55% of businesses now have employees who work from home or remotely at least for part of their working week. It is only innovations in communication technology that has made this possible. Not only has homeworking improved the work/life balance for employees all over the world, but 77% of people have said that they’re more productive when they’re working from home. Ultimately, this is beneficial for the business and can have a knock-on effect on top-line profits.
Video Conferencing Platforms
Video conferencing is now affordable and accessible for everyone – it has become the norm in the modern workplace. It’s not just about being able to link up effectively with employees to communicate, however: you can actually use the software and tech to improve your knowledge about business operations. Teams analytics allows businesses to identify how their employees are working together and monitor inactive staff. It can be used as a way of decluttering messages and information so that employees only have access to what they need to be able to work effectively.
Collaborative Digital Workspaces
Collaboration is essential when you have employees who are working from home. Even though staff may not all be together within a physical workspace, they can still thrive as a team via a digital workspace. Podio is one of the more recent apps that has hit the market for businesses, optimized specifically for smartphones. Trello is an extremely popular option too, particularly for project work. The lists and boards help employees to be organized in delegating tasks amongst colleagues. The software even integrates with other techs, such as Google Drive and Evernote.
Instant Messaging
Video conferencing is not always the quickest and easiest way to share information. This is where instant messaging technology comes in handy if you want to be able to quickly share files, tools, and information across the business. Slack is a channel-based messaging service that helps teams to communicate in real-time. Flock offers a similar channel-based service, and it can be integrated with the apps that a team uses regularly. Flowdock is also popular with small businesses, enabling employees to collaborate naturally and straightforwardly.
