Quarantined? 5 Must-Have Tools For Letting Employees Work Remotely
March 18, 2020 (Investorideas.com Newswire) The recent outbreak of COVID-19 coronavirus has been declared to be a pandemic by the WHO. As a result, many businesses are shifting to a work-from-home model when possible, allowing workers to perform their day-to-day tasks from the comfort of their own homes, and stay safe from the outbreak.
However, working from home does bring with it some unique challenges. In this article, we'll look at 5 must-have tools that ensure that your employees can communicate effectively, work efficiently, and keep your business on track while working remotely.
1. Video Conferencing Software
First and foremost, you'll need a way to replace your daily and weekly team meetings and check-ins. That means you need video conferencing software that allows your team to meet "face to face" - behind their computers.
There are a lot of good video conferencing tools out there. A few top picks include:
You can do a little bit of experimenting, and see which video conferencing software is right for you and your employees.
2. Desktop Chat & Telepresence Applications
In addition to video conferencing software, it's a good idea to have a desktop chat/telepresence application so that your workers can quickly and easily connect with each other without using a phone call or email.
Some of our above picks for video conferencing, like Google Hangouts, Skype For Business and Microsoft Teams also include chat software. Slack is also a top choice for many businesses due to its simplicity and expandability with third-party plugins.
These programs are all quite similar, but they do have different features and pricing, so consider your team's needs and your budget when choosing which program to use.
3. Emergency Notification Tools
It's important to keep your workers informed about the latest developments about COVID-19, when they may be able to return to work, and about any other updates and information they may need as they work from home.
Email, team meetings, and corporate memos are good options for doing this. But if you need to send emergency notifications that need to be seen immediately, an SMS emergency notification tool like DialMyCalls is the best option.
SMS messages have a 98% open rate - and with DialMyCalls, you can send thousands of messages to different lists of individuals in only a few minutes, making it quick and easy to send out emergency notifications and updates to your workers, no matter where they are. Emergency notification systems like DialMyCalls are valuable tools, and will certainly be valuable as the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak continues to become more severe.
4. Document Collaboration Platforms & Project Management Tools
Your employees won't be able to meet face-to-face and edit documents together - and emailing Microsoft Word documents back and forth between several people can lead to serious quality control and revision issues.
It's important for your employees to be able to quickly and easily collaborate on documents, spreadsheets, presentations and more. The Google G Suite, including Google Docs, Google Sheets and Google Slides is a great way to allow users to collaborate and modify documents remotely.
Microsoft Office 365 and Microsoft Teams are also great options, as these tools allow for the seamless creation and editing of documents and spreadsheets, as well as chatting and video connectivity between users.
5. A VPN (Virtual Private Network)
A Virtual Private Network (VPN) allows employees to connect to the internal network at your office - providing them access to servers, document storage devices, and other software and hardware that would otherwise be inaccessible.
If you haven't already set up a corporate VPN for your workers, now is the time to do so - even if your office is still open during the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak. It's possible that this outbreak may last for months, so you need to be prepared to have your employees work from home as much as possible. There are hundreds of different VPN providers out there - so do some digging to find out which one may be right for you.
Keep Your Team On The Same Page & Stay Productive With These 5 Tools
While working remotely, the right tools, technology, and platforms are key for effective workplace collaboration and productivity. Unless your workers are empowered with the tools they need to collaborate effectively while working from home, you may find that your productivity and profitability suffer.
But by implementing the right tools, you can keep on running your business as usual - even if your workers are quarantined or are working from home to maintain proper social distancing, and fight back against the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak. So think about the tools you can use in your business to empower your employees, and help them maintain their productivity through this difficult time.
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