There is no doubt about it, remote working is on the increase! With the need for flexibility on both sides – from employers as well as employees – remote working is a revolution building in momentum. As a business owner, you may discover there are benefits you were not aware of. There is a wealth of tech applications out there to help you get started.
What is Causing the Increase in Remote Employment?
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Additional income
Many people find themselves in this situation. For whatever reason, the opportunity to earn additional income is a direct benefit for them and their families. Therefore, a large majority of adults of working age seem to be on the look-out for new and interesting opportunities, to earn additional income by working remotely.
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Work-life balance
Not only is the population of working-age adults demanding extra income, they also seek the chance to work more flexibly. Family responsibilities, or other personal aspirations, all come into play. A work-life balance is needed, in this day and age, as a high percent of employees have been victims of burn-out, or stress, from highly demanding jobs. A balance is needed.
Related: How Artificial Intelligence Vastly Improves Business Automation
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Homeworking or working holiday
Wouldn’t it be great if we could all work in our pajamas or on the beach? Remote working offers just that.
What Are the Benefits to Employers of Employing Remote Workers?
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Reduction in overheads
Overheads, as much as they are required to run a business, eat into profits. If remote workers are employed business owners can reduce overheads in areas such as electricity, internet use, office rental space.
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Top 10 Technology Tools to Manage Remote Teams
1. Asana
Asana is a straightforward way to keep track of your team and their progress. Using tasks, projects and conversations, you can see the status and progress of any project without the need to meet with employees. This will help remote managers to keep track of remote workers, and keep them engaged. Managers can also turn conversations into actionable tasks. An effective way to ensure that remote employees stay connected and on task.
2. I Done This
I Done This has more than 160,000 users of the remote check-in service daily. Founded in 2011, they have head offices based in San Francisco and Las Vegas. Your team of remote workers can provide you with a comprehensive status update at the end of each day, by replying to an email once their working day is done in their time zone. This is the beauty of this tool, as it is accurate and factual, updated by your remote team themselves. This feature will ensure that they are engaged because they are expected to send a report at the end of the day.
3. When I Work
When I Work is a tech application used to track your remote worker’s hours on a daily basis. It is a remote worker’s scheduling system. You can build a schedule for your remote workers within minutes, and the best bit is – it’s free for up to seventy-five users! How is that for cost saving? It is compatible with mobile apps and also has the ability to send the team messages.
4. GoToMeeting
GoToMeeting is also a tech application to organise face-to-face conference meetings with your remote team. They offer a fourteen day free trial. This is a great tech tool to consider when a meeting is needed with a remote team. It can be an excellent tool to also ensure that your remote workers are engaged and on track, via a real-time live meeting. It is reliable and excellent value for money.
5. Slack
Slack is a tech application that offers a free trial also. It is good for online meetings in a less formal environment. You can set up one-to-one or group chats. It launched in 2014 and the company prides themselves on being one of the fastest growing tech tools to reach remote teams. This is a good application to help keep track of your team’s progress informally and cheaply.
Related: Top 8 Ways to Make Your Employees Love Their Jobs
6. LastPress
LastPress is a tech application that will keep track of all your data safely. With many cloud applications you may use as a remote employer, you will need to keep track of all data and passwords. Security is key as an employer and this is a fantastic way to oversee it. This can be an excellent tech application for your remote workers to also make use of, as they are all in various locations, it will ensure greater security, if they are all able to keep sensitive business data safe.
7. Dropbox
Dropbox is an excellent tech application to help your remote team share files and data that cannot be transferred easily via email due to their large size. They also offer a service for businesses, which will allow you and your team to collaborate together. This is a wonderful way to organise your remote workers and their projects via sharing with Drop Box.
8. HACKPAD
HACKPAD is a tech application that will ensure that key ideas or business plans are never forgotten. When remote workers (or you) need to make a note of something that is important, it can be done via HackPad. It will help your remote workers to remain on track and engaged as it can be used to brainstorm ideas, and flesh out existing ones, and everyone who works in the remote team can participate.
9. buffer
Buffer can be used to help with the time lag between your remote workers. With your team in different time zones, this tech application can help you to schedule marketing posts, and manage all your business’ social media accounts. If your various remote workers have a responsibility to share business information on social media, this application can ensure that posts go out at peak times in whatever the time zone is of clients you are potentially hoping to engage.
Remote working will be the future of all businesses as employees will no longer be chained to their desks so, with this in mind, consider the benefits to you and your business utilizing the help of these ten technology applications designed to support remote working.
10. Basecamp
Basecamp is a tech application that offers a project management service. You can monitor discussions, tasks, calendars, progress and much more! It is an all-round great application to manage a remote team due to the many functions built in providing varied ways to monitor and keep your remote workers engaged.
