Remote Working Tools for Covid-19 - What are The Best?

The Covid-19 pandemic is sending businesses scrambling to source the best remote working tools for employees.

In response to the Covid-19 crisis, providers of tools like Team Viewer are giving some businesses temporary free access to some of their services. The only question is, what remote working tools should you be using?

What are 2020’s Best Remote Working Tools?

Every business is different. Because of this, when assessing today’s best remote working tools, it is necessary to asses your specific business needs.

- Do your employees need access to bespoke or proprietary software?

- Can your staff work independently, or is it necessary for them to collaborate in teams?

- Do you handle sensitive data that can’t be taken off-site?

Team Viewer

In cases where your employees require access to proprietary or bespoke software, remote working tools like Team Viewer might be your best option.

When using Team Viewer, employees can connect remotely to existing workplace desktops and servers. In doing so, your employees can continue to use all the same apps and data systems that they would usually. Team Viewer also uses state-of-the-art security to keep remote PC connections secure.

As well as being secure, Team Viewer is an easy application to set up and start using. However, all employees using Team Viewer will require some security training to minimize risks of accidental data breaches.

Microsoft Teams

As soon as the Covid-19 crisis started to manifest, Microsoft made access to Microsoft Teams free (temporarily) to thousands of global businesses.

Different from Team Viewer, Microsoft Teams focuses on chat-based collaboration for creatives and professionals. Not to be confused with Skype, Microsoft Teams makes it easy for several employees or groups of people to meet up, chat, and interact, in real-time as work projects are being completed.

Microsoft Teams also provides a shared workspace, in which employees can collaborate on Word, Excel, and other Microsoft 365 app projects. This makes the platform ideal for educators, most office workers, and most sales and marketing professionals.

Hub Staff

Working remotely can represent a major paradigm shift for traditional employees. As a result, many will struggle (at least initially) to manage their time effectively.

To make remote working more productive, Hub Staff allows employers to monitor employees in real-time. This is made possible thanks to a suite of time tracking and even GPS monitoring applications.

Hub Staff also allows employers and clients to monitor the progress of ongoing projects. As a bonus for business managers, Hub Staff can also synchronize employee time tracking data to existing payroll systems. This ensures that staff productivity is optimized to the fullest extent possible.

Top Free Covid-19 Remote Collaboration Tools

Team Viewer, Microsoft Teams, and Hub Staff make it easy for most businesses to maintain productivity, even when employees are working from home. However, there are also several free remote working tools that businesses can make use of.

For sharing files between smaller groups of employees, businesses can use tools like Google Drive, DropBox, and One Drive. For basic employee collaboration, businesses can also use free tools like Skype and Google Hangouts.

For more complex real-time collaboration on projects, businesses can use apps like One Note, Evernote, and Zoom.

How to Maintain Data Security When Remote Working

Without a doubt, 2020 will be a year that goes down in history when it comes to remote working. However, it is important for businesses not to rush the set up of virtual office spaces.

Data protection legislation like GDPR means that businesses can face hefty fines in the event of accidental data breaches. All employees who will be working remotely, should, therefore, be given thorough security training.

When particularly sensitive projects are being collaborated on, employers may also want to consider using virtual private networks (VPNs) to connect employees. Wherever possible, employees should also be encouraged to use IT department-issued PCs and laptops, as opposed to personal computers when working.