Tag Archive for: Work from home

Improving Remote Team Collaboration

Further Improving Remote Team Collaboration

2020 has officially closed the door and we’re all-aboard moving forward. However, while hope is shining bright, a lot of the change from 2020 is likely here to stay. For example, the remote team, and the entire work from home environment will probably be the standard for the foreseeable future. As such, it’s important that managers, companies, and work-teams have the tools they need to successfully work remotely. On top of that, employees still need to feel connected, and projects need to be accomplished.

Pre-existing Options

In terms of remote team collaboration tools there are plenty to choose from. This is because working from home and the digital era were already well on their way. Although the events of 2020 certainly advanced those societal shifts. There are several options, though, already on the market for remote work teams.

These options range from popular communication applications like Slack to Zoom. Zoom is the app that historically rocked the charts last year. Slack is an internal communications application and instant messenger. Companies can use Slack to set up internal work-channels, establish direct lines of communication between staff members or groups of staff members, and offers other features as well.

Zoom, as we all know too well, is the popular video conferencing application that has been used by businesses and citizens alike. Zoom made it easy and accessible for anyone to video-chat with anyone. This allowed for businesses to keep lines of communication open all across the globe.

Develop A Custom Enterprise App

An alternate solution to employee communication and connection is to develop your own custom app. Developing a custom enterprise application benefits the remote team as well as your business as a whole. Having a custom enterprise app offers more customization to the suit of features included. This is good for you business and the remote teams they work with.

A custom enterprise application could combine the instant-chat features of Slack with the video-conferencing ability of Zoom to create an all-in-one solution. A solution specific to your business.

Team Building Exercises For the Remote Team

Another aspect of managing remote teams is to continue conducting team-building exercises. While the team may not be able to gather in conference room F anymore, there is still a virtual landscape that allows for employees to meet up and connect. For instance, one strong team building exercise can be a remote-dungeons-and-dragons campaign. The remote team can link up via applications such as Roll20 and have fun solving puzzles, overcoming obstacles, and most of all – blowing off steam and cracking jokes.

However, there’s a whole library of team building exercises you can choose from that fit your people.

Consistently Scheduled Collaboration

This is a balance. The goal here is to increase regularly scheduled collaboration while reducing everyday meetings. Giving employees a time and platform through which they can flush out ideas and collaborate on projects is good way to replace draining status meetings and other types of regular daily meetings. Instead, give your staff the chance to collaborate freely.

Wrapping Up

Empowering your remote team to succeed is a combination of equipping them with the software and technology required, as well as maintaining morale and promoting team-bonding.

For more tips on remote team management, or to explore a custom enterprise application, visit NS804 today.

Why More App Companies Will Transition to Work From Home

The Work From Home Wave is Far From Over

Working from home is swiftly becoming the new normal. Since COVID-19, employees and companies alike are adjusting to these new circumstances. One major adjustment, has been the overall shift to a work from home environment. Working from home helps prevent the spread of the pandemic, and many professionals can accomplish most if not all of their normal duties.

In the wake of COVID-19, it became apparent that some companies were experience an increase in individual performance and efficiency. Upon this realization, the choice to permit working from home was easy. In addition to the new circumstances, many employees had already begun on this path.

Since the technology was already available, the transition to working from home has been relatively smooth. There are many benefits to working from home. Plus, with the increase in individual performance, mobile app companies are happy to move forward.

Benefits to Working From Home

The benefits mobile app developers see implementing work from home policies are wide and varied. While some of the benefits are financial, others are operational.

One of the financial benefits to working from home is a reduced overhead. With employees working from home, there’s no need for an office space. Once the office space is removed from the budget, additional capital will become free. Then, that additional capital is available for use elsewhere.

Taking a look at the bigger picture, industry leaders are making large strides regarding working from home. Industry giants like Microsoft and Zillow are making working from a priority. Since industry leaders are taking such large bounds in this direction, it’s only logical the pack will follow.

Another reason companies, and mobile app developers, are pursuing work from home environments, is for the environment. Working from home is proving to have a smaller footprint ecologically than not.

Diving even deeper into the work from home wave, individuals receive a wide spectrum of benefits from the option as well.

The Employee Benefits to Working From Home

Without a commute involved, employees immediately see time back into their day. Additionally, this leads to improved moods. The lack of a commute means less stress.

Speaking of less stress, employees that are able to work from home have a better chance of achieving a healthy work-life balance. Happier, less stressed employees that are more connected to their families lead to powerful business results. Some of these results include a reduction in error rate, better customer service, and higher rates of customer satisfaction.

Not only that, but employees are reporting higher rates of job satisfaction as well. All-in-all, the work from home environment is proving very beneficial. One surprising result from the work from home wave is actually an increase in diversity.

Now is the opportune time to start working on your mobile app development project. With the help of NS804 experts, and mobile apps seeing higher user-rates than ever before, your mobile app could be ready to launch in no time. Visit NS804 and get in touch today to start working on your future.

Enabling Work From Home Incentives

Building and Offering Work From Home Incentives

Employee engagement and company culture are two of the most important metrics for companies to emphasize in 2020. There is no shortage of benefits from prioritizing these initiatives. In fact, bringing these aspects of a company to their forefront play a big role in attracting top talent. Additionally, implementing channels for employee recognition and incentive-payouts is extremely important to keeping employees both motivated and engaged. While performance-based-incentives are nothing new, there are new ways to implement effective means of employee recognition and employee incentives. Work from home incentives, in turn, drive employee engagement, employee performance, and overall company culture.

In the age of COVID-19 and beyond, there is going to be a big push for remote operations and work-from-home accommodations. Especially in the tech and mobile app markets, where in-person work was already beginning to phase out. With working-from-home gaining more traction as a mainstream business practice, there are a whole slew of new challenges for companies to address. One of these challenges is how management and team-leadership can continue to push employees to perform at the top of their ability, even when working from home. However, with the lack of in-person work that’s occurring it can be difficult to monitor, and accurately accolate the appropriate employee recognition and employee incentives that are so vital to the fibers of a company’s existence. This is where mobile apps can come into play. Offering business owners, management professionals, and team leaders the tools they need to effectively and accurately praise their employees for performing well, pay out incentives, and motivate team members to strive for greater levels of success, mobile apps have bridged the incentive differential between working from home, and working in the office.

Mobile App Incentive Tools

When enabling work from home incentives to offer remote employees, it’s important to look into the options available, and choose the app that will be best serve your specific company and environment.

iAppreciateiAppreciate is a great mobile app for delivering accurate and timely praise, while also rewarding employees based on their performance. Not only that, but iAppreciate also enables peer-to-peer recognition, and employees can share their praise on social media outlets. This is great to encourage collaboration, friendly competition, and incentivize employees with tangible rewards.

AchieversAchievers works on a point-accrual system that should be familiar to anyone who’s created an incentive program before. These points can be applied toward merchandise, gift-cards, and even travel. Not only that – but the socially conscious employee can instead use their Achievers points to contribute to charity, which is a nice feature not every incentive-based mobile app will offer.

TapMyBackTapMyBack has a few features that are unique and appealing. One of which is that it seamlessly integrates with Slack. Therefore, companies already using Slack as one of their main communication channels for remote operations – can increase their employee engagement and company culture ratings through an add-on to the software they’re already using. Plus Managers receive real-time reports on employee performance, and can define the tasks/achievements that result in rewards.

Performance-based employee incentives are a proven way to increase employee engagement, work ethic, and company culture. These are powerful metrics that can bring your company to the next level. Speaking of the next level, NS804 is dedicated to making mobile app design services more accessible than ever before; get in touch with a design expert today and see your mobile app idea bloom into fruition!

The Future of Enterprise Mobile App Development

Enterprise Mobile App Development and The Future

Covid-19 and the global pandemic have brutally hit the majority of the economy. Therefore, vastly changing the business landscape. Even in a relatively resilient industry like the mobile app market. Likewise, the future of enterprise mobile app development is rapidly shifting.

Enterprise mobile app development was one a fully internal process. However, the pandemic created a massive movement to work from home, and establish remote working environments. This movement has put enterprise mobile app developers in a unique position. More than ever before, development teams have to collaborate remotely.

While remote working environments pose some challenges, mobile app developers can actually benefit from the work-from-home wave. Although operational efficiency has slid somewhat, many companies are reporting increases in individual efficiency. These increases are mainly due to saving time, better work-life balances, and happier employees.

Development Moving Forward

Enterprise mobile app development teams have to be creative moving forward. Surviving in the pandemic-ruled economy means making swift decisions that enable continued operations. While companies and development teams may struggle to meet in person, there are alternative solutions available.

Internal development teams and IT teams alike will need to find additional pathways to leverage outsourced labor. Not only that, but creating internal communication avenues that support remote-collaboration. This means setting up video-conferencing capabilities, internal chat-channels, and various other communication tools.

Mobile app developers, and professionals across all industries are relying on internal communication solutions more than ever before. The new normal that features a work-from-home environment comes with a slew of challenges though.

Pros and Cons of Remote Working In Regards to Enterprise Mobile Apps

There are pros and cons to everything. An inescapable truth, emphasized by the colloquial saying, “the grass is always greener on the other side.” In other words, while there are challenges to developing enterprise mobile apps remotely, understanding how to leverage the new standards can turn these challenges into benefits.

  1. Communication – This is possibly the largest hurdle. Without a brick-and-mortar office, it can be hard to facilitate team-communications, and intuitive collaboration. However, with the right bundle of technology and software, teams can communicate and collaborate on projects across the globe, no matter the scale.Specific communication issues could relate to certain team members being stationed in various time zones, reducing efficiency, or access to immediate contact. This can frustrate employees who rely on one another, and can also pose scheduling issues.
  2. Integration – Integration of a newly developed enterprise mobile app can actually benefit from a remote environment. The capability to work remotely, also comes with an overall advancement in technological capabilities. A lot of those same avenues built for communication will make the integration phase that much easier.
  3. Reiterations – In the same line of thinking, updates, reiterations, and new versions should all see a boost in accessibility and efficiency. Pair this with the increased efficiency that individuals are producing on remote development teams, and companies can set themselves up to maintain profitability in the most volatile marketplace of modern history.

The future remains unclear in many ways due to the pandemic, yet human resilience is palpable. With a booming mobile-app marketplace, NS804 remains committed to bringing mobile app development services to the everyday appreneur. Visit NS804 today and get in touch with a mobile app development professional ready to make your dream app a reality.

Software Companies and The Work From Home Wave

Why More and More Software Companies Will Offer Work From Home

The global pandemic has forced business owners, entrepreneurs, and full corporations to make massive pivots in the way they conduct business. While social-distancing becomes the norm; so too does the request to work from home. While some industries are struggling with making the transition, software companies have a leg up in this department. Due to the technical and computer-based nature of software development companies; employees are often able to perform the full spectrum of their jobs from remote locations. A massive benefit in the unprecedented times of today.

Work from home accomodations used to be reserved for the highest level employees such as upper management, and those who have “earned their salt” so to speak. However, with the life-threatening reality of COVID-19; companies are making work from home accomodations much more widely available. A responsible decision that prioritizes the health and wellness of their employees, rather than the bureaucracy of working in an office just because that’s the norm.

Software companies and tech companies alike are aware of the long-lasting impact that this pandemic is going to cause. In response, some are offering work from home accommodations far past the expected “reopening” dates.

Industry Leaders Pave the Path Forward

Rich Barton, who founded the Microsoft spinoff company, Expedia and is the co-founder and CEO of Zillow has actually gone as far as extending these accommodations to his employees through the end of 2020.

Rich Barton and Zillow aren’t the only companies offering extended work from home accomodations. They’re joined by the ranks of other tech giants and software development companies like Microsoft who is allowing work from home through the end of October. Slack, the popular instant messaging platform that enables robust internal communication is offering their employees the option to work from their homes through September.

As these industry-leading companies pave the way forward in terms of how the future software development and tech industries will operate, more and more companies will follow suit. Considering most software development can be conducted from anywhere around the world as long as there’s strong internet access is reasoning enough to allow development teams to work from the comfort of their home.

Allowing software development teams and tech professionals the ability to work from home, shows employees dedication to their health and safety above all else. This in turn leads to a higher rate of employee satisfaction, which contributes to a harder working, and more dedicated staff. All in all, the pandemic has taught society a lot about the way the market functions; and the software development industry has remained relatively unscathed through and through. Luckily, the work from home transition for software companies is loads easier than it has been for other industries.

NS804 is dedicated to bringing mobile app development services to the common person with a good idea, visit our website to get started on your mobile app development journey today!