As we progress into the future and thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic and its changes, we think it’s safe to say the workplace will be fully decentralised and most of the general population will be working remotely. There is already a plethora of technology that has been developed to aid remote work, making it as smooth as possible.
Remote work has been in the spotlight lately and for good reason. Workers can finally choose their working environments instead of the other way around, and businesses should take advantage of this by employing remote workers. There are many benefits to a remote workplace, and that is just one of them.
(Image Source: Statista)
Working from the comfort of your home or the woods sounds so appealing. You’ll be able to spend more time with friends and family, have a more flexible schedule, and save money on gas and commuting expenses.
Remote work is still relatively new but it has really taken off recently. There are now many different tools that can help you stay connected to your company with minimal costs involved — or even no costs at all. Our blog post will discuss some of these tools and their benefits in detail.
Most people think of the term remote work in a negative sense. It’s important to understand that remote work can be beneficial in many ways. Remote accessibility is crucial for businesses and freelancers who are comfortable working from home, for example, as well as for working parents with young kids, who have to juggle childcare with their professional responsibilities.
The other side of the coin is that remote work can be really hard to maintain. If you don’t have any employees, it’s a lot more complicated to make sure that your remote workers are doing their job, that they’re sending feedback, and that they’re providing updates. If you have remote employees who aren’t taking the initiative to communicate with you — or worse, if they just leave for some time without telling you — it can also be a huge problem for your company.
The cloud has done a great job of making this communication problem less of an issue. The tools we’re going to talk about in this post are all cloud-based and let you communicate with employees via chat, email, or phone calls. These tools allow you to be more proactive in your communication and make sure that the right decision is being made. With no employees on site, many of these tools are free (or have low costs) and you can use them to keep in contact with your remote workers while they’re working from home.
It really depends on what kind of experience your remote worker will have with remote work: some are used to working remotely and know how to manage it without a lot of hassle, whereas other employees will be more sceptical about working remotely. These tools can help bring you a new remote worker with a positive attitude who isn’t scared off by the remote work lifestyle.
The following list isn’t meant to be an exhaustive list of all remote work tools available, but it’s just a great starting point for you to explore and find the tools that will fit your needs, budget, and schedule. Not every tool in this list has to be used exclusively for remote work, so we will talk about products that can also be used as productivity tools or general email clients. We’ll also include some apps that are great for managing daily tasks.
Remote Tools
Workplace by Google
One of the easiest ways to be able to communicate with employees while they’re working is by using Google Hangouts. You can use text, voice, video, or chat live through your web browser and talk with your employees without even having them on the same network. The only drawback is that you’ll need an internet connection at all times, so you won’t be able to work on something offline and still reach out to other people. If you don’t mind not being able to work in a completely offline situation, this is definitely a great tool for remote workers.
Zoom
Hailed as the saviour of businesses over the pandemic, Zoom is a video conferencing tool which is exceptionally easy to use for all and can seamlessly integrate into your Google Calendar so you never miss a meeting again. Zoom also has a messaging feature which allows for communication before, after or during video calls with the group or specific participants. Their free plan allows users to video call for 40 minutes and their paid plans offer increased features such as unlimited video calls and webinar hosting features.
(Image Source: Statista)
Dropbox
Dropbox works as a cloud-based system for sharing and hosting. Using dropbox allows employees to store data in a centralised platform that’s accessible to other employees. It effectively works as an online library helping to organise and manage pictures, documents, audio and video files. The great thing about Dropbox is that it is compatible with a wide range of IoT devices and can be accessed through desktops and 5G ready mobile devices. The free version of the software allocates users with 2 GB of storage on the cloud and their paid plans can offer more.
Milanote
This amazing tool is great for organising creative projects with beautiful visual boards. It is a great tool for designers wor are collaborating and working remotely as it behaves like a creatine studio wall. The tool is built with hundreds of templates to help any creative design team get started with a library of varied projects. At tools allows you to create a visual mood board as well as write creative bre4if for all to access. The Milanote boards can be private for one person to work on but can be made accessible to others by a simple click for increased collaboration opportunities. Its key features involve the ability to create to-do lists, write notes, upload files and images for inspiration directly from the internet and organise it all visually with a drag and drop interface.
Basecamp
Basecamp has become popular among remote workers thanks to its simple interface and its ability to create actionable task items. The tools enable users to organise their work consisting of due dates, to-do lists and calendaring the urgency of their task to help them never miss out on deadlines and better manage workflow. The ability to use message boards, automated check-ins and ground chats helps to keep the team connected. With the tools. Temas can communicate in real time through their computers and mobile devices.
