Maggie Evans 
Recent trends, not to mention the COVID-19 pandemic have seen more and more people working from home. While working from the comfort of your own home sounds pretty amazing, it comes with its own challenges and quirks. For example, you may need to use contactless payment options to receive your income. You also need to get used to remote work systems and need to set up your own ergonomic workstation to avoid strain or injury. Unless your employer provides you with an ergonomic workstation at home, you need to be careful when choosing your equipment and tools as these can affect your productivity and health. If you want to make the most out of your desk, invest in tools that can boost your productivity as you’re working. For example, you can check the Leather Compendiums website to buy a leather notebook for note-taking, or invest in folders and binders to keep your desk organized all of the time.
Below you’ll find some important tools that every work-from-home employee needs. Let’s take a look!
A Comfortable Chair
Dining room chairs and ordinary tables are not suitable for remote work. You can’t sit on an uncomfortable chair for 8-plus hours. Look for an adjustable and flexible chair that offers you a high level of support and comfort, specifically lumbar support. Never compromise on basic work equipment.
The last thing you want is to end up with back pain or poor posture from sitting awkwardly all day. For similar reasons, working slumped on the couch is not a good idea. Check out chairs designed specifically for work-from-home employees.
With the number of employees working from home today, you won’t have any problems finding an ergonomic chair that fits your budget and needs. Ergonomic chairs are cost-effective investments because they provide posture support, help with back pain, reduce neck pain, and relieve hip pressure. Because your body is properly supported, ergonomic chairs can also improve blood circulation, allowing your body to function at its best, even when seated.
Video Conferencing Apps
You can interact with your team through messages and emails. However, these apps are not the fastest or most convenient way to communicate. Besides, you can’t conduct conference meetings through messaging apps. It can get quite messy, especially when you are having a conversation with a few co-workers. You should use video conferencing mobile apps for better, faster communication with your teammates. Virtual conferencing apps allow you to have face-to-face conversations with your team. In fact, some video conferencing apps, such as Zoom, allow hundreds of participants on a call.
Using video conferencing apps is essential, especially if you’re working with a large team. These apps encourage communication and collaboration regardless of the location of each team member. Using video conferencing apps regularly will also give you peace of mind knowing that all of the team members are on the same page when working on projects.
Project Management Software
Assigning tasks to your employees, interacting with them, and monitoring their performance remotely can be challenging for managers. Managers and supervisors find it difficult to track the productivity of each employee at the best of times, and this is even more difficult when they are working from home.
Unlike when working in a physical office, managers and supervisors can’t always see what their employees are doing when they work from home. This is one of the biggest challenges large companies face when implementing the work-from-home setup.
That’s where project management software comes in. This automated solution is known for streamlining basic management tasks. Using project management software, you can track employees’ activity, check task completion and send them regular feedback. It also makes it easier for employees to get feedback on their performance, check their latest assignments, and submit the work in a timely manner.
Moreover, project management software can also come in handy when scheduling and managing employees’ time, and sending important documents and files. With project management software, managers and supervisors won’t have any problems planning and accomplishing projects because they’ll know the progress of each of their employees, and when they can submit their output.
Cloud Storage
For remote employees, cloud storage is a must. You can’t go on sending files and important documents to your manager and colleagues manually, as this is less efficient and makes it harder to track the files you send. Additionally, this gets even more challenging when you have to make edits.
Cloud storage saves all your files, multimedia content, and changes in one place. All you need to do is upload the file on the cloud storage app and adjust the file-sharing settings. From there, your team mates as well as your manager will be able to access and edit these documents from the cloud.
Security Tools
Security tools are not optional, especially when you are working from home. Employees save sensitive business details and confidential data on their laptops and mobiles, including important information about the company, job details, personal information, and financial data. When working on an office network, your IT department should take care of the relevant security concerns. However, working from your own device on your own network means you need to look after these.
Considering the increasing rates of cybercrime, it is critical for remote employees to embrace the latest security tools. Some of the important tools you need for data protection are:
- Two-factor authentication
- Online backup apps
- Data encryption
- Password management
- VPN
Never use public Wi-Fi or any insecure network. Hackers can easily access the files and other important data you are sharing with your team over an insecure network.
In-ear Headphones
A nice pair of in-ear headphones will keep you connected to your team. Unless you have special noise-proof office room in your home, chances are you will have a hard time finishing your daily office tasks. Whether you are attending a virtual meeting or interacting with the supervisor, in-ear headphones will greatly improve your communication processes. Also, listening to music will spice up your daily routine and, what’s better than a pair of bass focused headphones. Having good bass quality headphones will satisfy your music listening time when in your workspace or during your free time, you can find the best ones on https://musiccritic.com/equipment/headphones/best-bass-earbuds.
An Adjustable Desk
Working from bed may sound fantastic, but it can cause terrible back and neck pain thanks to the awkward posture. It is also important to separate the space you sleep in from the space you work in, otherwise this can damage your sleep patterns. Fortunately, all you need is a high-quality desk to get your laptop and other office tools organized in a dedicated place. Adjustable desks are portable: you can adjust their height and carry them to another room. Some desks are foldable, meaning you can tidy them away when they are not in use.
Who doesn’t like to have flexible working hours? The tools mentioned above will help to set you up with a productive, safe, and comfortable working environment so you can make the most of working from home.
Takeaway Points
Who doesn’t like to have flexible working hours? The tools mentioned above will help to set you up with a productive, safe, and comfortable working environment so you can make the most of working from home.
