To quote Hemingway: change happens gradually, then suddenly. We see this in the world around us. Think back to 2019. There’s no denying how much the pandemic reshaped our professional and personal lives, with technology driving this change at massive scale. Yet these changes, despite their ubiquity, are really the culmination of trends like cloud and automation that were well underway.

The rise of remote work has brought forward relatively new software products called time trackers. As more and more companies were going remote, they needed a way to monitor their employees’ work to ensure proper workflow. That’s when they started to use time trackers. Despite the general resistance towards time trackers, time and proper use proved them important. Both companies and employees realized how beneficial time trackers can be both for the company and for personal use.

Like many other companies, Ably began working remotely because of the Covid pandemic. In time, we discovered that a remote-first approach is well suited and a key driver to our success. Remote-first makes the most sense to us, considering our mission and the goals we want to achieve. It has many perks, such as being able to hire diverse talent from all over the globe, as well as reaching more customers with our technology and product offering.

One of the COVID-related changes that seems unlikely to be reversed is the increase in remote work. Particularly in tech, many companies have done away with office requirements entirely. For startups, this will have a profound effect on the ways they will grow, hire, and build culture. For individuals, it will mean figuring out a new routine and approach to daily life.

In 2020, Growmotely released a study and found out that 74% of business professionals expect remote work to become standard. The same study found that 97% of employees don’t want to return to the office full-time. Another striking statistic is that 61% of employees prefer being fully remote. With these kinds of statistics, it is only reasonable to expect that remote work will continue to become a new normal for many corporations, even those that are less modern and more traditional.

One day suddenly the whole world locked down to prevent the pandemic from being spread uncontrollably. When machines and factories were all stopped – your social media, mobile applications, and all the digital world was still operating at the same pace as before. Even if you did not notice, millions of developers and testers worked from their homes to keep you online and help you share your thoughts, purchase essential supplies and view live news.

COVID-19 has changed our lives in so many ways. There is not a single aspect of our life that is untouched by it. The way organizations operate their work has also changed drastically. Before 2020 no one would have guessed that work from home will become such an internationally accepted phenomenon. However, working from home has been a new experience for most of us, and there are times that we find ourselves struggling too.

If you’re managing a remote team, then you’re well aware of the challenges that exist on the organization and productivity fronts. At times, simply trying to get your team on the same page can be a monumental feat.