Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, more people were regularly working remotely or from home than ever before. Now that millions more people are working remotely due to pandemic-related restrictions, it’s important for these workers and companies to properly outfit themselves with the essential equipment they need to stay productive and get their jobs done, even when not in the office.
Here are a few categories of tools and equipment you should consider using while working from home. A network security expert in Atlanta, GA can help ensure these solutions are implemented in a way that doesn’t compromise your company’s valuable information.
Meeting tools
A lot of the meetings and conferences we have in our everyday work lives are now being held remotely. While conference calls can certainly suffice in some circumstances, there’s something to be said for being able to see your coworkers and have face-to-face interactions.
The conferencing tool that’s gotten the most buzz over the last few months is Zoom, which has powerful yet easy-to-use video conferencing capabilities. Its added features help take it to the next level, including video recording, screen sharing, integrated calendars, virtual backgrounds, touch-ups and real-time chat.
Communication
Team communication tools are important, regardless of whether you’re in the office or working remotely. Email can quickly get out of hand, especially if you’re just trying to have an actual conversation or just have a quick note to send someone.
We strongly recommend using Slack, which is an outstanding platform for teams that makes communication and collaboration a breeze. You can set up different channels to categorize chats by project or department, and can integrate many other tools like Google Calendar and Google Drive. It also has file sharing and video calling features.
Project management
Project management tools become increasingly important when everyone is working remotely. There are a variety of tools that you can use to stay on top of your own projects and to manage projects if you are a supervisor or manager. Some of the most popular options include Jira and Basecamp.
Time management
There are plenty of people who still rely on paper planners or sticky notes to keep track of all of their meetings, conferences and deadlines, but if you’re interested in something a little more high-tech, you can’t really do any better than Google Calendar. It’s easy to use, and will integrate with a wide variety of other applications and devices. You can combine a variety of different calendars so you can see everything you have going on in both your work and personal lives on a single display. Or, you can choose to view just one of these calendars at once.
File sharing
Slack is great for sending and sharing individual files, but if you’re hosting a lot of files and need better organization, Google Drive may be your best bet. It has free plans available and can easily be upgraded to increase your storage space. It’s especially useful if you’re already using other Google services.
For more information about the various types of tools you should be using for remote work, while keeping high standards of network security in Atlanta, GA, reach out to The Bandwidth Team today.