Uplift launched a new tool for execs managing remote teams during COVID-19

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Uplift founder Kari Clark has pivoted the company’s business idea to help people working from home: “My goal is to help other businesses come out of this crisis stronger,” she said.

Back in 2017, D.C.’s Clark launched Uplift by publishing a daily newsletter chronicling the life of motherhood for moms to read in a minute. She has since launched a platform, Uplift Parents, for employers to improve retention rates of mothers of all stages with coaching, digital exercises and more. Last month, Clark launched another arm of the company called Uplift Remote, a tool designed for managers who are making the switch to remote work for their employees.

“We’ve been coaching working parents for years on how to succeed in remote work, and now we’re offering our insights to all work-from-home professionals,” Clark told Technical.ly. “We started with parents but realized a lot of what we were helping with applied to all managers, so the expansion felt very natural.”

Uplift Remote comes with a Remote Success Rating feature, which is a quick assessment for manager to see how well they are set up for remote work success compared to other team in their industry. In five minutes, managers can learn how productive their remote work set up is, stack up against other similar managers and get customized tips to help make their teams stronger. (Here’s an interactive sample report.)

“If you look at how COVID-19 is playing out around the world, it’s clear that teams will be working remotely for months, not just a few weeks,” Clark said. “The future of work is transforming. Traditional teams have been forced to leapfrog into the virtual age, and many will never go back.”

Prior to the global crisis, Uplift already had a remote team distributed across six countries, the founder said, which has been the case since it launched three years ago. She said one of reasons the company pivoted to launch Uplift Remote was because its automator lives near Wuhan, China and the team’s writer lives in Spain.

“We walk the walk of believing that remote work makes teams more productive and helps you attract better talent,” she said. “We heard firsthand about the disruption in those countries, which foreshadowed what has happened in the U.S.”

During this time, Clark is also still managing Uplift Parents.

“We still have active clients in the program who need us more than ever since parents are feeling the stress of both homeschooling and working from home,” she said.