The popularity of remote work and digital nomads phenomenon is rising. At the same time, digital nomadism id getting more and more heard of around the world. In our previous article on the digital revolution in job models, we talked about this trend and we showed its advantages. However, if you are thinking about introducing such a work model and employing remote employees, you must prepare yourself.

There are many benefits to hiring remote workers, but to be able to enjoy them, you need to properly prepare your work environment for change. You need to work out how you will control the presence and working time of employees and how you will communicate with them. To do this, you will need tools for work time management - clok in and outabsence management and task management. Here is the list of must-have online tools that will significantly simplify your work.

First of all: communication

The key to successful collaboration at a distance is good team communication. Working from different places limits personal contacts, but offers different ways of communication and the ability to stay in touch even during commutes. At a time when computers and mobile devices have become our everyday life, meeting distributed teams have ceased to be a problem. You can communicate via both your computer, phone, and tablet – regardless of the device, contacting other team members is not a problem. Communicating with a remote freelancer has ceased to be so expensive. Although face-to-face contact is often easier, faster, and facilitates mutual understanding, thanks to new technologies remote meetings are enough to fulfill their task and provide sufficient communication.

Communication tools that will facilitate cooperation

Reflecting on the choice of tools for communication with a remote employee, you can choose among a wide range of programs created specifically for companies. Below we present a few that will make your cooperation with a remote employee much easier and smoother.

Slack

Probably the most popular online messenger for teams. Slack showed that a completely new version of something that we already know perfectly well (in this case, chat) can become a revolutionary tool that instantly conquered the world of business. It is a great alternative to your mailbox when it comes to everyday communication and dealing with fewer key issues. Forget about unprofessional Facebook chats and groups, which can be difficult to work with. Slack is used by both small companies, startups, and large enterprises, which highly value its usability and the ability to integrate with other tools (check how Calamari integrates with Slack).

Skype

Although Skype has been around for some time and is considered a somewhat outdated tool, it still works perfectly as a solution for video chatting and conferences. It allows free communication with team members, and thanks to video meetings conversations are more similar to traditional meetings in the office. A noteworthy alternative to Skype is also Google Hangouts.

Teamwork tools

In addition to proper communication, you should also take care of programs that will facilitate teamwork. They help to maintain the flow of information about projects and structure work, thanks to which they eliminate chaos and speed up project work.

Trello

The task manager loved by remote and stationary teams in the form of a pleasing list of tasks divided into cards, which can be freely modified. It allows you to create many cards and lists with tasks, assign people, files, comments, and tags to them. Excellent design makes the lists transparent and very easy to use, which is valued by remote employees from around the world.

Asana

When Trello is not enough, it is worth considering choosing Asana. Lots of projects, numerous employees, and hundreds of tasks – Asana copes well with them, therefore it will be a great solution for large corporations. And it is the copy-paste version of Trello when it comes to design if you really love Trello that much.

Basecamp

An alternative to Asana, stable, and appreciated by many organizations.

Jira

A solution that companies and startups eagerly use to employ programmers. Does it need any firmer recommendation? :)

Fyle

Business finance management can get messy very quickly especially with remote teams. Fyle helps automate traditionally time-consuming and error-prone tasks like expense tracking and reportingreimbursement processing, and corporate card management and reconciliation to help you submit accurate and timely financial reports.

GSuite and Office 365

Both solutions have their pros and cons, but one thing remains certain: having one of them is a must. You just have to remember to always have administrator access to the files of all your employees in one folder and that you can easily remove a selected member of the group to ensure the privacy of your files.

WeTransfer

A useful solution for remote employees who send a lot of large files in their daily work. The program allows you to quickly send content weighing up to 2 GB for free. The premium version allows you to send files up to 20 GB and provides the user with 1TB of memory to use.

WiFi Transfer APP

A useful tool that lets you share files from phone to phone via a Wi-Fi connection. It does not require the use of any additional cables.

Time-tracking tools

Working time monitoring is especially recommended for remote work and commissioning creative work, which can often seem difficult to measure. They also work well for part-time employees – for example, a few days a week. They are useful for settling business trips and delegations. For professions such as a sales representative – who sometimes works in the office and sometimes outside of it, you can make sure that the person really works.

As a manager, you should know where and when your employees work. Our customers appreciate Calamari Mobile with GPS – our application informs them where the employees were when they started and finished their workday. It allows you to get information about delays and the place of work on a given day.

HR and teamwork automated: leave management, payroll, and online meeting planners

If you don't know which solution to choose, check out the list of the 3 most popular HR software in the world.

Wondering which software to choose? You must make your own decision based on the nature of your organization and work model. There are five important factors to consider when making your decision:

  • Make sure the tool you choose has a mobile version so your team members can stay mobile
  • Check if the tool you choose offers integration with other tools – preferably those you already use in your company.
  • Choose a tool that offers professional support. FAQs and chatbots are useful but will not be able to answer all your questions and solve all your problems.
  • Before choosing a tool, check customer reviews – this is the best way to check if a program will actually meet your requirements.
  • Remember about direct communication. Technology should make our lives easier, but should not replace it;)

What is your opinion about remote work and experience related to remote teams?

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Read more our texts about Remote work, outsourcing and offshoring

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