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Summary: The content discusses the continued use of Work from Home strategies in various industries even a year into the pandemic. It provides tips for utilizing Google Workspace applications to enhance remote work, including scheduling virtual meetings, real-time collaboration, staying connected, and accessing training resources.

Despite a full year passing since the pandemic initially disrupted our lives, numerous industries, including IT, digital, and various others, still adhere to the Work from Home approach in order to sustain their operations. They are effectively leveraging technologies such as Skype, remote connections, VPN connections, Google Meet, Google Teams, Zoom, and more.

As we are aware, the return to normalcy may require some time, and several companies, such as HCL and TCS, have already declared their intention to extend the Work from Home arrangement for their employees. We present you with a set of straightforward guidelines to make the most of Google Workspace tools and technologies while working from home.

What is Google Workspace?

Formerly recognized as G Suite, Google Workspace comprises a collection of various tools and applications designed to enhance collaboration, communication, and remote work across diverse industries. Within this suite, you’ll find a range of individual tools, including Gmail, Drive, Calendar, Meet, Chat, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, Sites, Currents, Keep, Apps Script, and Cloud Search, each serving distinct purposes to meet your business needs.

The suite can be used free for 14-days with the Trial offer available on its official website. If you are willing to purchase the plan for your organization, move to the pricing tab on the same page. The Enterprise plan is the most suitable option for organizations with over 300 employees.

Now, let’s delve into some guidelines for configuring Google Workspace for remote work.

How to Work from Home using Google Workspace?
Set up Google Workspace Account

Check out the pricing and plans from the pricing site of the Google Workspace and select the edition best suited to your organization. All plans offer a comprehensive toolkit. Your choice of plan should depend on various factors, such as extended support, individual user storage capacity, the number of participants allowed in video meetings, and security management levels. Once you’ve purchased a plan that suits your organization’s user count, you can proceed to configure it for your employees to access its advanced tools and services.

Schedule and Host Virtual Meetings

With the Google Meet application, you have the capability to plan and host virtual gatherings accommodating up to 250 attendees, regardless of their geographical location. This, however, requires a stable internet connection and a Google Workspace subscription. The host can effortlessly arrange a meeting and distribute the access link via email within a calendar event, including the meeting’s full agenda. This can be shared with colleagues, clients, partners, and managers, as needed. These meetings can be either routine or event-specific, tailored to the business’s needs. Participants can easily join by simply clicking the link embedded in the email’s calendar event. Google Meet prioritizes security by encrypting meetings and integrating built-in protective measures. Furthermore, it offers additional features like noise reduction, low-light mode, live captions, and more, enhancing the overall productivity of your meetings.

Work in Real-Time

When working remotely from the comfort of your home, you have the advantage of harnessing the power of Google Docs. This versatile tool allows multiple team members to collaboratively create and edit content in real-time, ensuring that your work is automatically saved. You can seamlessly edit text, add comments, and engage in discussions through built-in chat features, promoting transparency in your collaborative efforts. Furthermore, Google Docs can be accessed offline when using the Chrome web browser, and it’s also fully compatible with smartphones, enabling you to create, edit, and share content with customizable permissions. Plus, its unlimited revision history ensures that you can easily trace and review document edits at any time.

In the same vein, for crafting intelligent and imaginative PowerPoint presentations, you can make effective use of the Google Slides software. Conversely, when it comes to managing work-related documents or statistical information, the Google Sheets application offers extensive support for over 400 Excel functions, and it offers the flexibility to create customized functions through the use of App Script. Additionally, it boasts top-notch security measures and harnesses the capabilities of Google AI.

Stay Connected all the Time

There are multiple ways to establish connections with your team. You can achieve this by forming a Google Groups email list, crafting a chat room using Google Chats, and including the names and email addresses of the individuals or groups you wish to engage with. Furthermore, you have the option to create a Shared Drive with tailored permissions for employees based on their respective departments. To streamline your work schedule, utilize Google Calendar to set your working hours, conduct regular video conferences for status updates, utilize spreadsheets for setting goals, and employ the Out of Office auto-responder in Gmail to communicate your unavailability.

Take note of the optimal methods for maintaining connectivity with fellow members of your organization through Google Workspace.

  • Monitor your internet connection consistently. Opt for either unlimited WiFi or a broadband connection to ensure uninterrupted connectivity.
  • Ensure you have appropriate headphones, microphones, and a camera to ensure clear video conferencing. Additionally, keep your system up to date with the latest software versions.
  • Incorporate various time zones into your Calendar and include a World Clock feature to accommodate your global collaborators.
  • Organize routine Q&A sessions in addition to video conferences to boost employee engagement.
  • You can provide real-time feedback through comments or delegate a new task by indicating the employee’s email address.
Take Training from Google

You can go through Google tips based on a particular industry or job role for doing tasks remotely. To undergo complete training and education related to working remotely with Google Workspace, go to the Google Workspace Learning Center and Grow with Google links.

On occasion, the need for G Suite data records or backups may arise, typically prompted by migration or other business compliance obligations. You can consider the smart and reliable Kernel G Suite Backup tool to backup your G Suite data as a whole or selectively.

Conclusion

Google Workspace offers a comprehensive productivity and collaboration ecosystem, featuring a wide array of applications designed to support remote work for organizations, businesses, and enterprises. It delivers intelligent, cloud-based tools tailored to meet various work-from-home requirements within an organization.