In recent years, the nature of employment has transformed drastically, especially with the development of remote labor. Instead of driving to an office daily, many employees now work from home, whether in their kitchen, living room, or home office.
A report from August 2023 by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, Stanford University, and the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business found that by 2028, firms expect 11.2 percent of their full-time staff to work remotely, which is a significant jump from 10.2 percent currently and 4.3 percent in 2018.
Globally, remote work is becoming increasingly popular because of its advantages, which include lower office costs and access to new markets. With this arrangement, workers can complete their work away from a typical office environment. But, maintaining the productivity and connection of distant and hybrid workers is equally important. Remote workers frequently need help with time zone differences, a lack of nonverbal indicators, and possible misunderstandings.
This article defines remote work tools, offers the best tools for remote working you could find helpful when working remotely, and includes an in-depth description of a few essential remote working software systems.
What Is the Importance of Productivity Tools for Remote Working?
Remote working allows employees to perform duties outside the employer’s office, using locations like home or co-working spaces. They communicate through online tools like email and video conferencing. Remote work’s popularity has grown due to tech advancements, offering flexibility, shorter commutes, and improved work-life balance.
The best free remote working solutions enable your team to remain accountable, productive, and connected. These resources are essential for companies moving toward remote or hybrid employment. They come at no cost, which is essential for small firms watching their bottom line closely, and they also give employees the tools they need to be productive when working from home.
In short, Productivity tools for remote working streamline communication, organization, time management, and collaboration. This allows remote teams to ensure efficiency, flexibility, and performance monitoring.
Top Remote Work Tools
These are some of the best tools for remote work that will help your employees stay connected and productive.
Below is a list of essential remote working software.
Project Management Tools
Asana
Asana is a terrific work-from-home solution that enables team collaboration in one spot. Remote employment makes it harder to arrange tasks and keep track of progress. To increase efficiency, you can create custom rules for routine procedures such as allocating work, setting due dates, etc. You can choose from over 50 project themes, tailor them to your workflow, and make project management entertaining for all.
ClickUp
ClickUp is not only a task manager. The setup includes categories for documents, notes, goals, schedules, and an inbox. With its flexibility, multiple teams can seamlessly plan, coordinate, and communicate on a unified platform. ClickUp eliminates the friction that comes with utilizing many apps.
Monday.com
This robust platform offers a high degree of customization, allowing teams to tailor functionalities to their needs. Monday.com integrates seamlessly with various other tools, making it a main hub for project management. IT teams can utilize it for complex software development projects, resource allocation, and dependency management. Marketing teams can leverage Monday.com for campaign planning, budget tracking, and creative collaboration.
Evernote
Evernote lets you take notes, attach files, scan photos, record voice messages, and capture web clips. It allows you to arrange your chores while working from home. From extensive duties to personal moments, everything is in one place, accessible via your laptop or phone—even when you are not connected to the internet.
Todoist
Todoist divides complex projects into smaller sub-tasks, which can be structured and managed through labels, filters, and task priority levels. Users can add new tasks to their Todoist account, track their progress, and view all completed tasks. Organizations can utilize Todoist Karma to reward completed tasks, allowing their employees to reach weekly and monthly performance targets quickly.
Trello
Trello enables users to arrange projects using a Kanban board style. You can improve your project workflow by making custom lists and assigning tasks in the form of cards. The program also allows users to upload files, assign cards to members, and leave remarks.
Business Communication
Slack
Slack is an enterprise communication network that consolidates conversations, resources, and files into a single spot. It is an online chat network that includes add-ons for various business apps. However, because the primary purpose of Slack is to interact with others, the add-ons are not required to be used. Slack allows for two types of conversations: group and direct messaging (DM).
Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams is designed to increase productivity. It allows users to share information, talk in real-time, schedule meetings, upload files, and more. It is an excellent workplace chat program, but its video calling feature is equally exciting and helpful. Video conferencing and phoning can be initiated directly from a user's chat. It is incredibly effective even for organizations implementing hybrid working because it makes communication as simple as having someone sit beside you in your cubicle.
Google Meet
Another famous virtual meeting tool is Google Meet, which millions of people use to communicate. The UI is straightforward; click the "New Meeting" button to generate a new guest meeting link.
Users can use keyboard shortcuts to control the camera, microphone, and other accessibility features in Google Meet. To make meetings more exciting and participatory, you can exchange messages, documents, or links in real-time without stopping or pausing them.
Zoom
Zoom has quickly become a popular tool used by remote workers for personal and professional video conversations. The technology allows users to have free video chats with up to 50 people for a maximum of 40 minutes. Paid customers can participate in video calls with up to 500 people. Zoom enables users to record entire movies, engage in video conference discussions, share screens, write on a virtual whiteboard, and schedule meetings ahead of time.
Cloud Storage Tools
Google Drive
Most Gmail and Gsuite users choose Google Drive as their primary cloud storage software due to its tight connection with Google's other products. More crucially, Google Drive is aptly connected with Google Docs, allowing users to rapidly edit and save Word, PowerPoint, and Excel files they upload to the drive. Google Drive has the capability to automatically synchronize offline folders and share files and folders via email or URLs.
Dropbox
Dropbox was the first to bring independent cloud storage, enabling seamless file and document exchange for users. It has become a cult favourite because of its straightforward interface, broad file-sharing facilities, and collaborative options.Dropbox offers the Paper app, enabling you to edit Word documents seamlessly without the need for downloads. It's important to note that this feature is exclusive to Word documents and does not support editing other file formats.
Microsoft OneDrive
For companies already involved in the Microsoft ecosystem, OneDrive provides a safe cloud storage option. OneDrive is tightly linked with the Microsoft suite. OneDrive can be used by IT teams for internal document collaboration, file sharing, and system backups. Marketing teams can use it to share campaign materials with internal stakeholders, collaborate on presentations, and store creative assets.
Productivity Monitoring Tools
Kickidler
Kickidler is a next-generation staff and user activity monitoring solution. Its software is effective for automating staff control, enhancing company productivity, and protecting sensitive data. Kickidler offers a range of essential features such as real-time computer monitoring, recording and playback of employee activities, performance assessment, time monitoring, and cybersecurity measures. In addition, Kickidler can boost internal communications and perform task analyses.
Hubstaff
Hubstaff is a real-time monitoring application that simplifies the management of distant teams or areas. The technology comes in compact programs for web, desktop, and mobile devices, enhancing team productivity and accountability.
Toggl
Toggl is an excellent monitoring and reporting tool. Toggl enables you to effortlessly start tracking time with a simple press of a button. Each time log segment can be tagged with a project, customer, description, and label. Separate workstations for different teams can also be established.
Design
Miro
This virtual whiteboard facilitates group creativity and visual thinking. Teams in charge of IT and marketing can use Miro to outline project workflows, collaborate on intricate diagrams, and mind map concepts.
Canva
Canva is a straightforward drag-and-drop UI graphic design and video editing program that enables you to create and share anything. For every presentation, including slideshows, social media clips, banners, brochures, and presentations, Canva users can choose from thousands of design patterns.
Figma
Figma is a cloud-based platform for UI prototyping and design that facilitates team collaboration for creating, testing, and delivering product concepts by various groups. With Figma, users may create prototypes using GIFs to add animations or video elements and hover, on-click, or button-press events.
Over to you
The older baby boomers would regard today's workforce as luckier. After all, they would understand the frustration of working with a dial-up internet connection and minimal remote collaboration tools!
The change in working conditions caused by a global pandemic, such as the COVID-19 epidemic, has resulted in more employees working from home. It is time for firms to manage close-knit teams differently, regardless of location. And, as the number of remote work tools grows, it is easier than ever to ensure that work is completed, and communication occurs among teams in different time zones!
