As a London recruitment agency, we’re familiar with the ever-changing nature of the workplace. Even before the coronavirus outbreak led to many of us needing to work from home, there was already a shift in this direction — it’s even been dubbed the remote working revolution. Office support workers in London can work from home, but their success will depend on having the right tools in place. Here, we look at the best tools for maintaining excellent office teamwork whilst working from home.
Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams is a widely used and popular remote team-working solution that’s already part of premium Office 365 subscriptions. For those working in PA and office support roles who are already familiar with 365 apps such as Excel and PowerPoint, it’s a logical tool to use. Designed to facilitate in-platform collaboration by internally enabling video and VOIP calls, Microsoft Teams is already being used successfully by several of our major clients.
10to8
10to8 is appointment scheduling software that makes it easier to ensure everyone stays in touch. It does this by creating group visibility, so finding a time when all the necessary people can be involved in an ad hoc call is simple. You can also schedule in repeat meetings and check-ins. 10to8 is great if you have team members in different time zones because it does all the working out for you. There’s also an excellent reminder feature that can be really useful, especially when you can’t just call over to your team mate as usual.
Slack
Slack has been a favourite of remote workers for quite some time. It effectively replaces inter-staff email through a far smarter chat function. The basic premise of Slack is that you create different channels for different teams or projects. This keeps the right people in the right loop, without distracting them with irrelevant information. Everything is then neatly stored in one place.
Google Drive
Homeworking is only really made possible with cloud storage. Google Drive, along with Google Sheets and Google Docs, is ideal for teams. Many offices use these programmes internally anyway because they allow shared access and editing within individual documents. By using Google Drive, you can keep your various files as organised as they would be on a desktop without using the cloud. What’s also handy is that if one team member is out of action, others can continue working on the document without interruption.
Krisp
One of the biggest struggles for people working from home is how to stop background noise carrying over into phone or video calls. The last thing you want is a barking dog, noisy child, or passing rumbling lorry interfering with communication. Krisp is a noise-cancelling app that you’ll be super grateful you discovered. It can be used with microphones, headphones, and speakers meaning that you can work professionally no matter what’s going on in the background at home.
Which homeworking tools would you recommend to other London office support workers?
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