13 Remote Work Tools for Productive Employees

Remote work has become a form of working that many aspire to. The benefits are numerous:

• You manage your time as you want

• You have the chance to travel more often
• You have the comfort of working in a cozy and familiar atmosphere at your home

But working remote comes with challenges for the whole team. You can face these challenges by working with tools specially designed for remote work that will make you more productive and happier. 

Slack

Slack is great for communication and is used mostly by remote workers. Besides all those funny gifs and stickers, it also gives you the possibility of managing and tracking documents and setting reminders. 

Google Hangouts

Google Hangouts is the perfect tool for video chatting. It lets you organize video conferences for up to 15 members and you can even screen share. You can use it for instant messaging, so less time lost. 

Zoom

Zoom is similar to Google Hangouts. The difference is that you can add more than 15 members in a video call, so it is helpful to use when you have larger conference calls. It even has a recording option. 

Figureitout Chrome Extension

This is the perfect tool for remote workers. When being part of a remote team, its members can work from all across the world. Sometimes it is hard to sync with each other, but this extension offers invaluable information. You know what time is in your colleagues’ locations. 

Trello

Trello is especially used in managing the teams. You are able to create your own workflow and collaborate with team members across tasks. It is also available on mobile and it is great at communicating with colleagues across prioritization of the tasks. 

Asana

Asana is another great tool that helps remote workers share their tasks within the team. It is also integrated with your email and as a leader, you can assign the tasks. You can have an individual task list and one of the team. The activity feeds and customizable dashboards make this app even more user-friendly. 

IDoneThis

This is the perfect tool for remote teams. It gives the team the possibility of tracking the progress of every team member by building timesheets. It also helps you allocate resources effectively.

Also, when you collaborate on a task, it is easier to share and store the documents. They are even delivered to all team members. How cool is this? Tracking the progress and productivity of a remote team has never been so easy. 

ProofHub

ProofHub is a tool that is loved by remote workers. It is known to assist the project management process by offering better control of communication, tasks, and projects. The great thing is that it offers the possibility of communication between clients and the project team. Among the most appreciated features are online proofreading and workflow management. 

Remote workers have now the possibility to track their time more efficiently by offering great tools like planning the project calendar and sending notifications and reminders. Like this, all team members stay informed on the project update. 

Basecamp

Basecamp is a tool preferred by most agencies and freelancers. Why? Because it has a user-friendly interface and a clean design. Basecamp offers you the possibility to create an interactive Gantt chart, used to organize the team’s tasks and deadlines better and in a visual way.

You can have access to project templates to fill in and that helps you save a lot of time. However, basecamp comes with some limitations. You cannot track the time of remote workers and nor you can assign sub-tasks. No app is perfect, so you can use Basecamp along with other apps that offer what Basecamp lacks. 

Google Drive

Another great tool offered by Google. Google Drive is an online storage that helps you keep all the documents in one place. It also offers tools similar to Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel to work and edit them online. Like this, no information is lost.

You can share folders and documents with all team members. I love Google Drive because it eases the work across remote teams. The team members have the possibility of commenting or editing the document, so no information is lost. 

Dropbox

Dropbox is the alternative to sending large files. Emails do not have the option of sending files larger than 25 megabytes. You can share files in any format you want. The great functionality loved by remote workers is the possibility to sync and collaborate on documents. 

Chimp or Champ

Above are tools that increase the productivity and performance of remote employees. But Chimp or Champ is about employee happiness. And when the team is working remotely, it is harder to engage with your colleagues.

Leaders have the possibility of collecting anonymous feedback weekly. Then this app measures in real-time the engagement of the employees. Strategies to improve the wellbeing of remote workers can be implemented. 

Hub Staff

Hub Staff is great for keeping track of how much time spend remote employees on certain tasks. You can make online timesheets and share them across the team. Its features include GPS tracking, useful for businesses where employees need to travel. Its payroll software comes in handy and gives you the possibility of organizing the payments online.

Working in a remote team comes with benefits. You can travel more and organize your working schedule however you want. But it also comes with hardships to overcome. Thanks to technology, some great tools can help you measure the productivity of the employees and work on increasing their happiness and wellbeing.

You have numerous options for chatting, video conferences and screen sharing. You can make online timesheets or Gantt charts to make sure the team stays on track. Depending on your needs, you can choose one or more apps that can help you organize the tasks better and communicate efficiently with remote employees. 

Becky Holton is a journalist and a blogger at essay writing service. She is interested in education technologies, assignment help and is always ready to support informative speaking at essay writing service uk. Follow her on Twitter.