Customer support reps have to be knowledgeable about the products and/or services their company sells so that they can accurately answer customer questions. They also need to be aware of company policy so that they always interact with customers in brand-approved ways. But teaching new team members these things when they work outside a central office can be difficult. To do so, you need a stellar onboarding plan.

In July, the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) published a policy brief with some tremendous evidence-based information on potential productivity gains from teleworking in the post-COVID-19 era. First, four key themes from the piece — supported by data and evidence — are: We wanted to take a moment to give you an abbreviated synopsis of some of the more interesting, actionable findings.

According to figures, before COVID, only 7% of workers in the U.S. had access to a “flexible workplace” benefit or telework. Now, 64% of US employees are working from home now, according to research conducted by SHRM’s COVID-19 Business Index. This swelling of remote work is spurring many organizations to reevaluate their suite of business applications and tech solutions.

It’s no secret that remote work or telecommuting was gaining popularity in the United States over the past decade. According to one recent study, about 4.3 million people work remotely at least half the time — a number equivalent to about 3.2% of the entire workforce. All told, the number of people who work from home in some capacity has increased by an impressive 140% since 2005 alone — a trend that showed absolutely no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

Question for you: Do you know why there are so many different types of communication tools? I mean, just google the word “communication tools”, and you’ll find list upon list upon list of “best communication tools for teams and businesses” It’s because communication amongst teams is both hard AND critical to the success of every business. You would have thought we’d figured this all out by now.

High productivity. Low turnover. Satisfied workers. Less stress. A larger talent pool. Fewer office expenses. ADA compliance. And better work-life balance. When you list the benefits of remote work, there’s a lot to love – for both businesses and the people they employ – which is a huge reason why more and more companies are starting to embrace a remote workforce.

Think of communication as the oxygen of a remote team. Like a good relationship, it takes work to communicate well, and there are ups and downs. As Carol Dweck from Stanford University, shares in her book Mindset: "It takes work to communicate accurately. It takes work to expose and resolve conflicting hopes and beliefs. It doesn't mean there is no 'they live happily ever after' but it's more like 'they worked happily ever after.'"

Back in the mid-90s, just as Netscape Navigator was giving us our first look at what the visual internet could be, web design came in two flavors. There was the ultra basic stuff. Text on a page, maybe a masthead graphic of some sort. Nothing sophisticated. It often looked like traditional letterhead, or a printed newsletter, but now on the screen. Interactions were few, if any, but perhaps a couple links tied a nascent site together. And there was the other extreme.

As the saying goes, teamwork makes the dreamwork. Building an effective and successful team takes time, and it’s even harder in the case of distributed, remote teams. How can you run effectively a team of persons without, well, meeting in person? With the rise of remote work worldwide, many teams have found themselves juggling projects, deadlines, and goals while spread all over the country, or even all over the world. When the team works like a well-oiled clock, they can achieve big things.