A recent study revealed that the incidence of remote working has remarkably increased within the last decade, with 91% of individuals working from home regularly. In light of the current pandemic, this trend has accelerated and more companies are adopting remote working practices. As a result, traditional office-based reporting methods for measuring progress in the workplace are now less prevalent.
Geographically, remote teams can be situated anywhere in the world. As a manager responsible for such a team, you may face certain unique obstacles such as gaining acknowledgement, forming a cohesive community, or communicating with individuals in various time zones. In keeping up with the increasing trend of remote working, companies must acknowledge the existence of a globally distributed workforce and adjust accordingly.
Overseeing the productivity and commitment of remote individuals may present a challenge. Nonetheless, it’s achievable to ensure each team member feels appreciated and acknowledged for their input. Achieving this necessitates disregarding cultural disparities and leveraging advanced technologies that facilitate efficient remote collaboration.
What’s the criterion for selecting the appropriate tools or programmes?
To achieve prosperous remote work, it’s necessary to have an appropriate technology infrastructure in place. Our definitive guide provides insights into effectively recruiting and hiring remote Java developers.
When managing remote staff, it’s crucial to establish an efficient solution that promotes their productivity, preserves the company culture, and guarantees task delivery. While each tool may differ in nature, the best remote-working technology should incorporate the following essential features:
Asset management
– Project and task management– Time management and calendar
– File sharing and collaboration
To promote efficient cross-team collaboration and support remote workers, leaders must have access to the best remote team management tools. Here are some of the leading tools to consider:
Slack
Slack has become a preferred platform for virtual communication. It’s an excellent option for facilitating live conversations between colleagues and disseminating ideas and feedback. This is a significant factor to keep in mind for remote workers who may not be able to produce their best work without an office environment.
An effective method of fostering team bonds is by creating an unobstructed communication channel. On certain occasions, a less formal context than a team meeting is more appropriate for discussions. Slack provides a platform that enables private conversations, group discussions, and the option to divide into multiple channels, ensuring that work remains uninterrupted.
With real-time messaging, archiving, and search capabilities, Slack is a practical solution for managing remote teams. Moreover, it can be synced with other tools to provide access to a unified inbox for platform notifications. This blend of features can be utilised to establish a virtual workplace environment.
As of the conclusion of 2023, Slack had achieved remarkable popularity and was being utilised by Salesforce. This allowed the company to compete on a higher level with Microsoft Teams, a competing messaging and video conferencing platform.
Friday
Whether it’s a daily morning huddle or a weekly staff meeting, this app can assist you in creating patterns and structures in your communication.
Remote work is a productive and efficient method for a global workforce to stay in contact. To guarantee that information is communicated effectively, we arrange two weekly one-on-one meetings on workdays. As a manager, it’s essential to cultivate trust with your team by emphasizing the company’s values and objectives. Expressing gratitude and engaging in light conversation can foster rapport. Commencing a conversation with icebreaker questions and sharing stories over the proverbial water cooler is a great way to break the ice.
Automated reporting enables teams to promptly and conveniently track progress and performance. This guarantees that teams operating in different locations are kept updated and held responsible for their actions.
Friday’s Daily Planner and Focus Time provide remote workers with the necessary tools to increase their productivity. These tools enable users to plan their day, make a to-do list, link to their preferred project management systems, and even set Focus Time to block access to distracting websites, helping them focus on their tasks and produce exceptional results.
Equip your team with the Friday planner and encourage them to put forth their best effort each week.
Trello
Trello is an incredibly advantageous tool for optimizing and completing tasks. It’s a tangible reward for the exerted efforts in achieving progress and monitoring all pertinent information. As a segment of the Kanban project management system, it employs “boards” to organize work and facilitates the creation of columns that house individual tasks.
This tool is useful for overseeing remote teams and promoting asynchronous communication since the process for each task is easily visible and comments can be effortlessly added.
Zoom
As a result of the pandemic in 2023, video conferencing became imperative. We’ve all become proficient in utilising Zoom for these meetings. Nevertheless, it’s crucial to bear in mind that various options exist, offering unique features and designs to tailor your webinars to your preferences.
The triumph of Zoom may have left us all feeling drained.
Zoom offers an effective platform for conducting one-on-one, team, and organisation-wide meetings, with the added capability to establish breakout rooms, making it simpler to stay connected with colleagues despite physical separation.
Tettra
If you require an easy way to distribute information across a team or even an entire organisation, Tettra is an excellent option to consider.
Having access to a centralised database for storing and exchanging information is critical for a distributed team. This principle is integral to remote work. Although it’s feasible to use Slack for a single piece of information, the quality and durability can be enhanced by documenting the idea on paper.
Crystal
Recognising each other’s unique traits and preferences can be advantageous for remote teams. That’s why we often recommend using Crystal to broaden their vocabulary, and why we participate in free psychological assessments.
Crystal is an invaluable tool for collecting data about your colleagues and the systems you’re part of. By accessing this information, you can gain insights into the behaviours and trends of your remote team. Furthermore, Crystal provides add-ons for Gmail and LinkedIn, providing an even more effective means of analysing temperament data.
Avoid trying to guess your colleagues’ preferred mode of communication; simply inquire about it.
ScreenFlow
For Mac users in need of a high-quality, high-definition screen sharing solution for their remote team, ScreenFlow is an exceptional application. This application enables users to easily record their screen, add notes, and share the recording with the team.
It’s amazing that you can export GIFs and upload files to Dropbox with just one click. Additionally, it’s possible to record company and team meetings for those who may not be present.
It’s also an excellent tool for remote user testing sessions since you can instantly share the results with your team.
GitLab
We strongly suggest GitLab for programmers and engineers. This platform promotes organised remote collaboration on code for engineering teams, surpassing conventional version control when developing applications and implementing deployments.
Currently, all staff members at the company work remotely, and they provide one of the most comprehensive guides to remote work available.
Compt
We also need to make a decision about Compt. This platform enables you to offer distinctive benefits to employees, regardless of their primary location.
Due to the concentration of employees in one location, companies frequently offer a standard set of benefits. Nevertheless, recruiting internationally can present challenges when it comes to providing incentives and bonuses.
Compt is a universally satisfying solution because it empowers individuals to select their own benefits package – a strategy that conforms with IRS regulations.
RemoteHQ
For teams operating remotely, RemoteHQ serves as a centralised hub through which team members can access and exchange files, documents, and messages.
Their primary benefit lies in the capacity to promote collaboration across your organisation’s web applications through basic cloud storage integration. This enables your team to work together productively in a shorter time frame.
Chrononaut
When in search of a holistic time tracking solution, Time Doctor is often recommended to organisations, including digital agencies, package groups, and those with remote staff. The software boasts an impressive clientele, including Apple, Home Depot, and Verizon, among numerous others.
Miro
The online whiteboard feature on Miro facilitates team collaboration on projects, even when physically dispersed. This is especially advantageous for teams that span various time zones, enabling both synchronous and asynchronous sessions.
The vast potential of the virtual whiteboard can be attributed to its numerous capabilities. You can exert control over every stage of the process – from determining the quantity of group action to establishing the eventual outcome.
Using Miro, you and your team can collaborate effortlessly in real-time, sharing ideas and identifying the most effective approach to completing tasks.
Threads
The Threads forum package can be utilized to ask your team questions and conveniently view their replies in one central location.
This thread can be employed to keep your team focused on the task at hand. Generate multiple posts that pertain to the selected discussion topic. When all members are available, the team may respond. For clarity, kindly refer to prior conversations and threads for reference.
Final Thoughts
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, more companies are moving towards remote working, leading to an expectation for an increase in solutions designed to support dispersed teams.
Our experience has been positive so far, but with recent significant advancements in technology, we are eagerly anticipating the forthcoming range of tools that support remote team collaboration and communication.
