12 Must-Try Productivity Tools for Companies Working Remotely

As the world continues to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, the economy has adjusted to being productive under unconventional working setups. It proved to be a surprising benefit for employees as they get to do more with their time, while employers are relieved they don’t have to fully stop their operations by providing employees with remote tools to get back to work.

However, working from home doesn’t mean that your employees have the perfect environment to be productive at home. Plenty of distractions can prevent your people from performing at their best, be it from ambient noise or their children needing help with their homework. Fortunately, there are multiple ways to keep them focused at work.

One of the most popular solutions is giving employees productivity tools to help them meet their key performance indicators (KPI). If you’re looking for applications to include in your workflow, here are some practical remote work tools you can consider.

12 Remote Working Tools Companies Need to Try

While these picks offer solutions to different problems, they all address the same thing—providing employees aid to do their job right. Read through to see which ones can optimize your operations.

1. Notion

Information organization is one of the toughest tasks to accomplish when digitizing your company. Sorting multiple documents can become a logistical nightmare, eating through time your employees can complete other deliverables instead. 

Notion aims to solve these problems, allowing you to input your work knowledge and organize them so your employees can access frequently asked information vital to daily operations. You can also create to-do lists, take notes, and manage projects in Notion.

2. Slack

Another tool you would want to look into is Slack. It is an instant messaging application for the corporate setting, providing a good backdrop for collaboration between employees while they’re still not allowed to work in person due to health and safety protocols.

3. Zoom

Since the first lockdowns were enforced in 2020, Zoom has unofficially become one of the faces of work-life during the pandemic. Businesses worldwide found Zoom’s ability to seamlessly hold calls and meetings among numerous participants advantageous to their operations. 

There’s no doubt this telecommunication app will be a permanent fixture in many corporate settings even when everything goes back to normal.

4. Forest

If your employees find it hard to focus on the task at hand, you can turn things into a fun activity with Forest. This productivity app allows you to grow a beautiful landscape on your device just by focusing on your tasks. 

The app allows users to plant a tree by setting a timer for when you want to work, and it will grow and be added to your forest when the time is up. However, leaving the app will kill the tree. This should give your remote employees the drive to keep up with their productivity.

5. Calendly

Organizing meetings remotely can be tough to keep track of. Luckily, you can sort all of these out with Calendly. This is also one of the most practical virtual assistant tools for freelancers.

This app is specially designed to schedule appointments with your employees. Its ability to integrate with your Google Calendar makes it the perfect tool to keep already-existing calls in check and squeeze important sessions throughout your busy schedules, especially those critical to your business’ success. 

6. Everhour

Sometimes, you need an app like Everhour to ensure your employees work their best during office hours. This app is meant to track how your employees spend their time. Its top features include manual time entry, seamless integration to any project management tools in place, and a detailed report of an employee’s activity throughout the day.

7. Dashlane

Have Dashlane installed and spend less time handling sets of sensitive information for your business’ online accounts. This password management app offers a simplified means of securing your company’s login credentials and data without being needlessly complicated for your work-from-home workforce.

8. Trello

Like Zoom, Trello is another platform many professionals have used or heard about. It’s an outstanding workflow management tool that provides your business enough transparency to see how your tasks as an organization are getting along. One thing that makes this app great to use for some enterprises is its ease of customization.

9. Evernote

Make project tracking easier for everyone with Evernote. This app is the perfect digital work pad as it makes note-taking easy. One of its notable features is its ability to collate notes into one space. It lets you organize your thoughts easier than regular scribbles on paper, making brainstorming sessions and meetings better.

10. Boomerang

Your employees can spend significant amounts of time just sorting through emails. Boomerang offers a reprieve from this mundane task with its ability to streamline the email experience. It is also compatible with mobile devices and can handle both Gmail and Outlook accounts as well as set meetings on your calendar without leaving your email.

11. Google Drive

Looking for a solution for all your file management needs? Google Drive makes a superb option, particularly for small companies that need a central hub where everyone can access and contribute to. 

One of the biggest draws of Google Drive is the amount of storage space that it can provide your company. Its interface is also intuitive and easy to use, so you don’t have to worry about your employees struggling with it.

12. Skype

While Zoom has become the ultimate app for large video meetings, many companies still prefer Skype. It’s one of the oldest productivity tools in this list as it was first launched in 2003, and its longevity speaks to its effectiveness. Skype’s features don’t fall far from Zoom and other communication apps, with its audio and HD video calling, smart messaging, and screen sharing capabilities, to name a few.

Make Work Productive for Everyone

Remote work may have been forced upon some, but this shift should not compromise the overall quality of work within a company. While the listed apps can help with your productivity, you shouldn’t discount the thought of hiring a virtual assistant to ease the burden on your employees.

Here at Outsource Access, we specialize in helping businesses elevate their performance with our seasoned professionals who can help you perform any tasks you need.