The Right Tech for Remote Work
Tech is what makes remote work… work. If you’re a remote worker, you now have a suite of tools at your disposal to help you communicate, collaborate and actually do your job. Your internet connection may be the essential weapon in your work arsenal.
Since the remote work revolution, there’s been a boom in new tools that aim to help you work more effectively, wherever you are. It presents a challenge for remote leaders. How do you know what you need? Then, how do you know which tool is best for you?
Here are five tips for remote leaders as they evaluate remote work tools.
1 – Don’t go tech crazy
Tech is important for remote work, but perhaps it’s not as important as you think. Try not to obsess about technology to the point that you lose focus on your people and your goals. Rather, think of tech as the foundation of a building rather than the building itself.
Don’t fall into the trap of buying a tool for the sake of it or because you know one of your competitors is using it. Every business works differently, and what’s good for one may be bad for another. Instead, take time to pinpoint the specific challenges your teams face and whether tech can solve them.
2 – Don’t make more work for your people
Tech is supposed to make life easier for your people, but often it has the opposite effect. When you bring in a new piece of technology for your people, you need to ensure they get the onboarding, training and ongoing support they need to get the most from it.
You also need to ensure that when you implement a new tool, everyone in your team will be able to use it. For example:
● Is their computer up-to-date enough to support the tool?
● Is their internet connection strong enough?
● Is the tool set up for immediate use?
3 – Invest for async
We don’t want to tell you what technology to buy. Rather, we want to help you make your tech work smarter. However, if we have one piece of advice, it’s to invest in tools that help your team work asynchronously.
If you’re going to make the most of the opportunities remote work presents, such as hiring the best people in the world rather than just in your city, you need to start async working. It’s the future.
So, look for tools that help your team work more effectively, no matter what time zone they’re working in. Start with a great asynchronous communication tool and then look at moving to:
● Scheduling tools – Empower your people to work on their terms, making themselves available when it works for them, while still enabling others to locate them
● Knowledge management tools – Make it easy for people to catch up on what they missed when they were asleep and people on the other side of the world were working
● Project management software – Track changes to products whenever they happen and avoid costly version control errors
4 – Keep security front-of-mind
When your teams work remotely, transferring valuable data and IP worldwide, you need to ensure everything is secure. A cyber-attack or data breach could have disastrous consequences for your company.
Make sure the tools you use employ strong security measures (e.g. 2-step verification) and ensure all your remote workers know how to use them. You should also ensure your teams have the right security software on their machines and know what precautions to take to stay safe online.
