Essential Remote Work Tools and Best Practices for Post‑COVID Productivity

After the 2020 Chinese New Year, the COVID‑19 outbreak forced many companies to adopt remote work, raising questions about maintaining efficiency and seamless communication.

Choosing the right collaboration tools can reduce communication costs and boost productivity. Common categories include instant messaging (WeChat, DingTalk, Slack), document collaboration (Tencent Docs, Google Docs, Office 365), video conferencing (Zoom, Tencent Meeting, WeLink, Feishu) and health services (Qie Doctor, Chunyu Doctor).

Remote Work Advantages and Challenges

Advantages

Employees save commuting time, enjoy flexible schedules, and can work from any city.

Enterprises can reduce office space and hire talent worldwide.

Challenges

Managing employee status, health, remote‑work readiness, and attendance.

Handling extended holidays, contract signing, and onboarding remotely.

Work style : Most internet companies have digitized workflows, but remote work shifts communication to video calls and electronic whiteboards, making spontaneous “stand‑up” meetings and on‑the‑spot discussions harder.

Information security : Sensitive data often resides on internal networks, requiring VPN access and robust security measures for remote connections.

Trust : Managers must rely on results rather than physical presence to ensure employees stay productive while working from home.

Key Remote Collaboration Tools

Tencent Docs

Tencent Docs is a cloud‑based, multi‑user document editor supporting Word, PPT, Excel and more, with real‑time syncing across WeChat, QQ, PC and other platforms. It offers permission control, remote presentation, smart translation and error correction.

During the pandemic, Tencent Docs lifted its member limits, allowing up to 200 simultaneous editors and providing templates that increased form submissions to 7,000 entries.

Tencent Meeting

Tencent Meeting is an online conferencing tool that, during the outbreak, offered free support for up to 300 participants with unlimited duration. It supports PC, mobile, mini‑program and phone access, with features such as mute control, document collaboration, screen sharing, beauty filters and background blur.

The service was made free nationwide, supporting 24/7 operation for government emergency coordination, medical logistics, online classrooms and corporate remote work.

Feishu (Lark)

From January 28 to May 1, 2020, Feishu provided free remote‑office and video‑conference services to all users, including three‑year free support for hospitals, schools and NGOs in Hubei. The free package includes the full office suite, unlimited meetings, unlimited documents and approval workflows.

Further Remote‑Work Case Studies

PingCAP’s five‑year remote‑work practice (https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzI3NDIxNTQyOQ==∣=2247490762&idx=1&sn=7bbc0282e1557d1cd85516bfd8d85768&scene=21#wechat_redirect)

Transitioning from office to online work with zero experience (https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzI2NDU4OTExOQ==∣=2247490517&idx=1&sn=0b0a973a3f1af545a28b640dabaf3d6c&scene=21#wechat_redirect)

Choosing remote collaboration tools during the pandemic (https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MjM5ODI5Njc2MA==∣=2655829362&idx=1&sn=c53f494ce5a3b4fcd51b6b689fd517bc&scene=21#wechat_redirect)

Alibaba’s remote‑work experiences