This ordeal has made people adjust their daily lives while being in isolation and necessitated most people to work from home.Now, working from home is not a new concept – certain professions and businesses have sustained on fully-remote workforces and most companies (even Microsoft!)
It takes planning and thoughtful policymaking to ensure that all employees are productive, motivated, coordinated and focused on meeting the set goals even when they are working out of the office.Some obvious challenges of remote-working include lack of face-to-face communication leading to lower efficiency, reduced access to information and support, and lack of collaboration and camaraderie between coworkers.
This article is a guide for employers and employees to learn how to work from home and what tools to use.Before we jump into a discussion of the best remote-working tools, let’s first begin by highlighting some of the most important things to consider before a business’ employees start working from home.Checklist Of Things To Consider Before You Start Working From HomeHere’s what businesses should take care of before they implement a work from home policy for their workers: Access to working internet: It goes without saying that in order to work from home, employees will need to use online tools which obviously require a working internet connection.Targets and follow-up meetings: Set clear targets for every team and individual employee, follow up on them and have regular meetings to discuss progress.
Set clear policies regarding work hours, targets, meeting times, and methods of collaboration.Provide training: If you use a new remote working tool to facilitate work from home, it is important that you provide training to employees to familiarize them with tools.Set a routine: Set a work routine and discuss it over with coworkers so they know between what times you will be working.Maintain work-life balance: Working from home does not mean working all the time; take a break from work and follow your set routine to balance your work and life.Tech Tools To Help You With Working RemotelyWorking from home can be easy and efficient if the right tools are utilised by employees and employers for collaboration, communication, and task management.Collaboration And Messaging ToolsWith the lack of face-to-face interaction, employees working from home often have trouble collaborating and communicating with other coworkers or managers, especially those who work on team-based tasks and projects.
Google Hangouts MeetInstant messaging and collaboration tools help while working remotely.
You can invite them by sharing meeting codes.Google Hangouts MeetWith Hangouts Meet, managers can also use Google Calendar to schedule a video meeting with their subordinate employees by simply creating a meeting in the calendar and adding all the guests for that meeting.