A recent global survey revealed the “need” for more flexibility in the workplace in order for businesses to thrive. More and more people are working remotely today, with over two-thirds reporting they work away from the office at least once a week according to a recent study by Zug, as CNBC reports. Some 53% work remotely for at least half the week and that number is only expected to get bigger.
It only makes sense to utilize the top technology for supporting your remote workforce, including these tools.
It wasn’t all that long ago that video conferencing was a big headache with constant technical glitches from no sound to frozen video. Zoom is changing all that, which is likely why it grew so quickly. In 2014 it had 30,000 users, a number that skyrocketed to nearly three-quarters of a million in just over three years. Why? It’s much more user-friendly, providing a one touch feature to start or join a video conference, with similar features across all devices. Video quality is superior, whether viewing from a desktop, tablet or smartphone, and one can see 100 concurrent video participants and up to 500 video feeds in just one call. It also has great screen sharing, meeting follow-up, and outstanding privacy and traffic controls.
Those who work remotely often note being happier in their job, and more engaged. One of the best ways to improve and measure employee engagement regularly is Glint. It tracks engagement via a continuous cycle of feedback between managers and employees. It’s able to predict risks and identify opportunities as well as recommend steps for supporting better employee satisfaction and preventing attrition.
One of the most widely utilized tools by remote staff, Slack is like a virtual office where team members can connect with their colleagues in groups and one-on-one, as well as get instant feedback. You can share images, videos, files and more, and use team collaboration tools to make sure everyone in a meeting is on the same page. For example, if you’re leading a meeting and would like everyone to go to a certain webpage, all you need to do is drop the link into the group conversation to get them all there. It also has the ability to install apps that automatically report on business activity, like new product review and email subscribers.
There are countless project management tools out there today, making it hard to pick just one, but Trello is very user-friendly. It’s simple yet offers outstanding performance by allowing users to visualize what needs to be done and aggregate feedback from the entire team. It’s a great tool for helping a remote team increase its productivity, with its simplicity making it very flexible with hundreds of unique ways to utilize it, including tracking everything from updates and requests to product issues.