Stay Safe, Stay Productive: How to Work From Home (WFM) Like a Boss During COVID-19
As the Coronavirus or COVID-19 pandemic penetrates countries across the world, companies are fast waking up to the need for remote work and develop an internal Gig ecosystem. Gartner ran a survey of 800 global HR executives on March 17 — and this revealed that 88% of organizations have encouraged/mandated their employees to work from home.
But it isn’t all smooth sailing.
Not every organization is familiar with the processes (and challenges) of remote work. Some like IBM had even banned remote work a few years back. As these companies scramble to pivot, it is only expected that there will be a few roadblocks on the way. A factor as simple as an overloud television could hold back your productivity (32% of employees on Glassdoor’s latest survey find this a challenge).
For employees who are used to a culture of presenteeism, marked by frequent in-person interactions, switching to a 100% remote scenario is a massive leap. More than 1 in 5 employees are worried about the lack of human interactions as they WFH at the time of COVID-19.
Fortunately, technology companies are eager to do their bit for economic growth — or at last business continuity — in this critical period. Several remote collaboration tool providers have lifted the restrictions on their offerings so that the widest possible number of users can now WFH at relative ease. Remote collaboration is now popular that Microsoft Teams witnessed a 500% usage spike in China, and Zoom’s stock has shot through the roof.
5 apps to drive productivity from the safety of your home
I was eager to understand the most promising offerings available for employees switching to WFH overnight. In addition to the big names like Zoom or Microsoft, what are the other remote working tools that could help us stay productive — even as we stay indoors to curb the COVID-19 outbreak?
Here are the five remote working platforms from my toolkit; these are either free or have an extremely low barrier to entry, ideal for teams new to remote work.
1. Google Hangouts
Millions of workers across the world (remote and on-premise alike) use Hangouts every day to connect with their peers as well as customers. The platform is chock-full of features, and is ideal for use in response to coronavirus, because:
● Hangouts Meet supports exceptional video and audio quality, even on modest speed internet
● You can integrate Hangouts with G-Suite’s other productivity apps
● If you already have a G-Suite for Business subscription, Google is offering a free upgrade to Enterprise Hangouts Meet features for free until July 1
Hangouts has an easy-to-navigate UI; for those new to the interface, there is a detailed tutorial here.
2. Workplace by Facebook
Facebook has taken incredible strides in response to COVID-19, and this is in addition to its remote working platform, Workplace. I found its COVID-19 resource repository to be extremely helpful — Facebook updates it regularly and adds materials that can help newly inducted remote workers at this time, like Facebook’s new digital literacy program.
Workplace by Facebook brings social media-like collaboration capabilities to — as the name suggests — your workplace. You can create groups to share emergency information, you can go Live if you have announcements and communicate via workplace Chat and Portal (for video conferencing.
You can sign in here (it’s free forever for up to 50 groups) and get all the information you need on the Resources page.
3. Microsoft 365
Microsoft is a giant in the business communication and collaboration space, used by the majority of companies worldwide. Chances are that you are already using a Microsoft product in your daily work routine, so transitioning to Microsoft 365 (the company’s end-to-end cloud suite) makes perfect sense.
Pricing will depend on your location, but I’d recommend that you look at Microsoft’s Office 365 E1 Trial offer for COVID-19 given the massive number of employees now working from home, Microsoft has come up with a free six-month Enterprise edition that also includes Microsoft Teams. Start building your Collaboration support teams o that employees can use tools more effectively.
4. Trello
Trello by Atlassian is a popular visual collaboration platform that’s primarily used by product development teams. But in my experience, it can prove invaluable to any team/organization that relies heavily on collaboration and crowd-sourcing of ideas. You can organize tasks and ideas in the form of cards, minimizing the risk of distraction that’s so pernicious in a WFH environment.
Trello has a host of useful features like interoperability with other platforms, project progress reports, voting on ideas, etc. Sign up for free here and take a look at Trello’s interactive tutorial to get started.
5. Pintask
On the surface, Pintask looks very similar to Trello — indeed, they are based on the same premise of visual “post-it-like” collaboration. Pintask’s USP is its ever-growing store of extensions where you can add nifty features like time-tracking, duplication of cards across lists, etc.
Pintask has a leaner, simpler interface that I found a pleasure to use — it is a purely web-based (and free) platform, perfectly suited for small teams and individual workers. But for those looking for a native iPad/iPhone/Android app for their home devices, Trello is the way to go.
Sign up for Pintask with your Google account here.
Our ability to stay productive without in-person contact will determine the world’s economic success during COVID-19.
Let’s not limit ourselves to the tried and tested chat/video calling platforms only. Cutting-edge tech has opened up a plethora of opportunities, most with a very low barrier to entry. A Glassdoor survey, 50% said that they would be equally or even more productive when working from home, in response to COVID-19. The tools I mentioned above could help stay on the right half of this productivity line in the sand.
Let’s look forward to a speedy return to the normal scheme of things. Till then, stay safe, maintain your productivity, and let me know if you’re using any of these apps — as well as how they worked out for you!But it isn’t all smooth sailing.
