The world has been heavily impacted by the novel Coronavirus. What started as a small outbreak in Wuhan, China has rapidly spread around the globe and shows no signs of slowing down. With entire countries in lockdown and the global economy heading for slightly worse recap of the 2008/9 recession, companies have increasingly been looking for avenues to drive sales, growth and increase their potential.

Most companies were hit by this pretty quick. For larger and established companies, it was a case of planning, but due to some amount of disaster management in place, they were able to ensure that they survive the first phase of the lockdown. However, as lockdowns extend in most countries around the world and an increasingly high number of workers stay at home, newer companies are struggling to come to terms with this engagement, and either stay at the receiving end or face closure. 

Based on the number of calls and messages from fellow startups around the world we were in contact with, we found that most people wanted to know about the solutions they could use to ensure effective business communication and better coordination while boosting employee morale. Here is a list of the top solutions that can help you sail through this crisis with flying colours:

1. Safety

Staying safe is the topmost priority for everyone these days. While most governments have come out with official apps to ensure that people who are up and about stay safe, most people are either not aware or do not know how to use it.

Aarogya Setu: This Bluetooth-powered app from the Govt. of India can help individuals check their symptoms and steer clear of hotspots. Here is the link of the app. 

COVA Punjab: COVA Punjab has been developed by the Punjab government and gives real-time information about cases, measures, preventions, and latest updates. Here is the link of iOS app and android app. 

TraceTogether: TraceTogether is a coronavirus infection contact tracing app developed by the Government of Singapore. This app has inspired thousands of apps around the world to follow suit. Here is the link of the app.

2. Fitness and stress management

Staying fit is of the utmost importance while working from home. As hours get longer and workdays never seem to end, it is easy for employees to get lost in the work maze and not find time for themselves, giving way to a sedentary lifestyle and develop potentially life-threatening conditions due to them being a couch potato.

Seven: Seven is an amazing app that helps people get 7-minute workout breaks from work and game time, ensuring fitness an productivity at the same time!

Asana Rebel: Asana Rebel helps users follow a yoga-regimen during their work breaks, helping them lead a healthy lifestyle.

Blogilates: a former popular YouTube channel is now an app! With monthly calendars and challenges, this app is an amazing alternative to distracting videos.

FitBit: users of devices like FitBit can use FitBit’s own curated list of exercises and meditation regimens for the lockdown that make the most sense.

Read here: How Can You Keep Yourself Healthy And Fit During A Quarantine?

3. Employee skill enhancement

With thousands of courses now free online, it is the best time to ensure that your employees stay on top of the work-from-home game. 

Coursera: Coursera has made many courses free of charge, ensuring that your employees can acquire a new skill for free! To know how you can build platform like Coursera click here. 

ByJu’s: another important app that can help employees who are parents ensure that their children get useful screen time instead fo watching cartoons.

Quikk: developed by Pearson, this app helps individuals up their math game. Suitable for adults and children alike, this app is a godsend for those who consider math to be their arch nemesis.

4. Intra-business and team communication

Business communication within a company is important, and is an essential part of any company’s solution arsenal to ensure that employees within the company can interact with each other in the absence of a common workplace. The top solutions in this regard include:

• Facebook Workplace

Facebook Workplace is an amazing tool that can help your business succeed, no matter what the odds. This brilliant tool enables business social networking at work and is focused around helping teams succeed while keeping employees engaged at the same time. With important tools like business instant messaging, employee tagging and real-time notifications, Facebook Workplace really shines through the competition and helps you continue work as usual, without drowning employees in phone calls and emails.

• Hangouts

Hangouts is an outstanding, lightweight instant messaging tool developed by Google Inc. that helps teams interact with each other better. Tightly coupled with Gmail and other products from Google, this an amazing tool that can help your employees stay connected no matter what device they use.

Read here: Working From Home The Coronavirus Way – A Rough Guide To Productivity And Business Continuity

Popular Alternatives

• Microsoft Teams: For those on the Microsoft bandwagon, Microsoft Teams is an equally effective set of apps that can help your business maintain optimal productivity levels throughout the outbreak by leveraging the power of the immensely powerful and popular Office 365 suite.
• Slack: Slack is a highly popular collaboration app used by enterprises around the world. With complete solutions for video and audio calls, creating and authoring documents and more.

5. Employee productivity management

Managing employee productivity is an important way to ensure that you stay on top of the game and do not let them slack during this time of crisis. Here is our top pick:

Desktracker: Desktracker is a very important tool for any company that has just jumped the work-from-home bandwagon. Ensuring that employees are productive enough by adhering to timelines, checking employee availability and reducing idle time, this app can help you stay on top of your employee management game.

Popular Alternatives:

HubStaff: Preferred by dozens of companies globally, Hubstaff offers features very similar to Desktracker.

TimeCamp: TimeCamp is another popular SaaS based tool that can help companies around the world ensure that their employees perform better from home.

Entertainment

Now life should not be about work at all times, right? All work and no play makes dull employees. A good way to ensure that there is enough time to relax and unwind helps you show up as an understanding and employee-friendly employer.

Houseparty: Houseparty is an amazing way to boost employee engagement. These multiplayer games can help employee play engaging games with each other. You can set these up as inter-team tournaments to ensure that your employees stay motivated.

Bunch: Bunch helps you video chat while playing games, ensuring that games just do not become a draf.

Rave: Movies shouldn’t just be about watching them, right? Rave is a good alternative for movie buffs to ensure that they can chit-chat and critique while watching movies and videos. 

Airtime: Just like Rave, Airtime helps employees to create chat rooms and discuss videos and music that they can watch and listen to together.

Although it is possible to create a never-ending list of apps and software that can help you during this pandemic, we decided to focus on the top priorities of employers globally and we hope that this kit of apps will help your employees be motivated and productive while they continue to work from home during the lockdown. Volumetree takes employee productivity very seriously and will go to great lengths to ensure that their employees stay motivated, happy and productive while working from home.