Remote working teams are becoming popular, especially following the scourge of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a survey by And.co, 55% of the respondents permanently work from home, while 28% said they did both (work from home and go to the office). As the generational shift of working from home becomes more accepted, businesses and team leaders want to know the best tool to manage remote employees. Even as a remote worker, you also want to know the right tools for remote teams that’ll help with your productivity.
Working from home or just about anywhere in the world can be a beautiful experience if you have the right tools to help you and your team.
Tools to Help with Team Communication
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Communication is an important tool for company growth and team productivity. A study by Dynamicsignal shows that 86% of employees, corporate executives, and educators agree that ineffective communication can lead to failure in the workplace.
Working from home means you can no longer stroll over to your co-worker’s desk to discuss a project or bump into another team member while strolling down the hallway. Communication tools are important now more than ever. You cannot use emails because they can get messy, especially when dealing with multiple emails from different team members. You need a tool designed to handle multiple ongoing conversations seamlessly.
Communication tools include:
- Slack
- Chanty
- Microsoft teams
- Flock
Slack, for example, enables you to chat, share files, and carry out video calls with individuals or the entire team. You can ask questions on a project and get instant replies. This allows for efficient communication. You can even integrate it with other tools such as Jira and Google Calendar. The key is to choose among the top team chat apps that will provide you with tailored solutions to your communication needs.
Tools for Time Management
Time management can make a world of difference between success and failure. You need time tracking tools to help you monitor the hours spent on a project and allocate your time adequately. It is easy to lose track of time when working from home. This can blur the line between work hours and personal time. Individuals who don’t know when to disengage from work and spend quality time with family and friends are more at risk of experiencing a work burnout.
Traqq is an example of a time tracking tool that allows you to monitor the time your employees spend on work no matter where they are. A time tracker with screenshots, this tool captures images of your employees’ on-screen activity. Moreover, it lets you accurately invoice the hours to pay them without going through the stress of manually filling out a timesheet.
This tool protects the privacy of the user by reducing the quality of the screenshots. This ensures that sensitive information such as passwords and private messages are not exposed. Don’t worry because it is clear enough to enable you to have a good idea of your employees’ on-screen activity.
It also features military-grade encryption. This means that screenshots taken to log employee work hours are safe and secure.
This tool can help users bill their clients accurately for the hours spent working on a project. It also helps employees to focus on work and be more productive. No employee wants a screenshot taken when he/she is surfing on social media. Besides, users can delete any screenshot along with the recorded time if they choose to. This means employee privacy is protected and they only share what they’re comfortable with. It also means employers do not have to pay for deleted time. It’s a win-win!
Tools for Project Management
When managing a remote team, it can get complicated trying to handle multiple projects. Projects that require complex time management can be a hassle. Project management tools allow you to create projects, allocate tasks, create subtasks, and set deadlines. You can monitor the progress of each team member through the dashboard feature. Some of these tools even have a graph feature that enables you to see how much of a project has been completed and what still needs to be done. They also have in-chat tools that allow for seamless communication between team members and between different departments.
These tools will keep you on track, boost productivity, and enhance communication. You can use them to track, review, and plan projects on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. Some popular project management tools include:
- Asana
- Jira
- Trello
- Wrike
In Conclusion
Working remotely has a lot of advantages. However, to be able to enjoy these advantages, you need to set up an effective team. These tools will make it easy and create the right environment for you and your team while working from home.