Being able to collaborate while working remotely is perhaps the main challenge of lockdown for businesses. What used to be simply strolling across the office for advice and updates now necessitates a complex email chain that you’re hoping all of your staff will be online to read, digest, and reply to. In this article, then, we recognize this difficult time and offer some tips to help your business manage the requirements for remote collaboration.
The three tools listed below will help your business adapt to the new working conditions brought about by COVID-19.
For Staff
Your biggest preoccupation, as a business manager, is keeping your staff busy with tasks that’ll get the most out of them during lockdown. Without direction, guidance, and discipline, your staff may quickly lose their motivation and their drive to contribute positively to your company during this challenging time.
As such, you should be on the lookout for the best remote collaboration tools that’ll help your staff communicate and work together, despite the distance that separates them. These may include Microsoft and Google’s amazing repertoire of tools, or small companies and their incredible contributions to the remote working software ecosystem. Research a little and read articles from other business leaders to discover what’ll be the best choice for your staff.
For Managers
Meanwhile, you should also be on the lookout for the programs, software solutions, and digital tools that’ll help you run your business as a manager or a startup founder. In this case, you’re not looking for collaboration software – you’re looking for ways in which you, as a manager, can stay abreast of your staff’s movements and projects. You need to be in several different loops, and managing this via email can quickly leave you swamped and stressed.
As such, companies have started to produce and release incredibly useful analytics software that helps managers understand the communication and collaboration work that their staff is doing remotely. These platforms can help managers get that much-needed overview of what’s happening in their enterprise at any given time. For instance, Microsoft Teams Analytics can help you keep an eye on all the work that’s taking place on your team’s Microsoft software.
For Customers
Finally, your customers also need to know that your business is trustworthy during this period of lockdown and remote working. They need to be able to understand that their money is safe with you, and that you’ll still be able to offer the high quality of service that they expect from you. As well as using smart communications to inform your customers about changes to your business, you should also employ tools to set their minds at ease.
For instance, if you can use automation software to send out emails and updates to all of your registered customers at once, you’ll save your staff time in drafting communications, and you’ll be able to respond quickly to the queries that customers are sending to your business.
Covering your staff, your managers, and your customers, these toolkit tips are designed to help you adapt to remote working collaboration in 2020 and beyond.
