5 Tools To Help Manage Your Team Remotely

Note: This is a guest post by Andriu. The author’s views are entirely his own and may not reflect the views of Deepanshu Gahlaut’s Blog.

Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses have generally fallen into one of two categories.

In the first category, are those businesses that refuse to adapt to these changing times and simply put operations on hold.

The second are those businesses who use this as an opportunity to reinvent themselves, embrace a remote working environment and launch some of the best marketing strategies we have seen to date.

Has your company already embraced the new, home-office environment? Does the team feel good about it? Do they feel productive and connected amid the COVID crisis? If not, what are you going to do about it? 

Today, everyone is primarily focused on how to set up a proper workspace at home, how to organize things better, when to schedule team meetings, how to keep the team focused, how to communicate with one another, and the list goes on and on.

The actual problem, though, lies in the lack of motivation and productivity. These feelings are tightly connected to the lack of clear differentiation between life and work, too. 

We know how hard it must be to adapt to the new changes. Therefore, we’d love to share with you a few super useful tools to help you manage the team remotely. Sound good? Keep reading!

1. Internet Speed Tool (E.g: Fast.com)

Well, the COVID-19 crisis might actually bring you something good: an efficient internet speed tool for team management. Best part?

It’s specifically useful for remote work. All in all, Internet speed tools such as Fast.com can be quite helpful to boost people’s productivity.

According to a report and a study by the Washington Post, Internet Speed Tools certainly make your life better. First and foremost, having a low-speed internet will absolutely destroy people’s motivation and productivity. 

You are no longer at the office, so the internet speed is different; but with the help of such tools, your employees can share large files, work with key online programs, host meetings or video conferences and do the normal things they would back in an office-like setting.

Most of these tools are super easy to use and provide the team with the luxury of saving time and being more productive at home. It’s really important to have high-speed internet, especially during the COVID crisis. You need to avoid lag times and get things done professionally.

2. Google Drive 

Did you know that it takes about 8 searches to find all the documentation and information to complete a given task?

Now imagine what this process would look like for remote workers or interns. They can’t go to your office desk and ask you about this and that. Neither do they have any idea how and where to find certain things… Absolute chaos!

This surely explains why using Google Drive is essential right now. 

What’s the best thing about Google Drive? This tool makes it so easy to create and share files with your colleagues or employees.

You can finally collaborate in real-time, work on the same thing at the same time, share and upload things, edit and add comments, etc. Google Drive is free to use, but you need to have a Gmail account for it. 

3. Trello

Underperformance is a real problem in every company.

Millions of money are lost due to bad management, ineffective campaigns, and poor organization. All of it leads to a negative balance and depts. This is why having a useful and effective project management is of paramount importance.

You can’t just assign tasks on different platforms and expect people to get things done properly. Use one instead and invite people there. You will find it so much easier to communicate with one another, optimize things more effectively, etc. 

It’s no doubt that having good project management is essential for any team, but it’s especially helpful when working remotely. Today, with the COVID crisis in our lives, it’s important to make the team feel connected and productive every day.

Trello is a fantastic platform, designed for teams working remotely. It’s an efficient management system that makes the collaboration so much easier. It’s easy to navigate as you can create steps, assign tasks, chart their progress, etc. Trello doesn’t limit the members and is free to use on your laptop, computer, tablet, etc. 

Trello can also be integrated with Google Drive, Dropbox, Mailchimp, and other business tools, which are important for your team. If you want to use the business class option, it’s available for $9.99 per month per user.

4. HipChat

Working remotely could be tricky when you don’t have direct face-to-face communication. People tend to get lazy, less organized, motivated, and responsible.

When these things are missing, mistakes are very likely to happen. People need to work in an office-like atmosphere to feel the burden of the tasks and be more responsible.

When they’re stuck home, with their pyjamas on, you can’t expect them to be very motivated. This is especially true for companies that underestimate the importance of instant-messaging business apps. 

Need a great example? HipChat is a great tool for businesses that allows you and your colleagues to share screens, transfer files, text chat, or host video conferences. 

The best part of the tool is that you will make everyone feel like they’re back again in the office. The tasks are the same, the tools are the same, only the actual interaction is missing.

But that’s a temporary thing anyway. The basic version of HipChat is free, but if you want to unlock more advanced features, like video chatting or screen sharing, you need to upgrade the plan. The paid version is available for only $2 per month per user. 

With HipChat, you can also schedule more private meetings between managers and employees. Overall, it’s a great tool for remote work. 

5. Timely

The last tool on our list today is called Timely – it is a tracking tool that shows how people spend their time, what makes them less productive, and how much they are actually focused on what they’re doing. It’s especially good right now when you don’t know how people actually organize their day at work.

Not only does it improve their professional habits, but it makes everyone feel connected and mentored in some way. With Timely, your employees will know that they can’t be late for work or postpone important things. This tool is excellent for tracking the progress on tasks assigned to your employees.

This platform is good for both small and big companies, as the business plan is just $14 per month per user. 

Conclusion:

The COVID-19 crisis has drastically changed our plans, social habits, and everything else we can think about.

Currently, over 67% of the companies had to embrace the new, work-from-home way to help stop spreading the virus. The advantages of working from home are quite obvious for people, but it’s not as great for companies and managers.

People tend to get less organized when there’s nobody around monitoring them. Therefore, it’s good to have an effective project management system to monitor people’s performance and their level of productivity in these challenging times. 

Author Name:

Andriu is a full-stack digital marketer who is originally from Venezuela. For the past 5 years, he has freelanced on everything from PPC to copywriting to SEO. Now he writes his insights, guides, and tutorials on Internet Marketing Bro.