Technologies For Conquering Remote Teams
In the modern world everything has changed and remote work was increasing drastically. Companies are gradually centralizing their operations and fostering the organization’s flexibility by allowing the teams to work from home. Thin down though, remote working presents certain difficulties that might affect the effectiveness of groups and teams. As you will see in this article, there are many technological interventions that have been developed with a view of helping remote teams overcome as many of these difficulties as possible so as to facilitate efficient working no matter the location of the team members.
Issues of Remote Teams
Some of these challenges include; Communication barriers, Lack of physical cohesion, and Lack of morale. An ineffectiveness as well as an increase in the stress and dissatisfaction of the work done can occur from such problems. Therefore, to overcome these challenges firms have to ensure they develop strong technology systems.
Remote Workers Communication
Communication is essential across organizations to ensure everyone for a remote organization will be able to work in harmony. Several communication tools have been developed to meet this need whereby several solutions exist to enhance information exchange between the members.
- Slack: This is an instant messaging platform which also supports file sharing, team communication along with app integration.
- Microsoft Teams: Microsoft’s response to Slack, Teams, has videoconferencing, messaging, and sharing systems contained in the Teams application.
- Zoom: A well-known service that will enable the remote working teams to conduct a face-to-face virtual meeting with a good audio and video quality.
Collaboration Platforms for Remote Teams
Tools and applications help a team co-operate and coordinate if its members are all located in other different areas. All these platforms help to make sure that people within a team are all on the same level, making the process fairly efficient.
- Asana: A tool that will help the project managers in managing their teams, setting tasks, working deadlines and monitoring progress.
- Trello: This is a Kanban based project management tool which assists workers in presenting workflow techniques and handling tasks with coordinates in actual time.
- Monday.com: A work OS that lets teams organize all their work, collaborate and keep track and updates of their progress in one app.
Mobile Applications for the Management of Remote Development Teams
Project management tools are a crucial tool for managing project goals for remote employees. These tools help to monitor projects to ensure they are on course and accomplish the timelines set.
- Basecamp: An application for project management and effective collaboration of distributed teams, which also offers the capabilities for documents sharing and setting and tracking tasks.
- Jira: This is a flexible working tool especially for teams that work remotely to track issues and meet the project deliverables.
Virtual Meeting Software for Remote Teams
Video conferencing technology enables members of groups to work together in person in meetings while they are separated by vast geographic spaces. These tools allow keeping a friendly relationship which is sometimes difficult in case of remote work.
- Zoom: A public software that allows people to organize online conferences, display screens in real-time, as well as coordinate with other members of the team remotely.
- Google Meet: Video conferencing solution which are closely integrated with other Google services and offering shared meetings and the possibility of sharing content with other remote teams.
Cyber Security Solutions For Remote Teams
As the COVID-19 outbreak accelerates remote working, organizations are tackled with greater cyber threats. Businesses have to safeguard the data they process and guarantee that the teleworking employees are safe. Here are some cybersecurity solutions that businesses can implement:
- Multi-factor Authentication (MFA): Provides the program an extra form of identification in order to further enhance security.
- Virtual Private Networks (VPNs): To enhance limited physical access to organizational resources, setup virtual private networks over the internet.
- Endpoint Protection Platforms (EPP): Secure the mobiles and other devices connected to the cloud from threats on the internet by constantly observing and then detecting the threats.
Cloud for Distributed Staff
The advantage of cloud computing is that it enables multiple teams from geographically diverse locations to operate.” Subsequently, cloud computing solutions help organizations justify their investments and successfully manage remote workers.
- Google Workspace: Set of applications that helps the cross-located teams coordinate and perform tasks effectively.
- Microsoft 365: A web-based service that enables extent teams to have access to several applications, Office applications, One Drive and Teams.
Data Storage and Management Made Easy for Remote Teams
Data storage and management solutions are important for the organization as it provides different means to ensure effective storage and management of company’s data especially for remote working teams. These solutions aid business to be very sure of their information security and at the same time make sure that the information is always available.
- Google Drive: It’s a cloud solution that helps users to store and share their files while working with people in a virtual manner.
- Dropbox: An online project sharing and storage solution that provides a safe environment for storing and sharing documents with your remote teams.
Call Center Solutions for Remote Organizations
It is important for companies to have great customer relations, and this is more so when employees are from home. Here are some customer service solutions that businesses can implement:
- Zendesk: It is an application for providing customer support for customer-service-oriented businesses for remote teams through ticketing and communication.
- Freshdesk: An application for the Customer Support that help distant workers collaborate in managing customers’ incidents and tickets.
Solutions Offered by the Company to Engage the Employees Working from Home
Engagement is critical to keeping the morale high among the remote employees, and work outputs similarly high. These solutions are effective in helping businesses engage their employee engagement solutions with their remote counterparts.
- Employee wellness programs: Offer online yoga class, meditation exercise … to your remote teams who needs to make wellness programs remotely accessible.
- Virtual team-building activities: Fun exercises like escape room or trivia would be great to do with team-building remote employees over messaging or video conferencing.
Accessibility Solutions for Remote Teams
It thus means that accessibility solutions are core to ensuring employees who are far work conveniently irrespective of their disability or impairment. The implementation of these solutions will assist companies to address barriers to diversity at workplaces and establish diverse-friendly workplaces.
- Closed captioning: Guarantee that all new virtual meetings or video conferences for work have provision for closed captioning for any employees hard of hearing.
- Screen readers: Screen readers for visually impaired employees so that those employees can easily read the content and work on the boards.
Conclusion
Currently, working remotely has become more widespread, and it creates new problems and the need for appropriate technologies. With the help of the discussed technologies, businesses can help their remote teams, enhance communication and collaboration, navigate with the challenges, and consequently, guarantee the effectiveness of the teams.