With hundreds of thousands of UK workers either furloughed or working remotely from home; staying in touch & up to date with employees & employers is imperative.

When working with multiple teams/users/clients, associate VA’s & remote groups of people; there is always a vast amount of information to be shared. Email is a great format for individual messages, but what happens when you have a team who all need to be kept abreast of any changes? What happens if this team is remote, global, furloughed or home working? Working in different time zones?

With so many people working remotely & from home; now more than ever we need to remain updated & abreast of changes within the teams & the day to day running of businesses.

Later this week the Prime Minister – Boris Johnson will lay out plans for how the UK will transition out of lockdown to what is being touted as the ‘new normal’

We all know, that until a vaccine is found for COVID19, that working methods will have to change for a considerable amount of time. Whether this means more people already home working continuing to do so, or flexible office hours being a permanent change; one thing is for certain the ‘reboot’ of our economy will entail some dramatic changes to employment settings across all sectors.

Therefore, if you are part of a team which has already fathomed ways of remote working for your teams, how can you stay updated with projects, information & the day to day information streams from the business you work for? Virtually Smart Ltd have sought out two project management tools which can help your business transition & remain updated.

Trello

What is ‘Trello’? Trello is an ‘intuitive board’ ‘list’ based planning tool, which multiple team users can access. It is flexible & collaborative, allowing team users to access, alter & add information in real time. Setting up a new user only takes a few minutes & once the boards/lists are created, every user then has access to up to date information.

Each board/list has the option to add what is called a ‘card’. Each card is an individual piece of information. Dependant on your needs, these could be meeting notes, updates on projects & or tasks aimed at the relevant users.

The flexibility of ‘Trello’ allows you to create your own flow format. For example, a basic flow format could simply be a ‘To do’ list an ‘In progress’ list & a ‘Completed’ list. The team can then denote how many lists are available, their titles & how they are going to be processed.

The beauty of ‘Trello’ is that you can simply move the cards along through the list, so when other team members log in, they can see in real time when something has been actioned. Ultimately, you can archive information, which means there is still a full audit trail of tasks which have been actioned. “Dragging a card across lists in Trello feels as easy as moving sticky notes on a wall” (1)

Power up options in ‘Trello’ also allow users to add in calendars & other apps to boost the benefits of the ‘Trello’ platform. One such app is the calendar option.

“Whether you are planning a conference, managing an editorial calendar, or organizing a family vacation, the Calendar Power-Up let’s you display cards with due dates in a weekly or monthly calendar view. Easily prioritize cards by dragging and dropping them on the calendar to automatically update their due dates, and export your Trello calendar to third party apps with an iCalendar link.” (1)

Quickly switch between week and month modes for a more specific or a broader view of cards
Drag and drop cards between calendar days to quickly change their due date
Click to expand calendar days for a roomier display of cards (1)

Slack

‘Slack’ is a collaborative hub, whereby information can be updated & linked to multiple platforms, so information is free flowing & everyone in the ‘channel’ is updated whenever there are any changes made.

‘Slack’ functions in ‘channels’ & these can be organised by topic, project, team, or whatever is needed by the collaborative group using the app. As the channels are linked directly to each user, no one is left out & information is constantly being updated. Messaging is also easy on ‘Slack’ as it allows users to send files instantly.

‘Slack’ works alongside the apps & services a team already use every day. Information is constantly updating in the conversation, so everyone in the channel can see it in real time. This means that each current app you already use, once connected to ‘Slack’; can allow users to see when changes have been made. Whether this be in Gmail, Google drive, Github, Dropbox, etc; you have up to date information on changes & essential knowledge about what your channel users are currently working on.

Voice calls can be built into ‘Slack’ making personal connections & communications ever more effective. You can share your screen with a video call, so explaining & exploring information is quicker, more effective & productive.

Therefore, looking at both of these apps, you can see the benefits for how they can support effective collaboration. Both ‘Trello’ & ‘Slack’ if used proactively & productively, can ensure a through flow of information is constant & keeps teams updated in real time.