Teams | Collaboration | Customer Service | Project Management

Working remotely has become the new normal because of the COVID-19 pandemic. With so many employees working from home, team managers need a remote work plan or policy to ensure that their employees stay productive. But how do you create an effective remote work plan? In this article, we’ll tell you how to build a remote work plan and what to include in it. We’ll also share a free downloadable remote work plan template to help you get started.

Although remote working has been on the rise in recent years, it experienced unprecedented growth due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The sudden shift had people worldwide straining themselves to adapt to this new work environment. Businesses faced multiple challenges to keep up with the change and move online to continue functioning. Thankfully, with the right remote work software, you can adapt to this shift with ease.

Over the past year, teams around the world sought new ways to collaborate, engage, and connect. Most of us have been trying to figure out how to translate the mainstays of our company’s in-person collaboration and planning — kickoffs, offsites, training, brainstorming — into virtual events. Underlying this process is the assumption that a virtual experience is less valuable, that it’s missing something that only in-person events can offer. But maybe that’s not true.

How would you feel if your boss asked you to come back to the office next week? Let’s say, for example, that you’ve been working remotely since the start of the pandemic. You had never considered remote work as a viable option before, but now that you’ve been working from home for over a year, you love it. Your long and stressful commute is gone, you’ve been taking better care of yourself, and you have more time to spend with your family and friends.

With remote working as the present and the future, the workplace will never be the same again. And despite the challenges that come with managing a virtual team, the positive change it’s had with many teams and companies cannot be denied. One thing that seems to be both a challenge and an opportunity? Building trust in your virtual team. On the one hand, remote work can be an inherent sign of trust between employer and employee.

Social distancing measures taken by responsible employers have greatly increased the number of employees working remotely. Even in the midst of this crisis, some companies and their employees can enjoy the objective benefits of not having to waste time and money on long commutes. At the same time, plenty of businesses really didn't have the structure in place to support a vast, full-time work-at-home workforce with the security or business processes they needed.

With several companies allowing employees to work remotely since the COVID-19 pandemic, it can be hard to see if employees log in during work hours. Thankfully, with the right absence tracking software, you won’t have to worry about this. These tools help you track employee attendance, analyze absenteeism patterns, and even improve workforce management. In this article, we’ll explain what absence tracking software is and its benefits for your business.