With the outbreak of the coronavirus, many businesses have had to resort to working from home, quickly gathering together equipment and supplies in order to make that possible. From small businesses through to larger organisations such as Google, everyone has been affected and had to adapt to working from home.
For some, remote working has been easy, with systems already in place to make working from home seamless and efficient as if you were still in the office. Other organisations have struggled to adapt and slowly found a rhythm over the weeks in lockdown.
Here we list some of the essential remote working tools and resources that have been popular among many during the pandemic, and have been successful in keeping businesses operating ‘as normal.’
Instant Messaging Platforms and Video Conferencing
Communication is so important when it comes to teams that are remote working. Luckily there are plenty of applications such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, Skype, Google Hangouts and Zoom that have been helping businesses keep the lines of communication only.
These have been used for troubleshooting (with screen sharing capabilities,) online/virtual team meetings, social chats to check in with how team members are doing and ways to keep track of projects.
These tools can keep the innovative and fresh thinking going, even in self-isolation. With the ability to brainstorm, flesh out an idea, work together virtually and operate just as if you were in the office together.
Project Management Tools
We know how important it is to keep track of where we’re at with a certain project or client, and there are some brilliant tools online that can keep the cogs turning.
Some of these include Trello, Basecamp, Asana, Airtable, DevOps and much more. Having a visual ‘pin’ board, and the ability to move the project visually through a process will help close tasks and mark them as done.
Online Storage
Paperless storage for projects should be the way to go anyway! But there are tools that can make it easy to upload to a secure place where the entire team can have access if required.
Tools such as Dropbox, Google Drive and Sharepoint all allow you to manage files and data and provide access to key team members.
Keeping your documents organised and up to date will help things run smoothly and efficiently.
Tracking Time
If you operate by keeping timesheets of time spent on what tasks or projects, there are a number of brilliant tools for employees to log time they’ve spent. These include Active Collab, Toggl, Harvest and focus booster.
Not only can they log billable time, they can help employees manage their time, keeping a note of their progress and reminding them to take regular breaks.
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What tools have you found the most useful during lockdown? Let us know in the comments!