The year 2020, when the human community experienced the biggest outbreak, i.e., the coronavirus that made unpredictable working options for the firms. The Covid-19 made people get normalized by staying at home for months, working from their home. Due to the sudden lockdown, companies were left with no other options open to overcome the financial losses, companies opted for remote work options and found out that remote work is not a bad option at all and according to the survey, most of the companies are still planning to stay at least partially remote for the long term.
The work from Home option is not easy as a cakewalk. Whether you are working remotely or managing a remote team, one needs to make some adjustments. Anyone who is working remotely as a telecommuter or running their business from home is not at all rainbows and unicorns. According to the UN International Labour Organization report, employees’ productivity increases outside the conventional office, work from home interference, and in some cases greater stress.
Challenges faced by companies while working remotely-
- Miscommunication
For better work, communication is the important thing, and because no in-person interaction between the teams leads to lots of lack of communication affecting team efficiency. Around 45.8% of companies reported this challenge.
- Motivation without team interaction is hard
Without team interaction, employees get demotivated as a pandemic is hard, people are still struggling for life.
- Difficult to keep the tracking of employees’ work
While working from home, keeping the track of employees’ work is hard, as when people are logging out, how much time they are spending on a particular project is not easy.
- Lack of accountability
No in-person guidance from the leaders makes the employees lazy and one can experience a lack of accountability towards their work.
To resolve these problems, a proper set of remotely working software is a boon for all the companies which are running their business remotely. Using this remote working software can help the team save time and high-level performance. Through these tools manage projects, finance tracking, security improvement, and many more things.
Some of the best Remote working software are-
Hubstaff
Remote working requires an app that can help to track working hours and progress and Hubstaff can help in that. Hubstaff automatically records the working hours of the employees with accountability features such as app and URL tracking, optional screenshots, and idle time reminders. This software integrates with over 30 different apps, from project management and accounting software to help desk and CRM solutions and many more features at the different price plans.
Google Drive
This software stores all the files in the cloud and ensures that they are safe. The cloud-based storage solution allows to keep project files in one centralized location and anyone with the link can check the document. Sharing the document is easy and there is no need to carry a pen drive or document in the mail or carrying system with you. Google Drive has a powerful office toolset that lets the creator edit documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. One can track the edits made by the collaborators, accept and reject suggestions, and tag people in comments and notes. The google drive gives 15 GB storage space free and charges increase as per the requirement.
Slack
It provides a solution to many communication difficulties that comes up with remote working. It has the service through which one can connect with its team with real-time conversations, creating channels for different purposes and threads within messages to keep the chats organized. It also supports file sharing as an alternative to emails. This app integrates with a no. of popular solutions. The charges this app has are free for a limited plan and exceed as per the usage.
PukkaTeam
To bring remote teams closer this app is designed to let the leader see coworkers’ faces throughout the day by taking photos automatically. It has features like availability notifications, custom statuses, and video calls with 60 days of free trials and with different packages.
There are many more tools that have been a blessing in this lockdown situation working efficiently in the market ensuring the best working proximity.
Benefits of using remote working –
- Cost reduction
Remote working is less cost-effective as it saves money that is spent on big office spaces, electricity, daily cleaning services, furniture, desktop, internet. Huge corporations save millions of dollars when they let their employees work from home and using remote working software keeps you connected with the employees.
- Increases the employee’s talent and workforce diversity
Remote working gives you the employees beyond the geographical locations. One can employ the right candidate from different areas who are more eligible and are the hub of talents and the software will help you to track across time zones, customize, and group resources.
- More productive employees
In Work from home, employees took shorter breaks, less sick leaves, and less time off, and remote work software can help in visualizing plans, gain efficiency.
- Reduce employee turnover
On-boarding costs reduce that makes employees feel more loyal towards their companies and are more willing to work remotely and through software helps in customizing the plans and for forecasting automatic reports at various intervals.
At the beginning of the pandemic lockdown, people were not ready for this drastic change in their working environment but with time, people started liking it as many tools have helped them overcome the worries they were supposed to face.