The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted our usual way of life. Governments have imposed strict measures, some businesses have indefinitely closed their doors, and most of us are self-isolating at home.
But staying home doesn’t mean spending your days binge-watching your favorite shows while lounging on your couch.
Moving into the digital realm is perhaps the best way to ensure compliance with all of the coronavirus guidelines currently in place and that may occur yet again if there is a second wave of the viral pandemic. Work from home opportunities are expanding during the coronavirus quarantine, but there are some work from home tips that should be considered as well which is especially true given the difference in a work-from-home environment. It is important to stay productive, even if you cannot move your business online completely.
Currently, the best thing to do is to take your business online if you can. Interest in remote work has surged since the onset of the pandemic as it allows companies to keep employees at home, establish remote teams, and get to work.
If you too want to do the same, you’ll need the right tools. So, let’s take a look at some of the most useful software applications that will allow you to continue with business as usual during coronavirus.
ProProfs LMS
Just because most of us are in lockdown, it doesn’t mean that you should stop with your employee training efforts.
One of the main reasons why employees leave their workplace is because of a lack of growth and advancement opportunities. You could change this by simply allowing your employees to develop their talents.
This is what ProProfs LMS enables you to do.
As a cloud-based learning management system, ProProfs is packed with features that facilitate users to continue with their employee training courses wherever their employees are located.
Your employees can access the platform from any device, as long as they have an internet connection.
You can develop and design your own course material, add all media types, utilize the premade courses in ProProfs library, and create tests, quizzes, surveys, and more.
To make learning more holistic, you can create learning paths that suit each individual employee’s learning style, or you can simply create topic-specific bundles for better course overview.
ProProfs LMS features powerful analytics tools that give you insight into your employees’ performance, their engagement levels, course completion stats, scores, and more.
It’s one of the most comprehensive LMS solutions for employee training, and a free trial is available for those interested in it.
Basecamp
If your team is to work from home, you need a reliable collaboration tool that helps you stay in touch and organize projects. Basecamp is exactly designed for that purpose.
It’s a simple sandbox style software that allows you to create assignment schedules, upload and assign files and tasks, chat with both clients and employees, track task progress, and more.
It’s not a full-fledged project management software, but it’s an excellent choice for a company of any size. It has a user-friendly interface that is easy to get accustomed to, and it will help you and your team stay on top of all your work.
Basecamp’s best selling point is its price. Unlike most similar pieces of software, Basecamp doesn’t charge you per user. It offers a fixed, affordable price that can suit any company’s budget.
You can join a 30-day free trial to see everything that this tool has to offer and check whether it’s the right fit for you and your team.
Troop Messenger
Troop Messenger is a communication platform designed to help you stay in touch with your entire team and boost efficiency and productivity.
It helps you centralize all your communications through one channel. You can keep tabs on your employees, clients, and business partners, all from one place.
Of course, your vendors, suppliers, and clients will have restricted access.
Besides offering instant messaging options for one-on-one communication and group chats, Troop Messenger supports HD video and audio calls, screen sharing, and more, making it suitable for video conferencing.
You can upload and share almost all file types, track the location of your team members, take advantage of the dashboard, send a single message to multiple chats, and more.
One of its more interesting features includes Burnout. Burnout allows you to set a timer and chat in private with a team member. Once your time is up, the entire conversation is automatically deleted to ensure privacy.
Troop Messenger offers a 7-day free trial, so if you’re interested in it, go check it out.
Facebook Messenger
Facebook Messenger isn’t exactly what you think about when trying to come up with ways to boost productivity during the coronavirus lockdown. But you should.
Over 1.3 billion people worldwide use Messenger, and the chances are high that a vast majority of your employees use it as well. This means that there’ll be no learning curve if you start relying on it for business purposes.
The app is packed with numerous useful features for enhanced collaboration. You can join private chats, group chats, have group HD video calls, share audio messages, upload all file types, and even use it to send money securely.
It’s one of the best collaboration tools that are absolutely free.
Since most of your employees already use Messenger every day, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t rely on it to stay in touch with them during this pandemic.
Slack
If you need a little more functionality from your communication app, you can give Slack a try. It’s a popular choice for thousands of businesses already, and its user base keeps growing.
Slack is typically used as an internal communications platform. It gives you a streamlined overview of all your communication channels so that you can keep your conversations organized and categorized by topic.
You have access to all the basic functionalities of a communication app – messaging, video and audio calls, file-sharing, and the like.
But you can also use Slack for making company-wide announcements, announcements only for specific teams and departments, and more.
This tool is on the more expensive side, but the features that come with it including superior security and privacy are well worth it.
DeskTime
You can rely on the time-tracking app DeskTime to truly boost the productivity and focus of your employees and make sure they’re not slacking off while working from home.
It starts up as soon as an employee turns on their computer and tracks which URLs they visit during office hours, which document titles they’re working on, and which apps and programs they’re using.
It takes occasional screenshots, and it even boasts an offline time-tracking feature that allows your employees to specify the reasons they’re away from their computers.
There’s a privacy feature known as Private Time Option that prevents DeskTime from monitoring your employee’s activity if they’re taking care of personal matters.
You can use DeskTime for cost calculation, shift scheduling, creating an absence calendar, and so much more.
Zoom
Zoom’s popularity has skyrocketed since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, and for a good reason. It’s a comprehensive video conferencing tool that can help you collaborate with your remote teams seamlessly.
You can easily hold online meetings using HD video and audio, make them a little more interesting and engaging with a custom image or video background.
The generous free plan allows you to hold an unlimited number of meetings with up to 100 participants, but the drawback is that the meetings can only be up to 40 minutes long.
It’s the paid plans that unlock the full functionality of Zoom. Meetings can last as long as necessary and support 1,000 video participants and 10,000 viewers.
You’ll get access to cross-platform messaging, enterprise phone systems, interactive whiteboards, and more.
Final Thoughts
You have a wide variety of tools at your disposal that can allow you to keep your business operational during the coronavirus pandemic:
- ProProfs LMS
- Basecamp
- Troop Messenger
- Facebook Messenger
- Slack
- Desktime
- Zoom
These are the best of the best, offering you the most functionality at the most affordable prices. Once you start using them, you’ll see exactly why they’re the most popular choice for thousands of companies worldwide.
Author Bio
Angela White is an ed-tech enthusiast with a passion for writing for the consumer market in the areas of product research and marketing using quizzes and surveys. Having a knack for writing and an editorial mindset, she is an expert researcher at a brand that’s known for creating delightfully smart tools such as ProProfs Quiz Maker.
