Four new technologies that bring remote workers closer together
The best technologies for supporting remote workers don't get in the way of user experience, and they distil the complex into something simple, usable, reliable and enjoyable to use.
At You at Work, our teams are a combination of office-based and remote workers. The technology choices we make must support unrestricted flexible working, collaboratively and independently in any location.
1. Communication tools designed for remote working
Bad communication in any team is a productivity killer.
To support remote working – or a hybrid of remote and office working – choose a set of integrated technologies for communicating, including real-time messaging, voice calls, screen sharing, group calls, meeting scheduling, calendars and email.
However, get the essential basics right before doing anything else. That means high-quality one-to-one and ad-hoc group voice calls and screen-sharing using the same software, so anyone can show and tell, present, and step through plans and progress updates.
We use Microsoft Teams for our internal communications and external conference calls. We tried Slack, and your IT staff may prefer it, but for us Teams is a better fit for company-wide communication. Teams is included with our Office 365 subscription and can be deployed across your organisation using group policy or as part of a wider installation of the Office 365 application suite.
Teams features group messaging chat, and the ability to predefine groups and teams in departments, as well as cross-functional teams for projects and other ad-hoc topics. Some users will need a dial-in number and dial out features, which can be added for individuals.
2. Peer-to-peer employee recognition software
We believe it’s really important that people feel appreciated and recognised at work.
When you’re working in the same office space as your colleagues, it’s generally easier to say thanks when people are helpful and go the extra mile. Doing so is less visible to others when people are working remotely – and with remote working it can be more difficult for managers to have visibility of progress and to recognise individuals.
This is where recognition and reward software can provide valuable support to teams and managers working remotely. People can send recognition messages to others regardless of location, and managers have visibility of peer-to-peer recognition, to which they can give tangible rewards.
This helps individuals working in their own space feel appreciated and their work recognised as important and valuable to the wider organisation.
We use it successfully across our organisation, and our customers are now doing the same.
3. Go off-premise with everything
Everything traditionally office-based needs to be accessible anywhere, anytime. This is crucial to effective remote working. It's frustrating when accessing or sharing files, emails, or other IT services is more difficult than it would be if you were in the office. So, going off-premise is a sound option.
Some IT departments take a different view on this, asking Why add costs for cloud hosting when IT can be running on a server in the office? The simple answer is because it’s much better to do so, but you may only fully appreciate that once you’ve done it.
You will no longer have a depreciating asset, it will be easier to secure, manage and maintain over time, it will be accessible from anywhere and easier to securely back up your data.
However, such changes don't usually happen overnight. Your organisation will likely have at least one legacy system that needs to stay running on a physical server – but only as long as it needs to. The key strategy here is that you are aiming towards everything being off-premise, nothing but WiFi in an office, and how your IT planning delivers that.
For collaborating on and sharing files we use Sharepoint and OneDrive, both as a web-based application and as you would access a file server's folders and files. Our helpdesk runs on Zendesk, our CRM system is Hubspot, and Jira and Confluence provide our technology planning, project management, support and document-collaboration solutions.
4. Future mobile devices will replace laptops
Remote workers need lightweight, work-anywhere computer equipment so they can connect easily with each other on a daily basis, whether they’re out on the road or looking for a change of scenery.
A staple item for remote workers for years has been the laptop, better still a lightweight ultraportable one that’s easy to carry and has great performance. For anyone who used to have to work in an office where the computers were, laptops are awesome inventions and have made remote working possible for many.
However, just as office workers ditched desktop PCs for laptops some years ago, the era of the laptop-carrying remote worker is nearly over. With mobile devices increasing in size and capability – along with always-on cloud connectivity – there will soon come a time when remote workers won’t need to carry a laptop.
Instead, we’ll be using yet-to-be-developed future versions of our current mobile devices, tablets and smart phones. These will be wirelessly connectable to screens and other devices to make all-day working with them more practical. We’ve yet to see who will create the devices with technology innovations that enable this. Huawei and Samsung have announced foldable phones, which aren’t what they will need to be yet, but they begin to address the challenge of using a mobile device with a larger screen.
Summary
- Communication is key to overall success with remote working. Choose technologies carefully, avoid those that are complex to use, and don’t try to implement essential day-to-day workplace technologies that anyone needs to be trained on before they can use them.
- To build confidence in how to go about implementing them, the best way is to start small and move quickly, learning what will work best for your organisation, structure and the nature of the work people are doing.
- For remote working, consider the longer-term when investing in and choosing technologies. Laptops are not dead yet – but we won’t be buying new ones for much longer.
- To enable effective fully remote or hybrid office/remote working, choose a reliable set of technologies that don’t get in the way of communications and productivity, and make it easy for people to work together effectively wherever they are.
This article is provided by You at Work
In partnership with You at Work
The You at Work platform is affordable, easy to use and fast to set up,
