Productivity – Talent500 Blog

5 developer tools to boost productivity

Posted on October 7, 2022November 16, 2022 by vallish

A developer’s workflow must be uninterrupted to ensure the quality of code is not affected, but it’s hardly ever without potential interruptions and context switches. Fortunately, developer tools can help programmers maintain consistent flow states. These productivity tools allow developers to create more productive workflows.

Here we list the best productivity tools for developers picked by expert software engineers at Talent500.

1. Tuple: Productivity tool for remote pair programming

Collaboration apps like Zoom or Slack might be appropriate for team meetings and project discussions, but for remote pair programming, they fail to provide the much-needed workflow sync. Tuple is a dedicated developer tool explicitly designed for pair programming.

It features a pair programming-focused screen sharing UI and the ability to control remote machines on low-latency connections. Tuple is one of the best developer tools to work for remote programmers to collaborate when writing code. It offers a 5k-quality video stream, HD quality audio, and efficient CPU usage. For comparison, an average Tuple call uses fewer CPU resources than Chrome when it sits idle.

2. Codestream: Easy code-level discussion

One important task that boosts productivity is effortless knowledge sharing between developers when working on a project. A developer must work outside his bubble and ensure that others know what their code does or what changes they’ve made. Such communication is essential for streamlining team workflows and producing valuable work.

Codestream is a productivity tool that captures all the discussions around code and makes it effortless to do code reviews. Codestream can work with any IDE and supports every programming language, which is why any developer can use it. One of the distinguishing features of this developer tool is that it allows discussion on a code without ever requiring a pull request. All you have to do is to highlight a code block and add a comment. Codestream strengthens the quality of your code base by allowing live discussion within the production environment.

3. f.lux: For giving your eyes a break

Programming can be unforgiving to your eyes and hamper your productivity if you write code for long stretches without giving your eyes a break. f.lux offers a solution to help developers reduce eye strain when writing code in dim light or at night. The tool intelligently adapts your screen’s display color according to different times of the day to ensure that your eyes are not overly strained.

f.lux works on all operating systems – Windows, Linux, Mac, and iOS devices. To set up f.lux, you need to tell the tool what kind of lighting you are working in and where you live; the rest the tool will handle automatically. It is a fully customizable developer tool that can be adjusted to fit your work routine.

4. Lightrun: Automate logs

Bugs are unavoidable for developers; no matter how well planned and impressively coded software is, it will eventually encounter bugs. The most time-consuming activity of fixing bugs is tracking the logs to replicate the bug. While it is an essential step to fix a problem, manually tracking log files is tedious. When there are no logs, things get more complicated, and reproducing the bug becomes much more difficult without enough information.

Thankfully, Lightrun is here to help developers add logs, metrics, and traces to the code base directly into the IDE or CLI in real-time. It provides the capability to developers to have code-level observability without deploying the code to a live environment. This saves much time that is wasted on testing the code after deployment. Lightrun works on monolith microservices, Kubernetes, Docker Swarms, serverless, ECS, Big Data works, and more.

5. Asana: For team and project management

Asana is one of the most widely used workplace management tools. It is utilized for streamlining communication across companies and teams. Developers are benefited from using Asana as it allows them to break down projects into tasks and set clear goals for teams. It can be integrated with hundreds of other productivity tools such as Google Drive, Outlook, and Slack. Customizing its features allows developers to change Asana per their project requirements.

Asana is one of the best productivity tools to improve communication within development teams. Analyzing and monitoring project issues eliminates the constant need for meetings, email updates, and memos. It offers customizable dashboards; activity feeds, prioritization, email integration, focus mode and individual task lists, custom calendars, notifications, and more.

Conclusion

For developers, focus and maintained workflow is critical. We hope these productivity tools can help you avoid distractions and help you manage time and tasks much more efficiently. Developers can improve code quality, collaboration, and project management. For more productivity hacks, check out this article.

Talent500 is a platform for Indian developers to find career-redefining opportunities with fast-growing startups and Fortune 500 companies. Sign up here to join our pool of elite talent.

6 VS Code extensions to boost productivity as a React developer

Posted on October 7, 2022November 17, 2022 by venkatesh

Every developer wants to write better code quicker. Unfortunately, keeping the code clean and clear is difficult, especially when working with a JavaScript framework like React. Importing, concatenating, and refactoring code requires formatting and reorganizing. It slows down the React developers and affects their productivity. Fortunately, there are ways to work more efficiently by following predefined rules for structuring the project, components, write styles, and test functions.

The VS Code is one of the most widely used IDE or code editors from which React developers can benefit. As some tremendous VS Code extensions are available, it is easier for developers to automate several parts of the coding process that boost their productivity.

We share some of the best VS Code extensions you can use to write cleaner code much quicker.

1. Settings Sync

Before you start creating a more productive environment by installing extensions left and right, you must ensure you can take the VS Code settings to the device you use.

Settings Sync is the VS Code extension you must install to ensure that every customization you make to the VS Code can be synced to GitHub. It can sync everything from settings, and keyboard shortcuts, to VS Code extensions.

With this extension installed, you can access your preferred IDE from any device you want without losing the settings or extensions. It saves much time as you don’t have to manually set up the development environment from scratch on a new device.

2. Prettier and Eslint

The two VS Code extensions that every React developer must use are the Prettier and Eslint. These tools help you write a cleaner and well-formatted code and check it for common mistakes.

Prettier is a formatter that organizes your JavaScript code in an easy-to-read and maintained format. You can download it directly from the VSCode marketplace library here. Eslint is a linter that automatically catches and fixes coding errors like missing ; or }. This linter is available here.

After download and installation, you can create two config files (.prettierrc and .eslintrc.JSON) to define the rules of how your code should look or how to check it for errors. If you are using other plugins for code formatting or linting, you have to define them in the eslint config file to ensure that there are no conflicts. These extensions highlight the errors within the code so that you can easily format or correct the errors they can’t.

3. VS Code React Refactor

Code refactoring is a common task when you are working on a project and want to change an existing function. With VS Code React Refractor, you can easily select the code lines you want to refactor, and this VS Code extension will extract those lines into a new component.

It is one of the best extensions to refactor your React code or create new components based on predefined templates. You can install this extension directly from the VS Code marketplace. Another reason to use this refactor plugin is to accelerate the coding process without spending too much time trying to format or create new components.

4. Bracket Pair Colorizer

It’s pretty evident why this VS Code extension is a popular choice of coders. This VS Code extension gives the opening and closing brackets matching colors, making it much easier to debug the code. You can install the extension from here.

It also makes the code much more readable as it is easier to understand which brackets belong together. You can further extend the functionality of the Bracket Pair Colorizer by configuring custom bracket characters to add a background color to highlight the active scope enclosed within brackets.

5. GitLens

While using Git as a standalone tool in combination with VS Code is an obvious move, with GitLens, you can supercharge the functionality of Git for VS Code and access a lot of untapped information regarding repositories directly from the IDE.

You can easily view who, how, and why lines of code have changed over time. Furthermore, it also allows you to view code authorship using Git blame annotations and CodeLens. This VSCode extension is a must if you work on collaborative code. It offers rich visualizations, powerful comparison commands, and the ability to customize any setting as per your project requirement. Install GitLens from here.

6. ES7+ React/Redux/React-Native snippets

You can install this VSCode extension here. It is a great plugin with React, React Native, and Redux that use ES7+ syntax. This extension can create any element – new components, functions, classes, methods, and more. Furthermore, it makes it easier and faster to write hooks like useEffect and useCallback. ES7+ React/Redux/React-Native snippets are highly customizable and inherently support Prettier.

Conclusion

We hope these VS Code extensions will help you significantly boost your productivity without impinging your code quality. Not just React developers, but JavaScript developers working with other frameworks can also use these extensions.

For more resources, you can refer to our React developer toolkit, which lists several learning and upskilling resources for React developers. You can also join our elite pool of talent here to find the best job opportunities.

4 simple tricks to beat procrastination as a developer

Posted on September 28, 2022 by seoteam

Procrastination is a habit that turns even the best developers into average employees. In simple terminology, procrastination is when you favor a pleasurable task over an unpleasant but necessary one. Studies have shown that over 80% of college students procrastinate, 50% of them do it frequently and consistently. This habit gets carried over into their professional life. Being a developer is tricky as you must keep learning new technologies and practicing coding continuously. If you find yourself procrastinating vocationally and struggling to complete the project tasks on time, this solution might be simpler than you think.

We have compiled a list of simple developer tricks to help you be most productive throughout the day and avoid procrastination easily.

1. Plan your tasks ahead

You start your day by planning what needs to be done. When you are mindful of what tasks could be accomplished within a given time, you are more likely to focus on things at priority. As a developer, you will have a backlog every morning from the previous day or the previous week. If you try to accomplish all the tasks within a single day, you will have wasted your day without accomplishing anything.

This is why you should plan daily what to do in an agile environment. Start with the tasks that can be completed quickly. It will build up your confidence and motivate you to accomplish other jobs on the list. Here is an example of a to-do list:

Complete the cart function code
Review the bug report
Follow up with team leader
Respond to code review

A list like this gives you a rough idea of your daily plan and helps to remove the cognitive load from your head.

2. Use the five-minute rule

Many people use the five-minute rule to deal with procrastination daily. It is a cognitive behavioral therapy technique that involves setting up a five minute time limit on a task you have to do. You work on it for the first five minutes, and if it gets unbearable, you quit or keep going. It might seem like a simple practice to avoid procrastination, but it is known to be effective. Hence, once a developer creates a project and plans through the day, completing tasks without procrastination becomes less overwhelming and more doable.

It is just one of the time management techniques, but there are many more. You can explore one of these time management courses to become more productive in your daily life. The goal is to start with the task at hand without being stressed or uneasy.

3. Change the environment

Different environments have different impacts on your productivity. If your desk is cluttered with items that distract you, then it’s high time you make a change. Developers should focus on the monitor, keyboard, and nothing else when writing code. Among the essential developer tips is optimizing your workplace for productivity.

Developers should create an environment that makes them feel inspired. It can be anything from using your favorite tools for writing code to using the best hardware for optimum performance. For example, some people have problems while working in public places because of constant movement and noise. If you face similar challenges, try to find a quiet spot to focus on your code.

You will likely procrastinate unless you can remove every possible distraction from your work environment, whether physical or digital. For instance, put your iPhone in do not disturb mode, and put it in the drawer. This will encourage you to crush the urge to keep checking your phone constantly.

4. Be kind to yourself

A common mistake most developers make is overcomplicating the to-do list with tasks they are most likely unable to complete. In doing so, they are setting themselves up for disappointment through a vicious cycle of self-doubt, guilt, and disappointment. You must learn to forgive yourself. If you often find that you label yourself as a procrastinator, drop the habit; it’s not going to help. Do not get stuck up on past experiences, and focus on doing 5% more towards achieving your goals every day. Cut yourself some slack and allow some flexibility to complete tasks without procrastinating.

Conclusion

Ultimately, every developer faces procrastination at some point in their career. The only way to avoid procrastination is to take proactive action. We hope the developer tricks shared here will help you strategize, plan and execute the game plan to avoid procrastination at work. Remember that it is hard to create something great while struggling with procrastination. This is why you must get a grip on time management skills.

Talent500 is a platform that helps Fortune500 companies build remote teams. Join our elite talent network to be found by global companies.

5 soft skills every backend developer needs in 2022

Posted on July 20, 2022 by seoteam

For software developers, soft skills are as necessary as technical skills. As communicating with the clients is not usually part of a backend developer’s routine, it is easier for them to not focus on their soft skills. But technical proficiency is not enough when you want to progress in your career. Whether asking for a raise or taking the next step, your soft skills will be valuable assets.

As a backend developer, you are important for the organization to keep things running smoothly and securely. However, such skills are also required to keep customers and other stakeholders happy. Soft skills for backend developers are essential, so you must focus on nurturing them as much as your technical skills.

Here are the five most critical soft skills for backend developers.

Team-oriented mindset

Most backend developers are accustomed to a heads-down delivery focusing only on technical aspects. But if you want to move up in your role and manage or lead a team, you will require soft skills to support the team holistically, not just with your technical know-how.

Backend development is where you must keep learning to have that technical edge and credibility. However, you must not harbor a feeling that you will lose your technological edge just because you are focusing on nurturing interpersonal skills. As a team leader, your success will depend on the team’s success rather than individual capabilities.

Therefore, you must have skills to help your teammates grow. As a team player, you must be available for them when required. Be approachable so that your team members and other managers could easily reach out to you. If you are leading a team of developers, create opportunities for the team to learn and grow in their position.

Embrace empathy

Social connections are important for everyone. It would help if you embraced empathy to channel each member’s strengths and help the team succeed collectively. When you are empathic towards your team members, it brings in more openness, and they can talk to you about their problems. It is critical to establish a continuous line of communication within your team. It would help if you considered the ideas and thoughts other developers have to contribute. Even when you have a strong point of view towards a decision, be an active listener who is willing to think from a different perspective too. Being flexible opens you to new ideas which are important in software development.

Clear communication

Backend developers work on keeping the applications safe and infrastructure empowering so that the web applications run smoothly. That’s a lot of complex technologies at work. You will often have to explain what you are doing or how the solution you deployed works.

Communication skills are necessary for every backend developer to be able to present or express their ideas to other stakeholders. You may have to speak with clients about their projects or help your colleagues understand ongoing projects’ progress. Excellent communication skills enable you to explain what you have built to other people without coming across as condescending. For instance, if you think a particular technology is more suited for a task, you must present your viewpoint to help other members understand better. Working on your communication skills will help you convey your message to other developers, management, and stakeholders effectively.

Flexibility

Things will go wrong, maybe more often than you anticipated, even when you have deployed the most well-engineered solutions. You must know how to adapt to new situations instead of losing your calm.

Adaptability is one of the most essential soft skills for a backend developer. As you are responsible for keeping things running smoothly, you must have the flexibility to solve the rising issues creatively while keeping calm under pressure. Mastering flexibility is vital to troubleshoot problems more efficiently without participating in the blame game.

Listening Skills

You must have impeccable listening skills as a backend developer to grasp a system’s requirements before starting its development. It is a skill that takes precedence over technical qualification. Active listening means attentively listening to the message, deriving the correct meaning from it, and then appropriately responding to it.

Listening well also helps you provide constructive feedback, convey information, and be a good communicator overall.

Conclusion

Backend developers often work in isolation, but there is more to their jobs than just writing code. In addition to technical proficiency, backend developers must have the soft skills necessary to work as a team and to lead other developers if required. The above-listed soft skills for backend developers are essential for their progress.

Talent500 can help backend developers hone their skills and become more valuable candidates. Join us today and be a part of one of the largest team-building platforms.

4 common mistakes made by aspiring programmers

Posted on July 20, 2022 by vallish

Programming has become a high-paying skill in 2022. The onset of rapid digital transformation of businesses is creating a demand for programmers. However, most aspiring programmers commit some common mistakes while trying to learn to code. There is no one fixed strategy or a set path that can make you a proficient programmer, but being aware of the typical developer mistakes can save you a lot of time.

It is not to say that a developer can avoid programming mistakes altogether; however, to accelerate your learning and put you on a path of optimized programming approach, we have picked common developer mistakes that you should be familiar with.

Trying to learn too many programming languages and tools

You may find every other technology lucrative when you start programming. Unfortunately, the most common mistake most beginners commit is trying to learn several programming languages so that they can showcase them all on their resumes. Experienced developers like to see specific technologies and languages you are proficient at. When you get started with programming, all your focus should be on developing in-depth knowledge of any one programming language of your choice.

In your career, you will have to work with several programming languages, but at the beginning, your focus should be on understanding the basics of development and computer science. Programming languages, frameworks, and libraries are just tools. To become a proficient programmer, you must understand the concepts behind writing clean and quality code.

Not mindfully practicing to write clean code

An experienced programmer can easily spot a beginner by looking at their code format. It is because there are some peculiar programming mistakes that beginners make. Some such common developer mistakes include:

Inconsistent indentation in code
Improper use of new lines and white spaces
Not putting code into logical blocks
Writing functions that are too big or writing too much code in a single line
Poor choice of function or variable names such as qwer, hg45, etc.
Either no comments or over-commenting the code

These are just a few common programming mistakes, and there are many more. We understand the thrill of writing a code and seeing it run, but you must practice writing clean code from the beginning. At your job, you will work as a team and the code you will write will be used and maintained by other developers too. This is why it is important that your code not only works but is also clean, readable, and maintainable.

Not planning before coding

It is not uncommon to see beginners starting with the code immediately after receiving a requirement. It is one of the most common developer mistakes that they skip the research and planning stages of a project. Most beginners do not take enough time to understand a project’s problem requirements and limitations. They lack the experience required to consider all the scenarios without giving them much thought. And later on, it becomes a significant problem. Programmers need to think about the scope of a project before they start coding. This is why in the industry, only 20% of the time is spent on writing code; the rest 80% of the time, programmers think, plan, research, and discuss the project with other stakeholders.

To avoid programming mistakes as a beginner, you should follow the following sequence:

Start by understanding the problem requirements and the limitations
Research and experiment with a few data structures to find out which is the best for solving the given problem
Before you write the final code, create a rough draft known as a prototype
Depending on the functioning of the prototype, select the proper data structure
Think about all the scenarios to design test cases
Break more significant problems into smaller, easily solvable pieces

Not taking backup

Not just a common programming mistake, but a blunder a beginner programmer can make is not to take backup of their work. Imagine this – you’ve spent days writing code only to discover that you lost all your work to some system error or disk crash! It is not only devastating but also a waste of time and effort. When working at a job, it is your responsibility to ensure that the code you write has a secure backup.

As a beginner programmer, make it a habit to take backups of your work at regular intervals. For this purpose, learn to use source control software like GitHub and cloud storage services like Dropbox.

Conclusion

Programming is a skill that is learned with patience and practice. Now that you know the common mistakes to avoid, we assume that you are committed to being a proficient programmer. Our advice is not just to know the common developer mistakes we have listed above but to consider them every time you work on a project.

Talent500 is the platform for programmers to find the best opportunities with Fortune500 companies and fast-growing start-ups. Join our elite pool of talent and find career-redefining opportunities!

Design tips to make your interface layout stand out

Posted on April 29, 2022April 29, 2022 by dikshant

Frontend developers can do more than coding a website. They can create a brand value with the correct use of elements and design in the interface layout or render branding efforts pointless with poor designs. It’s a straightforward ‘make or break’ scenario. Modern UI layout is about interaction design. If your UI designs start to look dull, you might need to learn practical ways to match the function with form. We are sharing some design tips that will help you to create UI layouts that stand out.

Add personality to the UI copy

Users find delight in small details; use them to your advantage. Whether it’s an onboarding screen or a loading message, infusing flair and personality can transform the user experience. Some of the biggest brands like MailChimp and Firebox have humor laced into the copy.

Why would you want to re-approach the content in the UI?-With the right words and a bit of personality in your UI design, you can transform everyday workflow into an engaging experience.

With so much information to provide, the best UI approach is to personalize the content for each user. Google News is an ideal example of how personalization can help brands provide users with the content or features they are looking for without asking for it. Google News relies on a user’s browser history to create their newsfeed. The ‘For You’ section is where stories show up as per the user’s interest. Furthermore, users can edit their feeds by approving or disapproving the stories Google News picks for them.

When you add some scope for personalization in the UI, you enhance customer experience and satisfaction while using your app or website. Even with a minimal choice of taxonomy, you can make your UI design stand out.

Use Illustrations for complex messages

We know how to associate visuals with words and ideas from a young age. The human brain can process visual content 60,000 times faster than text. That is why 90 percent of the information transmitted to the brain is visible.

You can make your UI layout more user-friendly using illustrations. They instantly grab the user’s attention. Furthermore, illustrations explain complex aspects of your application to the user.

But there are a few considerations:

Illustrations must be purposeful
They must be used in addition to the content, not as a replacement
The color and style of graphics must match the overall UI design
Illustrations should be focused and not distracting

Error states are an opportunity

Every website or application runs into errors at times. Rather than letting it be a frustrating experience for the users, provide a memorable experience. But how is that possible?

Chrome did it:

It is exciting to see how both the brands have turned a generally negative experience into a positive one with content and design.

If the designers at these companies can do it, so can you. While we don’t expect you to introduce a hopping T-Rex in the design, some form of engagement and personality can be up swinging for your UI layout.

Create micro-interactions

Micro-interactions are subtle experiences that users don’t expect but appreciate. Some of the biggest companies like Facebook use them to mimic real-world experiences in their applications. For example, take a look at the interaction below:

It is an excellent example of micro-interaction. Facebook users get instant feedback on their actions because of this subtle UI improvement. Also, it enhances their sense of direct manipulation.

If you compare Facebook’s thumbs-up with YouTube’s like button, there is a drastic difference in user experience. Re-evaluate your designs to see where to add the micro-interactions.

Create depth in elements with shadows

One of the reasons your UI layout might look boring is that you forgot the z-axis. Shadows make your designs look more three-dimensional by adding a layer of depth. When elements are placed closely on a smaller screen, depth can be used to create elevation and signify importance. In terms of UI design, it is essential to use shadows to create a hierarchy of the information within the app or website.

The use of shadows must always be purposeful, so it would be best to consider the importance of the elements when adding shadows to them.

Get creative with patterns and gradients

When there is much unappealing content in the design, patterns and gradients can help. Don’t get stuck with unexciting and bland backgrounds. Adding simple patterns and improving with gradients can create an eye-catching and appealing UI layout.

You can be highly creative or subtly minimalistic with patterns. It’s a mix of personal choice and requirements of the design.

Conclusion

The UI design tips we shared focus on improving the experience, not just the design aesthetics. As a UI designer, you must know that apps should have easy functionality and be user-friendly. There’s no point in having an attractive app if it’s not practical and functional.

Talent500 is a platform used by the world’s fastest-growing businesses to build their global workforce. We connect frontend developers with career redefining opportunities at some of the largest global companies. Join our elite pool of talent today to discover exciting career opportunities.

5 reasons to level up your writing skills for workplace communication

Posted on March 31, 2022March 31, 2022 by dikshant

As human beings, communication is essential to our existence within a social setting. The manner in which you use words to convey our thoughts, opinions, ideas and needs to others influences how you’re perceived. Communicating effectively with your friends, family and acquaintances goes a long way in helping to further relationships, your personal development and overall well-being as an individual.

Likewise, clear workplace communication is vital in every industry. Since a fair share of workplace communication involves writing in various forms, being proficient at it will enable you to provide information clearly to your co-workers. Also, If someone at work is unable to articulate their ideas effectively, it’s likely that other employees will find it difficult to collaborate with them. Also, with remote and hybrid work becoming more prominent, the mechanics of workplace communication is changing drastically. Here are specific reasons why you should make an effort to improve your writing skills to become more efficient in a professional environment.

1. Helps to establish credibility

While it is important that your internal communication is properly written, it’s just as important to focus on external communication. If you’re someone at the company who has to deal regularly with clients, it is quite likely that a significant portion of the correspondence usually happens over emails. If the content of your messages is hard to understand, contains spelling errors, or is poorly written, it could put clients off from using your company all together.

For example, think of yourself as being a member of a not-for-profit organization whose mission is human services. You sent out an email update that is riddled with grammatical errors and typos. Current and potential clients who receive it may judge your organization as being incompetent and lacking in professionalism that the sector demands. Hence, It’s important to understand that your workplace communication skills, including your written communication, are some of the primary ways to engage and get clients to take notice of your company.

2. Increases the chance of creating a good impression

Whether you’re writing a proposal, giving a presentation, or communicating with your team, the way you write reflects who you are and how you work. Creating a professional and positive business presence is important in all types of practice. Good writing skills ensure that you are able to portray your thoughts, opinions, and ideas in a clear, concise, and professional way. Therefore, fluency in workplace communication will make your co-workers, managers and even company leaders perceive you as someone who is intelligent, articulate and passionate. This can lead to a better professional reputation, solid work partnerships and faster progression in the workplace.

3. Enables you to provide accurate reviews and feedback

When you’re at a mid to upper-tier position in a company, providing feedback and reviewing others’ work is usually part of the job. Maintaining clarity and precision in what you communicate is of great importance in this regard. When your subordinates have invested sufficient time and effort into completing various tasks, they appreciate clear and to-the-point responses. This is because the quality of the information shared through your feedback often impacts the quality of their work. When the feedback or review is meandering or imprecise, it could potentially create confusion that results in the work getting delayed. Having good writing skills will enable you to be more accurate and keep the workplace communication clear and consistent on your end.

4. Better negotiation during workplace communication

In day-to-day life, having the ability to negotiate well in various scenarios can often save you a lot of time, effort and money. This applies to anything from getting a better deal on a purchase to splitting house chores with your roommate. Essentially, what words you use and how you use them can help to make or break your case, when there is a conflict of interest or a conundrum.

Similarly, negotiations are part and parcel of workplace communication. Whether it is an email campaign, a picnic or an office decision, negotiation is critical for any group project. It is essentially a skill and art, which involves practical tips and methodologies along with psychological insight to succeed professionally. When it comes to negotiating, writing is more advantageous than speaking due to the convenience of being able to put more thought into your words. Hence with good writing skills, you can pick and choose every word to make your arguments sound more convincing and air-tight. This will help you successfully navigate multiple situations and be more impactful at the workplace.

5. More efficiency in asynchronous communication

When you’re working under a remote or hybrid model, the frequency of asynchronous communication is much higher. For companies with globally distributed teams in different time zones, real-time workplace communication such as a virtual meeting is not always practical. As a result, most of the communication happens over direct messages, emails, group chats, etc. This is where the ability to be clear, concise and expressive in your writing comes to play. If you know how to write with an above average level of proficiency, being able to provide accurate updates, briefs, feedback and the like gets a lot easier.

To sum up, a significant number of people are impressed by someone who exhibits flair and style in their writing. Hence, demonstrating competency in this capacity could potentially influence your professional image and progress within a company.

Seeking exciting remote work opportunities to build your career? Visit the official Talent500 website to see what top-tier companies have in store for you.

Working from home vs. Working from anywhere: what employers must know

Posted on March 1, 2022March 1, 2022 by satya

What’s in a name?

Location-independent, remote worker, digital nomad – in the last couple of years, we have heard multiple variations of the same concept. Before we begin, let’s get our basics right.

Working from home is not the same as working remotely; while the former means exactly what it sounds like, the latter pertains to the idea of your workplace not being fixed. This could include digital nomads spending each month in a new continent, or a tech consultant travelling to multiple office locations every quarter. “Working from home” could refer to freelancers or full time employees; as well as remote workers.

A third category is that of hybrid workforces – where employees alternate between working from home and working from the office. Post pandemic, a large percentage of the working population chose to work remotely for some parts of the week. Tech companies like Twitter, Apple and Microsoft are great examples of companies that adapted smartly to the situation.

But why are we discussing this? In a nutshell, because being open to a location independent workforce is one of the best steps a company can take in order to increase its growth and productivity. The multiple benefits of being a remote first company include:

Access to an unrestricted pool of talent, unfettered by geographical barriers;
Cost efficient hiring, thanks to the comparative cost of hiring talent globally;
Increased levels of productivity as employees work according to their own schedules;
Increased flexibility for employees resulting in higher levels of autonomy, engagement and happiness;
Reduced operational costs in the form of office rent, electricity and other such fixed costs.

So how does a workplace make the transition? As the first step, here are some essential considerations that employers must take into account to nurture a remote workplace:

Asynchronous communication

In a geographically dispersed team, asynchronous communication enables each contributor to work according to their own time zone, but still play an integral part in the project deliverables. As an employer, encourage the use of asynchronous communication in the form of pre-recorded videos and voice notes, emails and slack messages wherever possible. Read more about how open source leader Github is using asynchronous communication to extract the complete productivity of its fully remote team.

Knowledge sharing

Colleagues located at different corners of the world can’t tap one another on the shoulder to ask questions or to get help. Siloed data is one of the biggest problems faced by remote teams, leading to a direct loss in productivity. Often, a large chunk of time is wasted in locating the most recent version of a document.

Having a central, universally accessible source of all work related information is a highly beneficial practice. More importantly, it ensures that attrition in the company does not result in loss of knowledge and data. From Auttomattic to Slack, a central source of knowledge forms the backbone of all successful remote workforces. Tools like Notion enable teams to document standard operating procedures along with related data. Box and Canto are great for the management of shared digital assets.

Boost social interaction

How do you build trust and relationships between coworkers in the absence of coffee breaks and water cooler conversations? In this podcast, Matt Mullenweg, the CEO of Auttomatic talks about how fully remote workplaces need to intentionally create avenues for social interaction.

Managers and leaders must intentionally include time for non-work conversations and regular team building sessions. This enables team members to form bonds of trust and empathy. From Gatheraround to Donut, there exist hundreds of tools to help strengthen the connection between members of distributed teams. We also love the idea of virtual water coolers – online spaces where remote colleagues can gather for casual conversations and non work banter.

Performance evaluation

Quality over quantity is a principle that applies squarely to most things, and evaluating your remote team is no exception. Begin by setting objective standards for the evaluation of your employees that are not based on the number of working hours. We recommend de-prioritizing the transactional nature of work and taking into account multiple metrics like customer feedback, collaborative effort and initiative.

A holistic evaluation of any employee’s performance includes self evaluation, one-on-one conversations and actionable, constructive feedback. In a remote setting, how you give instructions and feedback plays a major role in the way your workforce experiences your company culture. It is not enough to simply include the words “flexibility” and “empathy” in your core values; they must reflect equally in your performance evaluations.

Data security

Solar Winds, Colonial Pipelines and Sony – we’ve all heard of high profile cybersecurity breaches that have held sensitive data and millions of dollars ransome. Here’s a scary number – cybercrime could cost the world economy a total of $10.5 trillion annually by 2025.

As we work to establish completely remote workplaces, we must accept the fact that all-remote companies have to work harder to protect employee, corporate, and customer data. Subtract the secure network and firewall protections that all of us take for granted, and add the perils of working on public wifi or non-work computers – and you have the perfect recipe for disaster. Thankfully, there are a large number of steps that employers and employees can take to protect the security of their data. Some of these include the usage of VPNs (virtual private networks), sliding web-cams, password protected documents and a cloud based, centralised storage system.

Working remotely was always a highly viable option; however, it took a pandemic for us to realize how beneficial it could be for businesses universally. With technology and location strategy enabling us to eradicate the barriers of geography and time zones, there has never been a better time to build your global team.

Take the first step towards building your distributed workforce with Talent500. Our team of experts and network of highly skilled professionals help you build your global team in over 50 countries. Ready to take the first step? Set up a consultation with our team here.

How to draw boundaries at work tactfully and professionally

Posted on December 30, 2020December 30, 2020 by nitin

It’s that time of the year. You have to buy presents, wrap them up, gift it to people, go to that party your friend’s having. Now this is all fun and while you can’t wait to get to it, you also have to meet that work deadline and it sort of throws your personal life off balance. For all the songs about the holidays being such a wonderful time, ironically, it can get stressful; and to top this, Sushil from work decided to cash in his holidays to take the entire month off, and now you’re stuck with more than you can chew on your plate.

Now the four main things that occupy your headspace are Work, Health, Relationship and Hobbies. All these things have to co-exist for things to stay copacetic in your life. Balancing these, especially during the holidays sure is a task but it is not exactly rocket science. All you need to do is follow a few steps to make your holidays a bit more cheerful.

Draw up a schedule

Creating deadlines and schedules don’t exactly go along with the holiday spirit, right? But when you look at the bigger picture, trust us, it works. Setting up a schedule for all the things you have to do does go a long way in helping you navigate the stressful week and hopefully make it a bit less stressful. It’s not natural to time a schedule to meet with your friends, but doing this helps you appreciate the present more. You focus on the task at hand and since you have a clear idea of what to do next, you won’t find yourself worrying about returning to work after your vacation.

Learn to say no

Certain work requires you to be flexible with your schedule and sometimes even break the flow, but you have to learn when to be flexible and when to take a stand and say no. Always, no matter what, put yourself first. It can seem a bit daunting to do this, but learning when to say no and yes can make a lot of difference in how you spend the holidays and how your family spends it.

Know where to draw the line

Talking about multitasking, the idea of creating boundaries seems unproductive, why not send that email, during the family dinner? Two birds one stone! But by doing this you’re not only inviting more work for yourself but you’re also setting yourself up for regret later on when you realise you missed that insanely funny joke your aunt cracked. Avoid bringing your work into your home and vice versa. Try to limit your technology exposure during personal time. Let your team or boss know that you have a family and make sure they respect those boundaries.

Work double hard

There’s no way around it, but you have to work. So why not make your work more efficient? Cut out low-value activities, don’t allow yourself to engage in the usual social media breaks and mindless feed scrolling. While this may give you immediate satisfaction, you could instead focus and get more work done. This will in turn give you more time to focus on your personal life.

Give yourself a work cushion for when you’re back

Don’t make the mistake of letting deadlines creep up once you’re back from vacation. It’s one thing to get a head start on any work you might otherwise need to do. But, the second part of the equation entails setting team deadlines that are at least a week or more out from your vacation. This ensures that when you come back to the office, you’ll have some cushion to readjust. This is especially crucial if you plan on traveling extensively.

Maybe this is not exactly how you planned your holidays, but at the end of the day, all that matters is you’re happy and trying all these out is the way to go.

If all that fails, you can always say you smell something burning and run to the kitchen. Happy Holidays!

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