within your budget.

Promotes Constructive Feedback

One thing that is critical for any organization is constructive feedback. However, conducting annual performance reviews can be a challenge since, in the absence of the right tool to get feedback from different angles, the process of gathering feedback tends to be one-sided. With employee management software, you can send messages directly to various employees, and they can also do the same. To boost employee morale, you can send messages to everyone since this helps to promote engagement. The system can also help you provide feedback to the workers in real-time. The system also removes other barriers that can affect communication between the employees and the management.

Reduces Paperwork

As more organizations are going “green” in their operations, digital communication and management platforms are increasingly gaining popularity in different sectors. You can customize an employee management system to suit the needs of each department while at the same time reducing paperwork. Apart from being efficient, it encourages accuracy in data processing. The system is quicker, and it is more secure than keeping data on hard files. You can use the system for various tasks like tracking time, vacation requests, invoices, processing inventory. You can perform all these tasks from anywhere as long as you are connected to the system.

Helps Track Time

Employee management software helps provide managers with insight into their workforce. They can use this system to track time, control labor costs, and increase productivity at the same time. The managers and the employees have access to the real-time record of the number of days worked and cases of absenteeism. The system helps you to stay on top of the situation and you can manage issues like absenteeism before they go out of hand. The employees can also view their current and past timesheets. This helps to prevent conflicts and other related labor disputes.

Managing people in a company is critical since it determines the success or failure of your business. To increase efficiency and productivity in your operations, you need to obtain the right employee management software. This system helps to promote open communication amongst all team members which thereby improves performance in the organization. No business can survive without communication and feedback from both ends.

5 Essential Technologies for Effective Remote Working

Posted on March 19, 2021 by Carol Trehearn

Whether through necessity or choice, more and more people are working from home. While at first, this might appear to be as simple as plugging in a laptop and having a cellphone nearby, the reality is that it takes more than that to be able to work from home effectively.

It can be difficult to stay motivated and productive when working from home, particularly if you are balancing family commitments at the same time. The right home office environment can make it easier to connect to your colleagues, but you also need the right equipment at hand. Here are five essential technologies that all remote workers should have at their disposal.

1. Laptop and accessories

You need your laptop, of course, but you should also consider other pieces of hardware for your home office environment. For example, it is often much easier to work on complex projects with multiple tabs when you have a second monitor. You should also have a headset so you can take calls efficiently and an ergonomic mouse mat to prevent your wrist from developing repetitive strain injury (RSI).

Note: While not technically technology, it is also important to invest in a comfortable and supportive work chair to prevent back injuries.

2. High-quality Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi is obviously essential, but you may find that your domestic Wi-Fi speed is not enough for your work needs. To ensure you can attend virtual meetings and work without interruption or delays, consider upgrading to a more reliable, secure, and faster connection. You might also want to consider adaptive Wi-Fi, which will automatically allocate bandwidth depending on which devices require the most.

3. Virtual meeting platforms

The virtual meeting is here to stay. Emails and phone calls are fine, but sometimes only a ‘face to face’ meeting will do. There are lots of examples of video calling software to consider, but all will enable you to connect with colleagues, clients, and customers wherever you are in the world.

4. Communication and collaboration software

Of course, it is not always necessary to arrange a virtual meeting or type out an email, as often you want to be able to communicate succinctly and quickly with colleagues when collaborating on projects. This is where instant chat tools, collaboration, and project management software come into their own. The best platforms enable you to chat privately with one colleague or in groups/teams. Working from home with software like CoAmplifi enables you to share and edit documents in real-time, track your progress, and stay on top of multiple projects at once.

5. Digital/voice-activated assistant

Digital assistants like Google Assistant or Amazon Echo are often thought of as a domestic product, but they have the potential to support home working as well. You can tell a digital assistant to make a call, send an email, take notes, and check facts on the internet while carrying on with another task or making a coffee. Used as multitasking tools, digital assistants can significantly improve efficiency and productivity. Click here to find out which is the best digital assistant product on the market.

Can you run a Background Check on Your Neighbor

Posted on February 16, 2021 by Markhoor Studios

Sometimes, we know precious little about the people living right next door. In fact, we know only what our neighbors have told us about themselves. For decades, it’s been commonplace to share a building with virtual strangers. We often don’t even know our neighbors’ names.

Needless to say, there are certain risks that go with this. You don’t have to take them because the majority of background check sites are quite easy to use. Providers like CheckPeople.com can help you find the information you need to put your mind at ease.

When to Check Criminal History

You might choose to delve into the possibility of your neighbor’s having a criminal background in certain situations. We outline some of these below.

Their behavior is erratic, indicating the possibility of addiction
You feel like they’re watching you come and go
They avoid other neighbors, including you
They have a lot of visitors at night, even if there’s little noise
They make your child or spouse feel anxious
You’ll need them to babysit or do odd jobs for you around the house

How to Run a Criminal Background Check

As criminal records are public, it’s not hard to obtain them at all. Doing research is a great way to stop feeling uneasy about a neighbor’s questionable behavior. Hopefully, you’ll unearth a clean record and feel safer in your home and in the neighborhood. But will research violate their privacy? You obviously don’t want problems with the law.

To put your mind at ease: getting a neighbor’s criminal records is perfectly legal because they’re not considered private data. They’re not like ID and credit information, which you need the subject’s consent to check.

Getting Your Questions Answered

Online background checks reveal information from a large variety of sources, including town census data, records within sex offender registries, property ownership records, court records, professional license details, and more. Typically, background checks yield information about past addresses, business information, former names, names and addresses of next of kin, workplace and occupation, age, and registered or owned boats or other recreational vehicles. You will also find social network information or even news if your neighbor has received coverage for whatever reason.

How Much Information do You Need to Run a Check?

You don’t need more than their address and last name. People are often able to do criminal background checks and arrive at comprehensive, in-depth results just using a person’s address. If you have their number, you can do a reverse phone number search to find out more about them. Your best bet, however, is obtaining their full name, social security number, and birthdate.

Apart from their personal details, you might find information about their landlord, and their workplace, which will be very helpful should an issue arise, especially one that must be attended to urgently.

What Will You Find Out?

A rudimentary background check will yield valuable information about them. This may include names, and education, career and automobile info. You might find out that your neighbor is a lawyer with a lot of assets, but that doesn’t give you an insight into his character. That’s not even enough to know if he owns the cars parked out front.

This information can give you a general idea of what your neighbor is like. Filling in the gaps is your right and responsibility. The information might indicate certain patterns. You might unearth a history of financial problems, a series of failed marriages, or a lot of short-term past addresses. Links to social media accounts could provide additional information and clues, such as schools he went to, photos of activities, or people he associates with.

How to Protect Yourself

There are ways you can protect yourself if you find they have a criminal record. You could call the police if you believe or are sure they’re doing something illegal. Your family and home’s safety is most important in this situation, so you need to do what you need to do to protect them. Unless your rental agreement or homeowner bylaws stipulate it, you cannot force your neighbor to move.

Today, our neighbors’ identities are shrouded in mist. That lack of familiarity can lead to false assumptions and apprehension with regard to common issues like landscaping, noise, parking, and personal appearance. Instead of trying to stifle your unease, do what you can to get more information about your neighbor. You have every right to do so.

Effective Apps That Will Help Workers Monitor How Healthy They Are

Posted on January 28, 2021 by Pete Brown

It’s not enough to keep your employees happy with a good salary and amazing benefits. It’s also a must that you ensure that they are working under the best conditions possible and that they are always in good shape. A lot of companies tend to forget to manage their employee’s health but luckily, some apps are able to help those companies out.

If companies are going to make key changes in their work environment, then one of those should be with regards to employee health. Aside from offering good insurance and healthcare plans, companies can also try using a selection of health and wellness apps to keep in touch with their employee’s well-being.

Specialized Tracking Apps

Some industries should have better safety precautions than others such as the healthcare industry. Employee health in the sector is an even bigger priority now with the pandemic still active. Specialized tracking apps cater to the health monitoring needs of certain industries which is a must nowadays.

For hospitals and medical institutions, such apps are crucial to help mitigate the spread of Covid-19. At the same time, these apps help healthcare workers continue on with their job of treating the infected. These apps come with symptom monitoring features that make it easier for management to detect if something’s amidst.

Fitness Trackers

The best cure will always be prevention. In this light, companies should invest in organizational fitness trackers. These function similarly to any other fitness trackers. They take note of calorie intake, calorie loss, heart rate, and a few other crucial metrics on a deeper scale. Some apps even allow workers to manage their dieting habits.

Fitness trackers are a great way to boost one’s overall health and heart health. Employees don’t always have the time to work out and keep track of their health. You can encourage your employees to try out fitness trackers by giving them subscriptions to the top options on the market.

Trackers do a great job of measuring your movement. But care should be taken to fully understand how accurate is Fitbit calorie burn.

Fitness trackers usually go well with smartwatches. It might be a great idea to invest in these gadgets as well. Fitness trackers like Apple Watch are water resistant and are meant to be worn at all times to track your overall health and activity, which may leave you wondering, can you shower with your apple watch?

Mental Health Focused Apps

Health isn’t just about the physical aspects of the body. It’s also about mental health. Employees go through stress and fatigue on a daily basis. Poor mental health makes it harder for them to focus on work and become more productive. This is especially the case now considering that people also have the pandemic to worry about.

Mental health apps can help your employees effectively manage the other spectrum of one’s well-being. Aside from giving your employees access to mind relaxing puzzles, audio, and self-help guides, these mental health apps can also check in on your employees regularly if they are undergoing something serious like anxiety or depression.

Being the top company is no longer about giving your employees the best benefits and healthcare plans. It’s also about making sure that they are fit and healthy all year-round. These apps are going to be great additions to your company’s healthcare plans and these also help you manage their health on a deeper level.

10 Accessories for your Work from Home Setup

Posted on January 27, 2021 by Parvinder Singh

Theoretically, working from home requires a stable internet connection and a PC but paperwork shows that the reality is very different. This activity is mostly performed by handicaps and jobless people and oftenly, for those who are living in unbalanced environmental conditions.

As we know, we need a stable internet and PC or computer for Online Work. But in addition to it, we recommend you to buy an external monitor and a good mouse to make your work more easy and comfortable.

Therefore, We are going to talk about some gadgets and accessories that you will require for your online Work.

However, Online Working has many pros and it is mostly loved by the people as it is free from sitting discomfort, dress up issues, environmental health issues etc. After observing all, we have bought our 10 best home articles that are the basic need of each and every person who wants to work from home.

1 Portable Storage

You will find various accessories for working from home but one of my best is the Samsung Portable SSD T5 external hard drive that costs : $60. Use this as your backup storage device to save all old files for future use.

Sometimes, we don’t need some old files at the moment but after some time we suddenly need them and we always struggle to find those files at the moment. To avoid this situation, we will use this as our backup storage device to keep an offline backup of important data in a hard disk.

2 Computer or Laptop Desk

If you don’t have a PC and you are spending more than 8 hours per day in front of your laptop then you need to put the display in front of your eye level to reduce the stress from your eyes.

For this condition, we bring an amazing office desk that adjusts up to eight positions and eliminates back and neck pain. Also, it comes with mesh fabric pads for extreme comfort and stability.

3 Hamilton Beach Breakfast Sandwich Maker

No need to go anywhere. Now, prepare your Breakfast within 5 minutes with the help of Hamilton Beach Breakfast Sandwich Maker.

4 Wireless Earphones

Wireless Earphones play an important role in online Work for attending calls and meetings. You don’t need to buy expensive Apple Airpods for these tasks.These Tozo Bluetooth wireless earbuds are also a good option for you.

5 Black + Decker 12-Cup Coffeemaker

Some people are habitual of coffee during work hours. For those people, this Black + Decker 12-cup programmable coffee maker will be very helpful.

6 Ergonomic Chairs

Now, it comes to the ergonomic chairs. We suggest you to go with gaming chairs instead of office chairs because gaming chairs are made up of high quality material and are for rough and tough use. Also, your kids can use the same chair for gaming purposes. Check out the best gaming chairs for home and office on the market.

7 Connectivity and Ports

There is one major con of laptops that they have only few connectivity ports. On observing this, we bought an external hub for those people who don’t have a PC and are using laptops.

8 External Displays

External displays are also very important for those people who are working from home. It doesn’t matter whether you have a PC or laptop, You must have an external display in order to boost up your work. For that, A large monitor of 16 or 17 inches is Sufficient to perform Enormous functions in your external display.

9 Surge Protector

Surge Protector plays an important role in protecting your Computer from theLoss of Low or High Voltages. Sometimes, Amount of Voltage is too high or too low that your PC can’t handle and gets damaged. For that condition, we suggest you go with the Belkin 4-socket surge protector that costs around ($26).

10 Wireless Mouse for your Home Office

Logitech’s MX Master Wireless Mouse is one of the best computer mouse for various reasons. It comes with an ergonomic design which is much comfortable for long use. If you are spending more than 8 hours on your computer or PC, then your mouse must be handy so that you can use it hours and hours. Moreover, It allows the user to customize its scroll speed and the functions of the buttons which will enhance your productivity.

How to Reduce Confusion When Communicating Virtually

Posted on January 25, 2021 by Alex Sanders

For all of the good that comes with running a remote business or virtual team, there are a number of unique challenges that emerge when you’re no longer interacting with your people face to face. Confusion and miscommunication are chief among these issues.

3 Tactics for Reducing and Avoiding Confusion

Virtual teams are great. Not only do they provide a tremendous amount of flexibility, but they also allow each member of the team to work in an environment that’s comfortable and suited to their own needs. However, ignoring the shortcomings of virtual teams does everyone a disservice.

If you want your business to run as smoothly as possible, you need to be forthcoming about the challenges that exist with communicating 100 percent virtually. More specifically, you have to address the issue of confusion and the friction that exists when communicating tasks, facilitating feedback loops, or managing projects.

While nothing can replace the clarity of face-to-face interactions with your team, there are ways you can reduce confusion in a virtual setting and enjoy optimum productivity and efficiency. Here are a few suggestions:

1. Set Ground Rules

The first step is to establish clear and precise guidelines for how team members are to communicate with one another. This might seem like such an obvious thing, but the reality is that everyone has their own preferred methods and modes. By creating ground rules, so to speak, you cultivate consistency and pave the way for less confusion.

For example, how should new assignments be distributed? (Is the project manager supposed to send an email, make a phone call, or schedule a Zoom meeting to discuss?)

Or what about simple details like receiving a message on Slack? (Consider creating a universal symbol of acknowledgment that the message has been received and read – such as a checkmark or thumbs up.)

Little details like these can help your team avoid the issues that so-often plague virtual teams and put a chokehold on productivity.

2. Choose the Right Medium

Be intentional with the various forms of communication you allow in your business. While there is no shortage of options, some solutions are much better than others – particularly when clarity is the primary objective.

Email: Good for non-urgent messages where you want to document something and/or provide thorough detail. Also great for sending large attachments and links that someone needs to open on their computer.

SMS: Designed for short and concise messages. Ideal when you want to get straight to the point. SMS emphasizes clarity by forcing you to strip out any filler language and focus on the “meat” of the issue.

Video conferencing: If you have something important to discuss with a group of three or more, a quick video conference can help you get on the same page with one another. One of the biggest benefits is the ability to see body language.

Voice call: Looking for the quickest possible way to communicate an idea without the possibility of the meaning being misconstrued in a text format? A voice call allows you to explain yourself and leverage inflection and tone to ensure complete clarity.

There’s a time and a place for each of these modes of communication. The important thing is that you set clear rules on when each is preferred so that your team knows what to do in any situation.

3. Practice Empathy

If you want to reduce confusion, you (and your team) must learn to be empathetic with the person you’re communicating with.

“We often think that others are more in sync with what we’re thinking than they really are. The obvious fix for this illusion is greater empathy,” Harvard Business Review mentions. “Put yourself in the position of the other person. Actually visualize that individual in his office as you send him an email.”

Remember that simple details like grammar and spelling can make a huge difference. Always read your message prior to identify issues like misplaced commas, misspelled words, missing words, etc. Correcting an issue like this upfront can prevent unnecessary back-and-forth.

Restore Clarity in Your Organization

A healthy amount of clarity within your organization can help you avoid and overcome a litany of issues that so often plague virtual teams. By emphasizing frictionless communication, you’ll find it possible to get more done in less time (and with better quality).

Now’s the time to step up and embrace this all-important challenge of restoring clarity to your business. Which tips will you put into action first?

Key Features to Look for When Buying Headphones

Posted on January 6, 2021 by Charlene Brown

One of the best ways to cancel the world around you is to put the headphones on and press play. Whether you listen to your favorite band or some kind of podcast, you will be able to relax and enjoy this part of your day. Or you simply want to concentrate on your work and eliminate the chatter of coworkers around you.

Just like with the rest of tech gadgets, making a decision which headphones will be a perfect fit for you is not necessarily easy. There is a wide variety of models to choose from and the price ranges also significantly very. Let’s see what are the most important things to look for in headphones.

Different Types

When it comes to models there are several things to take into consideration. Each type has its pros and cons and that will be able to help you decide which one is the best for you.

In-Ear Headphones/Earbuds

The greatest advantage of this type is that they are small which makes them portable. They don’t weigh a lot and don’t take up too much space. You can put them in your pocket or simply hang them around your neck. If you like to run or do any kind of exercise, they are going to be very practical for those occasions. Also, they are great for noise isolation.

However, due to the small drivers, they generate a sound of lower quality. And the most annoying part, the wires get easily tangled, and undoing this is quite a nerve-racking process.

Wireless Earbuds

Just like the type above, these have all the same advantages plus one more. You will not have to think about tangled wires. However, they have the battery that needs to be recharged. Given the fact that these batteries are quite small, the recharge is going to be needed sooner rather than later.

In and Over-Ear Headphones

If the size is not an issue, then these two types are going to be perfect for you. Although they are not as portable as the previous ones, they provide you with much better quality. Given the better sound, it’s not a surprise that prices are significantly higher.

Bluetooth Headphones

This is a bit of a controversial choice. Although sound quality is much better than several years ago and that there are no wires that can catch up on things, still there are some serious downsides to using them. The battery life depends on the size. Another important thing to think about is compatibility between your device and headphones.

Key Features to Think About

As we mentioned above, the sound quality will depend on the size of the drivers. So, if you want to have first-class sound, you will probably have to learn to deal with bulkier models.

Also, when it comes to sound, you should check out the specifications of the headphones and look for sensitivity. This is especially important for those who like to listen to the music a bit louder. In most cases, this is around 110dB/mW but if you find a model that’s visually amazing but sensitivity is 85dB/mW or lower, you should skip on those.

If you’re someone who likes to hear a strong bass, then look for frequency response. In most models, this characteristic is between 20 and 20000 Hz. However, for the bigger bass, you will need a wider range than this.

It’s important to learn the difference between noise isolation and cancelation. As stated by the experts at Head Phones Pro Review, these features will allow you to enjoy the music to the fullest. Although you will have to spend more money to get the best ones, it will be worth it. Both types have the same goal but they don’t work in the same way. The first one means there is a physical barrier between your eardrum and the outside world while the other one is working on eliminating unwanted noise by pushing away the outside sound waves.

Some headphones come with a built-in microphone and control module that will make your life much easier. With these features, you will not have to take your phone out of the pocket in order to manage your playlist or answer a phone call.

Given the time we spend with the headphones by our side, it’s important to choose the ones that suit your needs the best. These are the most important characteristics you need to keep in mind when you enter the store. To make a perfect choice, you will have to think about your personal preferences as well as your budget.

How to Help Remote Workers Address Information Technology Issues

Posted on December 30, 2020 by Allen Brown

The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic may have forced an employer like you to send your employees working from home. This might seem promising at first, at the apparent freedom it grants, but not until they encounter information technology issues. Without a helping hand and expertise from the IT department, they might find themselves lost in a daze. It is your duty to lend them support by teaching them technological independence.

Remote Working IT Issues

Unstable or slow internet connection
Low-resolution screens
Unlimited distractions
I.T illiteracy

Promote IT Literacy

Workers lacking experience with technology might feel prehistoric when faced with a maze of buttons to press. If you’re from a busy place like New York, switching modes of working is no easy ordeal, so expect first-timers to be clueless as newborns. They might seek help from IT support New York or similar businesses and websites that offer IT consultation and other services. Of course, this can’t be the case all the time, eventually, they have to be independent.

Going digital is now the new normal, but transitioning comes with its own set of challenges. The greatest barrier is IT illiteracy, so you have to work on educating them to ensure a productive workforce. And because you can’t keep watch on them physically, IT problems could go unresolved. If you equip them with the right knowledge and training, they could solve them unaided.

Less Is More

Teach your employees the virtue of simplicity. You don’t want to come across as overbearing when you load them with tasks whose deadlines they must chase. The solution to the tech problems aforementioned above lies in your hands. Bombarding workers with countless digital tools may only cause a decline in productivity.

Choose wisely and unify digital platforms, and choose those that cater efficiently. The ideal tool grants workers flexible work schedules, offer high-quality video conferences and easy connectivity. Free them of headache from glitches and the unnecessary crowding of applications.

Keep the number of gadgets and apps at a minimum. Having too much will only divert one’s attention to unimportant matters. Go for efficiency when evaluating options.

The Best Free Video Conferencing Apps

Google Meet
Zoom
Skype

Limit Distractions

Because you can’t monitor them physically, distractions can siphon profit from squandered time. Workers might stray off duties and scroll mindlessly on social media instead. Remote workers have improvised workstations that, in most cases, are ineffective. You don’t want to add on the burden of workers resisting distractions.

Top Digital Distractions

Social Media Sites
Video Games
Entertainment Websites

Staying indoors requires discipline in the use of technology and entertainment. You can sharpen the time-management skills of your workers by relying on apps. Likewise, this can increase their productivity by monitoring their performance.

The pandemic will bring about a radical shift in our workplaces and mold how we use technology. As a result, information technology issues will become more prevalent. Remote workers need to adapt quickly in order to sustain their business or company. You must assist them in every way possible to use technology as an effective tool for profit.