The idea of remote working is very attractive for small and medium businesses, especially during a crisis. It helps to reduce the costs of rent, office equipment, transportation and provides many advantages for the employees. Though some business owners still hesitate and don’t know how to control workers and keep productivity and effectiveness on the same level. However, advanced technologies easily allow to hire people, run a business, and manage projects. Here are some tips on how to effortlessly organize a remote work of your company as well as numerous benefits of working from home.
Now every job can be done remotely but there is a huge list of tasks that are ideal to delegate:
- IT sphere
- Web-design
- Customer service
- Marketing and promotions
- Copywriting etc.
The first thing you need is to choose tools and platforms to communicate with your employees and monitor tasks.
Trello/Basecamp
One of the most popular tools, perfect for project management and check-lists. Convenient for small groups (up to 5 members). It also allows setting deadlines and has a calendar feature.
Communication tools
While choosing a remote business model you need to be always in touch with your employees. There are plenty of tools for virtual communication: Skype, Google Hangouts, Slack, Hip Chat, and Zoom. Chats are also useful to avoid misunderstanding and lack of communication. One of the best experiences provides Slack – a chatroom with multiple channels where you can send messages, images, internet links, videos, etc. Moreover, it is synchronized with Google Calendar and Google Drive and is more convenient than email.
Security
Working remotely means that your team will connect to the company’s files using a home network, coworking centers, and other public places. To provide data security it is necessary to install VPN and store confidential information in secure cloud storage platforms.
Establish a workflow
Don’t control the presence of an employee during the working day, monitor the progress of the tasks, the work itself, and communicate on a daily basis. Set long-term and short-term goals.
Productivity
Currently, most of the business owners find it difficult to evaluate their employees working remotely. Therefore time tracking tools can be used to monitor productivity besides the above-mentioned options. For example, Toggl and Time Doctor are the best time tracking apps that you can synchronize with 80 online apps.
The advantages of working from home aside from minimizing costs are multiple. Nowadays it’s easier than ever, you can hire professionals all over the globe without geographical restrictions. There are tons of product-management services, you can choose the best software that will increase your team loyalty.
