Top 10 Essential Tools Needed for Work from Home – Importance of Project Management and Timesheet Tools

The ongoing crisis of COVID-19 compels employers around the globe for introducing programs to support their employee’s work remotely.  With the Centers for Disease and Prevention predicting that COVID-19 impacts will continue until 2021, remote work is likely to become a new standard as countries try to flatten the curve of exposure.  More companies are likely to join the suit in the coming days or months.  Companies that have already practiced the brick-and-mortar culture may find themselves in an unfamiliar place.  Even those who are already encouraging remote work in their firms searching ways for optimizing and maximizing productivity amidst coronavirus epidemic.

Here is a list of essential remote-working tools to ensure that you can remain productive during the extended time spent at home:

• Headset and Microphone– a good headset is an essential part of the job for employees who take calls but also need their hands free to enter data. Microphone ensures that employees can communicate vocally on conference calls.  Adding a microphone will help meetings sound more likely they’re being conducted in the same room
• Chat software– apps like Skype or Google Hangouts allow employees to stay in contact with each other. Such tools may not inherently have the same power of interruption as a tap on the shoulder (and that could be a good thing), but they also encourage employees to function together and keep up relationships
• Conferencing software– software like Google Meet or Zoom makes it virtually possible for employees to meet together. If employees are unfamiliar with the protocol of interactive meetings, take the time to set expectations, such as when to mute the microphone and how to set up an appropriate backdrop for client calls
• Shared Calendars– encouraging employees to list their focus hours, meetings, and other projects in a shared calendar can help managers visualize what’s going on. Combined with time tracking and checking who is out, that will help them react when other employees enquire about their colleagues
• Shared Goals– as news continues to roll in and sounds that the crisis will never end, having employees establish goals with their managers with a reference point to work towards. Tracking progress towards these goals often lets employees see the importance of their work
• High-speed internet– your employees would need to upload and download to make video calls, connect with the servers, or operate within a cloud-based platform
• Cloud-based time tracking– well-integrated and intuitive time-tracking software- is one of the most important tools for remote work. The timesheet will keep employees accountable for their breaks and their time on the clock works better when updating their timesheet as simple as operating a mobile app. Smart Admin provides a highly flexible timesheet to suit the organization of any type.
• Reporting- although managers and employees can endlessly discuss the efficacy of remote work, the reality is in numbers. Using software tools to create reports will help track your performance, productivity, and other important metrics
• File sharing tools– file-sharing services allow you to store your data on servers which can then be accessed by users anywhere in the world. Remote working employees can use any of the file-sharing services such as Dropbox, Google Drive Sync.com.  The internal file sharing option in Smart Admin helps to organize files according to each project.
• Cloud-based project management tool– project management tool facilitates the execution of projects with greater speed, agility, and accountability. It simplifies the project management process, and provides a clear view on project status, and who’s working on what project.  Project management tool which is part of Smart Admin helps the assembling a team for a project and can monitor project progress beyond the walls of the office.  The information as need about project, goals, and expectations are clearly exhibited in multiple tools of project tracking.

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