05 Ways To Manage Remote Workplace Disruption and Maximizing Productivity

When COVID-19 forced businesses from all over the world to instruct their employees to avoid coming to office, working remotely became the only option for maintaining the economy level. Ultimately, employees had to pack their office stuff and start working from their homes. 

And the hurry to provide employees the access to all the pivotal tools they might require to work effectively from their homes was a bit sudden for most of the employers. But slowly, when everyone got settled in, the most important fact that came out from this was that employees are 50% more productive and concentrated when working from home and not from the office. After getting such a positive report, companies even got to understand that remote workplace chores to be the best option for improving the productivity level. No one knows when this pandemic is going to over, so, in that case, remote working is the only option left for the companies. 

Now, when employees are working remotely, companies look for some of their goals to get accomplished without any hassle! And the list comprises of

• 100% increased productivity 
• 0% disturbance during the working hour
• Faster task completion

So, these were some of the things that every company wants from its employees. Keeping those factors in mind, we have come up with some of the 05 excellent ways that can help you accomplish your goals with great ease. 

1. Prioritize your employees health and wellness

Remember, employee safety needs to be your top priority in this current pandemic! After all, if the employees will not be okay, then how would they work efficiently?

Take care of all the employees, and yes, support social distancing as much as you can! Because your work is not as vital as an employee’s life! Let them work remotely, till the situation cools down. Along with it, ask them about their health regularly, to get assured that they are okay and happy. 

And since mental health has become a trending topic during these couple of days, it’s better to ask your employees, are they feeling better mentally? Because if you scroll your Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube feed as well, one thing that you will find prevalent in all these social media channels is that different people, talking about “not to ignore mental health”! 

It is good to make people understand that “sometimes it is okay not to be okay”! But it is not okay to not open up about their problem to anyone. So, keep a check on your employee’s mental health as well.

2. Balance structure and flexibility

When you have a structure, like, daily routine or schedule, you will get to manage time in a much better way, become focused and maintain a healthier work-life balance during work from home revolution. Having such a systematic work-life will even help you ease the anxiety level among your employees because of lots of work. 

Along with it, you will also have to become flexible with the work! For example, if you have female employees who are married or having kids, you only can’t expect them to come on a last-minute planned zoom meeting while they are homeschooling their kids. It would be really not easy for them to manage everything all of a sudden. In such a situation, you can fix a proper meeting time, so that they would get prepared for it. 

3. Help your team to overcome the newest disruptions!

Most of the employees will be new to the “work from home” policy! So, they need to be informed about the likely challenges that they might have to face. And some of the difficulties can be dealing with several distractions, keeping themselves accountable, and at last 100% discipline. 

Now, how can you assist them? Given below are some of the best team workload management tips that you can share with your remote employees to help them overcome from obstructions:

• Arrange a new set up for working, not your kitchen table, bedroom, or couch.
• Think like you are still going to the office to work and get dressed accordingly. Forget about your comfy pajamas!
• Stick to the official schedule.
• Track your time to know how much time you are actually spending on a particular work.
• Kick-start every day with a win-win attitude, even though it’s that simple as making your bed in the morning. 
• Make the needed boundaries! Don’t play with your kids or pets during working hours. 
• Make music your only best friend to work the most effectively. 

4. Provide incentives

Incentives are a quick and convenient way to improve happiness, confidence, motivation, engagement, and teamwork. You can provide incentives like gift cards to your remote team, have extra vacation days, or provide a hebdomadal shoutout at the start of a virtual meeting.

5. Communicate daily

One of the things that bother companies a lot about the shifting towards a remote workplace is that you won’t be able to have a face to face conversation with them. So, in such a case, you should look forward to communicating with every employee daily. Whether it’s video calling or a conference voice call, talking with your employees is really very crucial.  

There are even many tools available in the market that can help you do so! Yes, I am talking about the Zoom cloud meeting app, which is popularly used by almost every company in the world right now. So, use this top-notch app to have a better engagement with your employees. 

Wrapping it up!

Now you are all set to maintain a highly productive remote team! Since employees are much more comfortable in the remote workplace, you need to plan out and manage them accordingly. Hopefully, this article is going to help you a lot with excellent ways to manage your remote workforce accurately and increase every employee productivity as well.

You can even have a glance at: How To Implement Remote Worker Monitoring At Your Business?

04 Best Productivity Tracking Software In 2020

Productivity tracking software has been highly in demand these days. All the employees are currently working from home, and this will likely be the case for the whole year maybe, due to the Coronavirus Pandemic. This implementation of work from home worldwide has made the employee monitoring task for employers hard, and they can’t do it with traditional methods. 

They had to implement a monitoring software, but which one is the best in this cluster of software. In this article, I am going to tell you about the four best work from home productivity monitoring  software which will help you manage the productivity of your employees. 

1. EmpMonitor

The best one of them all I found after doing extensive research is EmpMonitor. It is used by many trusted organizations and is very easy to use. It also has loads of features like productivity tracking, screenshot, user logs, stealth mode, top apps & websites used, keystroke recording, IP whitelisting. 

These features make tracking employees’ activities very easy. Using it, you can easily track the productivity of your workforce and pinpoint where the employees are lacking. So that you can implement a much better working strategy to increase the overall productivity in your office. 

The monthly subscription of EmpMonitor starts from $5/month and goes up to $55/month. They also offer 15 days of a free trial, which includes all the features included in the application. 

Here’s A Guide On How To Check Production Of Employees Using Empmonitor –

2. Time Doctor

Time doctor is a SaaS-based monitoring tool compatible with all platforms such as Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS. This software is a little bit different from EmpMonitor as it is web-based, which means it can be integrated on the browser as an extension to monitor employees’ internet activity and usage. 

It includes the following features – Time tracking, work session monitoring, reminders, screenshots, invoicing, reporting tools, integration with other software, project management tools integration, web-cam capture, white-label portal, and employee attendance tracking. 

All these features make it a great productivity tracking software, especially for the people who do more contract basis work. It has a payroll feature with the help of which you can calculate payroll on the basis of your employees’ working time on a specified project. 

Time Doctor monthly subscription starts from $12/month/user up to $24/month/user. It also has a free trial version, which lasts for 14 days. 

3. Hubstaff

Hubstaff has been used in a variety of fields like development firms, e-commerce websites, startups, etc. They all use this software to boost their employees’ productivity. This software is compatible with Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, Linux, Chromebook, and extension.

It includes the following features – time tracking, billing & invoice, time scheduling, employee tracking, time and task reporting, smartphone access, project prioritization, manual timesheets & stopwatch, geofencing, and payroll automation. 

This software is also great to Track Remote Staffs Productivity as it can actively monitor their work across different platforms. And the best thing is that it allows team scheduling with the help of which you can divide a project with the team easily. 

Hubstaff also has a free trial, which you can use as long as you want, but the features are limited. The paid plan starts from $7/user/month and goes all the way up to $20/user/month.

4. Teramind

The next tool we have is Teramind. It is also one of the popular monitoring software. The thing that makes it stand out in the crowd is the tool’s availability on both cloud, and premise which means it can be deployed on the systems available on the premise and also on the remote systems.

This software includes the following features – insider threat detection, automated behavioral rules, alerts & notification, employee activity tracking, idle time tracking, screen activity recording, browser history, employee email monitoring, DLP, remote control, and time tracking. The best of all these features is DLP, as it helps the employers to prevent the data loss inside the office.

Teramind has a free trial, which lasts for seven days after the trial you have to purchase their paid version which starts from $24.16/5 user/month and goes all the way up to $60.51 for the cloud. Whereas for the premise package, range starts from $36.08 and goes up to $90.33. 

Conclusion

There you have it, four best productivity tracking software. All of them do a great job of monitoring employees’ activity and show you a detailed report of it. But if you ask me to pick the best one amongst them, it would have to be EmpMonitor. The whole package they offer is very hard to beat considering the price.

5 WORK FROM HOME TIPS THAT WILL KEEP YOU PRODUCTIVE AND SANE

Work from home has become one of the most emerging trends which every organization and company is following. Work from home delivers many benefits such as increased productivity, greater work-life balance, and boost performance. 

On one hand, where work from home seems to be a luxury option, on the other hand, it comes with a lot of challenges. Less communication, lots of distractions, and less accountability than when you are working from office space. But this doesn’t mean that work from home is impossible. You can be more productive and sane at the same time while working from home. 

Here are some excellent work from home tips which will help you to get more job done and get the most of your remote work hours – 

• Create a separate workspace.

This is one of the most important aspects that you need to take care of while working from home. Dedicate one area of your home especially as your workspace. This place can be a corner of your bedroom or space/room that you can convert into the work office. 

Set up your system and office supplies, give that place an office feeling. A particular space should be created where you will commit to working every single day. Also, make sure you select areas where the noise and other disturbances are very less. This will help you to focus while working.

• Set up firm working hours.

Another most important thing while working from home is to set up real work hours. The super advantage of wfh is flexible work hours. Set your time accordingly. Like if you have children who need to go to school in the morning then you can choose the afternoon hours. Manage your time wisely. 

Set up your time and stick to it regularly. Remember, be punctual and firm with your working hours. Also, make sure you inform your boss, managers, and your colleagues about your timing. 

• Know your golden hour.

Every person is productive at different times of the day. Let’s say some people are most focused, productive in the morning hours. And some are evening people. They are more concentrated and focused in the evening hours. 

To know when you are most productive, you can make use of work from home productivity tracking software like EmpMonitor. This tool will help you calculate your productive and nonproductive hours and also measure the idle time. Accordingly, you can adjust your schedule and start working. 

• Update your to-do list every day.

When you are working from home, it is very important to manage and keep track of your work. It is very easy to lose sight of deadlines, tasks, and priorities. 

To avoid such things, you have to create and update your to-do list every single day. Plan your work accordingly and stick to the schedule. You will get more job done if you plan and work wisely. Allot time limit to each task that needs to be done and try to complete it at that time only. Be strict!

• Say bye-bye to your pajamas.

Never work on your pajamas. One of the obvious reasons people love working from home is because they can put their favorite pajamas on and work all day. But do you know you are killing your productivity? 

Mindset matters a lot. Even if you are working from home make sure you get up and be ready as you are going to the office. If you do this, you will always be ready to handle a video chat or video call from your managers, teammates. Dressing up helps you to get prepared for work mentally as well as physically. 

Apart from the above tips, there are a few more important things that you should take care of, if you want to be productive even while working from home – 

• Say big no to all your social media channels. Put off the notifications. 
• Do not work in your living room as it can be the most distracting place to work in.
• Always take short breaks. Do not work non-stop. Give rest to your eyes and brain. 
• Talk to your family, friends, and close ones in your lunchtime.
• Stay attentive towards security risks.
• Use professional collaboration and communication tools like Telegram, Google Hangout.
• Use work from home productivity monitoring tools to track your work and time.

To work from home effectively, you must keep in mind the above-mentioned tips. If followed properly I am sure you are going to boost your productivity. Keep a regular check-in with your co-workers, manage your time wisely, and keep your internet connection proper. Nothing can stop you from being successful and productive.

A Complete Guide To Employee Tracking Software: It’s Why & How?

Most of us have worked alongside people who usually don’t take their responsibilities properly. Either we see them surfing the internet or playing online games or chatting with friends on social media using the company devices. In short, there are always many people around who inappropriately use their official computers. 

As working online has increased, so has remote employees, and freelancers have exacerbated. As the freedom of employees has increased, employers need a way to ensure they stay truthful and efficient. It is the time where the tracking software for employees comes in.

Employee tracking software helps in tracking time, protecting confidential data, and controlling the productivity of each employee. It may help employers detect inappropriate use, such as unauthorized web or device searches, time spent on unproductive applications, etc. It can also help to monitor every keystroke made by an employee, and capture their screens in real-time. Best of all, custom rules and regulations that employers can set and modify at any time will automatically detect inappropriate use.

If any breach takes place, it will immediately notify employers along with the proof. Many employee software monitoring applications also allow employers to take the remote access of the employee’s computer if necessary. In simple terms, employee tracking or monitoring software is an inclusive tool that provides complete control to the employers to keep a check on their employee’s computer activities easily. 

Thus, If you are planning to start using employee monitoring software, then this guide will help you choose the best one for your business.  

What is Employee Tracking Software? 

This software provides employers with a range of tools and features that monitor employee actions and record them on the clock. It involves the websites that are accessed by the employees, messages sent, the applications they use and the files they open. Employee monitoring objective is twofold: ensuring that company policies and rules are not broken and ensuring efficiency and transparency for employees. 

How To Choose The Best Tracking Software? 

Are you willing to know which features are available in these tracking software and which ones you need when selecting an employee management system. Check out the below-mentioned points which help you choose the best software for your company.

Website Monitoring:

Website tracking features help to monitor the pages that a user is accessing, usually including the date and time of access of the webpage. Often you can set up lists of prohibited or potentially harmful websites and webpages. All these things could get identified by the best workplace tracking program and warn employers when their employees are visiting such pages. If a user visits these flagged pages regularly, it will become apparent that they frequently access non-work-related or restricted content on the productive hours.

Apps monitoring:

Application tracking features work more or less similar to website monitoring software. If an employee is playing games in the productive hours, or using applications irrelevant to work, the manager can check the time and date when and for how much time that particular application is used. There are few software which also provides screenshots along with screen recording of every activity.

Keystroke logging:

Keystroke logging records every key that a user hits over every program during a session. Date and time-stamped logs appear together with a guide as to which program was running and the keystrokes occurred inside the file or device.

Screenshots:

Many employee monitoring software solutions provide periodic snapshots that give managers a clear window into workplace behavior at a given time frame. Some also record video excerpts so that at some point, administrators can check exactly what a user was doing.

Reporting options:

Most of the software solutions come with different reporting features. The best software helps you in providing custom reports which generate graphical charts as per your required preferences. Some software also provides the total production, as well as non-productive hours of the employees, work done.  

Conclusion  

Getting a solution including all features under the heavy rain can be a daunting task. For example, some software would either cost high and have steeper learning curves in comparison to the other tools. Thus, if you are willing to strike a balance between effectiveness and comprehensiveness, then consider the above-mentioned things while choosing the best employee tracking software for your company.