Even as the COVID-19 wave recedes in many countries, asking employees to come back to work isn’t the safest option right now. THe risk of infection is still imminent and in most cases, it isn’t worth risking the very lives of employees.
In other words, the work from home norm is here to stay and businesses must prepare.
While ensuring your employees are able to remain positive and productive while working from home is a complicated task, it starts with a simple step- providing them with the right tools.
In this article, we will be listing out the tools that we think are absolutely necessary when it comes to empowering work from home employees to bring their best work to the table.
Let’s jump right into it.
Web Conferencing Software
If your business has been operating with a distributed team already, chances are, you already have a conferencing tool. These tools work great for conducting team meetings and client calls alike. However, during this pandemic, another use case scenario of web conferencing software has emerged- training and education.
Teachers across the globe use web conferencing software to conduct classes, and your business can do the same. If you have halted employee training because of the current global situation, you can continue training them from home by simply asking your instructors to put on a shirt and jump in front of a camera!
Adobe Connect and Apache OpenMeetings are two great video conferencing tools that offer tools that enable trainers to deliver delightful virtual training experiences.
Remote Desktop Tool
Remote desktop tools are primarily used by people that have files on their work computer and need to access them from their homes.
However, there are several other time saving and productive applications of a mobile desktop tool. For instance, if an employee is facing an issue with logging in to your attendance portal, they can seek help from someone in the IT or HR department with the help of a remote desktop tool.
Similarly, if your team is being introduced to a new tool, a remote desktop tool can be used to help them learn the ropes. In fact, many companies even use remote desktop tools to effectively sell their digital products.
TeamViewer is one great example of a remote desktop tool.
Real Time Chat Apps
You can’t expect your employees to jump on a video conference or send an email every time they want to discuss something with their peers or team members. For this purpose, your team will need real time chat apps.
These apps have recently become very popular and many now come loaded with great features that are geared towards enabling smooth collaboration between distributed teams.
Some great examples include Slack, Fleep, and Flock.
Project Management Tools
Managing and tracking progress on projects is exponentially more difficult when your team is distributed. To manage this overwhelming task, you will need a great project management tool that offers features like task allocation and management, messaging, file sharing, reporting, and scheduling.
Of course, there may be some unique features that your business may require like workflow management or time tracking.
Asana and Basecamp are two of the best and most affordable project management tools out there.
Conclusion
These were some of our favorite team collaboration tools that are helping us cope with the current situation. While we have tried to include examples of some great and popular tools, there may be cases where other tools may suit your requirement better. Hence, it is wise to spend a little time researching the right tool for your needs.