Teams | Collaboration | Customer Service | Project Management

December 2021

Time Card Approval: Best Tools & Tips [2022 Guide]

Time card approval is the process where a manager or supervisor verifies an employee’s time card information for accurate payroll processing. Depending on your company’s needs, time cards can be approved daily, weekly, or monthly. But the real question is: how do you go about timecard approval? In this article, we’ll dive into the time card approval process and understand why you need to automate it.

How To Calculate Hours Worked: A Walkthrough Guide (2022)

Whether you’re an enterprise or a startup, keeping track of the hours worked for each employee is essential for attendance and payroll purposes. But how to calculate hours worked? Don’t worry. In this article, we’ll give you a step-by-step guide on how to calculate hours worked for your employees. We’ll also explore the different types of hours worked and the best time tracking tools that make calculating hours worked a breeze.

Top 10 Time & Billing Software for Accountants (2022 Review)

From bookkeeping to expense tracking and employee payouts, accountants have a lot on their plate. And having to process all this data on spreadsheets is asking for burnout. So, as an accountant or a Certified Public Accounting (CPA) firm, how can you simplify employee time tracking and billing? Fortunately, time and billing software for accountants and CPA firms make it effortless to keep track of invoices, billing, and the time spent on tasks.

How to Change Name on Zoom Before Meeting (Step-by-Step)

Zoom Meetings – one of the platform’s most popular products – offers powerful audio and video conferencing features that help teams collaborate over virtual meetings. If you use Zoom meetings for both personal and professional meetings, you may need to set different display names for each at times. So, how to change name on Zoom before meeting? Thankfully, Zoom lets an attendee easily change the display names before or during a meeting.

How to Blur Zoom Background (Step-by-Step Guide + FAQs)

As the name suggests, Zoom’s blurred background feature blurs everything in the background during a video call. Whether you want to maintain privacy or hide your messy room, this new feature can be helpful for a number of reasons. Wondering how to blur Zoom background? In this article, we’ll provide a step-by-step guide to help you enable blurred background for your next meeting.

Virtual Assistant Canada: Top Services, Costs & More (2022)

Virtual assistants can handle a wide variety of tasks, ranging from administrative tasks to bookkeeping and graphic design. They can also be your virtual receptionist, virtual personal assistant, and many more. And if you’re looking for a virtual assistant from Canada, you’ll find all the essential information in this article. We’ll highlight the five top companies to find a Canadian virtual assistant.

What Will the Call Center of the Future Actually Look Like?

Gone are the days of providing customer service solely through inbound and outbound calls. Instead, the call center of the future will use all possible forms of communication to reach out to their target audience or consumers. That’s because the customer expectations are higher than ever. They expect their queries and complaints to be addressed quickly, efficiently, and in a personalized manner.

Top 15 Call Center Recording Software (Features, Pricing)

Call center recording software captures the audio and video activity between an agent and a customer during a call. It also lets you store, retrieve, and evaluate recorded calls according to your business needs. However, there are many call center recording tools in the market, and you need to choose one that suits your business interests perfectly. In this article, we’ll highlight the top 15 call center recording software for 2022, including their key features, pricing, and customer ratings.

11 Pro Tips For Effectively Managing Distributed Teams

Distributed teams consist of employees working remotely from different locations. And with the pandemic confining millions of employees to their homes, organizations have been compelled to embrace this work model. However, remote work is still vulnerable to cultural differences, social inclusion, and a lack of trust and communication between team members. Indeed, managing distributed teams is a pressing concern for remote managers. But, don’t worry! We’re here to help you out.

Employee Engagement: How to Actually Measure and Increase It

Employee engagement is a metric that shows an employee’s commitment to their workplace and their motivation to work. High employee engagement can improve employee performance, productivity, customer experience, and more. In this article, we’ll cover the benefits of high employee engagement, its driving factors, and the teams responsible for managing it. We’ll also discuss the different surveys to measure employee engagement and steps to create an action plan.

Remote Work Stipend (Meaning, Setting Up, Benefits)

Thanks to the Coronavirus pandemic, people across the globe today have warmed up to the idea of remote working and even prefer it over traditional offices. That’s why employers should seriously think about remote work stipends. Remote work stipends are fixed or varying amounts of money paid to a remote employee in addition to their basic salary for their home office setup, coworking space expenses, or paying electricity bills. These stipends are generally optional for employers.

How to Extend Zoom Meeting Time (Step-by-Step Guide + FAQs)

Zoom Meetings is a popular video and audio conferencing software that helps teams and clients from across the globe connect through online meetings. However, a Zoom meeting has a 40 minute time limit in the free plan. Wondering how to extend Zoom meeting time? In this article, we’ll explain some workaround for the time limit in Zoom’s free plan. We’ll then look into eight frequently asked questions about Zoom and explore the best three alternatives to Zoom.

10 Critical Lessons Learned From Working From Home Experiment

Even though remote work isn’t a new idea, it’s something that most people had little experience with before 2020. Before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, only 6% of the workforce worked from home the majority of the time. And a staggering 75% never worked from home at any point in their careers. But by the height of the pandemic, more than a third of people were working from home full-time. That represents more than a fivefold increase compared to pre-pandemic levels.

30 Amazing Remote Work Articles You'll Want to Bookmark

The Covid pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns pushed businesses worldwide to adopt remote working almost overnight. Since then, the remote work or telework scenario has evolved to include new trends in remote team management, technology, and the hybrid work environment. These dynamic changes can be tough to keep up with, even for the best business leaders. Thankfully, there are many remote work articles that can help you understand all aspects of remote work.

30+ Must-Read Call Center Articles To Add To Your Playbook

The call center industry is a rewarding one, but it’s also highly competitive. While there are a lot of resources available online to help you start and manage your call center, handpicking information that you really need can take ages. Fortunately, you don’t have to spend hours rummaging through the internet for call center information! We’ve compiled a list of the best call center articles to save you time.

20+ Employee Monitoring Articles You'll Want to Bookmark

Employee monitoring can be a sensitive subject. The idea of being monitored isn’t exactly comforting, even when implemented for the right reasons. That’s why employers and employees need to have an excellent understanding of this practice. We’ve compiled a list of 22 comprehensive employee monitoring articles that answer why employee monitoring is important, what rules you should keep in mind, the best software to use, and a lot more.

8 Best Strategies To Improve Remote Worker Employee Experience

The Coronavirus pandemic and the resulting lockdowns have changed the world of work. Remote work is the new normal, with several employees preferring to work remotely even after the pandemic. However, creating a positive remote worker employee experience can seem challenging. But don’t worry. In this article, we’ll cover what remote employee experience is and explore eight strategies that you can use to improve it.

7 Practical Strategies for Employee Retention in 2022

Employee retention is an important goal for many businesses today, mainly because of how expensive turnover can be. However, most employees today quit their jobs for a host of different reasons, be it personal, professional, or spontaneous. At this point, it’s probably far too late to have any sway in changing the employee’s decision. Instead, businesses can divert energy and resources towards an excellent employee retention strategy.

20+ Productivity Articles To Hit the Ground Running in 2022

Every business wants to have productive employees, and for a good reason. When you have productive employees, it translates into better work efficiency, improved profits, and more. If you’re aiming to address the productivity levels at your organization, we have the right collection of resources for you.

30 Insightful Outsourcing Articles You'll Want to Bookmark

Outsourcing can be a tricky business practice to get right. With different countries’ changing regulations and industry-specific requirements, it can be challenging to know where to begin! Fortunately, there are tons of outsourcing articles that can help you understand the ins and outs of outsourcing. But how do you find the right ones? No worries, we’ve compiled a comprehensive list of some of the best outsourcing articles on the internet.

What is Team Collaboration & How to Build It in 2022

Without effective team collaboration, employees may feel disconnected from each other and the company’s mission. The result? Haphazard teamwork which leads to miscommunication, confusion, and costly delays. Successful collaboration in the workplace not only improves the employee experience but also creates a domino effect of higher employee engagement, collective innovation, and improved customer experience.

2021 Time Tracking Trends to Watch in 2022

The switch to remote work due to COVID-19 initiated many new time tracking trends in 2021. For instance, most companies could no longer use traditional punch cards or time clock systems to track employee work hours. Instead, they adopted cloud-based time and attendance tracking tools. These trends are likely to prevail in 2022 and beyond, shaping the future of the time-tracking software market. Employers should watch these trends to enhance their employee monitoring and workforce management efforts.

Top 13 Virtual Assistant Stats to Watch in 2022

A virtual assistant (VA) is an independent contractor who provides remote assistance for administrative tasks, resolving customer queries, social media management, etc. You may be looking for ways to leverage the VA industry to benefit your business. But to do this, you’ll have to first keep up with the latest virtual assistant statistics and trends. In this article, we’ll take a look at the top 13 virtual assistant stats that business owners should watch out for in 2022.

6 Virtual Assistant Trends from 2021 to Watch in 2022

Hiring virtual assistants is one of the quickest ways to scale your business. From accounting to digital marketing, they can handle a wide variety of tasks. It allows you to focus on urgent business matters and devise strategies for the upcoming months. Additionally, you can handle the growing workload of your thriving business without causing employee burnout. That’s why you need to keep tabs on the latest virtual assistant trends making waves in the virtual assistant industry.

10+ Interesting Outsourcing Stats From 2021 to Know for 2022

The latest outsourcing statistics from 2021 reveal interesting trends in business practices and why several companies invest in third-party services. So, what’s the outlook for outsourcing in 2022? Let’s take an in-depth look at 20 crucial outsourcing stats 2021 and three FAQs that provide a market overview of the outsourcing industry.

13 Best Remote Companies to Work for in 2021 (Detailed Reviews)

With remote work rising in popularity, there came an expectation for flexible work from employees. As a result, companies responded by either going completely remote or implementing a hybrid work model that offers the flexibility of both in-office and remote options. But, how do you know which remote company to work for? Don’t worry. In this article, we’ll highlight the 13 best remote companies to work for in 2021 with their typical job titles and benefits packages.

2021 Work Hour Trends to Watch in 2022

The past few years saw a massive shift in employee work patterns, especially with the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, organizations adopted various productivity techniques and monitored work hour trends to keep up with the changing workplace culture. In this article, we’ll explore the top 11 work hour trends in 2021 that will give you a detailed insight into how the industry changed and what you can expect to see in the near future.

10 Vital Employee Attendance Trends to Observe in 2022

The COVID pandemic has forever changed the way we work — and a lot for the best. While some companies struggled with employee scheduling during lockdowns, many relied on software systems offering automated employee attendance data to note absence trends. In this article, we’ll explore the previous years’ employee attendance trends, such as the reliance on timesheets and the popularity of remote work, to make calculated predictions about what you can expect in 2022.

10 Simple Ways to Boost Employee Recognition at Your Company

Employee recognition can look quite different in every company. But regardless of your methods, it plays a crucial role in keeping your workforce motivated. It’s also instrumental in giving your company a competitive advantage by improving employee retention, morale, and productivity. That’s why today’s businesses have to constantly adapt how they show recognition and ensure that their employees feel valued and nurtured.

15 Eye-Opening Employee Attendance Statistics You Must Know

Perfect employee attendance may be unattainable, but good attendance isn’t. While companies are often focused on implementing stricter policies, the following 15 employee attendance statistics will show how that tends to backfire. You’ll also learn which strategies work and how to keep them going. If your company faces attendance issues, we’ll suggest three easy ways to improve it and even recommend an amazing tool to help track employee absences.

13 Interesting Outsourcing Trends from 2021 to Watch in 2022

As a business leader, studying the current outsourcing trends will help you navigate the outsourcing terrain and adapt to the new normal of the post-pandemic world. The outsourcing trends 2021 reflect the changes the pandemic brought to the outsourcing market this year. It suggests that businesses will need to look for providers with quality services, aim for high flexibility, and leverage updated technology while outsourcing in 2022.

Employee Monitoring Trends From 2021 to Watch in 2022

The COVID pandemic was the main reason behind several new workplace trends in 2021, including the increasing popularity of remote work. As a result, implementing modern employee monitoring solutions seemed the best way for companies to monitor remote employees and manage a hybrid workforce. But will the same employee monitoring trends continue in 2022 as well? Or will we see a paradigm shift in how organizations map employee productivity?

Employee Monitoring Statistics Companies Need to Know for 2022

Employee monitoring is a great way to keep your company data safe and ensure compliance, accountability, and productivity among your workforce. However, employee monitoring trends keep changing with changes in technology, work style, and data protection and privacy laws. As a result, every employer should watch key employee monitoring statistics to stay updated on the latest trends. In this article, we’ll share some insightful employee monitoring statistics and trends.

10 Amazing Employee Incentive Programs You Can Implement Today

During difficult quarters or stressful projects, it’s common for your employees to feel exhausted and disengaged. But the problem with disengagement is that it can lead to low employee morale, higher employee turnover rates, and decreased productivity. So how do you ensure your employees stay motivated and engaged? Simple: by implementing employee incentive programs.

18 Unique Remote Employee Appreciation Gifts [2022 Edition]

With the year-end approaching and the holiday season dazzling the world, there’s no better time to show appreciation for your remote employees. Since they’re far from an office setting, it’s important to recognize and remind them that they’re an essential part of your team. But what are the best remote employee appreciation gifts? In this article, we’ll suggest the 18 best remote employee appreciation gifts ideal for year-round needs, but especially for the holidays.

20+ Exciting Rewards for Employees to Motivate Them at Work

Money isn’t everything for most employees today. They also seek meaning and fulfillment in their jobs. And this can often come from feeling like they’re contributing to something larger than themselves and being appreciated for their efforts. That’s why managers are constantly brainstorming rewards for employees to motivate them. But what’s an effective rewards program?

2021 Remote Work Trends to Watch in 2022

With the COVID pandemic still raging in most parts of the world, it’s safe to say that remote work is here to stay. And why not? There are many attractive benefits of remote work, like reduced costs, access to a greater talent pool, greater flexibility, and more. This has led to reduced office spaces and a rise in remote job postings. So, what other trends did the remote working world see in 2021?

10 Useful Time Tracking Statistics for Business Owners in 2021

The American philosopher Henry David Thoreau said: “It is not enough to be busy. The question is: what are we busy about?” And if anything, this statement resonates with business owners the most — how you spend your company time defines the organization’s profits, work efficiency, and more. That’s why it’s important to practice effective time and project management. Modern time tracking and employee monitoring software are our saviors there.

7 No-Nonsense Tips to Improve Call Center Efficiency in 2021

Ensuring top-notch customer service must be one of your top priorities as a business owner. Customers want instant and reliable solutions, which means your call center efficiency needs to be at an optimum level at all times. With an efficient call center strategy, you can enhance your brand image and improve customer satisfaction. Wondering how you can achieve optimum call center efficiency? Don’t worry. We’ve got you covered.

8 Top Countries for Outsourcing [2021 Edition]

Whether you’re a budding startup or an established business, contracting work to a third party in some of the top countries for outsourcing, like India and the Philippines, offers a ton of benefits. It can help you save costs, hire from a skilled talent pool, complete projects quickly, access flexible staffing, and more. In this article, we’ll explore the eight top countries for outsourcing your business activities.

Free Google Sheets Time Card Templates (Pros, Cons, Alternatives)

Tracking employee work hours is an integral part of most businesses. It helps you analyze employee productivity and even pay your hourly employees accordingly. And one way to track employee time is to use a spreadsheet tool like Google Sheets. With a Google Sheets time card template, you can keep track of what tasks an employee works on in a given period and the time taken for each task.

8 Interesting Call Center Trends from 2021 to Watch in 2022

In this ongoing pandemic, the world has seen paradigm shifts in consumer behavior and customer expectations. As social distancing prompted growing virtual connectivity, call centers worldwide have utilized new technologies to their advantage to stay ahead of their competitors. And to continue delivering seamless customer experiences and generate higher revenue, you’ll need to keep a close eye on the trends calling the shots in the call center industry.

Time Doctor 2021 Year In Review

As 2021 comes to an end, we at Time Doctor want to share our version of a Year In Review. This year has been unusual and busy, but there have also been many positives, as we continued to grow and strengthen partnerships with our customers across the globe. We’ve released some great new features and even added a new type of work insight for our customers. In case you missed anything, we’ve recapped the Top 5 Time Doctor Feature Improvements of 2021 below.

What Is Chat Monitoring? (7 Best Software, Key Features)

Chat monitoring is ideal for business owners who want to boost the performance of their customer support team and ensure they provide exceptional customer service at all times. And with chat monitoring software, you can support and supervise your agents with ease. But what exactly is chat monitoring, and how can you find the right chat monitoring software for your business? Not to worry – you’ll know soon enough!

8 Work Hour Statistics and Trends Every Employer Should Know

Businesses that track employee work hours know its value in ensuring productivity and compliance. However, our working style, duration, and how we measure work hours keep evolving with changes in local labor laws and advancements in technology. This has become even more important since most companies embraced remote work due to the pandemic. As a result, business leaders should keep an eye on key work hour statistics and the latest trends around it to keep up with these changes.

The Top Remote Work Stats of 2021 to Watch in 2022

2021 was largely about working remotely, following a work model shift due to the COVID pandemic. Many companies that weren’t initially open to telecommuting had no choice but to adapt to the new norm, realizing later that remote work wasn’t bad, after all. So, is remote work here to stay? In this article, we’ll discover some of the key remote work stats 2021 that employers and employees need to take note of.

11 Practical Tips for Onboarding and Training Remote Employees

The dynamic nature of the workplace has seen some incredible changes in the past couple of years with the rise of remote teams. Given that 83 percent of employers have reported a successful shift to remote work, it is highly likely that we will see a major shift towards remote teams in the future. As we see the growing trend of shifting to remote work, what will this mean for onboarding and training? Before we get into this, we need to look at the importance of employee onboarding.

10 Best Virtual Assistant Countries for Finding Excellent VAs

Traditionally, virtual assistants handled day-to-day processes such as scheduling appointments, responding to emails, confirming travel itineraries, etc. But these days, you can hire a virtual assistant (VA) for virtually any task performed online. For instance, you can hire a VA to develop your website and handle your social media marketing. In this article, we’ll highlight the 10 best virtual assistant countries for outsourcing various tasks to VAs.

Free Paralegal Timesheet Templates (Excel, PDF, Word)

As a paralegal, you spend countless hours doing research, preparing legal documents, and interacting with the opposing counsel. But all this effort is in vain if you do not keep track of your billable work hours. Fortunately, you can use a paralegal timesheet template to document your working hours and ensure accurate and quick payment for any legal service. In this article, we’ll give you three handy paralegal timesheet templates you can download and use today.

Free Project Timesheet Templates in Excel, Word & PDF Formats

A project timesheet template can help you track, record, and organize essential information related to the project and generate accurate billables. You can capture data regarding the project timeline on a daily, weekly, biweekly, or monthly basis and analyze it to understand how the project is progressing. In this article, we’ll share four free, downloadable project timesheet templates (in PDF, Google Sheets, Microsoft Word, and Excel format).

7 Excellent ClickUp Time Tracking Tools [2021 Reviews]

ClickUp is a project management software that allows you to organize projects, set goals, track progress, and more. In short, you can efficiently manage all your projects from a single place. It also offers native time tracking functionality – an essential tool for most organizations today. However, is ClickUp time tracking enough to bring the best out of your business? Let’s find out. In this article, we’ll discuss how ClickUp time tracking works and its limitations.

10 Powerful Daily Attendance Apps for 2021 (Features, Pricing)

Traditional attendance systems like paper or spreadsheet-based attendance templates can be time-consuming and prone to human error. Instead, it’s best to use a daily attendance app. Along with attendance tracking functionality, they offer several advanced features like time tracking, shift scheduling, and more. But with hundreds of tools available today, which one is the best for you? Let’s find out.

4 Free Payroll Timesheet Templates You Can Download & Use Today

Timekeeping is essential for companies to accurately pay their hourly employees and stay compliant with labor law regulations. However, using paper timesheets like a Google Sheet or Excel spreadsheet, PDF, or MS Word docs to manually record work hours is time-consuming. To make the process a little easier, you can use a payroll timesheet template customized for the payment cycle in your company.

6 Excellent HubSpot Time Tracking Tools (Features, Pricing)

HubSpot is a CRM (Customer relationship management) platform that can help streamline your organization’s sales, inbound marketing, content management, and customer support. It has many powerful features to help your business run smoothly and provide a robust client experience. However, HubSpot lacks a native time tracking functionality.

What is Employee Productivity Ratio & How Do You Calculate It?

Good employee productivity goes a long way in boosting your company’s revenue and profits. But how do you quantify productivity? One way is by calculating the employee productivity ratio. The ratio considers different outputs (like the number of units produced) and inputs (like labor hour values) to determine how well your organization uses the resources. In this article, we’ll discuss what the employee productivity ratio is, its formula, and the steps to calculate it.

What is an Offshore BPO & What Are Their Pros/Cons?

In recent years, offshore BPO has expanded from offering manufacturing services to embracing almost all types of business operations. With several benefits ranging from lower costs to access to skilled labor, offshore BPOs can help companies grow quickly. But what exactly is an offshore BPO? In this article, we’ll explore offshore BPOs and processes that often get outsourced. We’ll also look into the pros and cons that an offshore BPO company can offer your business.