Currently, teleworking is offered in many companies, regardless of the sector to which they belong, since most of the daily tasks do not require the worker’s physical presence in a specific place. Workers can carry out their work remotely thanks to the digital transformation. Their home is their office. However, this does not prevent them from participating in the company’s daily schedule in virtual meetings, calls, emails and decision-making in real-time. However, some sectors that promote teleworking is an almost impossible task, such as customer service. The employee is forced to work in person due to functions such as receiving clients at the office that prevent them from working from home. Below we analyze all the advantages that teleworking offers both for employees and for the company.

Lower Cost In Facilities And Infrastructures

The costs for facilities and furniture represent the second-highest value in the budget items of most companies. Therefore, more and more companies are promoting teleworking. Instead of assigning employees a permanent position in the office, they reserve it only for the days they need it. In this way, the company only pays for the space it needs to establish its office, which is much smaller and thus eliminates a multitude of expenses such as utilities, insurance, taxes, cleaning, maintenance, repair or security.

Accelerate Business Speed

The ability of a company to flexibly increase staff and tasks is a weapon of great competitive power. Teleworking allows workers to be located in the areas or regions where they do business, providing more effective support and achieving greater control over it. In this way, a global strategy where work follows the schedules of different countries through offshoring allows companies to achieve productivity 24 hours, seven days a week.

Business Continuity

Companies that offer telework to their employees must guarantee them uninterrupted access to all the data and applications that are necessary for them. A well-developed virtual structure that allows maintaining good teleworking conditions will provide an efficient basis to keep the business running in the face of any interruption, planned or not, such as a maintenance task or a natural disaster.

Work Without Borders

Teleworking offers the possibility of creating multi-geographic work teams made up of managers, clients and partners from different companies from various locations. Until a few years ago, these teams worked through conferences or meetings that they held in person in a specific place, and that involved a significant investment of time and money, forcing members to spend a lot of time outside their homes. Now, teleworking offers the possibility of carrying out all these meetings and meetings digitally, saving on the costs and time that these trips require.

Also Read: COVID-19 – Tips For Teleworking Without Losing Productivity

Recruit The Best Employees

All companies that want to hire new personnel must face a generational change that brings a large number of highly qualified professionals who are perfectly knowledgeable about new technologies. The teleworking modality allows hiring personnel beyond geographical limitations, allowing the most talented employees to be obtained regardless of residence.

Increase Employee Retention Rate

When an employee adopts telecommuting, employment, personal business, and family life are rarely kept separate. Mobile work policies offer workers the flexibility they need to balance work and family life. This formula is beneficial for the company as it allows employees to increase their performance while keeping them satisfied and predisposed to continue working thanks to good working conditions.

Running a business is not a simple matter. To increase job performance and retain talent, it is essential to allow optimal work and family reconciliation conditions for workers. Thanks to the advantages offered by new technologies, it is possible to achieve this. In addition to teleworking, other tools can help you automate other management processes in your company.

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What Exactly Are Coworking Spaces?

If this vocabulary seems less familiar to you, know that coworking refers to collaborative work where you can find several skills grouped in the same place. When we talk about coworking, the first thing that should come to mind is the shared workspace and the network of workers that forms around this space.

This new form of workspace promotes exchange and openness compared to the traditional offices we have always known. For the self-employed, coworking spaces allow them to work independently and share the same workplace with other people to feel less isolated; while having additional business opportunities.

Why Are Coworking Spaces So Popular?

Working from home has never been easy. Delimiting the professional and personal spaces is often challenging, even a real obstacle course for some people wishing to set up on their own. Indeed, not leaving the house and spending hours in traffic jams to get to the office or to come back at night can be an absolute pleasure. But, it’s not uncommon for you to quit a job you’ve been concentrating on for hours to do housework, take out the cat litter, or bicker with your child during office hours, which is counterproductive.

It is for this reason that coworking spaces have been designed to help freelancers find a professional world without exposing themselves to the constraints of fixed office hours. You are free to organize your schedule, you are in control of your schedule, and you can choose between the different atmospheres created by coworking spaces.

A Workspace Accessible To All Budgets

By opting for a coworking spaces, you share the costs with people who use the same area just like you. Instead of bearing the charges related to renting, electricity, internet connection, caretaking costs and others, you share them with the other tenants, which reduces the cost of operation to a minimum.

Thus, you will not need to pay a considerable sum to be able to take full advantage of the various advantages that these places can offer you. You will have an office, a shared space for meetings or to welcome your customers, and sometimes, some coworking spaces provide the service of a secretary or an accountant depending on the needs of the tenants. What offers you a favourable area for the development of your career?

Also Read: Outsource Purchases In Company – 7 Reasons To Do It

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Cost-Effectiveness

One of the best reasons to host a virtual event or conference is because it will be cost-effective.

You won’t have to worry about things like travel costs, product samples, or other expenses that can take a massive bite out of your budget. And this is especially true if you plan to host an event with multiple stops around the country, which means you’d have to factor in transportation and lodging costs for attendees as well as your travel costs.

If you choose to keep your engagement purely digital through on any video platform, the only thing you’ll need to invest in is equipment (i.e., cameras) and space to host the participants who are joining remotely.

Even better, virtual events force marketers to minimize their footprint by bringing together people from across the country who don’t even have to be in the same city.

Cons: While virtual events can be much cheaper than physical events, they still come at a cost that businesses must pay. The main problem with this is that companies are often unwilling to spend the money to make their event genuinely successful, nor can they see if it was useful for marketing purposes.

Flexibility

One of the most significant benefits of online engagement is that it’s flexible. You can choose a time and date for your virtual engagements that fit your marketing budget and schedule, unlike physical events where you’re limited by geographical region and available dates.

In addition, instead of hosting one type of event with a predetermined length that all participants must attend, marketers can hold several shorter sessions over a more extended period. Doing so allows them to reach out to people on different schedules rather than those who will only have time for an hour-long meeting during business hours.

The more flexible you are with your online engagement strategy, the more people you’ll be able to reach.

Cons: While it may seem like this would help businesses more than hurt them, too much flexibility can often lead to misuse of funds or data collection causing significant problems for any company involved.

Mass Data Collection

With online engagement, marketers can collect data from many users at once through surveys and polls. This also means they don’t have to expend resources on the logistics of hosting an event with hundreds or thousands of participants, which makes it even easier to break even on your investment.

You can host several smaller virtual events over a more extended period with better results than holding one mass-scale offline option that would be cost-prohibitive anyway.

Cons: At times, data collected by virtual means is far less reliable due to the anonymity of the internet, which allows users to give false or incomplete information. This can lead to misguided marketing campaigns, products being designed with ineffective features, and the inability to effectively track ROI because the collected data is no longer up-to-date.

Long-Term ROI Effect

Everyone knows the longer something sticks with people, the more likely their likelihood of purchasing items related to that information or brand in some way becomes.

With offline events, even those that last only half a day, marketers typically have people’s attention for no more than eight hours. This can be significantly limited if you’re trying to reach out to new people, like those who might not attend offline events.

Virtual engagements allow marketers to keep their brands top of mind for potential customers, even during the time of year when they don’t have any physical events scheduled (like winter). A simple email newsletter with information on an upcoming virtual event can help keep your brand high in the minds of people who might even be on vacation at the time.

Cons: While virtual events may benefit a company in data collection and networking at first, the long-term effects are often negligible. Within a year, so much has changed online and offline that the initial data is no longer relevant or useful.

Networking Events

One of the best benefits of hosting a virtual event is that everyone who participates becomes part of a more extensive community to create relationships and go deeper with engagement outside of one session.

Because online events tend to be shorter, networkers who attend them are more likely to go in-depth than collect a business card and never follow up. In addition, with the rise of mobile technology and websites with integrated social media apps that make it easy to connect, marketers can build relationships with their audience any time they want.

Cons: Most of our time online is spent interacting with others who already share common interests/opinions, meaning that it’s difficult for businesses to find new clients or ideas for their products.

The lack of diversity online means that networking opportunities are missed out on, which could have led to an even more successful virtual event had participants been different from one another in some way.

The Bottom Line

Consider how often you attend offline events throughout the year versus how many virtual events you engage participants. If your business typically holds offline events, such as seminars at a hotel or conventions in another city, then you’re already paying for marketing materials and promotional items to be printed and shipped to the event.
Plus, if you want to send staff members there to represent your business, that can add even more costs associated with travel expenses, food and beverages during the event, accommodations, signage, and other marketing materials (e.g., flyers) made available at the engagement.
However, when marketers decide on virtual events, they will incur many of these same expenses but only once per year instead of once an offline event is held.
A virtual event may be exactly what you need to get results. These digital engagements allow marketers to access a broader range of geographic locations where potential buyers might be while avoiding logistical challenges typically associated with offline events.
When done right, virtual events allow businesses and individuals interested in specific topics or products to gain educational information on particular areas of interest while also providing the opportunity for networking with other attendees.

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The following recommendations show how employees can make their home network environment more secure and practice cyber distancing with appropriate behavior to maintain a digital distance between home and work:

Optimizations For The Home Network

Some home network recommendations sound complicated, but they are easy to implement. All users have to do is access the home page of their router. Usually, this information is located on the router itself and the default password. When users enter this information in the navigation bar of their web browser, they are prompted for a username and password. You can then modify the default settings.

• WiFi network SSID not broadcast: If the SSID or network name is broadcast, it means that anyone in the vicinity can pick up the signal and try to access the network.
• Change default passwords: It is recommended to change the administrative password on the router. Sometimes the device already comes with a complex password, but it is even better if only the user knows the password.
• Secure password for WLAN access with WPA2 encryption: A secure password is usually more than 20 characters long and consists of numbers, letters, and symbols.
• Make sure remote access is disabled: This setting allows remote control of the network but also opens a backdoor for hackers. Users should therefore ensure that this setting is deactivated in the configurations. To do this, you can search for the keyword »Remote Access. «
• Updating the Router’s Firmware: Routers generally do not have an automatic update facility, but the firmware must be up-to-date and free of bugs and vulnerabilities. This should be checked approximately every six months.
• IoT devices: IoT devices can cause massive security gaps in the network, especially since many devices are equipped with weak standard credentials and user-defined ports that can inform attackers of their existence. Users should therefore update the password and modify the standard ports. This requires what is known as port forwarding on the router to a new harbor that the user assigns.

Basic Recommendations For Working From Home

• Don’t click on email links and attachments: Email’s primary attack vector for COVID-19 phishing attacks. There has been a massive increase in campaigns that use the pandemic to their advantage.
• Validate links: Users can first move the mouse pointer over links to see which web address they lead to. If you want to check the specified website, it is advisable to enter the web address into the browser instead of calling it up directly from an email.
• Validate email sender: When users receive an email, they should check the full sender address and not just rely on the displayed name.
• VPN: If possible, users should stay connected to their work environment via a VPN. Most organizations already have a VPN for remote work connections, but adding an extra layer of security to your network is also a good idea. Cyber ​​distancing the device and ensuring that all data between the work and home network is sent over an encrypted channel can protect data and company resources.
• Antivirus solution and patches: If employees use their private laptop in the home office for work, it is essential to ensure that it is always up to date and that updates and patches are regularly updated. The installation of an antivirus solution provides additional protection.

With the above essential tips, employees can make their home office much more secure to protect themselves from attacks by cybercriminals.

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It has almost been two years since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and since then, businesses are no longer working from a single location. This is a good thing, of course. Employees can stay safe at home, businesses save on overhead costs, and so on.

However, this flexible environment also comes with several cybersecurity risks and issues like phishing attacks, ransomware attacks, and other security threats and breaches — putting sensitive business data and information at risk.

This is why Secure Remote Access solutions are now at the forefront of cybersecurity measures and a powerful IT tool helping organizations save their confidential information.

This article will discuss what secure remote access is and its significance for your organization’s security.

What is Secure Remote Access?

Secure Remote Access is an IT technology that helps individuals log in to a network in a secure manner and protects this internal network from malicious and unauthorized access.

It uses several different technologies, strategies, and applications to protect business networks and computer systems from falling into the hands of unauthorized entities.

It is also a reliable way to help managers view what their employees are trying to view or access on their company network/device- ensuring internal and external security.

Reasons to opt for Secure Remote Access.

Remote access security risks are inevitable. However, you can prevent them and protect your network using Secure Remote Access services.

Here are some reasons how your organization can benefit from Secure Remote Access:

1. Safe internet access and browsing

The Internet is a significant part of most businesses ’ workflows. With Secure Remote Access, employees are protected from multiple online threats like phishing attacks, malware, and ransomware threats when logged in to the business network.

It monitors and detects abnormal activities, ensuring the employee’s and businesses’ data safety and security.

2. Secure access from any device

Every employee might use a different device, depending on their preference, when working from home. Secure Remote Access applications permit authorized access to the employees to a network from any preferable device.

It allows employees to access any file or data securely and troubleshoot any problems remotely. Without meeting in person, an IT expert can access any device remotely through Secure Remote Access and fix the problem.

3. Improved employee security awareness

The transition to the WFH or remote working environment has encouraged businesses to update and modernize their cybersecurity systems and policies.

This has also educated employees of the significance and importance of keeping business files and data secure and secure access and internet browsing.

4. Protected endpoints

When employees use multiple devices like smartphones, tablets, or desktops, a remote access solution security ensures all the devices logged in and connected to the company’s network are secured and protected against online threats.

This offers the employees the flexibility to send an email through their smartphone or join a business meeting through their desktops without worrying about security risks.

5. Seamless employee and business management

With a Secure Remote Access solution, businesses lack the visibility to monitor multiple devices and users connected and logged in to the company network.

In contrast, Secure Remote Access allows employees to see who is accessing their network and what they are accessing- ensuring seamless management, a robust interface, and high network security.

Conclusion

Therefore, give your business network the security and protection it needs and ensure Secure Remote Access implementation for utmost network security against malicious online threats and security breaches.

While there are many options for remote access software, you can check out Instasafe Zero Trust Security services that offer Secure Remote Access anywhere without compromising network security. So, choose an appropriate option per your business needs and requirements.

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Precedents, Let’s Know The Origin Of Telework.

It is known that there were exceptional cases during the seventeenth century during which teleworking was needed to continue production. It happened, for example, in the case of the University of Cambridge in 1665, which had to be temporarily closed by the plague. However, it would not be until the twentieth century and the development of New Technologies, which would develop and make productive remote work more viable.

Current Situation

Now and for a time, it will be the way to make the maintenance of productive activities and protection against the virus compatible, making this work model the main one for a few months. In 2019, only 4.8% of the employees were working under this model, and in many cases, it was circumstantial or semi-face-to-face. However, during the weeks of restrictions due to the pandemic, it has been increased to 34% of the total.

Already in 2018, there was a considerable increase in monthly searches related to ‘telecommuting,’ ‘working from home, or ‘working remotely.’ For this reason, among others, the increase in the trend in terms of changing the habits of the worker was known. The level of demand and need for family conciliation has led many people to no longer want but instead, need to work in another way.

For this reason, it is necessary to understand the change that working from home will bring about not only for workers but also how teleworking affects companies.

Advantage

Productivity Improvement

The engine of a company is its workers, and teleworking has been shown to influence happiness and well-being, lowering stress levels. Once the objectives are established, everything translates into an increase in productivity in business activity.

Reduction Of Work Absenteeism

The convenience of avoiding commuting, the advantage of working from home, and the responsibility for oneself reduce absenteeism compared to working in the office.

Social Integration

In the century we are in, it is an obligation to facilitate the inclusion of profiles with various disabilities.

Job Opportunities

Geographic barriers no longer exist, so companies can expand their range of qualified professionals and improve their level of specialization.

Saving

Companies can save on infrastructures, physical spaces, energy, water, and more resources, and at the same time, workers save on trips, time, etc.

Improvement of Family Conciliation

Greater flexibility is offered to manage both professional and personal life to be more autonomous and independent.

Disadvantages

Control Over The Employee

From the beginning, the most significant ‘but’ has been the lack of physical control over the employee. It is true that currently, thanks to the development of technologies in this area, there are many options to manage this disadvantage. Applications such as organizational, work distribution, time control, and others have made companies fully manage their employees’ activity.

Lack of Personal Contact

Change like communications means that interactions between colleagues, bosses, and others are through devices, which can affect workers emotionally, reducing their bond with colleagues and even affecting the visibility of their work and, therefore, the lack of due recognition.

Organizational Changes

Managing change to implement the new remote work model requires adaptation for all team members. For this reason, it is necessary to seek changes in methodologies, times, and others, which will sometimes be a challenge for entrepreneurs without adequate tools and communication channels.

Teamwork

Directly related to the methodological change, it will be necessary to facilitate team management so that the work is not affected by the digital nature of the communications.

Communication Security

We cannot forget that cybersecurity is an increasingly important issue, and legality in that sense is getting serious about it. That is why the computer systems and all the networks used must have the appropriate protection to avoid leaks of any kind and protect company data.

Therefore, the main objective is to know how teleworking affects companies for which they want to stay afloat and continue to prosper, to know how to adapt as quickly and efficiently as possible. And without a doubt, we will do it by being aware of all the resources we have to carry out the projects and fulfill the business activity.

Also Read: The Mix Of Management Strategies That Your Company Needs

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Once we have asked ourselves the necessary questions to analyze the reality of telework that we face –at the organizational level, of the work teams, and from the individual point of view–, we must obtain the necessary information to answer them. Later, it would be interesting to define what metrics and indicators can help us study this phenomenon standardized.

How To Obtain Information About Teleworking?

A first approach to the problem consisted of collecting information through questionnaires about the practices implemented by organizations and the status of employees and work teams in different issues (digital skills, work organization, relationships with colleagues, etc.).

This undoubtedly fundamental approach has two main limitations :

• the information collected is self-reported and therefore is subject to different biases; and
• Obtaining them requires a significant effort. The greater, the more extensive the samples of workers to be surveyed.

One way to complement this approach is to study the information present in the systems used for teleworking, from the virtual platforms to which employees connect to the telephone systems. In these systems, various data of great value are stored to describe the different practices in the teleworking environment.

The Fundamental Advantages of Using This Data Are Two:

• The objectivity of the record (although it is also subject to bias); and
• The possibility of analyzing large volumes of data.

On the other hand, among its drawbacks is the technical difficulty associated with analyzing large volumes of data and, above all, the “meaning” of the data obtained. For example, an employee’s self-reported response to a stress questionnaire reflects their stress level, but what can be inferred from the data contained in the systems? What does it mean, for example, that an employee has more or fewer video calls? Greater or less stress?

Even with these unknowns about the interpretation of the available data, we have to face the challenge of using them to generate relevant metrics that allow us to describe how telework is “happening” and have a basis on which to compare different practices, assess corrective actions and study the evolution of the telework situation, among other issues.

Where Do We Start? Metrics and Indicators For Teleworking

The question’s title is pretentious: we have already started and have been working hard on labor force analysis for some time. But maybe a little structure could do us good. And the first thing is to recognize that teleworking, no matter how systematically it has been announced in all institutional reports worldwide as a trend to consolidate, has caught us off the hook.

Recognizing the limitations of the measures described, a possible roadmap would be the following:

• Establish what the parameters that interest us are. The first step in this roadmap would be to establish the three levels of analysis discussed above (organization, teams, and employees), which are the aspects that we are interested in assessing.
• Develop metrics to inform about the aspects of interest. The second step must be developing a shared language that allows us to speak in the same terms regarding the phenomenon. And that shared language is metrics. What numerical quantification can we use to describe each of the aspects mentioned above reliably?
• Engage employees, managers, and institutions in need of developing a culture of data and teleworking. This data culture will help us to have quality data that add to accurate descriptions of reality.
• Manage based on evidence. Incorporate metrics into our daily work and make decisions based on the information they provide.
• Constant evolution. And as a result of the above, to re-identify new aspects, to explore and start again. Maintaining the logic that we do not have all the answers and the concern to find them will be essential to progress in this area (as it happens in all others).

Also Read: The Best Tools For Teleworking

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Whether with the adoption of prevention measures for the coronavirus or with the establishment of teleworking, what is clear is that nothing will ever be the same. We have already talked about the advantages and disadvantages of teleworking, but sometimes they cannot even be valued.

Any company, whether or not they have opted for this solution, should prepare. It is not just that it is one of the trends in human resources for 2021, it is that while there is no vaccine against COVID-19, there may be new measures that force teleworking.

Learning to hold online meetings and use tools for teleworking will allow the company to continue its course, whatever happens. It is also a way of end marketing and improving the employee experience.

With this situation, most of them prefer telework, and we already know that happier workers are also more productive employees.

Therefore, we have selected the ten most useful teleworking tools so that employees and employers are comfortable in the new situation.

Top Telecommuting Tools

Slack

The most important thing when teleworking is to maintain communication as if we were in the office. Of all the options, perhaps the most interesting is Slack.

Slack is a group chat, but it stands out among other options for its classification ways. We can have different chat groups to work with our co-workers in real-time comfortably.

In this sense, you can make a specific chat for a department, another for a project, for workgroups, etc … A way that all the information that interests a certain group of people is in that group quickly and comfortably.

A smartphone application can also be used from a desktop, with easy and simple operation thanks to its labeling.

Slack’s biggest advantage over other options is its different integration options. For example, it can be seamlessly integrated into Skype, Google Drive, HubSpot, or Dropbox.

Another option that should not be ruled out is WhatsApp. The advantage of WhatsApp is that everyone has it, and you will not need to have a different application. Also, it is usually the most common way to talk to customers. If you don’t need many groups or share documents, it can also be used perfectly.

Less popular and as useful as Slack, we can find other applications such as Spike, Microsoft Teams, Yac, and Rocket Chat.

Trello

Trello has been one of the most popular telecommuting tools for years. We are facing a task organizer for the members of a work team.

It works in a very intuitive way and allows you to classify projects with different labels. These labels will differ depending on the importance of the tasks or equipment. Likewise, files, links, expiration dates, and other data can be attached to each one.

Likewise, it allows you to see at a glance how a project is doing if a task is in process, if it has been completed, if it needs to be reviewed or if, on the contrary, it has not yet been started with it.

It is a very flexible and visual application. In addition, it has a robot called Butler that automates workflows, saving time and increasing productivity.

As in the case of Slack, Trello can be integrated with other applications. Some of them are the same Slack, Dropbox, Invision, Zapier, or Google Drive.

Skype

Having a chat or a project management program is great, but it is often better to talk things face to face. For this, we can use different video conferencing programs. In this case, we recommend Skype as it is the most popular. What to say about Skype that hasn’t already been said?

With a free option and a professional version, it is not only a video program, but you can also share documents with Google Docs or share a screen, highly recommended if we are going to make a presentation.

In addition, the business version has integration with Microsoft Office, having many more options available.

If we use Google Drive or other Google tools regularly, instead of Skype, we are interested in Google Meet, which allows meetings of up to 50 people with high quality. People who do not have a Google account can even attend the meeting by accessing through a link.

Loomio

Loomio is another of the most interesting teleworking tools. In this case, it is a tool intended only for the field of decision-making.

To use it, you have to invite different users to the tool and create a debate or discussion. There each one can present their points of view and can finally make decisions about it.

One of the advantages is that everyone doesn’t need to be online at the same time. Different users can enter whenever they want and participate. Considering that among the benefits for teleworking employees is flexible hours, it makes this not a problem in decision making.
Depending on how we configure each debate, the user will be able to respond to the proposals in different ways, adding an option to block them. In addition, you can accept, reject or abstain from the vote.

In this way, democratic or consensual decisions can continue to be made when required without the different working hours posing any problem. It is also very useful for work teams relocated or located in other countries.

Another similar but much simpler option is Doodle.

Toggl

While we are used to having certain routines in the office, doing it at home is more complicated. We can waste more time on other tasks and not control how much we dedicate to each project.

To solve this problem, Toggl was born. This teleworking tool allows you to control the time you dedicate to each task or project in a very simple way. We start counting when we begin with the job and stop when we finish or move on to another.

In this way, it is very easy to find out, for example, how much daily work we have to answer emails or what aspects take us longer, allowing us to organize it much better. It is a very simple tool, and it is also key to improving productivity.

Designed in Estonia, the leading country in teleworking, it is perfect for teams that work remotely and see how much time each member spends on a common project.

Another very similar option is RescueTime.

Also Read: Five Tips That Enhance The Advantages Of Teleworking

Sesame

If Toggl was the perfect tool for workers to organize their work and control their hours, Sesame is ideal for those controlling bosses. The latter is not yet convinced of the benefits of teleworking and believes that their employees will do other things during working hours.

It is a tool designed to control the schedule of the working day. By working through geolocation, you can check that the employee is in his teleworking position for the hours they must dedicate.

In this way, you will have the certainty that they have been in their position and have not gone to the hairdresser, the bar, or the supermarket.

It is highly recommended in cases where workers have work flexibility and make different schedules. This way, you will check whether they are dedicating the required time to the company despite the programs.

Sesame has different systems for signing, controlling overtime, and planning and preparing shifts, which are also very useful for the Human Resources department.

Muzzleapp

Generally, if we use these tools for teleworking, we will have many notifications on our computers. A new chat on Slack, a call on Google Meet, a FaceTime request, etc …

However, if we are in an online meeting or need to concentrate 100% on the task we are doing, these notifications can be a real headache.

To fix it, Muzzleapp appeared. With this tool, you will not have any interruption while sharing the screen. You can set it to view yourself, but other people who are viewing your presentation will not.

This is especially useful if you have a meeting with a client and a colleague wants to give you some advice or correction. You will see it but not the client, with which you can avoid looking bad.

There is only a version for Apple, and it is not compatible with Skype. If it is with Slack, FaceTime, Google Meet, bluejeans, Google Hangouts

Asana

Going back to project management, we have to talk about Asana. One of the most popular teleworking tools with Trello, which we told you about in point 2.

Although it shares functionalities with Trello, it differs by its design, is less basic than Trello, and is much more visual. In addition, it also has a completely free version, useful for almost any company.

You can assign tasks, tag them, set deadlines, attach files, and place them in the different stages.

On the other hand, it places the tasks you have to do so that as soon as you enter, you can see what your priorities are for that day, warning you if the deadline is approaching. Its use of colors makes it more dynamic than other options, generating greater user satisfaction.

Other options for project management are Todoist, Google Task, or Taskify

Google Drive

Finally, we have to talk about Google Drive. This cloud tool allows you to share files and folders from any device with the entire work team.

This allows, for example, two people to be working on the same text document or spreadsheet at the same time also that a very large file can be shared in a moment, which could not be sent by email.

Likewise, it allows the invitation to people outside your organization to edit or view a specific document or folder without giving them access to the rest.

Although the paid version has more space, with the free version, you get 15GB of space at no cost, which may be more than enough for many employees.

Other similar options are Dropbox, OneDrive, or WeTransfer to send files.

Also Read: Massive Use Of Teleworking For IT Professions In 2021

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This transformation brought to light the corporate security and business continuity deficiencies of thousands of organizations. Still, it also revealed significant paradoxes, historical requests considered beneficial, such as telecommuting, have not turned out to be as advantageous as they seemed. From the professional side, there is already talk of Zoom fatigue, the loss of spontaneous connections with co-workers, blurred borders between private and professional life (it is estimated that the hours have been increased by up to 40%). Without a proportional increase in productivity) or reduction in the quality of work.

In many cases, the most important problem of remote work is caused by technology, which does not respond to the needs created and solves the incidents of professionals who work from home late. Support tickets have increased by as much as 43% over the past year, and up to 29% of professionals have complained of an unsecured or efficient connection. This causes an increase in nervousness, an increase in working hours and a reduction in productivity. For their part, team leaders have to resolve heterogeneous demands and conflicts that they were not used to experiencing.

The adoption of innovative, adaptable and flexible technologies is a critical aspect of a transition to remote work. For this reason, Unisys has identified 36 types of technologies, grouped into six areas that are essential in the workplace of the future and that support the transformation of the workplace from a physical, human and digital point of view.

Physical Flexibility

Professionals must be able to carry out their tasks from anywhere. This means that the organization’s operating model must be elastic and accept behaviours not seen until now. By adopting this flexibility, the user experience and customer satisfaction can be improved. The use of analytics tools can help consolidate the hybrid workforce (that is, with teams working simultaneously at home or in the office) since they can more easily adapt to any peak in demand.

Integrated Autonomy

By incorporating robotic process automation tools, Machine Learning algorithms and Artificial Intelligence technologies, also in the back office, it will be possible to increase productivity and guarantee the efficiency of the work of professionals. In addition, the organization will assess customer behaviours more easily and help them achieve what they are looking for autonomously.

Always Connected Technology

The cloud enables professionals to access the tools they need and respond to customers at any time. Digital channels hosted in the cloud ensure that business flows are maintained. And in the back office, automation tools, such as sentiment analysis or just-in-time principles, enable seamless customer service and proactive incident resolution capabilities to be offered to the customer. In fact, according to a Unisys study, 51% of workers who experience an incident prefer not to call technical support. Proactive detection of any incident can even solve problems in an automated way.

Digital Connection

Digital connectivity between colleagues and with customers facilitates interactions and improves user satisfaction. Video support, instant messaging or help chats in cost-efficient environments, such as the professional’s home, ensure customer satisfaction.

Also Read: COVID-19 – Tips For Teleworking Without Losing Productivity

Collaboration

Collaborative and social environments mean increased productivity. If, in addition, the professional can collaborate from wherever they want, the balance between work and private life is also improved.

Adaptive Workstation

If there is one thing the pandemic has shown us, crowded offices are not essential. Working from home with the necessary technologies and with the right support is much more beneficial for everyone. The office should be used as a real and adaptable collaborative space for each business situation.

Ultimately, organizations must ensure that they meet the three Cs in the workplace of the future: Connectivity, Communication and Collaboration. If remote work is not done correctly, productivity, efficiency and corporate culture are proven to suffer. And if working from home means reducing spontaneous collaboration between colleagues, the damage it can cause to the organization in terms of operational inefficiencies, loss of turnover or reputational damage can be impossible.

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But once this first challenge, the forced transition to teleworking, has been overcome, most SMEs ask themselves how to maintain productivity levels in this new work regime. And it is that despite having technology on our site, it is necessary to keep the teams coordinated and motivated.

How to Increase Productivity in Times of COVID-19

In a normal situation, the introduction of remote work would be done gradually. Still, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced companies to adopt this model overnight, which can cause losses in work productivity. To mitigate these effects as much as possible, workers must adapt to the new system as quickly as possible. This is possible if we follow a series of guidelines:

Give Your Team The Necessary Tools

If you promote teleworking in your company, you must provide your employees with the means and computer equipment necessary to develop the activity. This is essential if we want to maintain office productivity.

Training is key to increasing performance and competitiveness. Employees must know the resources they can count on and know how to handle the different applications and work tools. To make sure that the whole team is in tune, you can carry out a follow-up, test and evaluate the tools together, get your team’s opinion, and try to solve the difficulties.

Define a Clear Schedule and Goals

To increase productivity while teleworking, it is necessary to set clear and measurable objectives. To do this, you can develop an action plan or guide that includes these objectives, their corresponding indicators, the tasks to be carried out, the steps to follow, and the entire team’s tools. You can define a schedule that includes recurring meetings or a time when all members are available.
The whole team must be clear about the objectives and tasks that each of the members has to carry out. This will help you achieve greater transparency, involvement, and productivity.

Also Read: Good Teleworking Practices Everyone Should know In 2021

Prioritize Communication

Communication plays a fundamental role in conveying the company’s objectives and priorities and maintaining the motivation and productivity of the work teams. The entire team must work aligned with the objectives and in constant collaboration. If all team members know the project’s status, it will be much easier to spot problems and opportunities.

Today, there is a multitude of platforms and online tools that help maintain fluid communication between co-workers. In addition to meetings or video conferences with multiple participants, these tools allow you to exchange and share files, organize tasks, or keep track of the entire team’s activity.

Work in The Cloud During The COVID-19 Pandemic

Thanks to the cloud, teleworking is much easier. Cloud tools facilitate communication, allowing you to view, edit and share information quickly and efficiently, from anywhere and anytime. In addition, it allows two or more people to work simultaneously.

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