How to lean on technology to make your workforce productive on a remote set-up

It’s time to embrace remote work. 

The workplace is no longer found in the four corners of the office – a mere physical space to keep your employees together and keep them occupied during office hours. 

Today’s workplace can be found anywhere, accessed at any time, and used by corporations and start-ups alike. 

But when you can’t see or hear your employees and co-workers, it can be hard to tell when everyone is one the same page. 

Luckily for you, keeping employees productive and happy can be accomplished easily with software. Read on to find out the best applications and programs your team can use to stay productive.

The company calls its leading program “the smart alternative to email” and with over 750,000 companies worldwide using Slack, it’s not hard to see why. Instead of opening your inbox and sifting through different email chains, you can see all information and files about a project in one place.

Slack gives you and your team access to real-time conversations so you can grab someone’s attention with a notification when you need a quick response.

Features:

• Easy file-sharing
• Customizable chat groups (channels) to keep everyone on the same page
• Quick video and voice calls
• Internal tool integrations with Slack APIs

Website: https://slack.com/

There are times when chat just isn’t fast enough. When you need to give instructions, answer clarifications, and approve work, a meeting can help you get it done in one place.

And you can’t go wrong with Zoom. It’s easy to use so your team can have meetings and collaborate across any device.

Features:

• Join anywhere, on any device.
• Supports scheduling from Outlook, Gmail, or iCal.
• Record meetings locally or to the cloud.
• Start meetings with one link

Website: https://zoom.us/

When you have people working from several remote locations, you need storage and files that are as flexible as they are. With Google Drive, you can access documents anywhere and on any device with an internet connection.

Thanks to its popularity, there’s a good chance that your remote workers will already be familiar with GDrive, which makes it easy to train them on your business’ other aspects.

Features:

• Easy compatibility with Google’s other tools: Gmail, Google Docs, Google Slides, and more.
• Access anywhere at anytime
• Control who gets access to your files
• Easy file-sharing

Website: https://www.google.com/intl/en_in/drive/

Just like their cloud storage service, Google’s Office Suite helps you collaborate with your team wherever you are. Access, create, and edit your files at the same time, write comments, suggest revisions, and more.

You don’t even have to worry about obsessively pressing Save when the power goes out. All changes are automatically saved and trackable in the cloud.

Features:

• Easy file-sharing
• Collaborate in real-time
• Automatic cloud backup
• Works with Microsoft Office

Websites:
https://www.google.com/docs/about/
https://www.google.com/slides/about/
https://www.google.com/sheets/about/
https://calendar.google.com/
https://mail.google.com/

Having a remote team can make managing your projects harder, but you can keep everyone on the same page with Trello. It’s easy to use features help you see your team’s progress at a glance so you’ll never miss an important deadline again.

Features:

• Easy to use
• Integration with Slack, Dropbox, GDrive, Evernote, and more
• Workflow automation with triggers and time-based commands
• Free plan

Website: https://trello.com/en