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The 5 Best Tools For a Post COVID-19 Remote Workspace
Coronavirus left the world in havoc as we were all inundated with lock-downs, quarantines, unemployment, failing businesses, and deaths. Companies, organizations, and educational institutions worldwide were shut down, the global economy faced significant losses, and the unemployment rate increased exponentially.
With this massive change in the business landscape and the COVID crisis still hanging mid-air, leaders and organizations strive to find ways to work in this new situation.
A new way of working came to be, called the hybrid culture. It became possible and necessary for people to work remotely from their homes while visiting their workplaces only a few times a week or month, or as and when needed. This became known as the "new normal" as Americans increasingly split their time between working remotely and from the office.
As the restrictions ease a little, workers have returned to their workplaces and once again starting to resume the older way of life – amidst wearing a surgical mask and maintaining social distance at all times. However, as COVID waves come and go, workplaces should be better prepared for any unforeseen situation.
With this said, almost 55% of businesses offer their employees the option of working remotely. In addition, companies have opened regional hubs that provide easy access to resources for remote employees and other flexible work arrangements to make communication with remote employees more efficient. But despite all these efforts, the lack of proper tools, applications, and strategies has made the digital transition overwhelming for many stakeholders.
Let us introduce you to some top-tier tools that facilitate productivity and efficiency while also ensuring growth for your organization.
Profit.co
Profit.co is an OKR management solution that allows users to evaluate employee performance, tasks progress, and productivity remotely. This app is appropriate for use in hybrid work environments where team managers constantly have to update remote employees.
However, Profit.co is unique from others in its niche because it can facilitate appraisals for all employees, regardless of where they're working from. In fact, it not only ensures transparency between employees and managers, but employees can also self-assess their work and make improvements, if necessary. The ultimate OKR software allows businesses to streamline their processes, track their employees' progress and align them with the overall business goals.
Instagantt
Instagantt is a project management software that helps managers plan, control, assign and schedule projects. It is a great communication-enhancing tool that can streamline your entire workflow. It does so by assigning tasks, sub-tasks, creating templates for different projects, and keeping track of project milestones and deadlines.
The additional transparency also allows team members to stay up-to-date with assignments, which helps them to know what’s going on with projects at all times.
Skitch by Evernote
Skitch is a must-have productivity tool for small business owners. It reminds managers of messages they need to reply to, virtual meetings to attend, attachments to keep track of, and categorizes different types of content in folders, allowing for better organization.
Moreover, Skitch allows workers to take pictures, use virtual whiteboards for meetings, and share documents to facilitate a remote work environment. It can increase collaboration between departments on the same project as everyone can see when a document is edited or updated.
Toggl is a time tracking tool that makes it easy for managers to track their remote teams' productivity and time management. , If workers are spread all around the globe in different time zones, Toggl makes it easy to track who's doing what and how far along they are.
It also allows workers to record their activities on each task, with just one-click activation. It also sends reminders and detects when workers are not working. The best part is that managers can integrate this app with existing apps and manual calendar entries for a more simplified real-time tracking activity.
Expensify is a transaction and expense tracking tool for small businesses to help them manage all finance-related functions. Tools like Expensify ensure transparency in record-keeping and fewer chances of making errors, thus preventing frauds and unpleasant financial situations.
This app also provides detailed financial reports, giving a clear view of all expenses so that businesses can track and manage their expenses better.
To Conclude
Organizations may take some time to adjust to remote working and create alignment. However, productivity tools and software can, without a doubt, decrease the transition period.
Work will surely be less hectic with these tools in your arsenal. The five examples mentioned above clearly show how these tools can streamline business functions in hybrid work culture.
Published by Jay Ripton
