How to best move in the era of telecommuting and smart working
Smart working and teleworking are two extensions of what is called remote working and which, in recent years, has divided and caused discussion among both companies and workers. Made necessary by the pandemic emergency, agile working is different from teleworking and today we will see why.
In this article we will focus the spotlight on the traits that these two concepts have in common and the nuances that differentiate them. Too often, in fact, teleworking and smart working are used with the same meaning, but their regulation is clear.
The difference between teleworking and smart working
The possibility of working from places other than one's workplace is an idea that many already anticipated with the advent of the first computers.
At the time, however, making the application of " remote working" that we know today effective was only a mirage. Thanks to the advent of fast internet lines, being connected to the web is no longer a problem, hence the opportunity for many companies to open the doors to remote working.
Amazon, Google, Microsoft are just some of the big brands that have been exploiting smart working for some time.
The reason why many mistakenly attribute the same meaning of teleworking to what should instead be called agile work, or vice versa, is due to the means with which an employed worker faces his day.
Both cases involve the use of IT technologies and tools such as: computers , tablets, notebooks , fast connections, and the like, but they differ from each other in two fundamental ways.
Let's start from smart working , a phenomenon that is increasingly gaining ground in the Italian panorama as well. If an employee is not tied to carrying out his/her work at the company and can count on a certain amount of time flexibility, then we can talk about smart working.
Teleworking, however, is different and requires an employee to carry out his duties from a fixed location outside the company context, such as his own home , in a pre-established time slot .
However, it is not uncommon to encounter mixed solutions, agreements between employer and employee that establish some activities at the company headquarters and the rest remotely.
Another important point on which it is worth focusing concerns the regulation: Teleworking is regulated by law n.81 of 2017 , while smart working mainly by an interconfederal agreement of 09 June 2004 .
The tools most used by smart working professionals
It seems trivial and yet very little is needed to optimize your working day. Having some of the tools you'll see shortly on your side can make a difference. Save time and energy by integrating these programs into your operations.
Worry-free video conferences
Organizing meetings and webinars using Zoom will no longer be a problem. This program, available in both free and paid formats, was one of the main protagonists of remote communications during the lockdown months. The ability to create rooms, record conferences and manage them quickly and easily makes it an excellent ally.
In the free version of Zoom a meeting can host up to 100 users , however if the number of participants is greater than three the maximum meeting time, from unlimited, will be reduced to 40 minutes.
Other famous software also belonging to this category are: Microsoft Teams, Google Meet and Skype.
Project management and task assignment
If you work in a group or want to keep track of your projects Trello is the perfect tool.
Start building your work board with a free plan: divide tasks with your work team, insert files and contents that can be useful to you later, monitor the status of all activities, and much more. When managing files and tasks, this platform can significantly streamline your workflow and communication with colleagues working on the same project as you.
Remote access to your files
If you often work on different workstations, you may have had some files spread across different physical devices. When you are not on site, but need to consult documents or access software installed on your desktop, you can use solutions such as TeamViewer or AnyDesk . With these programs , accessing your device remotely will be a breeze.
Monitor your work performance
Do you want to know your performance and understand which resources or activities take up the most time on your PC? This is where an activity tracking program can help you.
This type of software is widely used by freelancers, applications like Toggl can help you generate real invoices for each of your projects starting from your hourly rate.
Share large files
In addition to tools like Google Drive and Dropbox , when an email attachment is too large we can turn to external services like WeTransfer . By uploading the files to be sent we will have two options available: sending an email through the platform itself, or generating an external download link intended to be forwarded by message to those directly interested. However, pay attention to the duration of the service, in the free version the uploaded files will be accessible for only 7 days, then deleted.
Is the future of smart working BYOD?
In both public and private settings, many companies are offering their employees the opportunity to work through their personal devices : tablets , computers , smartphones . This type of approach, which is called byod (Bring your own device) , saves numerous resources for the company but opens up some debates related to the security of the IT devices used by employees.
Both at a software and hardware level, a personal device must be on a par with a company one: therefore capable of maintaining the performance required by the type of work carried out in the office. It therefore becomes important for employees to have computers and resources that are always up to date in order to ensure a good level of security and top performance.
Ultimately, even if opinions on remote working are controversial, it is undeniable that this method of administering work will be increasingly present in the future. It is up to companies and employees to find the best way to reconcile their activities.
