03 Work From Home Software To Revolutionize Your Work

Many countries have been driven into lockdown by the COVID-19, causing hardship in the business, medical, tourism, and several other significant industries. The culture of work from home, popularly known as WFH, has leaped into the mainstream with a rise in social distancing and self-quarantining through different industries worldwide. But how ready are we technically to operate as corporates and as corporate employees?

WFH isn't too hard, particularly when you've got the right combination of equipment and software to support the workflow. Understandably, the basics needed for working from home are — a PC or a laptop, good LAN or Wi-Fi, and endless power supply. 

But, in case you are suffering from anxiety of separation from remote workers then these three tools will help you monitor the actual time of the particular task. Know, these tools only have the raw data for you. You ought to make a case-by-case interpretation of the findings. Also, it's a smart decision to track remote staff productivity with their full consent.

EmpMonitor 

EmpMonitor is said to be one of the trending affordable work from home software, which is highly preferred by most of the business owners. This software provides screenshots every 15 minutes and records every keystroke. It also keeps a check on the top applications and websites used by the employee in a particular time frame. It helps the employers to know whether the employees are reading a word doc or spending time plugging numbers into the excel sheet. 

The User Management panel allows managers to view information of members of their team, providing several transparency rates.

What's more, EmpMonitor has a user logs feature that allows you to see the user login and log out details. It can be a useful feature to know if your employee's login is late and log out early. 

Plans start at $3/user/month for up to 51 to 200 users and go to $5/user/month for one to 10 users. EmpMonitor requires a desktop download and is compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux. It also integrates with any project management software, therefore, it prevents interrupting in between.

Trello

If you juggle on multiple projects with multiple remote employees, Trello has an easy solution to keep everyone on track. Simply install Trello on the employees working system. Then it will track the time and provide a complete report of the employees work time activities on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. 

In the work time, It provides you with a few snaps of employees screen activities, to check that your employees are on task and not spending time on non-productive activities.  This best work from home software also provides the overall productivity ratio of each employee in a graphical form.  It helps the employers to know how their employees are working and also helps the employees to remain productive even while working from home. 

The price starts at just $9.99/user/month to $20.83user/month as per your business requirements. Simply install the software in your system and it's compatible with Windows and Mac both. 

OrangeHRM

For business owners who are looking for the best CRM software, there’s OrangeHRM. Well, the programs are not just about human resources management. It is more than just this. OrangeHRM offers cost-free, open-source solutions to people out there. Nevertheless, it is not stripped of its technical and business HR management solutions.

It has some incredible features that can really rest your work from home issues like, performance measurement, attendance management, recruitment management, etc. 

It comes with a free starter pack with 30 days free trial!

Wrapping Up 

These are some of the best yet cheap work from home software to better handle your work from home. However, after evaluating the three of them separately, we came to a conclusion that says EmpMonitor is the best for remote management of work. Well, because it includes all sorts of monitoring activities, including remote control, office surveillance, and much more. What do you think? Do share your thoughts in the comments section below. 

05 Pro Tips For Successful Work From Home Monitoring

The act of managing workplace employees is more apparent than managing a team of remote employees. A fresh study surveyed over 50+ businesses to reveal the proven methodologies an organization can embrace for employees working from their homes.

Most of the businesses that participated in this survey pointed out that the approach of remote working is a win-win scheme for both the employee and the employer. Here, the way you manage remote teams becomes the ultimate key to achievement in work from home monitoring practice.

An ideal employer should have the knack to implement precise strategies and employ helpful tools for a better outcome. And, For those who are new to this game, this article contains a handful of valuable tips that are indeed necessary to consider.

Hire deserving employees

Hire Right Employees

Let’s be realistic- everyone can’t be proficient at the ‘work from home’ pattern of working. While people relish the ease of remote work, not all carry enough sincerity and honesty to contribute 100%. So, a recruiter must look for some qualities that demonstrates the capability of individuals who will work from their homes with thorough dedication. Always prioritize the  employees with sound communication skills since they often result in great triumph.

Keep your expectations and work clear.

Work Goals

Instead of making assumptions, put clear & straightforward work expectations before your employees. Moreover, “expectations” shall apply on the manager too. Set up a quick meeting to discuss the essentials of a project, illustrate the expectations and the underlying reason.

Through expectation, it means the goals, deadlines, work execution of different phases that are going on. Or else, your company might be undergoing the worst situation of productivity crisis with loss of potential clients as well.

Don’t Overlook One-On-Ones Approach.

One-on-ones Approach

Team solidarity is essential, and so is managing time to discuss with employees one-on-one. It helps you in addressing the issues a member probably faces but becomes nervous when it comes to talking in a group or writing through emails. In such circumstances, having words with each team member proves to be a great help in eradicating existing issues and aligning their job role according to the goals they have in mind.

Organize Video Conferences

Video Employee Conferencing

However, breaking bread together strengthens a team, but the idea has nothing to do with remote employees. Thus, video conferencing becomes a sweeping means of interacting with everyone and spending quality time. Yes, meeting over a video call can’t be effective as gathering together physically. It boosts teamwork, helps newly joined personnel to open up, as well as, create a favorable image of the employer in the mind of employees. Research claims that video is a way better than meeting in person referring to all of those who are shy.

Focus on the result, not working hours.

Final Outcome

Even though a manager puts in his entire effort, he can’t keep a sharp eye on each employee. Therefore, when your team is located at different geographical locations, don’t put too much pressure on workers during work from home monitoring working suits. Provide them flexibility and let them work independently to make most out of them along with measuring the number of routine operations.

Leave the office behind: Additional tips for better workflow.

The supervision of remote workers comes down to two crucial elements, that is communication and uninterrupted communication. If everyone in your team stays tuned with each other, there won’t be any severe trouble anymore.

Make sure your employees feel valued and at the same time responsible. Meanwhile, they must keep in mind the goals of companies to push their caliber beyond the limits. Apart from setting up strategies and policies, choose top-notch tools that are meant to flourish a business.

In case your team fails to establish unbroken communication with other members, then provide them with proper resources and outline to make them proficient.

Conclusion

Although remote team management is like a hard nut to crack,  compelling work from home monitoring software has been helping businesses a lot these days. Hopefully, this piece of information cools your jets and gives you the power to raise the productivity of a company operating through remote workers.

03 Exquisite Tips To Uphold Data Security with Remote Employees.

Amidst the coronavirus outbreak, most of the companies have been turning their routes towards a remote working approach to save their employees. The government is encouraging citizens to embrace the social distancing approach and asking more people to execute their duties from home.

While employees feel it convenient to work from home, the risks of data breaching or leaking of valuable data hovers over managers’ minds. The method of remote employees is slightly different from working at an office since employers no longer have full control over employees’ proceedings. 

But, there’s always a solution to a problem, including the complicated ones, and so goes with ‘Data Security’ measures. A blend of compelling monitoring software and employees’ devotion results in boosting the ROI of any business, regardless of the working culture it implements. Calm down! Read our article ahead for valuable pieces of information.

Getting Started…

Data Security Measures

The first yet crucial step of putting work from home practice is to make sure you have a dependable authentication to the entire devices that employees are going to access. Organizations should focus especially on the security of those devices on which delicate data cached. In simple words, it’s vital to keep an eye on workers who keep up the company’s valuable data so that they won’t indulge in activities like data transferring or selling. 

Track Remote Workers, Remotely.

Remote Employees

‘Monitoring’ is indeed necessary for companies that rely on remote workers, so that they can figure out what their employees are doing online and how much time they exactly spend on doing their job. You further need to make a wise decision while choosing an efficient monitoring solution. There are dozens of powerful employee management software available out there, but you should choose one that stands out from the rest.

An ideal monitoring software counts down the actual working hours, determines the ongoing projects, and can capture screenshots immediately whenever required.

Certify your security & data protection policies

Data Security

Regardless of the strict instructions you pass on, employees can’t take it seriously unless they get documented security policies in hand. Therefore, frame down entire policies into a written form and highlight the sensitive provisions to gain optimal protection.

As soon as you are done with framing policies, next tell your employees to go through it and ask questions that appear in their minds. For higher protection, make it mandatory for everyone to read work from home policy deeply before moving out from the office, plus get their signature on policy papers for acknowledgment.

Examine Your Devices & Technology

Evaluate Devices

BYOD (bring your own device) is popular among the organizations operating remote teams, but the same might be risky as it often gives ease to hackers for invading your company’s data security shield. Be careful, abolish BYOD and assign company-owned devices to remote workers, with all kinds of software installed for 100% desired outcome.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, all you can do is to consider every possible data safety measure while hiring remote employees. Based on the current scenario, we can anticipate that work from home will remain in trend for the coming few months until coronavirus winds up from the globe. Till then, a brief message for remote workers- “stay home” “work honestly” “safeguard your company’s policies”, and the most important one- “wash your hands in every 30 minutes”.