5 Tools That Are Changing the World of Remote Work

For some businesses, the shift to remote working was one they had not planned to make but had to in order to survive the current state of the world.

Many businesses, ours included, have found countless benefits to the new world of working from home and will continue to offer flexibility post-pandemic lock-down. Empowering your workforce through trust and flexibility can help you keep an edge to attracting, and keeping the right talent for your business!

As a Managed Service Provider, providing IT support to hundreds of businesses, we have seen many new tools being adopted during this time to help teams stay connected. There are 5 tools in particular, that we have seen trending across businesses, that will help you to stay on track and be just as, if not more productive than you are in the office.

Cloud Based Email and Productivity Suites

Microsoft 365 (previously Office 365) and G Suite offer a simple email solution and access to productivity apps like Word or Sheets, online. The productivity apps allow multiple people to work on one document, live, at the same time. It is very useful when collaborating on tenders and proposals! Both platforms are inexpensive and are easy to implement. This is the perfect starting point to get your technology up to speed for a remote workforce.

Project and Task Management Tool

We love Asana, it is a simple tool that helps your team work together, from anywhere, on projects and other tasks.

Track timelines, assign individual tasks, set project owners and integrate with your existing business applications, its super easy. It also has a handy mobile app so, when your team are on the road again, they can stay connected and up to date with their tasks.

According to Asana using their app will help you produce better work, faster.

Another Task Management & Project Tool

Trello is one of our all-time favorites and is free with the basic plan! We find it works great when collaborating on a project, often tasks can get lost amongst chats and emails, using a Trello board to keep track of tasks can simplify things. Personally, I also use it to record recipes and for tracking research projects. It has so many integrations, one of which is Teams. I have Trello boards setup for individual team members and have those boards listed as a tab within our chats. It makes it easy to track who is doing what, and when tasks are complete, so handy!

Trello also has a mobile app, you can take photos and post them directly to cards or update your activity on the go. 

Getting Honest Feedback From Your Workforce

In general it is important to understand how your workforce is feeling, but it is particularly important during a transitional time. Making informed decisions about the future of work for your business, with real insights from your team is priceless! We use Office Vibe as a tool to assist us in gaining honest insight as to how our workforce is feeling. You can send out standard surveys or custom ones, to a specific group, or the whole company. Survey respondents have the option to respond anonymously or to have their name against their feedback. It is a simple and great way to gather information en mass.

Digitalise your HR, Payroll, Benefits and Company Policies

Employment Hero is an Australian based company that supports Australian businesses by providing a digital platform for all things HR. You can post policies and send them out to your company to read and sign, track who hasn’t signed and follow up with individuals. You can run on-boarding, timesheets, performance reviews, payroll, pretty much everything HR! It is cloud based and integrates with accounting apps like Xero and MYOB and learning platforms like Go1.

If you want to learn more about any of these apps, or help with setting them up for your team, give our IT support team a call, we love talking about new apps!