Government regulations intended to curb the growth of the COVID-19 pandemic have forced companies around the world to send workers home and move operations online. However, with stay-at-home mandates being lifted in many localities, we’re not seeing a uniform rush to normalize operations and move workers back to company offices. While concern for worker health may be part of that hesitation, business acumen is also responsible for the decisions leaders are making to keep their employees at home. Large, successful companies, especially, are seizing the moment, leveraging the cultural shifts driven by the pandemic, and making the leap to virtual teams in order to capitalize on the advantages of online operations.Â
Google, Facebook, Amazon, Capital One, and Docusign are all extending work-at-home options for employees for the next several months and considering keeping them in place for good. This sweeping change in business strategy is due in part to lingering concerns of a pandemic resurgence, but also because of the inherent benefits of virtual teams, according to this recent New York Times article. The business benefits of an online workforce are many:
- Vastly reduced real estate costs
- Productivity gains from attending to family and personal needs more efficiently from home
- No time and energy lost to commuting
But these benefits can only be realized if the obvious shortcoming of virtual work teams—the inability to meet in person—can be overcome. The key to mitigating the downside of a distributed workforce, and maximizing the benefits, is shifting to digital work tools that allow effective, focused communication among remote teammates in order to facilitate the accurate completion of team tasks.Â
While highly successful mega-companies like Facebook and Google may seem light years head of the rest of us in their ability to quickly set up systems for a newly virtual workforce, business process management software or workflow management software can assist even the smallest firms in rapidly implementing effective frameworks to support successful virtual teams, without breaking the bank. These straightforward apps facilitate efficient, focused virtual teamwork by marshalling all the information needed to complete a work process in one place. They facilitate online team communication focused specifically on the task at hand, helping you, and your employees, stay on the same page in order to complete collaborative tasks accurately and quickly.Â
For the best, most up-to-date options in workflow documentation, check out these top-performing business process management apps.Â
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- Tallyfy
- TaskTrain (We think this one’s really great! 😉 Try it for free!)
- SweetProcess
- ProcessStreet
- KissFlow
These apps are web-based subscription services, most of which have free or inexpensive monthly subscription options. With these apps, you can not only quickly document your processes at low cost, you can also embed short, easily understandable bits of training within your workflow documentation. As a result, virtual employees can find the information they need independently, digest it quickly, and use it, right when and where they need it—whether they’re at the office, traveling, or at home.Â
Get Professional Help with Moving Your People and Processes Online
In some cases, we recommend working with a professional to document your work processes and train your team to work virtually. It’s a great timesaver to let professionals assist you with the transition to efficient real-time documentation of online workflows with embedded help content – so your employees can start working as an efficient virtual team, with confidence, day one!Â
If you’re looking for a reputable company to help you revolutionize the speed, ease, and effectiveness of virtual teamwork, we recommend TaskTrain. Set up a consultation with them by sending a message to hello@TaskTrain.app. TaskTrain’s staff members are experienced virtual team members who enjoy nothing more than sharing their expertise with you and providing outstanding customer service.
TaskTrain is a business process management app that allows businesses to easily facilitate virtual teamwork by defining and communicating standard operating procedures through simple, multi-level checklist templates. With TaskTrain, virtual teams work effectively and efficiently via detailed, multi-media work instructions/training materials and communication options at each step of every one of their company’s business processes.Â
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