More and more companies are embracing the idea of remote working for their employees. For some, the geographical location of some of its team members makes this necessary. For others, remote working, either faulty or partially, is a creative hiring strategy used to attract and retain employees, more so millennials.
Whatever the case, remote workers still need to make their contributions to organizational goals. For most companies, remote working tools and software are a must-have. Here are some of the top ones.
General Collaboration Tools
A business where all employees work centrally can have collaboration hiccups from time to time. With remote employees, this problem is magnified.
Reliable collaborative-working tools can help streamline work processes and ensure all teams deliver as expected.
The key thing about collaboration is efficient communication. Email once worked well, but with time, sending numerous emails and waiting for responses has become outdated. A good collaborative tool, whether based on instant messaging to video conferencing, allows for real-time communication.
You can use collaboration tools for communal scheduling, synchronizing tasks, and ensuring all project teams receive the same set of information every step of the way.
The implementation can get rather complicated, but these are processes you can simplify with managed IT services.
VPN
VPN is short for Virtual Private Network, and remote employees commonly use these. It essentially creates something like a safe tunnel to allow your employees’ computers to connect to your business’ network. As such, individual remote employees can access your network in a similar manner as those plugged into it directly.
This uses three components to work. The first is a server at the office that connects to an internal, private network. Your business data is stored here, and this is what your employees will connect you via VPN and the internet.
Tracking Tools
Once supervisors and managers assign tasks to members of specific teams, follow-up is required.
This might include tracking how much your teams spend on specific tasks to help with client billing and productivity assessments.
Other tools will help you track what specific members are working on and the progress. This then gives you a good idea of how they are progressing Vis a Vis the set deadlines. Team managers can then take mitigating measures in good time and avoid inconveniencing clients.
Time Management Tool
Remote working comes with both freedom and distractions.
Remote employees can use time management tools to track, manage and improve their time management towards enhanced productivity.
Team managers can also use them to see if workers are optimizing office time optimally. Tools that send real-time screenshots are a good example of this.
In a nutshell, creating a stable, productive network of remote workers is much easier to do with technology. In addition, these tools will ensure your organization functions optimally.