5 useful tools to Work from Home during Coronavirus Pandemic

As per the current statistical records, over 124,000 novel coronavirus cases have been reported across 122 countries and territories, globally. Source 

This has given a setback to the economy and the organizations are now looking for feasible options to handle their operations amidst the pandemic.

Here, we enlist the organizations who have taken precautionary measure to ensure safety of their employees:

• Facebook - Reportedly closed its Seattle office until March 9, with employees being encouraged to work from home at least until March 31.
• Apple - CEO Tim Cook has given most of his company's global workforce permission to work from home. The company has also reportedly restricted travel to Italy, China and South Korea, and is deep cleaning offices and stores.
• Google - Told employees with immediate family members returning from China to work from home for at least 14 days.
• Microsoft - Announced it's "recommending" all Seattle, Puget Sound area and San Francisco Bay Area employees who are "in a job that can be done from home should do so through March 25.
• Twitter - Instructed all employees to start working from home. Will continue to pay hourly workers who can't do their jobs remotely.
• Amazon - Told Seattle area employees to work from home if possible until the end of March.
• Dell - Dell has reportedly told attendees of its 2020 tech conference that it's been moved to "a virtual setting" due to coronavirus concerns.
• Foxconn - In early February told its employees not to come back to work at its offices in Shenzhen, China, until further notice.
• Airbnb - Will allow guests to cancel reservations without penalty if they've booked in China through April 1.
• Uber - Strongly recommended employees to work from home in several countries where the number of COVID-19 cases is increasing, including the US, Canada, Japan, Europe and South Korea. The recommendation extends through April 6. Source

How Corona Outbreak is affecting big businesses?

The larger scale of the organization, the larger the risk. Big companies are closing their operations or moving towards isolation in the wake of the need of the hour. 

• Microsoft, Google, Slack, and Zoom are trying to keep up with the demand for their now free work-from-home software Source
• Apple warned investors that the supply of iPhones — the company’s marquee product, which accounts for the bulk of its revenue every quarter — would be hampered by the spread of the coronavirus. Source
• Microsoft depends on customers who install its Windows software on laptops and Surface tablets, and both of those hardware products are also being hammered by closings and slowdowns in China. Source
• Expedia, the travel aggregator, declined to provide a full-year financial outlook because of the coronavirus’s disruption of travel. Source

Currently, there is no solution to the fear generated among the public. Only educating the general public is the solution. However, closing the business operations is not the apt solution to it as it can cause huge economic damages to your business. Going remote is the only solution you have. 

Tools Required to run the show:

Real-time communication is the only challenge while working from home as it is asynchronous at times. When people are remote, you can’t expect them to reply as soon as possible. Flexibility and patience are the two major requirements to work from home in such times. 

In this article, we try to help you articulate your work from home policies for your employees to adapt to the immediate transformation without losing control & pace. 

1. Basecamp: It is a project management tool started by a remote team, they have a bunch of the tools which can allow you to get daily status updates, tasks, progress on projects, delivery timelines, and group chat with team members.
2. Everhour: If you sync Basecamp with Everhour, this will help you to plan your team capacity. Everhour logs hours no matter which project management tool you use. This is one of the best and effective ways to get reporting. They charge $7/user/month. 
3. Desktime: Desktime captures screenshots, productive hours tracked on allowed tools. It is very simple and easy to use. The charges are also very low compared to other such products available in the market. 
4. Zoom Meeting: Zoom meetings help a lot when you want to conduct meetings in real-time. As written communication is more susceptible to wrong interpretation from people, zoom meetings is the one solution where people can communicate face to face via videos, in real time. 
5. Slack: Slack is an instant messaging platform that can be of great utility in such times. With the ease to connect to every team member, it facilitates real-time and quick communication.

Why hiring a remote team through a professional agency is better than directly hiring a remote employee?

1. Professional work culture.
2. Efficient Remote team management including  hiring and firing
3. Easy infrastructure, internet, tools management
4. You can scale faster and focus on your work proficiently.