There are numerous benefits to incorporating remote working into your business. However, you must examine remote team management strategies to guarantee that remote working drives value.
To connect with network systems, you can use work-from-home software like video chat or messaging applications, cloud services, program management systems, online team management programs, and so on. It is vital that remote working technology has a wide variety of connections with other apps, and it is easy for other team members to foster remote cooperation.
The success of a remote team depends on how a leader/manager is open to change and acceptance of it. Everybody is turning hybrid and remote, per se, but how many are extracting the right value from it? According to a study, remote work can save upto 40minutes of time for an average employee. But, some companies are still apprehensive about adopting this way of working. As remote work comes with its own set of challenges, which needs a unique set of remote work tools to overcome them.
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Here are a few of the best remote working tools to keep your remote employees connected and productive.
Given below is a list of essential work from home tools.
Quixy is a cloud-based no-code platform that helps you to automate processes and construct limitless apps from a simplified interface. With easy drag-and-drop app building, you can build critical-business apps for the smooth sailing of your workflow. Quixy can bring relief in the middle of this crisis by assisting you in transitioning to remote working.
Kintone is a no-code enterprise applications platform that lets non-technical individuals build sophisticated applications, processes, and databases for their business processes. Kintone also offers hundreds of pre-built apps like CRM, project management, inventory management, and much more for corporate customers who need to get started quickly.
Microsoft Power Apps is a low-code platform that enables enterprises to create and deploy apps using pre-built templates. It allows programmers to automate operational procedures, workflows, simplify data management and distribution activities. Users can customize apps for their unique business needs such as site inspections, expenditure reporting, etc.
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Evernote assists you in taking notes, attaching files, scanning photographs, recording voice messages, or grabbing a web clip. It helps you organize your tasks while working from home. From huge tasks to personal moments in one location, which you can access from your laptop or phone—even when you are not connected to the internet.
Monday.com is a work OS that enables teams to run projects, handle tasks and workflows. The platform includes several features that help to track projects to meet deadlines or have an easy look at important data from the Dashboard. Monday.com frees teams from manual work and brings them together in a cooperative workspace.
Asana is one of the greatest work-from-home solutions as it helps you centralize all your team working in one place. Remote work makes it difficult to organize work and keep checking on progress. You can design custom rules for performing routine processes like allocating work, creating due dates, and more in order to bring efficiency. You can select from over 50 project themes, customize them to fit your workflow, and make project management enjoyable for everyone.
ClickUp is more than simply a task manager. It includes sections for documents, reminders, objectives, calendars, and an inbox. ClickUp is fully adaptable, allowing many teams to plan, coordinate, and communicate using the same platform. ClickUp reduces the friction which comes while using many different apps.
Jira is designed primarily for application development. Jira is a wonderful work from home tool for high-performance teams since it facilitates testing opportunities and agile methodologies. Jira is an Atlassian ecosystem product that interfaces with other Atlassian products like Confluence and BitBucket to simplify programming.
With Proofhub, tasks can be readily assigned to people or teams, and critical tasks can be prioritized using deadlines, timelines, or tags. You can initiate one-on-one or group discussions with team members or customers using ProofHub. You will even have your dedicated area to make announcements and honor team accomplishments.
Teamwork is a project planning tool that aids in-house groups and agencies in improving cooperation, visibility, responsibility, and outcomes, things that are top priorities while working from home. It takes care of the technicalities so that your team can focus on achieving the outcomes that matter to your organization. It has all the tools you need to plan, communicate, and execute your work.
Todoist divides huge projects into smaller sub-projects or tasks, which can be categorized using labels, filters, or task impact levels. Within their Todoist account, users can add new tasks, manage the progress, and examine all completed tasks. Organizations can use Todoist Karma to award points for completed tasks, allowing them to rapidly meet weekly and monthly performance targets.
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Zapier was founded in 2011 and has already assisted over 1.8 million people with their automation requirements. Zapier automates the transfer of data across your online applications, allowing you to concentrate on your most critical tasks. Zapier allows you to quickly create custom workflows for over 4,000 online applications and integrate tedious operations.
Make, previously known as Integromat, is a cloud-based platform that allows you to automate online operations by connecting applications and services with sophisticated codeless integrations. Users may use the solution to build sophisticated processes that integrate different systems, and it comes with features like automated error management, comprehensive logging of actions, scheduling, and more.
Workato is the most popular platform for integration and automation. Workato is a pioneer in enabling business and IT teams to connect applications and automate business operations while maintaining security. It allows businesses to get real-time results from corporate events. There is no need for coding, and the platform uses Machine Learning technologies to enable automation design and execution 10X quicker than traditional platforms.
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Trello is a popular remote collaboration application for managing projects, organizing tasks, and keeping your team’s work systematic in one place. Trello cards can be used to organize and monitor your employees’ tasks. Custom Fields can help you capture information such as fees, times estimates, cell phone numbers, and more.
Butler, a built-in automated tool in Trello helps you to automate project activities and decrease the number of manual actions on your project board.
Notion is an all-in-one remote tool enabling you to collaborate, work, store files, and get organized. It is a powerful productivity tool that can help you with task management, project management, knowledge management, note-taking, and more. With Notion you can customize the way you work, and streamlines your activities.
Basecamp is mainly concerned with team cooperation. You can establish a separate comment board, to-do checklist, file systems, and calendar for each project. It enables you to access the right information at the right time, in contrast to a number of documents spread all over the place. Basecamp makes work easy by putting everything in one place, bringing transparency to work progress, and ensuring all-time access.
Hubstaff is a real-time monitoring tool that makes managing fields or remote teams simple. The technology comes in compact applications for web, desktop, and mobile devices, and it aids in team productivity and responsibility.
Toggl is an excellent tool for monitoring and reporting. Toggl allows you to start monitoring time by just pressing a single button. You can add a project, customer, description, and label to each segment of the time log. Separate workspaces for various teams can also be created.
Kickidler is the next-generation staff monitoring and user activity monitoring application. Kickidler software is a useful tool for automating employee control, increasing corporate productivity and securing information. Kickidler’s main features include online computer surveillance, recording and replaying of workers’ activity histories, performance evaluation, time tracking, and cybersecurity. In addition, Kickidler can improve internal communications and do task analysis.
Time Doctor is a useful work-from-anywhere tool for tracking work efficiently and keeping workers away from distracting websites and applications. Leaders or managers can see who is functioning and who is lazing at a glance and utilize pop-ups to notify personnel.
Time Doctor snaps screenshots of your group members’ displays at certain intervals. Managers can obtain daily or weekly data to better understand how their employees spend their time and how they use the website and applications. Employees can even check their own time consumption statistics to immediately remedy time-wasting behaviour.
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Google Drive, one of the best remote working platforms, enables you to save, access, exchange, and edit files from anywhere on the globe. Google Drive works smoothly with Slides, Docs, Sheets, and other cloud-native applications, allowing you and your team to collaborate in real time. Furthermore, Google’s AI and search technologies can guess what you are looking for and assist you in finding your files more quickly.
Dropbox was the first independent cloud storage program to hit the market, allowing users to easily share files and documents. It has become a cult favourite due to its simple layout, extensive file-sharing tools, and collaboration opportunities. Dropbox also provides a Paper app that allows you to edit Word files without downloading anything, albeit you will not be able to edit any other file types.
Adalo is an app-building program that allows you to create websites and apps without coding. Adalo, like Bubble and other no-code services, aims to provide a platform for designing & hosting websites and apps with databases, workflow activities, and integrations. You can publish applications to Android and ios platforms, allowing for the creation of native mobile applications.
Glide is a powerful tool that combines the power of apps with spreadsheets. Users can create solutions and customize from the templates already given or can create their own. They can also link between data, perform calculations, and write conditional statements without having to write any code.
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Another popular virtual meeting platform is Google Meet, which millions of individuals use to interact with one another. The UI is incredibly easy to use; just click the “New Meeting” button to produce a new meeting link that can be shared with attendees.
Users can utilize keyboard shortcuts to manage the camera, microphone, and other accessibility functions in Google Meet. You can exchange messages, documents, or links instantaneously without interrupting or halting meetings to make them more interesting and interactive.
Due to the ongoing epidemic, Zoom has swiftly adapted as remote working tools by individuals for personal and business video chats. The technology enables users to make free video chats with up to 50 individuals for a total of 40 minutes. Paid users can join a video call with up to 500 participants. Users can record full-length movies, talk while on a video conference, share the screen, write on a whiteboard, and plan meetings in advance using Zoom.
Skype is a popular communication tool that enables you to make HD one-on-one or group video calls from anywhere globally. Live Subtitles are a fantastic feature that enables you to read the words said during a video or audio conference. Furthermore, Skype allows team members to exchange everything from sales pitches to vacation images during a group conference.
Microsoft Teams is designed to boost productivity. It enables users to share information, chat in real-time, book meetings, add files and so much more. It is a superb workplace chat software, but its video calling feature is just as interesting and useful. Video conferencing and calling can be started directly from a user’s chat. It proves to be very useful even for an organization that has adopted hybrid working by making communication as easy as somebody sitting next to your cubical.
Hangouts offer secure team chat and video conferencing for Google users. This remote working tool has many of the same capabilities as Zoom but without downloading any application.
Hangouts enable easy connectivity with other Google products like Google Drive and Calendar, allowing collaboration and smoother remote/hybrid working with anybody using the G Suite ecosystem.
Slack is an enterprise communication network consolidating conversations, resources, and files into a single location. Slack is an online messaging platform with a slew of add-ons for various corporate applications. However, since the fundamental function of Slack is to interact with others, the add-ons are not necessary to utilize. Group messaging and direct messaging (DM) are the two forms of conversations available in Slack.
Troop Messenger is a simple and intuitive workplace messaging application with a consistent UI and UX. To provide continuous work-flows, it includes capabilities such as one-on-one chat, group discussions, document previews, voice communications, screen sharing, and more. To-do checklists and slips are also included in the system, which allows users to keep track of critical tasks and write notes during conferences.
Blink is a full-employee solution application for remote workers that help them communicate, be more productive and stay informed. Blink offers features such as a configurable activity feed, collaborative calendars, third-party connectors, messaging capability, unified search, and more. It was created to change the employee experience by giving a digital app and one unified communication solution.
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Canva is a simple graphic design and video editing application that lets you create and share anything with a drag-and-drop interface. Users of Canva may pick from thousands of design layouts for every project, including slideshows, social media clips, banners, brochures, and presentations.
Figma is a cloud-based UI prototype and design platform that lets different teams collaborate on generating, testing, and delivering product concepts. Figma enables users to develop prototypes using hover, on-click, or button press events and GIFs to add video components or animations.
Google Forms is a free online form creator that lets users create simple or complex surveys and tests to collect and organize information. Users may use Google Forms to construct a form with a range of facilities such as a range of question formats, alternative variables, and reordering of questions by drag-and-drop. Users may save all collected data to a Google Sheets file and review it there.
Typeform is a data collecting tool with a lot of flexibility. When it comes to generating surveys, forms, and quizzes, the platform gives you a lot of options. The design process is made simple and quick due to templates and dynamic designing. Typeform is unique from other online survey platforms by its logic jumps. You may combine numerous forms into one using a logic jump.
Google Sheets allows users to generate spreadsheets directly in their browser without the need for any additional software. They can handle all types of spreadsheets, including budgets, timetables, etc. It comes with all of the necessary capabilities, such as built-in formulae, tables and charts, and conditional formatting. It allows people to share the same file and change it concurrently while commenting in real-time.
Airtable is a software application that enables users to create solutions to boost team agility and accelerate creativity. Airtable gives developers access to the potential of having a customizable database. Airtable’s building blocks allow teams to model the objects they work on, establish connections between them, and develop views that are specifically customized to their job.
With one-click acknowledgment, social features, and personalized reporting, WooBoard enables a unified scoring system that fosters everyday participation. It enables your employees to acknowledge and appreciate one another’s accomplishments daily. WooBoard enables workers to exchange their Points with gift cards by activating the Rewards Store. It is a fun and easy platform for all organizations, with a social structure and a uniform Points System that incentivizes all engagement acts.
Empuls is a fun employee engagement platform. It enables your employees to recognize activities and reward one another based on the activity. It includes a section of vouchers from which the employees can redeem earned points and benefits. It is an all-in-one employee recognition, reward, and engagement platform.
Rybbon is a one-stop solution for managing digital rewards programs. You can send rewards from famous brands such as Amazon, Uber, and Google Pay, among others. Thanks to Rybbon’s simple integration you can not only use it for employee recognition but can also make use of this for marketing and survey etc.
InVision Freehand enables teams to interact on a whiteboard in real-time. Hybrid workplaces today need tools that provide the feeling of working side by side even if colleagues are 1,000 km away. You can use InVision for whiteboarding in two ways: you can establish a LiveShare meeting where people can share a space and start sketching right away, or you can begin with a blank whiteboard and show it to your team.
Sketchboard is an online whiteboarding application that allows remote teams to discuss and generate ideas in real-time. The tool comes with many pre-designed symbols for usage in roadmaps, software schematics, and project processes. Each whiteboard can be customized with tags and rights (private as well as password protected).
Transitioning to remote work might feel daunting initially. With the right leadership and sync in the goals of employees and the company, you can navigate this new terrain smoothly and make remote work easy to adopt. Here are some quick tips to help your team embrace remote work:
Stay connected through video calls, instant messaging, and regular check-ins. Keep the lines of communication open, and encourage honest and transparent discussions.
Define work hours, deadlines, and deliverables. This ensures everyone knows what’s expected and maintains a healthy work-life balance. For example, “We need the marketing campaign ready by Friday, and it should target our new customer segment.”
Designate a comfortable and quiet space for work. Having a separate area helps in better focus and minimizes distractions.
Remind your team to take regular breaks and set boundaries between work and personal time. Avoid burnout by promoting self-care.
Recognize that everyone has unique schedules and responsibilities. Be open to flexible work hours as long as the work gets done efficiently. For instance, someone might prefer to work from 7 AM to 3 PM to attend their child’s school event in the afternoon.
Equip your team with reliable technology and software for seamless collaboration and productivity. For example, Microsoft Teams or Zoom can help employees to collaborate from anywhere.
Acknowledge and celebrate accomplishments, even the small ones. Positive reinforcement boosts morale and motivation.
Organize virtual team-building activities and informal catch-ups to foster a sense of camaraderie and combat isolation.
Be attentive to individual needs and challenges. Provide resources for mental health, well-being, and skill development.
As a leader, demonstrate a healthy work-life balance and communicate openly. Your behavior sets the tone for the team.
The listed remote tools here are unique in their own way. Some allow customization, while others will help you easily communicate and collaborate. These remote working tools will help organizations foster work-from-home culture while ensuring productivity.
Remote working tools are software applications and platforms that enable individuals and teams to work together, communicate, and collaborate effectively when working remotely. These tools facilitate tasks such as video conferencing, file sharing, project management, and team communication.
Remote workers typically need essential equipment such as a reliable computer or laptop, a stable internet connection, a headset or headphones with a microphone for clear communication, a webcam for video conferencing, and any specific tools or software required for their job, such as design software or project management tools.
Various technologies are used for remote working, including video conferencing tools like Zoom or Microsoft Teams for virtual meetings, cloud storage platforms like Google Drive or Dropbox for file sharing and collaboration, project management tools like Asana or Trello for task management, and no-code platforms like Quixy that allows you to create apps without writing code.
The most useful tools for remote employees and coworkers may vary based on their specific needs and job requirements. However, some commonly valuable tools include:
1. Video conferencing platforms for virtual meetings and collaboration.
2. Communication tools for instant messaging and team collaboration.
3. Project management software for task organization and tracking progress.
4. Cloud storage platforms for secure file sharing and document collaboration.