In the past few years, the work landscape has changed dramatically, with businesses employing more flexible ways of working, such as remote work. According to a survey conducted in 2022, 8 in 10 people have reported that they are working remotely or hybrid. This shows how popular this type of arrangement has become and how it is changing the future of work.
In general, many benefits come with remote working. One of the greatest is the freedom and flexibility which allows employees to set their own working schedule and choose when, where, and how to complete their tasks.
However, this working model isn’t without its challenges. That’s why company managers are constantly looking for ways to improve how they manage their remote employees and create a productive and highly engaged virtual team. In most cases, they adopt various management tools, four of which are briefly described in this post.
Employee monitoring software
One of the most valuable tools your business needs to improve remote workforce management is employee monitoring software. This type of workplace surveillance allows you to track your employees’ work progress in real-time.
Additionally, it provides valuable insight into employee productivity levels and how actively engaged your virtual team is during working hours. For instance, you can use the software to check any signs of active disengagement, such as whether your workers are spending more time browsing the internet or completing their tasks.
It can also give you a peek into which employees may be struggling the most, and in what area, so you can offer them additional guidance, support, and training courses to improve their work ethic remotely.
Project management tools
Managing a remote team can be difficult, especially if you have employees working at different hours or in different time zones and are struggling to keep up with everyone’s work progress. This is where project management tools can come in handy to help you manage your projects and remote team members better and effortlessly.
With these tools, you can create, plan and review tasks more efficiently, set deadlines, and make sure your workers stick to them. This will provide you and your remote team many benefits, including improved management, faster collaboration, accurate project tracking, seamless communication, and prompt reporting. Companies use plenty of popular project management tools to manage virtual teams, so you’ll need to choose one that best fits your working environment and your budget.
Communication tools
One of the biggest challenges of remote work is the lack of communication between workers and their employers. Not only will this reduce productivity and engagement levels among remote teams, but it will also hurt a company’s future.
Luckily, with technological advancements and the Internet industry, companies can now turn to digital communication tools to enable their remote employees to stay in touch with each other while working outside the office setting. For example, Microsoft Teams is a popular messaging app you can employ to communicate with your team and collaborate as you would in the office. The tool enables audio and video calling, document storage, screen sharing, and online meetings.
Document management tools
Data is often considered to be the lifeblood of a business, and if any of it gets lost, it can certainly cause real damage to the company and its future. That’s why businesses must employ document management tools, especially when managing a remote team, to protect data effectively.
The benefits of these tools for the company and remote workers are vast. The biggest one is that they help streamline workflows by allowing users to securely create, store, manage, track, and even retrieve documents.
For example, Google Drive is one of the most commonly used document management tools for businesses, which offers free cloud storage and allows for efficient file sharing and team collaboration. Remember that this will help you further boost your remote team’s productivity.
Final thoughts
Remote work has undoubtedly become one of the most popular work models among today’s businesses. However, to create a successful remote team, company managers should employ various business management tools to help them work smarter and more efficiently.
For more information, refer to our post and learn about the most essential tools your business needs to improve your management skills and boost productivity in remote employees.
