In a pandemic world, working from home has become the new normal for so many of us. Working from home may have a lot of benefits, but it isn’t without its challenges either. Collaboration, brainstorming and creating social connections in the workplace can all be quite difficult working from home. Technology and apps are a great way to help bridge those gaps and keep your team working harmoniously together in this new normal. If your team is on the working-from-home journey for the long haul, then here are the apps you’ll need to stay productive.
Collaborating app
Collaboration is one of the biggest challenges when working from home. It can be hard to shake the feeling you’re disturbing someone if you just call them out of the blue. Using collaboration apps like Teams or Zoom is a great way to keep your team connected, and provide a quick way to reach out to each other. You can even design your own collaboration system, with app development becoming more accessible to businesses, it’s entirely possible to design an app to help the unique needs of your team. Perhaps it’s a spontaneous check-in feature for colleagues to reach out to each other, or even a simple app to send those water cooler type chats to one another. Ensuring your teams can still collaborate easily and effectively should be a priority in any working-from-home world.
Wellness apps
Helping your staff stay productive is one way to look at the new normal, but it’s equally as important to consider the wellbeing aspects of working from home. Prolonged screen time, poor desk setups and a lack of social interactions can wreak havoc on an individual’s mental health. Wellness apps are designed to help reinforce the healthy behaviours and habits we need to form when working from home, and there is an approach for all types. Whether it’s meditation, taking mandatory standing breaks or simply encouraging individuals to chat to other people, you can’t underestimate wellness and its overall impact. Encouraging your staff to look after themselves when working from home will benefit not only the individual but the business as well. Resilient and happy staff are, after all, more productive and willing to go that extra mile.
Whiteboarding app
Brainstorming is one aspect of working from home that results in productive teams, and so does providing visibility to the team. When teams work in an office it’s easy to overhear or walk past a board of another team and know exactly what they’re up to and the approach they will take. This incidental knowledge helps staff feel connected to the business and allow them to inject their skills into new areas. When working from home, feelings of disconnection can easily creep in when we don’t hear those chats or see those boards. Whiteboarding apps help lower the barriers to information sharing and give staff a connection to purpose again.
Apps like Miro are great for digital collaboration at the same time, no matter where you are. Working together on the same board to brainstorm, keep track of tasks or even see where projects are at, is simple with these kinds of apps and are a must when working from home on a joint project. These apps can also help managers and executives keep track of output in a more disconnected world where they may not see their staff as often.
Working from home has presented a whole new set of challenges that many businesses just weren’t prepared for. In years gone by, working from home may have been the exception, but in the new normal, it appears to be the new way of working. To make sure your people and business are equipped to handle the new normal, consider these must-have working from home apps.
