Check Out These Remote Work Tools To Improve Your Productivity!

Global Workplace Analytics believes that 25-30% of the workforce will work remotely by 2021.

And if you clicked on this post, you probably have already transitioned to a remote workplace or are about to.

As a business owner, you want to make sure your team is equipped with all the right tools to have a productive workday.

And, you also want to ensure that you have the right tools to conduct your business successfully from home. 

Our office went remote in 2020 as did many other companies.

So today, we’re sharing the top remote work tools that we have used both as an employee and as someone who manages a team of people.

This is so that all you business owners reading can set yourselves up for success in a remote environment. 

When it comes to running a business remotely…

“Global Workplace Analytics estimates that employers can save over 11,000 dollars per year per employee.

The savings are from the lower cost of office space, increased productivity, reduced absenteeism, and less turnover.”

So yay! That’s great news for you!

Now we just need to get you set up with tools to work remotely that will make your life easier and your business day more productive.

5 Remote Work Tools For Businesses & Employees

Tool #1: Teamwork Chat

Teamwork Chat is a website that is exactly what it sounds like – it’s a website and app that allows you to chat with your team. 

You can chat with your coworkers one-on-one or you can create group chats to have a work chat with multiple people in it.

And you can also rename those group chats to whatever makes sense for you. 

For instance, if you offer social media marketing for small business services and you have all of your team in one group for that…

…it would make sense to rename the chat Social Media Team to keep yourself organized.

Chats are instant and allow for a casual, quick means of communication that replaces quick conversations you would usually have in person in the office. 

They allow you to chat back and forth to collaborate and get some work done instead of using slow, formal email communication. 

Teamwork, in particular, also makes it easy to send gifs and emojis so that you can convey emotions a little better since you’re not face-to-face.

And, Teamwork Chat has an app you can download to your phone so you can also keep in communication with your team while on the go.

Some other popular chat apps for business are Slack and Bitrix.

Tool #2: Project Management Software 

Moving on to the next one on our list of remote work tools, we didn’t list a specific one for this.

And that’s because the needs of every business are so different so you will need to look for software that delivers what you need.

But some of the more popular project management programs for business out there are:

In general, project management software will streamline some of your everyday tasks…

…that can be automated and give your team clear organization and communication. 

So for example, let’s say you onboard a new client.

You can create a project for that client, and assign team members who will be working on that particular project. 

You can then assign specific tasks within that project to individual team members with deadlines attached to them.

This is so that everybody knows what they’re working on and they can check things off as they go. 

And you can set up conditions so that some people’s tasks are dependent upon other people’s tasks getting done first and so on. 

This keeps everybody on the same page, and it also allows you to give your team clear expectations and deadlines even though everybody is remote.

Tool #3: Zoom

The next on our list of remote work tools is probably a tool that a lot of people are familiar with now.

Zoom allows you to video call and screen share with your team and/or clients. 

As great and quick as chats are, sometimes you do need to just talk things out face to face or screen share to help explain things better and so on. 

Or if you’re using it for clients, it can be a great way to earn trust the same way you would in an in-person consultation. 

Zoom has free and paid plans, so you can choose the one that makes the most sense for what you need.

Now as we said earlier, some of you may already be familiar with this software because it really boomed in early 2020! 

Counting both free and paying users, Zoom has 300 million daily meeting participants.

That is a 2900% increase from December 31, 2019, when it had 10 million meeting participants logging on daily.

How about you? Have you used Zoom before or not?

Before we move on to the next remote work tool, be sure to check out our new social media ads training course that is out now.

Now let’s continue with the list.

Acuity is an online appointment scheduling software. They said,

“Say goodbye to phone tag.

With your customized scheduling page, clients can easily view your real-time availability and self-schedule their own appointments. 

You get to control your availability 24/7, organize your schedule and organize client information.”

But beyond just scheduling appointments, here are some of the other great features that we love about Acuity. 

So if you normally use Google Calendars, you can connect the two and it will automatically notify you when an appointment has been made.

Setting up an email marketing automation can help you reduce-no show appointments.

You can also offer gift certificates, packages, memberships, or group classes, and you can customize everything to fit your brand guide.

Speaking of branding, check out this post next to learn how to brand your business or find out what are the benefits of branding.

So if your business relies on clients scheduling calls with you, we would strongly suggest that you look into this software.

Tool #5: Time Doctor

Last on our list of remote work tools is time tracking software.

Time Doctor is a time-tracking software that gives you peace of mind that your team is actually working…

…and not taking advantage of an at-home environment while simultaneously allowing employees to track their hours.

And even if your team is salaried, tracking hours just allows them to avoid going into unpaid overtime.

Or if your company does pay extra for overtime, they can see how many OT hours they’ve acquired. 

So the way it works is that they “clock in” with a tap of the button, and “clock out” when they’re done.

While they are clocked in, the software will take random screenshots of the user’s screen every few minutes.

But again, it only does this if they are clocked in.

For you, as the business owner, this helps you ensure that your team is being productive and not just watching Netflix all day.

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You can set up notifications so that you are alerted if TD picks up low activity for any of your employees.

Or, if it detects a “mouse moving” software that has been installed on the user’s computer. 

This might seem invasive to some, but the reality is not every single person on this Earth is honest!

Hopefully, the dishonest people are not the ones you’re hiring.

But this software just helps keep a light eye on everybody’s productivity the same way you would in the office.

If you walked by a cubicle and somebody had their feet up binging Game of Thrones for 8 hours every day…

…you would have something to say about that right? 

The standards are no different just because you’re now a remote company. So, Time Doctor helps to keep everybody accountable. 

Now, those are our top 5 remote work tools for you guys to put in your arsenal!

Don’t hesitate to contact us if ever you need help with any of your digital marketing campaigns.