The rise of remote working tools

This pandemic has seriously changed our lives and our habits; among them, definitely even the way we work. In particular, remote work has become a common component of many people’s workweek, and now more than ever remote workers use tools never used before.

According to many recent studies, COVID-19 has just enhanced a fast-growing trend, partly linked to the rise of the freelance worker. In effect, most of young workers are freelancers, and employers are limited in how and when they can require their employees to be on-site. Anyway, as we said, the pandemic has forced companies, irrespective of their nature, to rethink about the ways of working and the importance of remote working, although if it was born more as a sense of need.

Obviously, not everyone was ready to this big change, and a lot of companies have had to face some urgent issues about security, data, collaboration, and many others, without much preparation and resources, leaving them doubtful and worried about these new workflows. The main concerns were related to employees’ productivity, in the wrong belief that people really work only if on-site.

On the contrary, several studies show that productivity actually rose during 2020 thanks to remote work, and employees may be working more hours than they would have otherwise. Remote workers seem to be more productive, likely to work overtime and happier for a better work-life balance.

From another point of view, the growth of remote working has also pushed the spread of essential tools, software and apps used to connect, collaborate and carry out tasks. Now more than ever, on the market there are tools for everything; in short, main categories are:

• remote desktop: programs or operating system features that allows a user to connect to a computer in another location, see that computer’s desktop and interact with it as if it were local;
• real-time communication (the most common): all users can exchange information instantly or with negligible latency or transmission delays. In this context, the term real-time is synonymous with live;
• video chat: online face-to-face, a visual communication performed with other internet users by using a webcam and dedicated software.

Of course, there are countless programs falling within these categories, many of which are free and very simple to use; but, in addition to these, other tools are now spreading into the workplace: we are talking about project management and time management software.

First one is designed to plan and document project tasks and activities, build schedules and timelines, solve project issues, manage risks and threats, assign budgets and control costs, establish collaboration and cooperation between project participants and many more.

Time management systems often include a time clock or web-based application used to track an employee’s work hours. These systems give employers insights into their workforce, allowing them to see, plan and manage employees’ time.

Besides, most recently, remote workers are required to manage several issues related to security vulnerability, such as sensitive data protection, proprietary information and so on. For this reason, now new tools but also new best practices for keeping devices safe are appearing.

So, we know, remote working has made its official entrance into our practices, welcoming in a new era.

Surely, remote workers can be helped by smart and cloud IT products introduced into companies. From this point of view, for its cloud nature, Giobby already allows its users to dispose of data wherever they are and completely in safe; besides, companies don’t need to invest in expensive hardware infrastructures and software solutions, preserving their investment capacity.

Communication is a key pillar of the platform: users can use a dedicated message area, with the possibility of receiving notifications also on the APP. And not only that, even during this pandemic, we have introduced a video conference tool, Jitsi Meet, built to guarantee an excellent video experience. Without any registration, internal and external users to the platform can connect (there’s only one sharable link, which is the same for anyone) and share their video, send data and chat messages, monitor connectivity quality and much more.

In short, in a world keeps moving towards remote working, Giobby is already ready to face this challenge (and not only) for all its users. Even remote communication is easier than before!