Remote work is becoming increasingly common and popular. While the COVID-19 pandemic was the catalyst for this, the benefits of remote work are so many that it’s hard to ignore them and get back to in-person work just like that.
You can work from anywhere you want, save time and money on commuting, listen to your favorite music without headphones, and so much more.
But as amazing as remote work is, it also comes with challenges. It’s so hard to track activity, collaborate in real-time, keep everything organized, and everyone on the same page.
Thankfully, there are tools that help manage remote teams, so that you can enjoy the perks of remote work without suffering the negative side effects.
We have compiled a list of the best of these tools to help you make the right decision without spending too much on the process.
Top Tools to Manage Your Remote Team More Effectively
Here are some of the best tools for managing remote teams and ensuring they are as effective as in-person ones.
Table Of Contents 👉
Insightful
Insightful is a Workforce Intelligence Platform. Its employer monitoring software provides full visibility into team output to help businesses optimize workflows, reduce costs, and drive growth.
In some instances, it has boosted productivity by 92%, cut software costs by up to 56%, and saved as much as $2.5M in just 3 months. Thus, it is no wonder that it has 210,000+ users and is trusted by 5,100+ teams worldwide.
Key Features
- Insightful’s key features include Employee Monitoring, Time & Attendance, Time Tracking, Process Improvement, Security, Activity Monitoring, Productivity Management, Screen Monitoring, Computer Monitoring, Operational Efficiency, On-Premise, Integrations, and InsightsAI.
- It is rated #1 High-Performer on G2.
- It has proven to boost productivity while reducing costs.
- It helps capture day-to-day work in real time.
- Insightful comes with a customizable dashboard with a single, real-time visibility layer.
- The platform provides 50+ integrations and covers the most popular Project Management, HelpDesk, and Employee Directory tools you love to use every day.
- With Insightful, time tracking is automated. You can also automate the catching of missed shifts and late starts.
- In addition to tracking time, the platform also helps track activity and see which apps, sites, or tools are in use.
- It provides audit-ready visibility so that you can match claimed hours to actual, real-life activity.
- It makes it easier to manage workload, since it helps balance workloads, reassign tasks, detect burnout risk, spot idle time, and identify bottlenecks.
- You can also use it to identify and cut unused licenses, reduce unnecessary software stack, and detect broken, ineffective workflows.
Deel
Deel Workforce Planning enables HR and Finance teams to build, model, and execute structured, cost-efficient headcount plans in 150+ countries.
In addition to workforce planning, it has features like Deel Compensation, Deel Benefits, Deel Engage, Deel Talent, Deel Global and Local Payroll, and Deel HRIS.
Key Features
- Deel’s visual scenario planning and modeling feature lets you visually map out different ‘what-ifs’ (e.g., what would happen if you combined the marketing department with the design one).
- The self-serve headcount request feature helps managers fill out a form to directly request a new person for their team. The self-serve headcount approvals, on the other hand, enable department heads or finance to log in, see the request, and click “approve” right in the system.
- It connects to an Applicant Tracking System, so you can sync seamlessly with Deel ATS, Ashby, and other ATSs.
- It allows you to configure the right permissions for your teams to request and approve all changes (so who gets to do what).
- You can use Deel to plan headcount changes based on analytics like growth targets, budgets, and more.
- It comes with budget dashboards to align everyone on costs.
- You can even model new structures with Deel’s interactive org chart to play around with the company’s structure by dragging and dropping teams on a digital org chart.
Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams is an all-encompassing platform that helps remote and hybrid teams with communication and collaboration. It can help with features like video conferencing, messaging, collaborating on documents, sharing files, etc. It’s particularly good if you’re already using Microsoft 365.
Key Features
- You can use it for HD video meetings (it comes with screen sharing capabilities, which can help with presentations).
- It has dedicated team channels with AI meeting notes, so it’s easier to keep track of the conversations.
- It makes remote collaboration within teams easier with the help of live document editing.
- It’s highly scalable and can match the needs of businesses of different sizes and industries.
- It integrates with Microsoft 365 apps, such as Word, Excel, SharePoint, and OneNote.
- You can use Microsoft Teams for calling in groups and voicemail.
- You can have call transfers directly within the Teams app.
- It provides strict admin features to ensure high security and privacy.
Asana
Asana is a remote work software solution that helps teams to plan projects, coordinate work, stay connected, and reach business goals.
Key features
- From Asana’s Inbox, you can do several things at once, like coordinating work, leaving comments on important tasks, approving or rejecting requests, checking attachments, project updates, and so forth.
- You can add tasks to multiple projects, which can help decrease the amount of redundant tasks and improve cross-team visibility.
- Asana makes it easier to check status updates, outline important upcoming steps, and at-mention team members or tasks, so that everyone is always on the same page.
- The priority custom fields feature helps mark some tasks more important than others, as well as organize and schedule work based on priority.
- In the My Tasks section, you can see all of your assignments and projects in one place. From here, you can toggle between list, board, and calendar views to find what works best for you.
- The platform provides pre-built templates to help you optimize your remote work and save time.
- The CSV importer lets you import data into any project with minimal effort
- You can inform about updates, initiate conversations, and stay in touch with relevant stakeholders all within Asana.
- Asana supports many remote integrations, such as Slack, Google Drive, Outlook, Gmail, Zoom, and more.
What to Ask When Choosing a Remote Tool
Here are some important questions you need to ask yourself before investing in a remote work management tool:
- Can we do everything from within this app? Does this tool put our chats, video calls, and files all in one spot, or are we still going to move around between 10 different tabs or apps?
- Are we all on the same page? Does the tool give us a clear idea of who is doing what by when?
- Can we collaborate on it the way we would in real life? Can we brainstorm together on a virtual whiteboard or edit a document at the same time?
- Will this integrate with our other tools with no headaches? Is it going to connect easily with our other favorite platforms without causing trouble for us and our IT team in particular?
- Can I see what’s going on without nagging everyone?
- Does it make it obvious what everyone’s working on, what the progress is, what the updates are, or do we still need to keep asking “how is progress?”
Summing Up
Choosing the right tool will help you increase productivity and efficiency while reducing costs. However, no matter how good a tool is, it can never fix a team that doesn’t communicate or collaborate, nor will it fix a strategy that’s originally ineffective.
So, ensure you have the right team, the right strategy, and choose a tool that will expand and enhance what you already have.
The best tool is the one your team actually enjoys working with, be it in person or remotely. So, check out different tools, sign up for demos and free trials, and you’ll find what you and your team will enjoy. Better to fail a few times now to find the perfect fit, than to stick to one platform that’s more of a problem than a solution.