4 Useful tools to increase productivity while working from home
Since the start of the pandemic, most employees have been working from home intermittently. Most have found the switch to be difficult to adapt to, with increase in insomnia and stress since the line between work and rest is blurred. It is definitely a huge jump from being at your own desk, surrounded by your colleagues and in tune with your office culture, to working at home. Although working while sitting in a comfortable armchair with a fresh cup of coffee at the comfort of your own home sounds like a dream, it becomes less than ideal if one lacks the right tools to help make remote working successful.
Mastering remote work is all about finding the right tools to stay productive and connected. If your employees are facing burnouts and are struggling to maintain productivity while working remotely, why not introduce some useful tools that can help them?
1. Instant Messaging Platforms
Instant Messaging platforms have been a communications haven ever since their introduction. Even prior to the pandemic, they gave us the opportunity to constantly stay connected with our family and friends, no matter the distance. Hence, when distance became a necessity for our own safety, Instant messaging platforms thrived and have grown to be part of our daily lives. They have also seeped into our working lives, becoming a vital tool to connect and communicate with our colleagues and clients.
They are the transformative glue to holding together the modern office. It is a sensible tool as it allows for workers who are already sitting at their computers all day, to make conversations there. Employees are able to see who is online and instantly connect with them via video or text. They are also able to set their status to allow fellow colleagues to know if they are unavailable, on leave, or are currently in a meeting.
Furthermore, instant messaging applications such as Slack and Microsoft Teams are usually intuitive and easy to implement. They create a “work only” communication platform so that employees do not have to use their personal phones to communicate for work. It also holds an advantage over emails, as it is easier to get quicker replies.
Business messaging apps also mean that everyone can decide to participate in, or at least see, relevant conversations, while crucially also allowing people to ignore messages that aren't relevant to them.
2. Google Drive
Google Drive, a collaborative platform, paves the way for working from home while being able to have shared access to documents. It is great for remote working as it allows multiple individuals to work on a single document at the same time. This document and file collaboration tool also allows companies to store relevant documents in a convenient drive for employees to access remotely.
Google Drive allows for a more organised and streamlined project management too. Your documents can be neatly organised and whoever is in charge can also manage permission to the documents across the organisation. The best part is that Google Drive is not limited by distance or location. Documents can be accessed from anywhere in the world as long as you have an internet connection.
3. Virtual Planners
While you can be productive while working remotely, the flexibility it allows may sway you in terms of keeping to deadlines and time limits. However, virtual planners such as Evernote and Notion can help employees stay on top of daily tasks and keep track of projects under them.
The highly customisable nature of this tool allows you to insert additional pages such as templates for lists, tracking and note-taking. Minimalist and professional-looking, these virtual planners usually also provide you with colour suggestions to organize your duties.
Virtual planners are also accessible both online and offline, and available as a computer or phone application. This makes it easy for employees to refer to their planner wherever they are. Furthermore, if you're concerned about the environment, a paperless planner helps eliminate waste and the carbon footprint that comes with purchasing paper planners.
4. Softphones
VoIP softphones provided by leading Cloud PBX providers such as Velox, allow remote users to make and receive calls from their cellphones as well as their computers. Outbound calls via the softphones will display the company phone number, not the user's private cell phone numbers. Inbound calls to the user's office extension will ring on the softphone - no need to call forward calls from the office extension to the cell phone.
Calls made and received from the softphone are encrypted end-to-end and are eligible for all the features enjoyed on an office extension. As a plus, you will also experience unprecedented call cost reductions, especially international travelers as inbound calls and outbound calls are not subjected to roaming call charges.
VoIP softphone service is a top choice among enterprises and businesses in Singapore. With its advanced technology and features, it is the best business phone system you could have. Head over to Velox to check out its VoIP softphone services plan today!
